Nigeria: The Annual Lagos Black Heritage Festival

Women dance during black heritage festival at Freedom park in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday, April 2, 2012. Lagos is hosting its annual Lagos Black Heritage Festival this week, which this year includes a look at relations between Nigeria and Italy, a popular spot with young migrant workers from Africa's most populous nation. Image: Sunday Alamba


Performers with traditional statues on their heads wait to perform at the Lagos Black Heritage Festival in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday, April 2, 2012. Image: John Gambrell


People in costumes prepare to perform at the Lagos Black Heritage Festival in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday, April 2, 2012. Image: John Gambrell.


A performer attempts to guide the 'spirit' within a large costume at the Lagos Black Heritage Festival in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday, April 2, 2012. Image: John Gambrell



Women with traditional feathers dance around a man embodying a spirit in a costume at the Lagos Black Heritage Festival in Lagos, Nigeria on Monday, April 2, 2012. Image: Sunday Alamba

Masquerade dance at the Lagos Black Heritage Festival. Image: John Gambrell


Images Courtesy of Associated Press

Pop Culture Revolution

The Queen’s English is no longer relevant with today’s generation as a result of cultural shift. It has been way gone, resurfacing in what has evolved over time to this present, twisted generation. The new millennia generation and a technology that’s doing stuff; stuff nobody could have imagined would be happening as everything about culture changed.

But however, the Queen’s English is still valid to the so-called old guard intellectuals, and nobody cares – the “kids” changed all that, and it seems to be good, going with the flow.

In the late sixties, when all that swinging began to wane, when people no longer wanted the kind of tune that was “flying,” flying wasn’t used back then, and they had called for something different which made soul and R & B producers go with the flow as they wanted to groove all night long, and feeling it’s right and becoming the trend, recording studios changed their “gear” and format on how to produce a music the people would like. In soul, the Black Moses, Isaac Hayes brought in the street jargon putting “Groove On” and “Right On” into perspective in an era everybody just wanted to groove on and do their own thing:

If the music makes you move
And you dig the groove
Groove on, groove on
If you feel like making love
All night and you think
It’s right
Right on, right on

So, too, was R&B, reggae, ska, jazz and a little bit of funk which had a blend of the horns, serving the purpose when everybody wanted to have a good time, party and dance all night long.

But the problem, as the seventies breezed in, some of the music producers wanted to make money just pretty much so, resulting to commercializing every song being written to conform to recording companies’ standards and overheads. Folks in the hippie era really wanted to dance and there were long plays (LP), the kind of cuts not regularly seen but a tiny fraction which made some impacts on how recording companies helped bring up an era that would gradually change with time.

Early seventies songs made a whole lot of sense from its lyrics which depicted an era that started the cultural revolution through it’s defiance to the establishment and by its poetic lyrics everybody danced to. Starting with Berry Gordy Jr. who founded Motown and assembled all sorts of casts – songwriters, singers, producers, composers, and of course, arrangers – music changed as the new decade began. Every major act in Motown went through the same path with the exception of one group, the only white band that played gigs at Detroit pubs as Sun Liners, signing to Motown as Rare Earth with the rights to its own label. Back then, the lyrics were all in somewhat Standard English and made sense; unlike the evolution after that era which created funk entombed into disco, which swept across the continent, creating impacts wherever it breezed in.

And Rare Earth’s recordings as the only all white group led by drummer and vocalist Pete Hoorelbeke, was a fast-paced debut album “Get Ready,” which every recording artist at Motown had agreed to cut, indicating the beginning of a new era in the language of music. The mode of Rare Earth was something really different from the rest of the Motown class – Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5, The Miracles, The Supremes, Commodores, Edward Holland, Brenda Halloway, Martha Reeves, The Marvelettes, David Ruffin, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, Syreeta White, Thelma Houston, Eddie Kendricks, The Pointer Sisters, Billy Preston, The Spinners, The Undisputed Truth, Toe Fat and several others – Rare Earth had a pattern that attracted its own audience when everybody was dancing to that Long Play, “Get Ready.”

Rare Earth vibes would change a lot during this era; even when heavy metal invented by the British group, Deep Purple, began to crossover for the American audience coupled with their European and Australian counterparts that rocked American arenas in an amazing form.

Angus Young and his brother’s-led AC/DC, Rick Springfield and Little River Band from the Aussie corner; while John Lord, Ian Pace, Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore who continually bragged of wiping the floor anywhere, anytime with his guitar of a metallic Deep Purple, Queen, Led Zeppelin; the Irish group Thin Lizzy, rocked the American shores in mixes of heavy metal “contests” with its American counterparts – Aerosmith, Boston, Bad Company and a cast of the devil followers as it was then known.

This whole thing spread across the African continent, too, a rhythm in which the local folks also wanted to dance until dawn. Many popped up –Bonga (Angola), Super Eagles (Gambia), Alhaji Bai Konte (Gambia), E.T. Mensah (Ghana), Rail Band (Mali), Dark City Sisters (South Africa), Assagai (South Africa), Orchestra Baobab (Senegal), Francis Bebey (Cameroon), Thu Zahina (Congo), Prince Nico Mbarga (Nigeria), Fela Kuti (Nigeria), Sunny Ade (Nigeria), Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Miriam Makeba (South Africa), Osibisa (Ghana), Independence Matata (Kenya) and several others – in adaptation.

What had happened here, on the African coast, was that, just like everybody wanted to dance and have fun all night long, a revolution had to be in place by adapting a pattern from a collective of the West, combining it with African traditional beats and the coinage of all kinds of music genres – afro beat, kora, ikwokirikwo, juju, afro rock, highlife, ogene and imports from the Cuban music craze which swept the continent and adapting the ideals of cultural heritage.

And so the various music genres became an adaptation to commerce, ways to make and spend money by throwing parties, marriage ceremonies, and the artists signing with record labels as its folkloric core. This same kind of core was what had begun in the studio at Detroit of a series of labels that popped up at Motown – Tamla, VIP, Gordy, Soul, Natural Resources, MoWest, Manticore, Rare Earth, etc. – and Rare Earth had its own record label when Tom Baird joined the crew in production which led to the album “One World” and “Willie Remembers.” Both albums did pretty well. But prolific producer, composer and arranger, Norman Whitfield had to reverse the Rare Earth trend switching back to the Motown record label in the production of a classic Motown album, “Ma,” which made Motown a game anyone could join; but to win, you had to prove you weren’t just anyone; and the Norman Whitfield-Barrett Strong duo proved it as Motown Records and its subsidiaries began to explode.

“Tobacco Road” became an anthem and what Rare Earth had released three years earlier showed how lifestyle was sweeping all across America:

I was born in a bunk
My mama died, my daddy got drunk
He left me here to die alone
In a lane called Tobacco Road

And the Temptations’ “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” another simply read lyric as lines of poetry depicting the hippies seventies’ lifestyle in urban America:

It was the third of September
That day I’ll always remember, yes I will
‘cause that was the day that my daddy died
Never had a chance to see him, no
Never heard nothing
But bad things about him
Mama, I’m depending on you
to tell me the truth,
Mama just hung her head and said:

“Papa was a rolling stone
wherever he laid his hat was his home
and when he died
all he left us was alone…”

Alcoholism and abandonment like “Tobacco Road” and “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” even as throw downs on the men abandoning their responsibilities during and after a catastrophic Vietnam, most of these folks had come back confused due to the effects of the war.

But as it happened, the confusion would pass and another era would be ushered in, even as it would bear the same resemblance of the late sixties into the early seventies when some “badass cats” popped up at Philadelphia. These were just “cool cats,” the magnificent duo of songwriters-composers-producers, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff which brought out some cool stuff from The Sound Of Philadelphia (TSOP). The Philly Sound brought a hell of music – superb producers Gene McFadden and John Whitehead; singers Thom Bell, Linda Creed, Norman Harris, Dexter Wansel, Billy Paul, Lou Rawls, The Stylistics, Sharon Paige, Teddy Pendergrass – some cool stuff that changed every concept in music of that era. And on the Eastside of a post-civil war Nigeria, rock bands emerged, too: Funkees, Apostles, One World (Ani Hofner’s Otu Uwa), Strangers (Bob Miga), Aktion 13, Wrinkars Experience, Founders 15, Heads Funk, Doves, Wings (Spud Nathan), Sokie Ohale, Jerry Boyfriend, Black Children, and numerous others keeping the vibes alive and going with the flow adapting to change, and we danced all night long.

