2019 Lagos Book And Art Festival

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To Our Own Very Baba ADELUGBA... at 70

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Today, i am swimming in emotion. I have been like this in the past two weeks since the arrival of the 70th birthday anniversary of 'my own very father' in many respects, Dapo Adelugba, dawned on me. But today my cup of deep emotional introspection runneth over.... i am lost at words on how to pay the most deserving tributes to my Mentor, My Teacher, My Guardian, My Guider, My Uncle, My Father... a man, whom, of all the men i have met in my short 40something sojourn here, has meant more than a god to me... My father is 70 today, and i am in the deep trying to dig out those words... oh, were my grandmother -- Iya Ilaro-- to be alive today... she would have blessed me with those timeless Yoruba wise sayings with which to pay homage to one who is very much responsible for my person today... While at this deep search, here is what i sent as sms to Uncle Dapo Adelugba, my own very Baba: OUR DEAREST BABA ON THIS DAY I PRAY THAT OLODUMARE'S GLORY GRACE HONOUR MERCY and BLESSINGS W...
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AFRIKA PROJEKT: A German-Nigeria Cultural Intercourse (1)

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Scene from the shows at Hebbel. 1. Giving Okonedo Omokaro a wack on te head for joking in the deep of cold, work-filled theatre rehearsal session 2. The cast of Oedipus and Amona.. during a media foto shoot at the Hebbel Theatre, Berlin. The tall singular black guy in the team is, of course, Matthias Gehrt who else do you think is pointing in the foto? INTRODUCTION AFRIKA PROJEKT was one of a series of proposals that the new Director of the Goethe Institut, Mr. Richard Lang, had to attend to in the last quarter of 1995. Certainly, before his assumption of office in Nigeria, the institute had made an indelible impact on the Nigerian cultural scene. Easily, it was a leader in the promotion of cultural internationalism in Nigeria using the arts, apart from other highly acclaimed programmes in the areas of science and technology. One thing Mr. Lang could ill-afford was to simply maintain a status. He seemed to be challenged by the records of the institute’s past and must be particu...
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Ogunde… This month I am feeling the doyen

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Perhaps, it was that short conversation last week between Biyi Bandele and myself in the thick of the First Lagos International Jazz Festival that has brought me to this conundrum. Otherwise, why would I all of a sudden be filled with the thought of the late Hubert Adedeji Ogunde, 18 years after his passage to higher service on April 4, 1990. Last Sunday after a soak in the classic jazz menu flowing from the guitar-riddled jazz ensemble led by Bright Gain, I had strolled over to the corner where Makin Soyinka, Lemmy ‘Radio’, Jide Bello and Biyi Bandele were reveling. I hadn’t noticed Biyi minutes earlier when I saw the group trooped to the venue of the Inspiro-organised jazz fiesta at Studio 868 on Aboyade Cole Street, VI, Lagos. It must have been the missing dreadlocks, of course. Okay, I had been hinted earlier on Mama Pako’s blogsite that Biyi had indeed jettisoned the locks for a skin-scraped look – in protestation against certain iniquities in world affairs… it must be the tibeti...
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