Nigerian Afrobeats star Seun Kuti was arrested Monday (May 15) after being accused of assaulting a police officer in the commercial hub of Lagos.
Kuti was detained at the Lagos State police headquarters after turning himself in, according to police spokesperson Benjamin Hundeyin, who tweeted photos of the celebrity in handcuffs.
The son of Nigerian musical icon and political agitator Fela Kuti, who himself was serially detained by Nigerian military regimes, Seun Kuti was “captured on video assaulting a police officer in uniform,” the police said.
Videos posted online appeared to show an agitated Kuti pushing a police officer as the officer stood beside a police vehicle along a major road in Lagos on Saturday.
It was unclear what led to the confrontation, though Kuti tweeted that the officer in question “tried to kill me and my family.” He suggested the officer tried to ram their car.
Inspector General of Police Usman Alkali Baba ordered an investigation into the incident. The inspector general “assures Nigerians that acts of contempt/disdain for symbols of authority will not be tolerated while offenders of such hideous crimes will be surely brought to book,” the police said.
“I welcome the investigation and will give my full cooperation!” Kuti responded on Twitter.
Nigerian music has gained wide acceptance both across the continent and around the world. Genres like afrobeat and highlife have remained popular. However, African classical music isn't as well-known. But one Nigerian musician is looking to change that. Struggling Kenya 7s in desperate battle to avoid relegation.
Nigeria soccer legend Augustine ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha is getting animated.
A reimagining of Okocha’s childhood in Nigeria will be the basis of African streamer Showmax’s first animated series, Jay Jay: The Chosen One.
The virtuoso midfielder Okocha played for the Nigerian national team between 1993 and 2006 and let the country to Olympics soccer glory at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
His show will run to 13 episodes and follow an 11-year-old Augustine who dreams of representing his school at a prestigious football tournament with a team made up of his rag-tag group of friends. Along with his passion for soccer, he loves the animal kingdom, which bestows superpowers on him in return for his fight against illegal poaching.
The series is voiced by a Nigerian cast, led by Prince Unigwe (Glamour Girls, Samson in 2nd February) playing Jay Jay. Also cast are veteran actor Chinedu Ikedieze (Aki and PawPaw, The Johnsons), Samuel Ajibola (The Johnsons); pro-footballer turned actor Eric Obinna, Tinsel actress Mena Sodje, Lexan Peters and Pamilerin Ayodeji (The Father).
It’s already been quite the week for animated soccer series, with Deadline revealing yesterday Argentinian legend and 2022 World Cup winner Lionel Messi is getting the toon treatment at Sony Music Entertainment.
Besides Okocha’s exploits for Nigeria, playing in three World Cups and gaining 73 caps, he had successful spells for Fenerbahce in Turkey, PSG in France and Bolton Wanderers in the English Premier League. He also played in Germany and Qatar and retired back in the UK in 2008 after playing for Hull City. He is considered one of the most skilful attacking midfielders of all-time and is considered by many as Nigeria’s greatest ever player.
“I’m honoured to have an animated series that reimagines my childhood,” he said. “Jay Jay: The Chosen One is going to bring back good childhood memories as well as inspire young children who have dreams to be football players. I’m excited about the show and grateful to Showmax and the production team who worked hard to bring it to life.”
Nihilent Limited is producing Jay Jay The Chosen One in partnership with the production studio 5th Dimension as well as animation studio I-Realities.
For Showmax, the series is a first animated effort. The streamer said the show would “give Nigerian children of all ages the opportunity to see themselves represented in animated form which is positive, humorous and educational” and “enchant and motivate kids across our continent through fantasy adventures as well as the power of sport.”
“Not only is Jay Jay: The Chosen One another locally inspired Showmax Original, it marks the beginning of our adventures in animation,” said Yolisa Phahle, CEO of Showmax and Connected Video at MultiChoice. “This is a show we believe will find audiences globally and shines the spotlight on yet another world-class African achiever that we hope will be enjoyed by kids and the entire family.”
LC Singh, Nihilent Limited’s director and Executive Vice Chairman, said, “I always knew that creating a sports-based animation series for kids would be challenging and rewarding at the same time. The amount of work that goes into every single frame is immense, but seeing the final product come to life makes it all worth it.”