Today, emerged is all sorts of street jargons that relates to a new generation changing every aspect of language which did evolve to a whole lot of stuff, chiefly, on how we communicate. “Dope,” “tight,” “fly,” “all right,” “jamming,” “cool,” "chilling," "dawg," “bomb,” “crazy,” “feel,” and things like that are no longer street jargons but a way of effective communication in today’s world. Just like “cool” once meant something specific back in the day in jazzy tunes, appealing and profoundly generated specifically for unique standards of jazz music, is no longer the same. “Cool” now could be I’m fine, I’m doing well or it could be better as the case may be in whatever way this new generation wants it. It is now definitely their call.

The game had changed and the improvised public drunkenness in lyrics paved way for something “mellow” which in its class would lead into something acceptable as a way of being just “cool.” People wanted love and some kind of melodic tune when the class at Philly Sound and elsewhere in urban America started changing the vibes to lyrics that conforms to the day – love, hate and broken hearts. All across America, the love songs and broken hearts came strong. Pendergrass, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, O’Jays, Jimmy Bo Horne, KC & The Sunshine Band, Donna Summer, Hot Chocolate, Betty Wright, Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, and even the classic rock tone of Kim Carnes had America falling in love again; with touches and touches of love tunes. You can hear it and feel it from “Sexy Thing,” “When Somebody Loves You Back,” “Do Your Thing,” “Rock Your Baby,” “Without You,” and a cast of love tunes from the numerous record labels all across America. For instance, the following line was about love, love and broken heart and America was up singing, dancing and having a good time:

Don't leave me this way
I can't survive, can't stay alive
Without your love, oh baby
Don't leave me this way, no
I can't exist, I'll surely miss your tender kiss
Don't leave me this way
(A broken man with empty hands
Oh baby please, don't leave me this way)
Aaah baby, my heart is full of love and desire for you
Now come on down and do what you gotta do
(Now come on girl and do what you gotta do)
You started this fire down in my soul
Now can't you see it's burning out of control
Come on (now) satisfy the need in me
Only your good lovin' can set me free...hey
Don't, don't you leave me this way, no
Don't you understand I'm at your command

And in between the love songs that overwhelmed the dance floors, there was another cast of musical genre which popped up and changed the way we danced. It was called funk, and the funk had varieties which rocked planet Earth. Although, there was the blending of soul, R&B and jazz which created funk in the mid seventies, evolving from tunes of the Minister of New, New Super Heavy Funk, the Godfather of Soul, Mr. James Brown; George Clinton came up with what would be known as “Pure Funk” with cats like Bootsy Collins, Phil UpChurch and the rest, which got America dancing. And America never stopped dancing. Lionel Richie in his solo act chipped in blending Caribbean, Cuban and some African juice when he asked America to keep dancing all night long:

Well my friends, the time has come
To raise the roof and have some fun
Throw away the work to be done
Let the music play on…play on…
Everybody sing, everybody dance
Lose yourself in wild romance
We’re going to party, karamu, fiesta, forever
Come and sing along
All night long (all night)…
People dancing all in the street
See the rhythm all in their feet
Life is good, wild and sweet
Let the music play on…play on
Feel it in your heart and feel it in your soul
Let the music take control…



Before this dancing, love-hate relationship was about to be going down in urban America, West Bronx, New York native, DJ Kool Herc had begun to find the break infinitely, thus the origin of rap music by cueing up two turntables, playing the other when the break ends on one, and the language definitely changed becoming an opening act that would change standard English the way we knew it. Then we saw "Rapper's Delight" and names like Big Bank Hank, Wonder Mike, Master Gee and the first hip hop single to become a top 40 hit. Henceforth, Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Cav, Kurtis Blow, Sequence and a cast of rappers would follow.

The language changed.

Expectedly, it had been presumed rap music would look like its opposite, an unmeaning, unintelligible rock lyrics, rap proved its worth in a generation that changed the ways and means of music. Like this Jay-Z’s “Renegade" album which includes an appearance by Eminem:

Now who is the king of these rude
Ludicrous, lucrative lyrics
Who could inherit the title
Put the youth in hysterics
Using his music to steer it
Sharing his views and his merits
But there is a huge interference
They are saying you shouldn’t hear it
Maybe it’s hatred I spew
Maybe it’s food for the spirit
Maybe it’s beautiful music I made
For you to just cherish
But I’m debated, disputed, hated
And viewed in America
As a motherfuckin’ drug addict
Like you didn’t experiment?

What’s next? With this kind of music that tends to be changing the way we spend our time with this new generation of ‘you feel me’ where are we heading to? And now that rappers are continuing to make meaningless songs, and some writing and singing about the death of rap, is it now over and will we be going back to old school?: the kind of stuff Gamble, Huff, Strong, Whitfield, Dick Griffey, Leon Silvers, Smokey Robinson, Creed Taylor all made? We’ll see and time will definitely tell.

"You feel me?"

Najite Agindotan, King of the African Drums

He was the Chief Priest, Fela Anikulapo Kuti's boy, back in the day, when Afro Beat, coined by Kuti, was the bomb at Baba's African Shrine where all kinds of rituals took place to reinvent a culture that was disappearing within its landscape. He speaks well of Baba who inspired him in what he now does very well, playing the adudu, African drums and percussions.

But Najite, as he is called by his admirers all around Greater Los Angeles, did take his hand-drumming craft to another level; initiating the Drum Church Circle to the City of Angels, inspiring others to follow, and the rest is now history.

On a normal Sunday afternoon, Najite pops up and walks around the village to survey which way the familiar rumble of his drum circle should spill in the park with a cast of vendors and tourists who'd shown up to make brisk business and stomp to the vibes as his entourage strikes rhythms together. Dressed in all white African outfits, his beads jingling around his neck and wrist band well-fit for the occasion, Najite peppers the Leimert Park Drum Church Circle beats with songs and yelps, echoeing as in African masquerade dance.

Master of his art, Najite, in 2000, was awarded the Congressional Award for Excellence by Representative Diane Watson. He has also received grants from the California Arts Council, the National Endownment for the Arts, and in filmmaker Ben Caldwell's own words, promoting and "incubating" the cultural arts in a multicultural Greater Los Angeles.

Also, Najite has been recognized by the University of California; Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine, and Riverside campuses for his thoroughness and persistence in the arts.

Now that Leimert Park Art Walk is born, expect more with the best yet to come!

What's Happening

Whoo boy, everything basically is just happening and since we all love the nightlife, it is a "changing" as we begin the new decade, which, to me, is now a reflection of the 1970s disco era and the juxtaposed days when afro and jingling outfits were the calling. Yes, it all came back and it's now called grafitti rock, in a way, to patronize what was supposed to have exploded in the 1980s.

Remember Grafitti Rock? Culled from the hip-hop based television program, originally screened in 1984 which was intended as an on-going series but never was continued after the pilot, though the days of the calling brought along with it a fierce competition. Run DMC, Special K., Kool Moe Dee - it's all back now and just take a walk down the streets in Downtown Los Angeles and you'll see for yourself what the hell is going on there. Breakdancing on 7th Street and Main Street with deejays and rappers puffing and thrilling the audience, and the party animals following accordingly. Absolutely no color lines which symbolizes a new era, and just like all of a sudden the Blue Dog Democrats and the Tea Parties erupted and sarah Palin is promoting all that which did lead to her commercial success.

You see how the world is changing?

The jams, a collection from the 1970s to the new millennium is unimmaginable when a ballroom becomes waxed with vibes like Deep Purple, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Michael Jackson, and all kinds of "acid" and garage rock coupled with the blending of hip-hop.

Whew, I have no idea where to begin with the overwhelming questionaire I know not of how it all began, and of course, based on the goings on and, one trying the ultimate best not to be dragged into some kind of mudslinging which has been a commonplace thing these days especially with our engagements in nasty political tactics which did puzzle the internet brigades, the Yahooligans who are now caught up in starting something they could not finish as they run for their lives with all their handles. I'm talking to non other than the tyrant Martin Akindana who has no clue what he's doing to himself in this free world of ours. But like the ordinary street guy would say, "nothing spoil" and life goes on.

