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In this creative project, I was inspired a lot by Ken Saro-Wiwa, whose 1985 novel Sozaboy we read for class. While using Saro-Wiwa and the radical work he dedicated his life towards as a starting point, I wanted to attempt to portray a broader picture of his native Nigeria through the art, literature, and music that the country was so rich with during the late 20th century, a period of upheaval. The earliest works here precede the civil war breaking out 1967, and they will go until the end of the 1980s. There are several clips, musical accompaniments, and readings attached throughout this Padlet, and all are recommended.

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'Things Fall Apart' (1958) by Chinua Achebe

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'Things Fall Apart' (1958) by Chinua Achebe

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The earliest work here, but it's hard to talk about Nigerian literature without talking about Chinua Achebe and perhaps the most famous African novel ever written. It is an incisive study of masculinity, a novel that reckons with colonialism and shifting cultural implications, a biting satire that saves its cruelest turn for the final chapter. A jarring, poetically somber book, it is perhaps the best way to begin this Padlet.

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Widely regarded as one of Nigeria's most celebrated contemporary artists, Yusuf Grillo has led a prolific career that has shaped the discourse of modern art in the country. As a member of the Zaria Arts Society, popularly known as the Zaria Rebels, Grillo combined training in the Western-representational style with a focus on Nigeria's cultural history. He is particularly known for the specific use of the color blue in his paintings, a reference to adire and resist-dye textiles used in Nigeria.

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'Design for Iron Work I' (1959)/'Okpaladike and his Obu' (1961)

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'Design for Iron Work I' (1959)/'Okpaladike and his Obu' (1961)

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Uche Okeke’s art emerged at a critical juncture in Nigeria’s history: the twilight of British colonialism and the arrival of political independence, which came in 1960. Okeke was part of an important cadre of artists who recognized the moment and sought to devise a new modality for modernist art, introducing the beginnings of Africa’s postcolonial landscape and jettisoning the colonial orthodoxy that had dictated Okeke’s training at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University), an important center of the emerging art.
- Darby English and Charlotte Barat

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Okeke invented a modernist vocabulary that drew from the indigenous aesthetic traditions and worldview of the Igbo, his ethnic group, combining them with his formal exposure to artistic sensibilities from elsewhere in what he termed “natural synthesis.” He was guided by the renascent African spirit that at that time found an anchor in Pan-Africanism ideologies of reinventing the body politic, reclaiming agency, and, ultimately, restoring the dignity of the African person after decades of colonial subjugation. Okeke’s philosophy of natural synthesis called for creating art that was locally relevant and at the same time could serve the larger goal of advancing Black and African perspectives of modernity in a global context."
- Darby English and Charlotte Barat

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Dominican Chapel in Ibadan, Nigeria by Demas Nwoko

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Dominican Chapel in Ibadan, Nigeria by Demas Nwoko

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Demas Nwoko is a celebrated Nigerian designer and architect. His most notable work is the Dominican Chapel, which he was commissioned to build in 1970 just 10 years after Nigeria gained independence from the British. "Nwoko laments Nigeria’s reliance on the West for imported materials and goods, and is committed to sourcing local materials and resources. Drawing on vernacular architecture across Africa, he applies ancient practices to solve contemporary problems. He says, ‘If we had kept faith with how our own ancestors did it, we would have reached a certain level with sensible management of natural resources for even the Western world to learn from. They’re using far too much energy for whatever they’re achieving.’"

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'Okerevbu Mould' (1967), Bruce Onobrakpeya

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'Okerevbu Mould' (1967), Bruce Onobrakpeya

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Bruce Onobrakpeya is a Nigerian printmaker, painter and sculptor, a member of the Zaria Arts Society. "The society gave him the confidence to seek a personal expressive idiom. He elongated his figures, ignored perspective and evoked the supernatural through ambiguous decorations."

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'Oroki Social Club' (1971), Haruna Ishola

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'Oroki Social Club' (1971), Haruna Ishola

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For many, Haruna Ishola is the best performer of apala, someone who was known for performing extremely lengthy shows that ranged from four to ten hours long, singing praises and sold out concerts to large audiences in Osogbo. He was said to have a voice so powerful that it could kill its recipients if not used with restraint, which is pretty amusing, but speaks to his popularity and talent.

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Haruna Ishola (M.O.N. Baba Ngani Agba) - Topic

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'Why Black Man Dey Suffer' (1971), Fela Kuti

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'Why Black Man Dey Suffer' (1971), Fela Kuti

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We'll see a lot of Fela Kuti's music here. This is one of his earlier works, recorded with Ginger Baker (of Cream fame) and the Africa '70 band, but you can hear the inspiration that Fela gathered from the Black Panthers when he visited Los Angeles for 10 months. It's a funky, fiery spell, a tight and soulful groove.

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Fela Kuti - Why Black Man Dey Suffer (LP)

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'Soul Jazz Records presents APALA: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70'

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'Soul Jazz Records presents APALA: Apala Groups in Nigeria 1967-70'

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This is the first of many compilations I'll be including here from the reissue label Soul Jazz records, and it's one of my favorites.

Developed by the Yoruba people during the late 1930s, apala used traditional instruments (shakers, bells, talking drums) and tended to stick to Koranic themes—a conservative approach that doubled as cultural pushback against British colonial rule... Of these modern forms Apala remains perhaps the most ‘roots’ style (sometimes described as ‘neo-traditional’) due to the authenticity of its sound. It has similar Islamic roots to other neo-traditional styles of Nigeria – including Waka and Sakara – examples of which are also included on this collection contextualising the music of Apala.

