Steal Back the Treasure
Calls for restitution African artifacts from Western museums are mounting. Against this backdrop, Nigeria’s response to the British (Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture) in pirating the head of Queen Idia to use it as a logo for Festac 77 , proposes another dissonant route that challenges the very idea of the […]
Festac ’77
by Akin Adesokan Imagine, first, a priestess of Esu (Elegbara), the West African god of the crossroads and inspiration for the less tangible practice of hermeneutics. The woman, in her late sixties when the story begins, in August 1976, in a small village three hours by car north of Lagos, is also the mother of […]
Ayinde Barrister: Tribute to a True Exponent
By Akin Adekosan The setting was a night party somewhere in Old Yaba, Lagos, in February or March 1993. I was sitting backstage with the fuji musician Alhaji (Chief Dr) Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, still in his forties, but by now self-described as “Alhaji Agba” (Grand Old Alhaji), and was having quite a task getting him […]
Authority Stealing in Nigeria
Akin Adesokan confronts the ‘real world of Nigerian politics’ and comes to grips with the ‘universal seductions of authoritarian power’ that make for ever-thickening plots. Two-point-eight billion naira, Oil money issy missing Dem set up enkwayary Dem say money no loss-y o… Money no loss, dem shout again Enkwayary come close o. E no finish? […]