The brouhaha is the temporary closure of comments, doesn't really mean censorship but the caution to avoid the Black Hats who can cause damage the moment the opportunity knocks. A whole lot has been going on and with myself not showing any sign of slowing down, the party begins with fascinating lines of casts.

I have been told the 2010 African Goodwill Awards scheduled for Saturday, April 24, 2010 at the Veterans Memorial Complex has learned with caution on how to go about its programs since the critics have complained on a wide range of problems - from the organizing committees to the sponsors. This year's awards will be hosted by Monie Mon and co-hosted by Hakeem Kae-Kazim ("My American Nurse 2," "Hotel Rwanda" and the innovating, addictive and acclaimed television drama "24"), with the following inductees: Councilman Daniel Tabor, Monique Brown, Ynez Gilmer, Prof. Gwen Marie Thomas, Columnist Anthony A. Samad, Jim Brown and Blair Underwood.

Kimberly Anyadike, among others will be celebrating their dedication, commitment and achievement in life. I'm happy for Charles and Pamela Anyadike (Kimberly's parents) who have used the amazing power of parental guidance to raise a brilliant child, flying an aircraft at that tender age. Charles, my friend for many years now, is just a good man.

Oh, before I drop my pen, another thing seems to be happening around my neck of the woods. The complaint that I haven't been writing much. Just stay tuned, there's more to come, particularly on culture and politicking in a fast changing world.

Maybe it's time to break the ice!

Photo-Op: Worthy Causes

Miss Niger Delta 2009/2010, Miss Excellence Amadi flanked by other queens and Trustees during their visit to the Elderly in Port Harcourt. Photo courtesy of Niger Delta Standard

The Death of African Marketplace and the Birth of Leimert Park Village African Art & Music Festival

Art drawing courtesy of Aziz Diagne

The festival has been on for so many years with lots of African cultural heritage, fanfare and some good, good stuff to promote botany from motherland with the ideal the origin of man began from the African continent, from the passing of Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens, the modern man, as scientific anthropological evidence had it.

For the past 12 years or so, I have never missed any of the events, and, I have encouraged others to keep up with worthy nature by paying homage every year to the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire which ends all summer events, sort of, normally on Labor Day.

From the playgrounds and fields of Rancho La Cienega Park and Dorsey High School to the umiversity village of Exposition Park where the Los Angeles Sports Arena and Colliseum sits -- all on the academic landscape of USC; the carnival had been home to African Marketplace and Cultural Faire, moving from location to location over the years.

The talk had gone on for months coupled with the uncertainties of an economy gone bad nobody knew what the organizers of a model Orie Amigwe, the typical marketplace in motherland every commodity is bagained for. The African Marketplace had the same resemblance of Orie Amigwe in post-Nigeria-Biafra Civil War era.

But something had happened and the organizers, this year, decided to call it quits, blaming a bad economy and the city's budget shortcomings for its woes. What has a bad economy got to do with culture and especially when race is still a factor in America? Why would the organizers turn the other way when African-Americans are desperately eager to know more about the African culture and traditions which has never been part but always an entity? So what's going on, and why are the vendors and merchants who'd played a significant role in these events not asking questions? Probings like "we demand to know what's going on and what happened to the funding by the city and other big corporations to keep our cultural heritage on the shores of this land viable and intact."

"Nothing spoil," as some folks would lament in fractured English indicating "that's life" and life goes on, no matter which ever way one looks at it even as we keep losing base as a people who did come a long way.

As it happened, the death of African Marketplace and Cultural Faire ushered in the Ist Annual Leimert Park Village African Art and Music Festival sponsored in part by 8th District Council Member Bernard C. Parks, Community Build, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and KJLH 102.3 FM. KJLH is owned by Stevie Wonder.

In a move to bring Leimert Park back to life as a tourist center and a culturally-based entity, Senegalese-born artist Aziz Diagne took the humble task of putting a whole lot into perspective and in conjunction with Sika and Jackie Ryan who represents Leimert Park Village Association and advocates for the merchants causes, had African art and vibes brought back to leimert Park Village over the Labor Day weekend.

From September 5 through the 7th, Degnan Boulevard, 43rd Street and 43rd Place was turned into the Orie Amigwe hub of Black Township, stretching all along the Crenshaw thoroughfare in Los Angeles. There's the World Stage Performance Gallery, home to jam sessions, jazz lessons and scholarship. There's Kumasi Gift Shop, home to the Nana Prempehs, Komfo Anokyes, the golden stool, Frafra gears and Kente fabrics. There's African Heritage and Antique Collection Gallery, home of original African fine arts, prints, lithographs, African beads of Antiquity, old tribal arts, okwa mkpuru, masks -- Tuareg outfits, mud clothes from Mali, babariga and Igbo traditional clothings. There's Papa West Breakfast Club and casts of blues and jazzy-funk performances. There's the Zambezi Bazaar, known for its authentic African accessories, ethno-cultural books and numerous African artifacts. There's Sika and uncountable collection of jazz music and other African-related products.

On the westside of Degnan Bl. sits Fine Arts Gallery Plus, Eso Won Books, Heroik Entertainment, Africa By The Yard, New Orleans Vieux Carre Creole Cuisine where tasty sea foods and Big Easy dishes are found. Strolling down further sits Adassa's Island Cafe & Entertainment and Ackee Bamboo Jamaican Restaurant run by the energetic Marlene Beckford.

On 43rd Street sits Lucy Florence Art Gallery, Academy of Martial Arts, Gaynale Beauty Salon, Tip O Nail, Regency West, Philip's BBQ and Mary's Salon.

On 43rd Place sits Klub Kaos, the decaying and abandoned Vision Theatre, Eugene's Creative Designs, Studio 3345, O' So juicy N' Tasty Burgers, Leimert Park, New Star Beauty Supply, The Herb and Vitamin Center, 3H beauty and Universal College of beauty.

I had thought the launching of Leimert Park Village African Arts Festival might have some hiccups since I wasn't familiar with the organizers and what they had been up to. But I did talk to Diagne from time to time as the planning unfolded, and, eventually, the show was a success with an amazing turnout. Though with some hiccups due to lack of proper funding, I was able to talk to one of the organizers, Jackie Ryan, who runs Zambezi Bazaar with her brother and sister, Mary Kimbrough. Ms. Ryan who had been trading in Leimert Park the last fiteen years said the event was "culturally good, and economically could be better," insinuating an outrageous real estate and the highly overrated properties on the complex which made it difficult for people to sustain" especially the merchants who could barely meet up with a staggering high rent, suggesting rent in the community shouldn't be more than $500 and not the thousands of dollars collected by the property managers and landlords. "That would be just and fair," Ms. Ryan said and concluding, the community from her observations has sustained their businesses through its "loyal customer and cultural base."

According to Ryan, the event was independently produced with the city helping in providing "certain things like stage, chairs and tables." She applauded KJLH for its enormous contribution acknowledging "everybody helped, everybody was creative and everybody who worked on the committee was wonderful. We did it ourselves; there were no banks, no big funding -- we just had our own treasures so we don't have to borrow from anybody."

She also used the opportunity in our chat to thank the Los Angeles Sentinel for being very supportive by way of distributing over 30,000 flyers and postcards. "The volunteers were helpful for putting in their immesureable time for the event's success and there is hope there will be a commemoration of the event, come next year."

It seemed almost impossible to take the organizers seriously because of the timeframe on the sudden absence of the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire. The city had no value for cultural events and Ms. Ryan and her colleagues had no choice but to pull the bull by the horn in order to get things done. It worked and I think a 2nd annual event is very likely to hold based on the success of the opening shot.

Talk about the jam sessions. The stage at the carnival was explosive with performances by Azar Lawrence, Medusa, Wadada, Dwight Trible, Steel Fusion Musik, Walli Ali, Phil Ranelin, Andre Russell of LTD and World Stage Sextet. Lawrence, we all know had been around and had played alongside Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner in the 60s. There was also storytelling, spoken word, dancing, fashion shows, food courts and lots of people happy to see Africa come alive in Leimert Park.