The news comes a week after Showmax owns MultiChoice teamed with Sky and NBCUniversal to launch a new Showmax-branded group. The service will be relaunched at a later date, powered by NBCU’s Peacock streaming technology and combining MultiChoice’s investment in local productions with international content licensed from NBCU and Sky, as well as third party content from HBO, Warner Bros International, Sony and others, and include live English Premier League football.
Many fans have also taken to Twitter to congratulate her.
The 27-year-old has been praised by fellow artists for her vocal talent.
She reportedly has collaborations lined up with several mega starts including Beyoncé and Rihanna.
Meanwhile, South Africans Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini and Nomcebo Zikode also won a Grammy Award - for Best Global Music Performance for their collaboration Bayethe.
Almost 1,000 fans of anime converged to Lagos, Nigeria for the second edition of the Eko Anime Festival.
Some anime fans performed on stage, and many were cosplaying their favourite characters.
Anime is animation originating from Japan. Its films and characters are part of a culture present in many more mediums like video games.
"We realised that there really wasn't any convention or festival like an anime fest in the whole of Nigeria," says Laura Ajayi, co-organiser of the second edition of the Eko anime festival.
"So, we thought why don't we start this because we have a whole community of otakus, weebs, even people that just want to dip their feet into the anime pool and so we thought why don't we just do this, everybody comes together and you know have fun and it works."
Anime has a big following in Nigeria, where most grew up with Voltron, Naruto, and Samurai X in the 1980s all the way to the early 2000s.
"I think Nigerians are interested in the anime culture because Nigerians generally love to try new things so the anime, which is an entirely different culture on its own is a new and unique thing to Nigeria so they will keep loving it because they keep bringing out different things each year which continue to hold our attention, which is very good for us," adds Ajayi.
Nigerian anime lovers say their aim is to socialise and promote the culture.
The popularity of anime culture is said to have grown online in Nigeria, with many Japanese comics (manga) available on websites and apps, and fans talking about them through social media.
Antonio, who is attending the festival, likes anime because of its inclusivity.
"Anime imitates life, there's an anime for everybody and everything. If you like sport, there's an anime for sports, if you like horror movies, action movies, romance, fairy tales, there's an anime for you and you just have to look at it. Anime is huge and it's for everybody."
Anime lovers are optimistic that more Nigerians will come to love and embrace the culture, and also hope to organise bigger subsequent festivals.
With an early new year gift unveiling, the African streaming platform Showmax, which has given a lot of originals since the beginning of 2022, announced that Nigerians are in for a new ride in 2023.
The streaming platform is set to launch a new original telenovela titled ‘Wura’ in January 2023.
According to them, the new series is a Nigerian adaptation of the hit South African 1Magic telenovela, ‘The River’.
With over 200 episodes, Wura is billed to be the platform’s first and longest-running Nigerian telenovela.
The series will debut on Showmax on the 26th of January, with four episodes, weekly adding to Showmax’s library of local content and investment in Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood.
In a constructed spotlight, the story, which is set against the backdrop of the gold mining industry in the Iperindo community of Osun state, tells the story of Wura-Amoo Adeleke, a perfect wife, a loving mother of two and, in a twist, the ruthless Chief Executive Officer of the fictional Frontline Gold Mine.
In the eyes of her family, Wura is faultless and a saint, but when it comes to running her business empire, she is the ultimate iron lady who doesn’t care whose ox is gored in her path to get what she wants.
This series stars Nollywood veterans and fast-rising new stars, including Scarlett Gomez, who is cast as the lead Wura Amoo-Adeleke.
Famous Nollywood Yoruba actor Yomi Fash-Lanso plays Anthony Amoo-Adeleke, and Nollywood veteran Carol King stars as Grace Adeleke in the series.
Other cast members are Ray Adeka as Jejeloye “Jeje” Amoo, Iremide Adeoye as Lolu Adeleke, Ego Iheanacho as Iyabo Kuti, Martha Ehinome as Tumininu “Tumi” Kuti, and Lanre Adediwura as Olumide Kuti.
Storyline
In Iperindo, where the show is set, although the story is fictional, the place is a natural, small community in Osun state in the South-Western part of Nigeria. It is one of the clusters of seven gold deposits around Ilesha town.
