Etcetera says “Yes I Am”

Yes I Am is Etcetera’s sophomore studio album. In this effort, Etcetera unites with one of Nigeria’s finest music producers and long-time collaborator Wole Oni. The album is recorded live in the studio with an A-list ensemble of musicians including legendary Pa Oscar Illimbi. 

In a music clime dominated by digitally generated and enhanced music, it is refreshing to hear an entire album made of live music, carefully crafted with music which mixes modern world beats with retro-Nigerian styles. Yes I Am is best enjoyed with a tempered volume, a leveled mind, and in its incorrigible intensity it lifts the spirit and stirs the soul, speaking directly to the conscience.

With earnest emotions, Etcetera displays his creative genius as a song writer. He sings of a pleading love, an unyielding love, and a love fulfilled. In Third Eye Blind, the first single off the album, Etcetera proves that love doesn’t always have strong reasons and to those who would wish to intrude in his choice, he boldly asks, “What’s your business?” In 500 Letters, he sings of infidelity and a worst version of a woman’s scorn. “Love me, love me, make me feel like a tourist in heaven; Kiss me right here, make me feel like a tourist in heaven,” he pleads in Tourist in Heaven. Alibi is a delicate pop piece produced by Etcetera and Kraft; featuring fellow X3M (Extreme) Music artiste, OD.

Highly opinionated and unapologetically deep, Etcetera, in Ring the Alarm, cries, “… there’s a thief in the government house. Ring the alarm, before they blame it on Mickey Mouse. … Portfolio filled with bills for thugs to kill, in the name of politics.” He holds a mirror up for the society in Ghost Workers, “Benin City is now in Italy. Government is singing, people are dancing. Pick pocket and bankers scrambling for my money. Touts and police officers, we just have to pray. Mr. Megacity, Mrs. Rebranding, what’s the essence of beauty to the man who is dying? Turn off the TV, turn on reality. The good thing about this government, they make us laugh.” Relentless, in Fungus Among Us, in poetry and in prayer for Nigeria, “Citizen of heaven lives in hell. Who killed Abiola? Who killed Saro-wiwa? Who killed Dele Giwa? Fungus among us. O Lord, release the fungicide on fungus among us. Let it rain, let it rain.”

In an era where the standard contribution consists of ill-considered compromises and most seem to have run out of ideas, Etcetera (with Yes I Am) stands out as one who with his craft and authentic social commentary would help shape the collective values of our nation. Etcetera has enormous talent, a genuine vision, an irrepressible message, a fierce ambition, and an unbending toughness. That’s unarguably the cocktail of a true artiste.

Yes I Am joins the rare league of class acts - its entire 63 minutes has no pointless moment, its melody haunting, and its message urgent and poignant. Etcetera succeeds in infusing soft rock into native Nigerian rhythms and creating thereof a sophisticated and respectable art form. Yes I Am helps usher back the golden age of Nigerian music. With Yes I Am, Etcetera has given us what he is – an absolute treasure.

What Happened to Love?

Whatever happened to a love song that inspires and doesn’t threaten?
What happened to a love song that’s soft and smooth and simple?
What happened to a love song about the sweet and little things about us?
Why all the mugufied desperate deadly love that scares me away?
Why the predatory love on the brink of suicide?
What’s with the thunder and the firestorms at the thought of me?
That’s not love, it’s lunacy!

What happened to a love that makes my heart beat for you even though you’re 2,000 miles away, and just as fast – but softly - when you’re around.
A love that we need not say a word, because in our being together, we’ve said all there is.
What about a love that keeps you awake, watching me sleep.
A love that’s kind, trusting, a love that gives and keeps on giving ‘cause giving myself to you is all I wanna do?

What about the love that swells like a spring without shooting you like a rocket?
A love that tells me that I would rather not imagine my life without you.

A love that’s about the little things –
The way you close your eyes before you exhale
The dimple on your cheeks just before you laugh
The gleam in your eye, the scent of you
The way you throw back your head when you’re happy; the way you comb your hair and tie your shoe lace
The way you spread your butter on your bread, left to centre and right to centre till it’s all covered.