Everyone I talked to seems to agree that the organizers, Leimert Park Merchant Association, took a bold step in not letting the uniqueness of African culture disappear in Los Angeles on the absence of African Marketplace and Cutural Faire. And many who came said they loved it and would come back again. Maxie Viltz who runs African Imports Village Treasures on Linden Avenue in Long Beach and who had invited me to stop by her shop and "check things out" said she enjoyed the three day show and liked what she saw, particularly the artifacts and okwa mkpuru, the masks displayed at the African Heritage & Antique Gallery owned by UC Bekerley trained criminologist turned trader, Obinne Emmanuel Onyeador. I also had spent enough time with Valeri Adams whose Help U Sell Resale program did some brisk business in front of Papa West Breakfast Club. Business was generally good and the merchants smiled all the way to the bank.

Harold Lott, who makes and fixes traditional handdrums in the community alternatively pointed out that the show was brilliantly well done, and that the community needs to keep up with working collectively towards achieving its goal of bringing everybody together, citing Community Build which helps young people in the community. Onyeador, who had earlier sold James Currey's "Africa Writes Back: The Africa Writers Series and the Launching of African Literature" to visiting University of Manchester students Laura and Josephine, said "the show wasn't bad at all," meaning brisk business was made considering the bad economy.

Enter researcher Gloria martinez who is working on a project regarding the 70s ragtag clothings told me she never expected the turnout to be that huge. She had bought some Michael Jackson t-shirts and beads down the street before bumping into me at the event. The best part of the event was the little corner between Papa West and African Heritage where my homies -- Kalu ezikpe, Obi Onyeador, Kenny Oriyomi, Ogbonna Nkelu and several other homeboys -- had gathered and discussed matters of interest related to the nasty politics of the day commonly found on the continent of Africa. Besides, the hangout was an event to remember.

Al in all, the festival was a remarkable success.

Igbo Village and Museum in Virginia is just not Baby Talk?

Just like it happens all the time when someone tries to pick on me to talk about something he had no business with, sometimes in a desperate move to figure out all that Igbo mysteries that keeps perturbing the nosy ones among us. Yes, it happened on one of this month's hot weather while I was trying to catch my cool beating the summer heat in an attempt, and as always keeping it real when a whole bunch of stuff popped up. It wasn't anything about music or the crazy-dubby nightlife in the Hollywood-Los Angeles circle that my colleague and friend, Austen Oghuma, sent me an email addressed from one of the Igbo-related forums, penning on a new development regarding Igbo Diaspora. I wasn't shocked anyway, but it was interesting to know, though I have been in the know of the happenings, especially something worthy and commendable.

First of all, how did Oghuma who is not Igbo got to know all about the facts and logics going on in Igbo forums? Who is sending him every piece of information in a supposedly behind closed doors forums we all had thought was a members only area?`

Nevertheless, it was a good thing he found out progress is being made in Diaspora by my kith and kin, and let's not start pumping our chest for it is not yet Uhuru. Of course, those fantastic shots by Amadiebube speaks volumes and the write-ups from around the Staunton area in Virginia was also fascinating. And good to know the whole project had been started on a good foot. Since many volunteers based on media reports acknowledge work is in progress "passing egg-shaped masses of clay, Stan Ogbonna had the honor of slamming each into place as the foundation of a third mud house took shape." Finally, an Igbo village and museum in the United States? Wait a minute, let's hold our breath. For real? An Igbo village in America?

Oghuma often asks this particular question and now that it seems to be taking shape, he is holding his breath. Oghuma has engaged me numerous times in Igbo-related issues, and most of our discourses takes us into the night. But that's beside the point, though.

The Igbo village and museum in Virginia being talked about is real because there has been eye witness accounts. In due course, I should be paying homage myself and what I would be looking forward to seeing should be the originality of Igbo custom and traditions from the way it had been with our forebears and I have used the above images as an indication. The aziza, brooms used in sweeping Igbo village compounds, cassava squeezing machines, the palm tree and a setting of the palm wine tapper, the kolanuts, how the kitchen looked in those mud houses and the odo used in pounding the cassava, yam or cocoyam, whatever the case may be. It's a bunch of cultural stuff and culture, indeed, is an entity.

So far, it's looking good, and Amadiebube, what a great shot you had in there.

Opening Shot: Ugandan Model Imat Akelo-Opio

Actress/model/dancer/chereographer/activist Imat Akelo-Opio will be gracing the cover of our debut magazine in an exclusive interview. She has so much going on and stick around for the updates about this extraordinary lady who has taken her career to another level.

PAFF Final Beat

It had taken exactly eleven days from the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall on the Crenshaw thoroughfare of the “Black Township” to the nine hundred block of Washington Boulevard in Culver City which stretches to the Washington Corridor in Los Angeles in an event that has gone through mixed reviews on the side of the vendors who seems to be the ones complaining and talking about the 17th Annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival (PAFF), which ended in Los Angeles, last night, and how the show came out bad vendors are now threatening lawsuits for being ripped off by the organizers of the festival.

I’m not sure if the recession should be blamed for the buy-sell apathy in which an estimated 10,000 people are losing their jobs daily; a record breaking account since the Great Depression. Nobody, however, is sure of the outcome since experts are predicting until the end of 2010 before things could probably be shaping up economically in what should be expected to be another cycle of economic prosperity, that is, if Wall Street is put in place.

But despite all that, a whole lot is still happening in the City of Angels, and people are still hanging out even though what use to be a livelier event on a sad note of bad economy, the 17th Annual PAFF was very obvious of economic collapse. “This is terrible,” one of the vendors who displayed his African accessories, a variety of beads, necklaces, earrings, shea butter cream and some artifacts complained of a slow, hopeless market. “How am I going to survive this environment with a $40 a day sale and all the bills that are climbing at an alarming rate.”

If recession is one thing to blame, one should be asking about all the line up of events tailored to run through May in Los Angeles alone. While PAFF and a series of its activities were going on in a two location event, some cultural stuff was also taking place all over town. The Vintage Hollywood Private Club on the Washington Corridor has taken its activities to another level. Throughout the month of February, classic black films – “Stormy Weather,” “Carmen Jones,” and “Cabin in the Sky” will be screened and admission is free. So there’s a lot of vibes going on in ones Hollywood. A full bar and lots of Los Angeles goodies at this newly rejuvenated joint is a hangout you don’t want to miss.

I think it’s quite fun when one walks around the marketplace, the 17th Annual PAFF, in a different mood this year because both patrons and merchants in what use to be a merry-crowd in the eleven days festival vanished this time around and it’s not funny. A security guard at the front entrance of the mall: “Ain’t nothing wrong with the fuckin’ economy. It’s all a set up; you know what I’m saying? And you blame George Bush. I don’t have anything with what’s going on with the fuckin’ economy and if they feel like cutting my hours I sho’ fuckin’ will quit and take unemployment…And I sho fuckin’ will sue their ass, that’s right”

The guard is not happy for being sentry, standing post on a little-bit above minimum wage and mad as hell because his relief is behind schedule and he wants to “get the fuck outta here,” cuz, it’s “ass-kicking time.”

On the other side of the mall behind Wall Mart, there is a makeshift massage parlor run by some Asians and as it happened their business boomed and patrons were trooping to relieve a nerve-wracking recession-proof tension.

It wasn’t only the cultural thing that got attention during the festival. People, not related to the festival came from all over. I ran into Carolyn J. Garner who happens to be doing some worthy stuff and we did hang out talking about a bunch of things that could lift the spirit of the African “if all hands are on deck.” She did the math – uncountable trips to Ethiopia providing medical services to the underprivileged and proud of it on many grounds – being blessed and having the opportunity to lend a helping hand in an area of the world where the government has turned the other way. Carolyn had held me for more than an hour talking about the unfortunate events of slavery and the mess it created for centuries to come.

Interestingly, though after all the tough talks about sharecroppers, slavery and all that, we shifted to the screenings at the film festival and began discussing the ones that made the headlines. Before we began, I had mentioned Sophie Okonedo and her role in “Skin:”

And her parents were white South Africans. And born of white parents in apartheid South Africa, she looked black. And she was tormented and unaccepted in a white society. And she was black. And she falls in love with a black man. And she alienates her parents. And she relocates elsewhere to a township. All of this happened because she was born black because of her genetic abnormality. And her name is Sandra Haing. And she paid a surprise visit at the screening of “Skin” on February 11 at the Culver Plaza Theaters. And there was a photo session. And PAFF founder Ayuko Babu was all smiles in that photo-op.