But, despite the promise that the presence of the precious metal holds for Iperindo and surrounding communities, residents are still plagued by poverty and exposed to environmental disasters due to mining activities. Wura, though fictional, will throw some light on this.
Speaking ahead of the show’s launch, Executive Head: content and West Africa Channels, MultiChoice Nigeria, Busola Tejumola, said: ‘Wura: explores the untold story of gold mining in Nigeria. Each scene is carefully crafted thoroughly,
Also, multiple award-winning makers of Wura, Rogers Ofime, said, “Wura gives all the emotions that a well-rounded series should; it will pull you into its world of intricacies, whodunit, deceit, triumph, and suspense from the very first frame to the last”.
In a history-making event, Nigerian superstar Davido joined the duo of Aisha and Trinidad Cardona to perform ‘Hayya Hayya’ (Better Together) at the finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup 2022 Official on Sunday.
It is Davido’s first public performance since his son, Ifeanyi, died in an unfortunate drowning incident in September.
The trio performed the FIFA theme song before the estimated 88,000 fans in attendance at Lusail Iconic Stadium, Qatar.
The tournament’s closing ceremony, which FIFA dubbed ‘A Night to Remember’, also featured a performance by Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Ozuna and French rapper Gims’ collaboration Arhbo’.
Moroccan-Canadian singer Nora Fatehi, Emirati pop star Balqees, Iraqi musician Rahma Riad and Moroccan vocalist Manal concluded performances with ‘Light the Sky’.
The trio emerged from underneath the stage, simulating a blossoming flower. History made
Davido made history as the first Nigerian artiste to perform on a FIFA World Cup stage.
It is the first time that the tournament’s soundtrack will feature a multi-song collection, with international singers showcasing diverse musical genres that span the world setting.
During the tournament, other Nigerian singers, Kizz Daniel and Patoranking performed before football lovers at the FIFA fan arena in a series of concerts by the football governing body.
Amid speculations, Davido, who arrived in Qatar before his appearance at the FIFA 2022 World Cup’s closing ceremony, was supposed to perform at the beginning of the football tournament but couldn’t.
The ‘Stand Strong’ singer’s appearance at the World Cup was first announced on Thursday by Chinese businessman Stephen Hung on Instagram.
Before then, the singer’s fans doubted whether he would form as he had maintained a social media silence after his son died. Fans react
Unknown to many, Nollywood actress and filmmaker Omoni Oboli is one of Davido’s biggest fans.
The actress spared no words in celebrating the arrival of the singer and his wife, Chioma, at Qatar, the venue of the World Cup.
“My joy is full. My love for these 2 is something even I can’t comprehend. We are all praying and rooting for you,” she captioned a photo of their arrival on Twitter. Background
Although he is the first Nigerian to grace the World Cup stage, other Africans have been privileged to perform at the acclaimed arena.
In 1998, Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour and Axelle Red performed their song ‘La Cour des Grands’ (Do You Mind If I Play) at the tournament’s opening ceremony hosted by France.
The song was from the album, ‘Music of the World Cup: Allez! Ola! Ole’, released in 1998 by Sony Music Entertainment.
It was also chosen as the official anthem of the FIFA World Cup that year.
Also, Grammy-winning singer Angelique Kidjo performed at the 2010 FIFA World Cup held in South Africa.
She was one of the headline artists for the Kick-Off Celebration Concert in Johannesburg.
Nigerian Afrobeats star D'banj has been arrested over allegations of fraud after millions of dollars meant to help unemployed youths start businesses was reported missing.
The artist, who has claimed to be the brand ambassador for the scheme, has turned himself in.
The N-Power initiative was launched in 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
But many beneficiaries have complained for months that they were not receiving their grants.
Nigeria's anti-corruption agencies said in a statement on Wednesday that "billions of naira" had been diverted.
Lawyers representing D'banj - whose real name is Oladapo Daniel Oyebanjo - have denied a claim by the anti-corruption agency that their client had ignored multiple summons.
They said the artist willingly turned himself in on Tuesday and that he will cooperate with the investigation.
