Saturday, May 27, 2006
Femi - at the New Africa Shrine
Friday 13th, October 2000
On an industrial wasteland of Ikeja, the historic quarter of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, it's the dawn of a new era of Afro-beat. Tonight, the new Africa Shrine is being inaugurated in an electric atmosphere of area boys, civilians, musicians and a small contingent of western journalists who have come to cover the event. And what an event this is - after the destruction of the Shrine a year and a half ago, in the mythical club where Fela accompanied the descent of the seventh largest oil power in the world to politico-economic hell - his eldest son is realising a risky dream: the conversion of a warehouse with freshly painted walls into the new temple of Nigerian protest-song... The original shrine in Pebble Street is no more, it's been converted into one of the evangelical churches Fela criticised throughout his lifetime.
On a newly constructed stage, beneath portraits of panAfricanist poets and heroes of Black Power, tonight Africa is witnessing the renaissance of Afro-beat. The new Africa Shrine is rising up, to prove that like the Yoruba proverb, the son of a tiger remains a tiger.
- Uncivilized world
The closest one can come to watching Fela himself. Priceless
On an industrial wasteland of Ikeja, the historic quarter of the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, it's the dawn of a new era of Afro-beat. Tonight, the new Africa Shrine is being inaugurated in an electric atmosphere of area boys, civilians, musicians and a small contingent of western journalists who have come to cover the event. And what an event this is - after the destruction of the Shrine a year and a half ago, in the mythical club where Fela accompanied the descent of the seventh largest oil power in the world to politico-economic hell - his eldest son is realising a risky dream: the conversion of a warehouse with freshly painted walls into the new temple of Nigerian protest-song... The original shrine in Pebble Street is no more, it's been converted into one of the evangelical churches Fela criticised throughout his lifetime.
On a newly constructed stage, beneath portraits of panAfricanist poets and heroes of Black Power, tonight Africa is witnessing the renaissance of Afro-beat. The new Africa Shrine is rising up, to prove that like the Yoruba proverb, the son of a tiger remains a tiger.- Uncivilized world
The closest one can come to watching Fela himself. Priceless
# posted by Surya Swamy : 8:41 AM
Comments:
<< Home
Did you take that picture!??!
I'm so jealous!! You get to go to events like this, meanwhile... I'm not allowed to leave the house after 7!!!:(
"It's a dangerous world out there!", the rents always say!
Bah! I'm glad you had a fun experience though!:)
Post a Comment
I'm so jealous!! You get to go to events like this, meanwhile... I'm not allowed to leave the house after 7!!!:(
"It's a dangerous world out there!", the rents always say!
Bah! I'm glad you had a fun experience though!:)
<< Home