Another film of interest was, as part of the routine Brazilian Carnival and the PAFF, the presentation of the 50th anniversary of “Black Orpheus” which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1960.”Black Orpheus” had been widely advertised and sponsored by the Ngolo Arts Preservation Society and Amoeba Music.

A lot of fascinating films were shown during the course of the festival. There was “Scared Justice,” a film about the Orangeburg massacre where black students protested the Orangeburg bowling alley’s refusal to admit African Americans when South Carolina State Troopers and other law enforcement agents fired on them. Three were killed and twenty-seven injured.

And there’s Charles Burnett’s “Relative Strangers” starring Eriq LaSalle, Cicely Tyson, and Michael Beach about a “successful man who, fearing failure, separates himself from his family until he receives word of his father’s death.”

And there’s “Making the Rhino,” about environment, tourism and conservatism from the Maasai people of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba people point of view.

And, finally, not to forget the South African drama "Jerusalema" directed by Ralph Zinman, typical of Nollywood films about Lucky Kunene (Rapulana Seiphemo) who transformed himself to being a real estate crime boss after years of street carjacking to make a living. The film opened the festival on a red carpet at the Director's Guild of America on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

Q & A Interview With Zambia's Mutinta Suuya

Who knows how these things happen? The best African minds are beginning to emerge in Diaspora and, with a remarkable African cultural events taking place all around the world, it is now clear the world has changed a whole lot. From M-Net's Face Of Africa to Miss Africa Canada coupled with related African cultural events in Sweden, Finland, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Australia, and several others spread out all over the Universe, the one that is for sure fascinating is the electric atmosphere of Miss Africa USA which kicked off four years ago in Jonesboro, Georgia.

And on Saturday, November 1, 2008, the beautiful African minds gathered at the Clayton County Performing Arts Center in Jonesboro, Georgia, for the 4th Annual Miss Africa USA contest and the elegant 18-year-old Mutinta Suuya was one of them; representing her country, Zambia. Born in Lusaka, Zambia and now a sophomore aspiring to be an economist and a lawyer by the time she's done with academics. Mutinta told me a whole lot and what the future holds for her. No doubt, at 18, she's almost there and it is quite amazing how her passion is driving her to the success lane.

She is too much for her age and with her volunteer work in progress her inspiration will definitely help change the African cultural landscape and, people around her develop a deeper understanding of Africa today. She is practically everything, an essayist and you name it.



EXCERPT:

Tell me about yourself

I am an 18 year old College Sophomore currently majoring in Economics in the State of Illinois, and I intend to go to Law School upon completing my Bachelors in Economics. I began attending High School when I was 10 years old and completed at 15. I have managed to maintain a 4.0 G.P.A throughout my college enrollment. In addition, I am an Honors student currently enrolled in the school's Honors program.

Besides being a Lawyer and Economist, I intend to continue modeling and become a Biographer. Writing Biographies is something I would love to do on a professional level because I am fascinated by different people's life stories. It is so interesting to realize that every individual on this planet has a unique story to tell even if they don't realize it.

On the other hand, I enjoy modeling because I have always been interested in fashion and photography. In my college enrollment so far I have received the following awards:

Outstanding Student of the year in 2007-2008 awards due to maintaining a 4.0 G.P.A, Who's Who amongst students in American Colleges and Universities and Lutrell Endowment Foundation Scholarship. I have also been recently nominated for the prestigious Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student laureate Award. It is statewide award in which only one student per school can be nominated for it.

I am member of the following organizations: Phi Theta Kappa Honors society, Student Activity Board, Student writer for School newspaper called NavigatorIn Addition. I am a part time Audio Visual Technician in the Audio Visual Technology department of the school. I was a finalist for the Miss Africa USA 2008 Scholarship and Beauty Pageant, and currently hold the title of Miss Zambia USA 2008. In 2008, I was the School's representative at the Honors Annual Spring Student Research Conference of the Honors Council of the Illinois Region (HCIR) at Western Illinois University in Moline, IL . At this conference I made an oral presentation on a project entitled "Are Biofuels the next best Alternative energy resource?" Not forgetting, I am a featured author in a publication by Elder and Leemuar Publishers called Challenge the Experts.

When you arrived on the shores of the United States, what was the difference between growing up in Lusaka, Zambia and settling in America?

The differences between growing up in Lusaka and settling in America have been interesting learning expiriences. I am very grateful to having been brought up in Lusaka because I learnt so much about the importance of appreciating culture, morals and family life. It has also made me a down to earth person who will always remember where I came from. Settling in America has been a lovely learning experience and opportunity as well. I love the diversity in culture and race found in America. Not forgetting I admire and respect the hardworking ethic and determination instilled in the people that live here.

Let's talk about the beauty contest, the Miss Africa USA recently held in Jonesboro, Georgia. How did you hear about the contest and what motivated you to enter your bid?

I saw and read about the contest online. I decided to enter the contest because I loved the fact that it was celebrating African culture and was acknowledging all the beautiful and talented women found in its continent.

What was the experience like; I mean the fanfare, the contestants, the audience, the panel of judges and organizers that Saturday night you stepped on stage for a shot to the crown?

It was such an amazing experience. In one weekend, I learnt so much about other cultures and greatly enhanced my modeling skills. The audience and judges were awesome. They did an amazing job to help bring the contest to life.

In your leisure time what keeps you busy?

In my leisure time I love reading Biographies, travelling and seeing different historical sites and museums, writing different thoughts on paper, watching movies and documentaries, and most of all listening and watching CNN.

Who is your favorite author?

I actually have two favorite authors, Eric Blair also known as the great George Orwell and Sidney Sheldon. I love George Orwell's works because he was such an intelligent and controversial writer. I admire and respect the fact that he did not think that it was important to go with the mainstream opinion even when it was wrong. He wrote books that were not favored in his time but have become master pieces today. Orwell was generally a powerful writer whose works will continue to endure the test of time.

Sidney Sheldon is a brilliant author who is so entertaining. One thing I noticed about his books is that although Sidney Sheldon was a male author, he usually gave power to the women in them. In almost every book I have read by him, a woman is the main character. Additionally, he was such a great story teller and a legend in his own right.

What's your favorite dish?

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Who is your favorite musician?

Mariah Carey, her voice and lyrics are just amazing. There is something so sincere in the way she sings and delivers her music.

In fashion, who is your favorite designer?

Coco Chanel is my favorite designer. She greatly influenced the fashion industry by her classy yet sophisticated designs. Today, her design label has grown greatly and is worn by so many people across the globe.

what's your wish for Africa since you will be fully engaged in volunteer work?

My wish for Africa is to see it become an economically independent continent. Despite Africa gaining political independence from its colonial masters, it is yet to gain Economical Independence. I believe that Africa is indeed "diamond in Ruff"; it has the potential to become a powerful independent continent both politically and economically.

What area of politics is your interest?

Honestly, I am interested in so many different areas of politics. However, Global Politics is my main interest because I strongly believe that each day the world is becoming more and more connected. We witnessed that with the collapse of the US economy, the Global economy was crumbling too. This simply showed that the political and economical instability of one nation will have an impact on other nations too. In addition, I think it is important for us as Humankind to not only consider ourselves as citizens of a country but of the globe. Thus, this is why global politics my main are of interest.

Joyous Festivities and Merry-Making at the 2008 African Marketplace Festival in Los Angeles

by Ambrose Ehirim

It was a weekend of a two weeks event which climaxed the Summer and folks from all walks of life had trooped in to get a feel of motherland Africa which has been since its inception -- the stuff of life and a great stuff of African cultural heritage. It is, in fact, the stuff of great literature.

Once more, the event took me aback to the days of Orie Amigwe, the once notable marketplace for second hand clothes, produce from organics, poking around and bargains for better deals haggling for money and things like that when a plundered and demolished Igbo nation had begun to start life anew after Yakubu Gowon's-led Genocidal campaign against a desperately starved Igbo children including infants and women.

