26. The Pursuit of Vanities

I consider the documentary film, The Importance of Being Elegant

1.

Sometimes, the adventurous listener explores sounds from the other side. In this instance, it is a step into another region. Central Africa and its beautiful music have been a staple for Nigerians since the 60s when debonair Oliver de Coque brought the unrelenting guitar riffs of soukous into our consciousness.

As an 80s Baby, naturally I found soukous first. It was Papa Wemba’s light tenor crooning in a music video. The scene is unmistakably European (Paris?). Lush Lingala sounds superimposed on immigrant quotidian realities. Papa Wemba is dapper, ambling towards his fancy Volkswagen Beatle. The young captive audience of three, my siblings and I, watched lunchtime television discovering this soulful music worming its way into our consciousness.

That image of the migrant musician in the diaspora was arguably a staple of 90s TV in Nigeria. Seyi Sodimu’s Love Mi Jeje takes a romantic proposal into a lounge full of revellers. Inferno's Wishes For All (Wadada) mines snow for child-like …