The note you left on our bed
The wipe of sweat from your face
The straightening of my tie
The frame of our pix.
After all, it’s the little things that make up the big picture of a love that lasts a lifetime.

What Inspires Me to Brilliance?

What inspires me to brilliance? The answer is pretty simple: Beauty. A thing of eternal beauty. I am talking about excellence, elegance, and simplicity.

January this year, Toni Kan, introduced me to Vanity Fair. I had always known about this US monthly, my parents subscribed to it back in the early 80s. I always thought it was a photo album kind of magazine, like Hello and Ovation. So, I never gave it a chance to make it to my library. Toni recommended Vanity Fair as the best magazine in the world today. My interest was spiked, if anyone should know, this imposing international award winning poet and author should. When I picked up my first copy of Vanity Fair, I was completely taken. In every way possible, Vanity Fair, is simply the best. Its artistry is bold and vivid. Its writers are courageous and fearless. Its journalists drive their readers to the brink of an intellectual abyss, where I imagine they live. They do this with their sharp-shooting, straight-to-the-point style of writing. For four years, its editor-in-chief, Graydon Carter has been villain struck on George W. Bush, and he won’t let go any time soon. Mr. Carter is a classic; a man on a mission.

Vanity Fair is a total package, in no other magazine do you see beautiful (and almost nude) men and woman, a rock star pouring out his heart about poverty, disease, and despair in Africa, a world renowned Bishop, America’s most powerful woman, the world’s most beautiful queen, one of the world’s funniest, and the world’s most respected, the world’s most hated, the world’s greatest, and the world's most inspiring in one issue (Models, Bono, Desmond Tutu, Oprah, Queen Rania, Chris Rock, Nelson Mandela, George Bush, Muhammad Ali, and Barack Obama). All these, weft together in a masterful work of artistry and journalistic caviar. Vanity Fair: A thing of beauty!

Music. The universal language. Good music. Melody. Symphony. Harmony of sound. I love music. Music is my first love. My second is the written word. A masterful compilation of lyrics and sound, a thing of beauty. Music sooths, it inspires, it brings alive. Music is therapeutic. Music gives life. Music is life. In the movie, Equilibrium starring Christian Bale, a science fiction movie set in the future, the government of the day has eliminated all art from human community. For me, the movie is the most horrific I have watched. Just the thought of life without music sends chills through my body, soul, and spirit. I cannot imagine how life would be without music. Something like hades, just worse, hotter and darker than hell.

Without Wilson Pickett, Joe Cocker, Otis Redding, Eric Clapton, Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green. Without Marvin Gaye, without Luther Vandross, Barry White, without Maxwell, Cool and the Gang, Gladys Knight and the Pips, George Benson, Phil Collins, The Temptations, Bruce Springston, Rod Stewart, Eddie Grant, Marvin Gaye, Lucky Dube, Sade, Shirley Bassey, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Tina Turner, Garou, Eros Ramazotti, without Lionel Ritchie, what a drab my childhood and adolescent years would have been.

I cannot imagine my salad days with the companionship of Lauren Hill, Wyclef, 2Pac (of blessed memory), Mary J Blije, Sisco, KC and Jojo, Whitney Houston, Seal, Anita Baker, Toni Braxton, Marc Anthony, Celine Dion. In them, I found voices that spoke to my soul, encouraging me to search the deepest part of me and bring out my best. They made me believe that there is genius in me and in every one of God’s creation.

The music of Huge Masekela, Kenny G, Gerald Albright, Bob James, Miles Davis, Enya, Yanni, Andrew Lloyd Webber; a thing of eternal beauty. I thank God for the people in music who followed their gut and their talent. I thank God for Berry Gordy, Jr. of Motown, for Little Richard for breaking the colour barrier in music and opening the way for every black artiste after him. For following their dreams and allowing their dreams to lead them and not the other way, for remaining true to their art and their hearts, I have nothing but a pure respect for these legends of music.