But somehow the 2008 African Marketplace and Cultural Faire was a unique event considering an economy that has gone so bad and people are still happy at a time of going through the pains of hopelessness was very obvious. Sitting on the playgrounds of Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, there were bargains and selling and trading of artifacts from all cultural backgrounds in Africa.

I took a tour and talked to several people including merchants who had paid over a thousand bucks for a booth. And some of the booths so small one will be wondering the purpose of trying to make a brisk business in these hardtimes of an economy completely destroyed by the Bush-Cheney administration.

America is still a great country and the pains of economic hardship does not stop an outgoing public from having fun and moving on to do the best out of a very bad situation never mind what the Bush administration did fighting a not relevant war in Iraq resulting to America losing its value as an empire after Ronald Reagan dismantled the Soviet bloc. I guess empires come and go. So they say.

I had thought the Bush era had destroyed this country in its entirety in terms of commerce until I walked in to the carnival which had the same resemblance of Woodstock reflecting the 60s hippies and the outfits unveiled by the legendary Jimi Hendrix when pot-smoking was seen as a normal thing in an era of rage against the establishment.

Founded twenty three years ago by James Burks, the African Marketplace and Cultural Faire has become one of the best organized forums where you can feel mother nature Africa. A whole lot was on display and whether you were just window shopping, bargaining or selling one item or the other, and you are a merchant making a brisk business and the faces of Africa all in your face, the African Marketplace is just home.

On the eastside of the facility Nigerians and their neigbors tapped leather while the tennis courts around the corner was open to all and sundry. The swimming pool on the southside was full to capacity due to the Summer heat and all that summer jams flowing from the Balkanized forums where trade by barter and complete bargains took its course.

The forum had all sorts of African related restaurants serving African traditional dishes. The ginger root beer and jollof rice coupled with fried plantain sold by one Sierra Leonean lady had customers lick their fingers, perhaps an indication the food was really tasty. I would rather recommend a Michelin Star to the owner of Stone Market and Restaurants who has served the African and Caribbean communities in Los Angeles for many years now and whose stand at the festival had a very long line noted for its cowfoot soup, a combination of seasoned curry goat, ox tail and rice. There were no Nigerian food stands for consumption of isi ewu, nri ji, amala, ngwo ngwo and things like that in a festival every culture represented.

Stone Market and Restaurants was the real deal among the restaurant chains which sat on the southwest corner. Smiling all the time and speaking with an accent that immediately reveals his Jamaican origin, Stone has shown how being consistent and persistent pays off in the long run.

Leaving the restaurant zone takes you to the arena where all kinds of music pops up. I bumped to an arena where jazz was the theme and we had formed a circle to discuss jazz and its scholarship. We talked about the days of Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter when Weather Report had created a theme that left a mark in modern jazz. We talked about the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lee Morgan, Coleman Hawkins, David "Fathead" Newman and the days of the Village Vanguard Concerts. We talked about the Kudu years when Creed Taylor had assembled jazz greats Johnny Hammond, Grover Washington Jr., Hank Crawford, Eric Gale, Billy Cobham, McCoy Tyner, George Benson which came to be known as the cross over era.

It was real fun and a fantastic way to end the Summer when reggae great Gregory Isaacs closed the show with that hell of a smash hit called "Night Nurse" which vibed from the stage and everybody sang along:

Tell her try her best to make it quick
Woman tend to the sick
Because there must be something she can do

This heart is broken in two
Tell her it's a case of emergency
There is a patient by the name of Gregory

Night nurse
Only you can quench this here thirst
My night nurse
Oh God oh the pain is getting worse...

If you missed it this year keep your head because next year is just around the corner and time flies by, remember?

PHOTO OP: Scenes at the 2008 African Marketplace Festival in Los Angeles

With an all round bad economy, this beautiful girl was smiling to the bank selling accessories --body oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, varieties of incense -- and business boomed for her at the African Marketplace.

Like a spiritual revival and despite a bad economy, these women were on their feet stomping, dancing and chanting with their hands up to the vibes of an all women drum session. It was a hell of a jam.

This aspiring model and her friend told me they breezed in to have fun and nothing but fun. Watch out for her at the next American top model.

An artifact on display set up by Obi Onyeador of African Treasures.

Security detail checking in concert goers for the Gregory Isaacs Concert which was full to capacity.

The line up at Stone African-Caribbean Cuisine noted for its fine dishes.

It's all good regardless of a bad economy.

And of course, there was a livestock trade.

Latino soccer players take a break after tapping leather on the football field of Dorsey High School.

Ehirim Files Classic: "The Cultural Order"

by
Ambrose Ehirim

No question, Los Angeles has emerged as a cultural model for cities all around the globe. Take a ride on Crenshaw Boulevard to Leimert Park and you will find out it has become synonymous with the African American cultural community. Hancock Park and La Brea Avenue is an identity of the Synagogues and Jewish cultural and arts centers. East Los Angeles identifies with the Chicano cultural and labor union communities. On Venice Boulevard toward Venice Beach, the samba-playing Brazilians entertain in their usual colorful and flamboyant manner. Where can I identify my own cultural order?

On April 10, 2003, I checked my messages arriving home from the stressful and bumper-to-bumper bottleneck Los Angeles streets and freeways traffic with calls from loved ones, my brother, my niece, my church pastor, my daughter's teacher, Dr. Edmund Ugorji, telemarketers, my childhood buddy Eugene Onyeji, my classmate at college Ardis Hamilton who was at All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) launching as my guest, my good friend and renowned journalist Austen Oghuma, community leaders meeting, Los Angeles African American Political Forum and many others too numerous to mention.

I played back the calls. I returned and missed some of them. Among them, the call from Dr. Ugorji of which I left a message. He returned back my call and spoke of my incommunicado, and among other things, delightedly invited me to his house for dinner, the next day. I honored his invitation and told him I would pop up at 7:30 PM, the scheduled day. After my conversations with Dr. Ugorji, I called Oghuma whose fascinating political debate takes us into the night. Debates on why Biafranigeria shouldn't break up, and debates on why I insist Biafranigeria has no business being a "one united nation." And, too, debates on why Olusegun Obasanjo should keep keeping on in leading the nation at its critical era.

However, it was the eve of Mbieri Community Association of Southern California fundraising event and launching of its first almanac that I kept up my word to pay homage to Dr. Ugorji for dinner. On my way, I stopped by Four Seasons Market run by Dozie Ozoemena to check the week's fliers-fundraising events, wake-keeping, launching, naming ceremonies, baby showers, cultural dances, graduations, weddings and the latest in local politics before my final destination of the said evening. At Four Seasons, the fliers and political junkies hung around. It was usual and typical of my expectations as the Zik ekwuo aru ahia mgbede gatherers were at work doing their thing, saying what they don't know and what they do know sometimes, the kind of "tabloid press" you see at the newsstands, and the kind of trash talks you encounter at barbershops..

It was really nothing new to see the loquacious ahia mgbede gatherers, evening market gossipers in their same old ways talking big and rubbing shoulders of what's new in town. Talks like "Nna, inugwo?" Asi na Jerry gburu ozu, oloputara brand new zero-mileage Hummer H2" (Man, have you heard it? It is said Jerry launched a brand new zero-mileage Hummer H2) was the cultural order. One even asked me "what are you driving now, Hummer?" I was not moved knowing the way ndi be anyi, our people operates which is worrisome for the fact that our values and popular culture is being wiped out ever since the "Push Factor" began, the political, economic and socio-cultural conditions that made us flee our native lands in search for a better life.

Nevertheless, in order not to spoil my evening and looking forward to a sound political and intellectual discourse with Dr. Ugorji, I took off to keep up with my appointment as initially planned. Dr. Ugorji, a linguist, and medical director of Los Angeles Department of Health Services is another political junkie. He welcomed me and offered me and seat. He asked "what kind of drink" I would like. "Water or soda will be fine, precisely lemon drink if soda," I said to him. Generous, humorous and frank, he admitted I was a rare gem based on my thought-provoking articles and confidence regarding the way I speak. It was a long debate as we talked into the night while his kids went to bed. It was the eve of the ridiculous and embarassing National Assembly elections of Olusegun Obasanjo's dubious administration. And, all in all, it was the usual Friday evening when the otimkpus, the alarmists gather to make some noise in a series of pepper soup joints around Los Angeles.