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'The Bride Price' (1974) by Buchi Emecheta

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'The Bride Price' (1974) by Buchi Emecheta

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"The clash of Christian and African cultures, of generations, of ancient and modern pieties, and of group custom and the individual will are all vividly portrayed in this pure, fluid novel.... The author has a plain, engaging style and manages to convey all the lushness, poverty, superstition, and casual cruelty of a still exotic (to Western readers) culture while keeping her tale as sharp as a folk ballad." - The New Yorker

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'Countdown at Kusini' (1976), dir. Ossie Davis

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'Countdown at Kusini' (1976), dir. Ossie Davis

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Another film from Ossie Davis, this is a political thriller about an American jazz musician who falls in love with a rebel fighter for a fictional African nation — a call for African revolution against European imperialism.

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Personally, it's my favorite of his. The title track is quite literal; when Nigerian soldiers raided his compound, they planted a joint on Fela so they could arrest him for possession. Fela, ever the quick thinker, ate the joint before they got to him, so the military decided to jail and drug-test his excrement. Unfortunately for them — according to legend — Fela bought the feces of another inmate, and was eventually released. The second song, "Water Get No Enemy," is another beautiful, horn-laden tune that draws from a Yoruba proverb.

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Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit (1975) FULL ALBUM

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For Nigerian artist Obiora Udechukwu (b. 1943), the war was not only a foundational period in his own life, but also a negative turning point in Nigeria’s history. He lived through the violence and became a displaced person within Biafra as the Nigerian army gained territory. Artistically, he worked as a Biafran propagandist, and his work responded to his wartime experience.

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'Kongi's Harvest' (1970), dir. Ossie Davis

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'Kongi's Harvest' (1970), dir. Ossie Davis

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A film of the 1965 satirical play by Wole Soyinka, about a dictator who has deposed a king, and the populist politician attempting to take over him. American rapper billy woods  sampled dialogue from this film in his 2022 album Aethiopes.

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Perhaps his most resounding work, it's a tremendous LP of fiery, furious afrobeat. Fela's 1976 gem Zombie is a powerful work of protest against the Nigerian military. Over racing guitars and blaring horns, Fela uses pidgin English to excoriate the blind following of the military (another song on the record is titled "Mr. Follow Follow"), comparing them to zombies who march blindly to orders.

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A Nigerian satirical sitcom written by James Iroha, one of the most popular in the country. It ran from the 1980's to the mid-1990's, and was created after the civil war as a means to bring laughter to the homes of citizens after the devastation caused by the Nigerian Civil War.

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Written by activist and author Ken Saro-Wiwa, this TV show was based on his play Transistor Radio, and derived inspiration from African folklore while lampooning widespread corruption in oil-rich Nigeria.  The main character Basi dreams of acquiring wealth through his hare-brained schemes, and his motto is "To be a millionaire, think like a millionaire!".

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Basi and Company - The Transistor Radio (1/4)

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'Coffin For The Head of State/Unknown Soldier' (1980)

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'Coffin For The Head of State/Unknown Soldier' (1980)

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Perhaps his most strikingly dangerous series of songs, Fela recorded these songs in the wake of the raid against Fela's compound, the Kalakuta Republic, with 1,000 soldiers. During the raid, Kuti was severely beaten within an inch of his life, and his elderly mother (the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria) was fatally injured after being thrown from a window. In response, Fela wrote the first song after sending his mother's coffin to the barracks where General Olusegun Obasanjo lived, and the second in response to the government's reports that an "unknown soldier" raided the compound.

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A satirical novel about a Mene, a boy from the poor village of Dukana who naively joins the Nigerian-Biafran war, and is forced to reckon with the horrors of all that he's subjected to as a soldier. Saro-Wiwa wrote the novel in pidgin English to amplify the satire; the war the book is about was being supported by the British so they could secure cheap oil amidst the conflict. Saro-Wiwa was a prominent activist against the oil exploitation of the Ogoni people's lands; he was imprisoned for several months, without trial, by the Nigerian military government for activism related to MOSOP (Movement Of Survival of the Ogoni Peoples), and would later be executed in 1995 on ramped-up false charges. His last words: "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues."

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Perhaps not explicitly political, but very important listen. On the broader societal scale, this was perhaps the first true "World Music" album, and it's still brilliant to this day. The album opener, "Ja Funmi," is my favorite here.

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King Sunny Adé & His African Beats - Juju Music (Juju/Nigeria/1982) [Full Album]

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'Living in Bondage' (1992), dir. Chris Obi Rapu

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'Living in Bondage' (1992), dir. Chris Obi Rapu

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Foundational Nollywood cinema, Living in Bondage opened the market for Nigerian video films. It expands on the “get rich quick” theme and the money ritual genre (which remain hallmarks of Nollywood), grafting stories of predatory occult practices onto the idiom of domestic melodrama and the theme of ideal marriage. Its sturdy popular moral discourse blends Igbo social values and Pentecostalism.

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Kuti began thinking about the album while in jail for two years due to infractions related to foreign currency and wrote the songs after being released. The title track accuses the Nigerian government and military of transgressions against the Nigerian populace; among other grievances, the album also condemns apartheid. Kuti's use of the phrase basket mouth acknowledges his music's responsibility to protest.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoNbn09ModM

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'Prisoner of Conscience' (1989), Majek Fashek

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'Prisoner of Conscience' (1989), Majek Fashek

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Majek Fashek's music was very much inspired by the Carribean sounds of reggae; on his most enduring record, he makes resounding music about protecting African culture and resisting police brutality. Later, Fashek would collaborate with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Beyonce

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Majek Fashek - Prisoner Of Conscience (Full Album) Vinyl, LP (1989)