I am inspired to brilliance by the young people in music today who are taking their craft seriously; Lemar, Eryka Badu, Michael Buble, India.Arie, Fadabasi, Alica Keys, John Legend, Djinee, Maroon 5, Green Day, Elliot Yamin, Clay Aiken. The greatest of these, is a young man from the creeks of the Niger Delta, Timi Dakolo. Timi is a perfect blend of the wickedness of the old generation and what makes the young generation so cool and hip. With the meekness of a lamb, a strength of vocals that moves mountains, crystal clear musical purity, Timi personifies what is best in music and what inspires me to brilliance day after day. Music; a thing of beauty!

Trial Speech of Ken Saro-Wiwa

I start my blog by posting the last speech of my hero, Ken Saro-Wiwa who was murdered in 1995 by the military regime of Late Sani Abacha. I still remember where I was when the news of his murder got to me. It was late in the morning when a family friend showed up with a copy of The Guardian, which did not have the news in it. He heard the news on the BBC radio station. I got an instant fever. I left the living room and went to my room and laid my 19 year old body on my bed and cried till I fell asleep. I recall waking up and going back to sleep. At a point, my mother asked me to wake up and eat and take some paracetamol for the fever. In my hopelessness, I fell asleep. In my sleep, my power had no limits. My spirit woman was angry, powerful, vengeful. In my dream, I assasinated Gen Sani Abachi. I burnt his house with his family inside. It was not until 4:30 pm that I woke up, back to my helplessness, back to the reality of oppression.

The murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa was evil. Pure evil. His passing still hurts. The mention of his name still tears me apart. He inspired me. It was reported that he did not die at the first attempt, alas the shield of his innocence proving too strong for the hangman's noose. Twelve years after his unjust and brutal murder, Ken Saro-Wiwa still speaks. The plight of his people in Ogoni and the Niger Delta still rages on.

Ken Sawo-Wiwa, I love you. You are my hero. I will never forget you.

The Speech

My lord,

We all stand before history. I am a man of peace, of ideas. Appalled by the denigrating poverty of my people who live on a richly endowed land, distressed by their political marginalization and economic strangulation, angered by the devastation of their land, their ultimate heritage, anxious to preserve their right to life and to a decent living, and determined to usher to this country as a whole a fair and just democratic system which protects everyone and every ethnic group and gives us all a valid claim to human civilization, I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated.I have no doubt at all about the ultimate success of my cause, no matter the trials and tribulations which I and those who believe with me may encounter on our journey. Nor imprisonment nor death can stop our ultimate victory.

I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The Company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learnt here may prove useful to it for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the Company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the Company’s dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished. On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected in a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of urine. As we subscribe to the sub-normal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, denigrate our hospitals, fill our stomachs with hunger and elect to make ourselves the slaves of those who ascribe to higher standards, pursue the truth, and honor justice, freedom, and hard work.

I predict that the scene here will be played and replayed by generations yet unborn. Some have already cast themselves in the role of villains, some are tragic victims, some still have a chance to redeem themselves. The choice is for each individual.

I predict that the denouement of the riddle of the Niger delta will soon come. The agenda is being set at this trial. Whether the peaceful ways I have favored will prevail depends on what the oppressor decides, what signals it sends out to the waiting public.

In my innocence of the false charges I face here, in my utter conviction, I call upon the Ogoni people, the peoples of the Niger delta, and the oppressed ethnic minorities of Nigeria to stand up now and fight fearlessly and peacefully for their rights. History is on their side. God is on their side. For the Holy Quran says in Sura 42, verse 41: “All those that fight when oppressed incur no guilt, but Allah shall punish the oppressor.” Come the day.

A speech made by Ken Saro-Wiwa, Nigerian political activist, about the struggle for a homeland in the Niger Delta for the Ogoni people. Given before but around the time of 10 November 1995, during the author's trial for incitement to murder. The text of the speech appears under the title "Ken Saro-Wiwa's final address to the military-appointed tribunal" in Earth Island Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 1, page 25 (Winter 1995)