Somehow, that evening, I allowed Dr. Ugorji to do all the talking while I sipped my soda listening attentively. He spoke at length his disgust with Achike Udenwa's inept and corrupt administration in Imo State and the many wonders found in the Igbos of the Diaspora and their chieftaincy titles. He talked about the schools we left behind and its deteriorating conditions, and why nobody is doing anything about it since the missionaries and ndiocha, the white people left us alone to figure things out. He talked about secession bid for autonomy by every hamlet in Igboland and how it created a big divide in the Igbo nation. He talked about the scramblers and opportunists erecting mansions and "palaces" on dusty alleys with no street numberings. He complained, too, about the pogrom and civil war comparing the Igbos with the Jews which really caught my attention in all that he was saying.

"Igbos have nothing at all in common with the Jews," I would say. "Nothing at all, no comparison and not even close." First, despite quarrelling among themselves, greed, envy and hatred do not exist in the Jewish nation. Their pop-culture dating back from the Biblical days is still intact and viable. They know Adolph Hitler was evil and "never again" would the most blood soaked event in humankind be allowed to take place. A five year old Jewish kid, growing up learns in the Synagogue, day care centers and faiths in the Torah that "to forget is to proclaim Hitler innocent." Ask a Jewish kid who the father of the modern Jewish state is and he or she will be quick to tell you.

In contrast, the Igbos have quickly forgotten the evisceration of a pregnant woman, the widespread bloodletting, the "Asaba male death march and drowning," Benjamin Adekunle's proclamation of shooting at every moving creature in Igboland and other horrible cases of that nature, finding solace having an affair with a people who never acknowledged what they did was evil and must not be entertained. Just like the Diaspora Jewish kid who has learned about the Holocaust and the state of Israel, its migration and persecution over the years, a Diaspora Igbo kid and second generation immigrant to be exact, ask who the Igbos are or who is Francis Akanu Ibiam and you likely would hear "never heard of him." Or speak Igbo to these lost generations and you will hear "I don't get it, man!"

But ask this kid or a number of Igbo Diaspora kids who Lebron James is. One hundred percent of these kids will be quick to tell you without guessing that he is the number one ranked High School basketball sensation from Akron, Ohio. He will be recognized by all. To a point and so disturbing some Igbo intellectuals do not want their kids to speak Igbo in public. What's all these for?

Ugorji was pissed and admitted exhaustion of all options in Igbo renaissance. "Does it mean we are finished?" I would ask.

"Enyi amaghim," --my friend, I don't know, Ugorji would distressingly respond.

Of course, we are finished and being weary of pointing out that we have no "adversaries" and enemies but ourselves, we who have caused every divide within our kith and kin tailored to the desire of our enemies should be blamed for the present state of the Igbos. I left Ugorji's house with the never-ending excruciating pains I have beared all my life looking at the sorry state of the Igbo nation.

My evening was in order and I looked forward to the very big occasion about to take place the next day. Earlier, Ugorji and I discussed about the big event, Mbieri gala night. He offered me a high table for the upcoming event, and knowing the story of the dog named "Jack" I declined and promised to show up as usual, to observe and report.

On Saturday April 12, 2003, many invitations and fliers sat on my study desk, and many occasions of the cultural order were taking place the same day. There was Onicha Igbo Cultural Association fundraising event, Okwahuman Association of Southern California Special Easter Dance, Eko Club California, Nkwerre Association of Southern California, Amaigbo Cultural Association, Mbieri Community Association of Southern California Fundraising and Launching of its first almanac, South High Car Wash Crusade to raise fund for the football team and many other socio-cultural events. I checked my calendar and had marked Mbieri Community gala as my first point of call in all the cultural order.

Traditional outfit wearing doormen, beautiful looking children rehearsing at the back corner for the occasion's special dance, uniformed Mbieri women cheering on the aisle, the hippies roaming around and cocking eyes at one another, the flowing gowners showing their stuff, Veronica serving her delicious dishes and uniformed Mbieri men tending bar, it looked like one of those Brazilian carnivals and Big Easy's Madigras, populated by men and women who had been invited to the "fundraising event and launching of 1st Mbieri almanac."

I popped up late in the evening and was greeted by one of the occasion's organizers Nze Odunze Igbonagwam who had sold to me one of the event's tickets. Before my arrival, I had called Oghuma to meet me at the ballroom of Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood, California and collect a ticket I reserved for him sold to me by Dr. Ugorji. Oghuma, however, could not make it to the show due to other special engagements elsewhere in the Los Angeles area.

The evening was all showman and local celeb Solomon Egbuhuo's doing. For the last several years, the one and only MC in Igbo cultural events around the Los Angeles area has organized and mceed occasions to help various communities raise funds for worthy causes despite the widespread scandals of keeping funny books. Egbuhuo, a businessman and promoter of local music ensembles loves showbizness and the attention it gives him.

Noted deejays Ike and Jasper spinned while the folklore musical group Umunna of Los Angeles did their own thing--the Mike Ejeagha akuko na egwu, folklore kind of stuff. It was electric. It was much, much better than the spraying money in your face and high fives of the notorious Coque Brothers.

Meanwhile, I had taken up a seat in the ballroom and had gone to the menu section to help myself with what the caterer Veronica had prepared for the event. I served myself a concoction from Veronica's menu table--rice, fried plantain, anu ewu (goat meat), moi-moi, fried fish, vegetables, kpof-kpof (call it donut if you like), okporoko, (stockfish) and you name it, I had it all. I sat at a corner with a couple of hometown buddies to do justice to my concoction, my own combination. Dealing with my dish and watching what was going on, Los Angeles area renowned MC Egbuho introduced UmuIgbo USA, uniformed and tantalizingly hot to perform for the evening.

As the second generation immigrants were ushered in to perform what has been rehearsed and choreographed for months, UmuIgbo USA arrived on stage in a standing ovation after the president's opening remarks which preceded Nigeria and America national anthem, making me ponder and questioning about Igbo "national" anthem. Perhaps that was beside the point since all that mattered was Mbieri fundraising and launching of its first almanac. The sensational group walked into the ballroom across the cobbled square, through the hallway, and onto the stage. Turning to the crowd, they bowed and sang. All eyes turned on them cheering and saying a new generation has arrived the shores of America. They were marvelous, up and adequate to the occasion.

Then followed formal opening of the floor by the high table coupled with "processional" entry of Nd'Mbieri in the kind of egwu ure, recalling my memories to the days of egwu umu ada and joyous festivities when culture was still intact. After the procession and dance, Umunna of Los Angeles performed live with breaks between songs. Every attendant shimmied to the beat of the band's original folklore, "making people happy and keeping the crowd dancing." Umunna's music gave me a feel for egwu agba ochie, the real vibe in the heydays of egwu onwa, moonlight plays, folklore and highlife music, and not the ridiculous money campaign, spraying money in your face performed by the ilk of Coque Brothers and the changed Stephen Osita Osadebe.

Then again, the president's speech and "launching, launching, launching," the time for charity and kind gestures, donations and vice versa. While donations and pledges were being made, a whole lot of shaking and hugging was going on, men and women snapped pictures while happy little children ran all over the place. It was a good feel of community. It was the feel of culture made whole and not "even the sum of parts" as Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka once put it.

I can't describe how much my spirit was lifted. It looked like my boyhood days when we played the hide and seek game during conventions like this, and our parents will be sneaking out to the porch and everywhere looking for us. I left the ballroom totally satisfied that "culture is not parts, it is a whole and an entity."

"Them changes," and as it happened, I suspended my rock classic freaky behavior listening to Peter Frampton, Boston, Rolling Stones, Uriah Heep, The Allman Brothers Band, Thin Lizzy, Eagles, Aerosmith, AC/DC, The Doors, Beatles, David Bowie, Van Halen, David Lee Roth, U2, Rick Springfield, Journey, Rare Earth, Grand Funk, Pat Benatar, Triumph, Bad Company, ZZ Top, Blue Oyster Cult, Foreigner, Rod Stewart, Genesis, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Middle of the Road, Men at Work, Bob Miga's Strangers, John Cougar Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Kim Carnes, Bob Seger and dedicated the month of April and May to the music of Paulson Kalu, Celestine Ukwu, Ali Chukwuma, Prince Nico Mbarga, Ikenga Superstars, Eddie Okonta, Ofo, Ozoemena nwa Nsugbe, Harcourt White, Peacocks, Rex Lawson, the old Osadebe, and Bright Chimezie for "culture is not parts, it is a whole."

