Paddling my Canoe
First, a caveat. This blog post is out of a need to have a post this week. I grappled with several concerns that shape my thoughts and design for this blog, chief of which, is a consistent desire to interrogate contemporary African tunes and, sort of, unearth their lineage with older and perhaps extinct musical forms, if there is any such thing, as they say art is incestuous.- I wanted to address contemporary Nigerian tunes and Dance, if there is any such thing. And I started out by picking a title called Dance in Nigeria, halfheartedly modeled after a Lorrie Moore story called Dance in America. This is how my brain works. In very baffling and discordant ways.
- I am listening to my personal compilation of Rex Lawson’s songs which I intend to pack into a personal CD souvenir the moment I clear out copyright issues. I am a lover of Highlife even though I am on the wrong side of my twenties. I have been accused of using my writing as a propaganda to legislate nostalgia for Rex Lawson’s sake. I think there might be some truth therein. See here. Another explanation is that I may have re-incarnated but facts from the family tree negates this as well. So let’s just say I love good times and Highlife music portends an exemplary mood of good times.
- I should add that listening to Highlife acutely distracts my thoughts on contemporary dance. See I wrote a story called Situation Highlife which almost became but for my laziness. It was an attempt at making life imitate Art. The opposite of mimesis, if you like. Trust that Highlife was part of the scenario. A painter caught a woman dancing to Highlife to catch a man’s attention in one of his works. The work is shortlisted in a painting prize. A journalist who was to write about the painting experience the painting at the banquet organised for the painting prize.
- So instead of writing about Etighi, Yahooze and Galala, I have written about something else, in fact, nothing, perhaps I might have succeeded in projecting a state of my mind, but I really wanted to write about songs that were self-help dance manuals. Think Artquake’s Alanta. Then recently, Davido’s Skelewu, Olamide’s Position Yourself, etc. But I guess I will write that later
- In Rex Lawson’s words, I dey go paddle my canoe.