On my way home, egwu agba ochie, old school became my new cultural order as I flipped Nkengas in London CD with the masterpiece "Asampete Special" entertaining me all the way. "Culture is not parts, not even the sum of parts, it is an entity." I remembered that!

This article was exclusively published at BNW Magazine in April 2003

The Search For Ozo & The Rest.

I had called Mike Egi, compiler of Flashback 1 & 2 a couple of days ago to see if he made it back from his trip to Naija on an expedition to dig out master tapes of 70s local ensembles that kept body and soul one. Mike had told me his journey was very "disappointing" and somehow was not worth the trip.

He trooped to Pound Road, Aba, and according to him the road was so bad it took more than two hours to drive through a couple of miles. He had gone there to look for original albums of the Wings, The Apostles, Action and many other old-school jams of the day. We talked for nearly two hours on the phone and it was quite engaging. I had written a piece in the past about these old school jams and that's how we hooked up. Mike lives in St. Paul.

For a while now, I have been searching for some of these rare LPs. I have digged every archive but could only be that lucky. Some are there, some not. Mike also noted how bad in shape these 70s musicians were when he ran into them. Drummer Ben Alaka was so bad in shape and could not remember the songs he made in his heydays playing gigs at Lido, in Warri.

I had asked Mike if he was able to find the group Ozo whose 70s "Listen to the Buddha" album was a smash hit. "No where to be found," according to him. Ozo was a group founded by Asaba born Keni Saint George who later went solo and produced Asaba. Just browsing, I stumbled into this rare track here, and in shock I clicked on the album version of the track "Anambra" which echoed taking me aback to the groovy days all compositions and arrangements were original. Not even the all-flavor vintage Paris DJs founded by Djouls and Grant Phabao has it in stock. I give it to them, though. Those kids are doing a hell of a job remixing and digitally waxing all African vintage songs they can lay their hands on.

The album "Listen to the Budhha" was produced by Keni St. George and Vernon Cummings and recorded at DJM Records in 1976. Tracklisting: 1) Listen to the Budhha, 2)You Better Run, 3) Kites, 4) Anambra, 5) Love Me Tomorrow, 6) Who Shot Him Down, 7) Times-A-Changing, 8) Love is Gone, 9) Realms.

Mike's Flashback 3 will be out soon and I hope this time around, the track "Anambra" and "Listen to the Budha" will be included. Listen to the music. There's a message in it.

Hey, Mike, don't forget the liner notes and biographical info.

Malian Guitarist Vieux Farka Toure Rocks Los Angeles

In my native Amazano, where I partly grew up, Abu Owu, folklore of a cultural festival was a unique tradition. We sang the blues of life's amazing journey and tragedies. It ended there and nothing practically came out of it for the fact no one committed to its cause, and today, abu owu has almost disappeared.

Mike Ejeagha in his hey days of story telling sang the blues when "Ome Ka Agu" violated every rule losing his moral grounds and defying the traditional norms of a people meant by culture to keep afloat and keeping intact and viable a cultural heritage prescribed from time. Ejeagha's music did not go that far in that regard. It was only local, within his enclave, and no major breakthrough for universal recognition due to lack of exposure.

On August 8, I saw for my self something extraordinary ever since I have been attending concerts since childhood. Amoeba Records, now a record label in Hollywood, California, hosted world music rising star, Niafunke, Mali-born folklorist Vieux Farka Toure. Farka Toure who was promoting his self titled debut CD hit the stage for six performances in front of packed audiences, and patrons who're regulars at Amoeba's "low-key-in-store jam" experienced the young Farka Toure's magic.

Like father, like son, and following the footsteps of dad, Vieux delivered. He did not disappoint. The folklorist had the packed audience at Amoeba dancing, clapping and reflecting his father, Ali Farka Toure's vibes.

Farka Toure rocks, rocks and rocks. Farka Toure just rocks.

In jazz, I would compare him to Wes Montgomery and George Benson whent it comes to using the thumbs to make the guitar talk. In blues, I would compare him to the legendary B.B. King and Buddy Guy combining his rhythm and the blues as in "Palata Bluesio." In heavy metal, I would compare him to Eddie van Halen and AC/DC's Angus Young, the way his guitar talked to the audience. In soundtracks, I would compare him to Prince in "Purple Rain," still the biggest-selling soundtrack in history. In pure funk and all that funktified grooves, I would compare him to Rubber Band's Bootsy Collins as the baseline and bassist echoes on stage simultaneously.

Am I really missing something? Probably! How about the likes of Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynot and Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore who says he "could wipe the floor up with most guitarists." Now, beware, Blackmore, there's a new kid in town and the audience has begun to holler, "Toure, Toure, Toure bring the vibe on." Toure has wiped the floor and he can play the guitar in any music category.

Playing for about an hour and half, nonstop, at Amoeba, and beginning with tracks featuring Ali Farka Toure and his mentor Toumani Diabate, Vieux was awesome when the track "Ai Du" exploded reminding me of Joe Satriani and Carlos Santana on how the guitar really talks. A duo with santana or Satriani would, without a doubt, melt every concert goer.

Absolutely no horns.

The wind was gone.

The guy just rocks.

Though his father wanted him to join the army, Vieux took his destiny into his own hands enrolling in Bamako's National Arts Institute and meeting with Eric Herman, Vieux and Eric got to work and began recording in what would be Vieux' debut album to which Toumani contributed his "talent on two of the tracks." The rest is now history.

Enter the Skirball Cultural Center on Sepulveda Blvd. intersecting the 405 (Sacramento) Freeway on August 9, which created a bottleneck around the neighborhood for the coming of Africa's newest sensation in world music. In blues, I meant to say.

The amazing structure, the museum and Noah's Ark.

The tourists, the Jewish community, oneness and organizational effectiveness.

The crowd and Fela Anikulapo Kuti's memorabilia, and the signs that read "Fela Lives."

The music of Vieux indicating "culture is not parts." That "culture is a whole and an entity."

Vieux performed to a point this Jewish community bowed saluting a legend in the making. Once again, "Ai Du" was played and the audience couldn't believe how this kid took over from his dad that quick with a magnificent choral application and powerful lyrics. He delivered and it was a hell of a show.

Vieux would continue his message stretching down all the way to Santa Monica, California where every pub was full to capacity. The night life of this amazing city. Third Street Promenade. The bookstores, talkshows, craziness and all that stuff. The fanfare. The tourists. The eateries--French cuisine, Italian reataurants, Spanish bar and grill; the dazzling sidewalks, Wilshire Boulevard and all the attractions. The beautiful Santa Monica Beach and Vieux' invitation to play at the Temple Bar on the corner of Wilshire and 11Th Street. It was magic.

The two previous shows (Amoeba and Skirball Cultural Center), I took my camera with me. But on August 10, I had no camera, not even my cell phone. I was ready to party, and I knew it would be going down.

I arrived Temple Bar at about 10:15 pm and the night's opening act was an all drum session led by Leon Mobley and his Da Lion drums-percussion group who classified his band as the "original African-American" ensemble. Mobley performed well and the show was great.

During the intermission before Vieux would be introduced to stage, Chief Priest's masterpiece, "Alu Jon Jonki Jon" began to blast all over and just like that, the mood changed. Many other notable African recordings played before Vieux and his gang stormed the stage. At approximately 11:20 pm, Vieux stormed the stage and hell broke loose. The audience chanted aloud "Toure, Toure" as he spoke in French and then Okay, going back and forth to his French and okay. He played many tunes late into the night including getting the audience recite "Palato bluesio" while waving and connecting to his bassist. The track "Ana" came with some reggae vibrations. It was incredible and one of great performances I've seen in a long time by an African.

Vieux Farka Toure, you are now a superstar. Enjoy it!