More than two million Nigerians aged between 18 and 35 have benefited from the N-Power scheme since it was launched, according to the government.
At least 280bn naira ($629m; £516m) was distributed in 2019 to beneficiaries who started small businesses, the authorities said.
Ten other people, as well as D'banj are being investigated, the anti-corruption agency said.
"The investigation will be all-encompassing and also be extended to other collaborators of the fraud and the banks where the beneficiaries' accounts are domiciled," a statement read.
The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, which oversees N-Power, said it had no official engagement with the artist and that his claims to be an ambassador for the scheme was misleading.
D'banj's 2012 hit Oliver Twist won him fans across the continent and in the diaspora.
Two years ago his one-year-old son drowned in a pool at his home in the commercial city of Lagos.
Some cast and crew members of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, are in Lagos, Nigeria, ahead of the first-ever Marvel Studios’ premiere on 6th November.
The group is visiting Nigeria for the first time to kick off continent-wide celebrations ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s release on 11 November.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a sequel to the 2018 box office hit movie, ‘Black Panther 2, is an American action superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character.
The film is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole and directed by Ryan Coogler. It continues with the story of T’Challa, the king of Wakanda.
The movie stars Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Dominique Thorne, Isaach de Bankole, Dorothy Steel, and Michaela Coel.
On Sunday morning, some cast and crew members were present at a press conference held at Lagos Continental Hotel, where they fielded questions from the media.
In attendance were filmmakers and cast from the highly anticipated sequel to 2018’s Black Panther, including stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Winston Duke, as well as director Ryan Coogler.
Why Nigeria?
At the occasion, the film director, Coogler, recipient of four NAACP Image Awards, four Black Reel Awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, justified why the cast and crew decided to kick off the continent-wide celebrations ahead of the film’s release in Nigeria.
Coogler, an African American, said Lagos has a lot of history and cultural significance for filmmakers. He also informed the ecstatic audience that he recently took a genealogy test that revealed his lineage.
‘‘If you know, like African American history, it’s tough for us to trace our genetic lineage due to some purposeful things that happened to us during the transatlantic slave trade.
So one of the things I spoke with the late Chadwick Boseman about when we first met and were getting ready to put his movie on was that he put me up on something called africanancestry.com, another company I like.
It was specific about finding out where you have a heritage to know. So Chad had done his own, and he explained how it is done. So when I did mine, it came back as having lineage to a part of Cameroon, but mainly Yoruba lineage. It was something that I held on to and always wanted to know, to travel to Nigeria for that reason.”
The 36-year-old filmmaker said different parts of Africa influenced the film; however, the Nigerian culture exudes a specific energy that is hard to ignore.
Soundtrack Album
Roc Nation Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Hollywood Records released the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack album on 4 November.
In addition to the already-released Rihanna single “Lift Me”, co-written by Tems, the soundtrack features other Nigerian artists Burna Boy, Tems, Fireboy DML, Ckay, Rema, Tobe Nwigwe and Fat Nwigwe, amongst other African acts. The media asked the team why they featured several Nigerian and African artistes on the soundtrack album.
Responding, Coogler, who produced the album, said his team wanted a representation of various genres and music spaces on the album.
‘‘I mean, music is critical to film as a medium. The film is a combination of a lot of different mediums. For me, Sonic manipulation, I’m trying to get a form of sound design, production design at, like, all of these things, you know, all the artboards representing the music is a massive part of it.
‘‘And the music was a big part of the first field. We were able to line up a great collaboration. And we wanted to do something different on this particular project, where to get, you know, more into the continent. We want a representation from various genres and music spaces,’’ he said.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year. It is the sequel to Black Panther (2018), starring Chadwick Boseman, who died two years ago of Colon Cancer at 43.
It features Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death.
As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War queen Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) to forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
The movie introduces Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation; the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theatres on 11th November.
Singer Davido's 3-year-old son appears to have drowned at his home in Nigeria, police said.
The incident happened Monday night, two weeks after Ifeanyi David Adeleke celebrated his birthday.
Davido, the Nigerian music star whose real name is David Adedeji Adeleke, and the child's mother, Chioma Rowland, were not home at the time, Lagos police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin said in an emailed statement.
Authorities questioned eight members of Davido's team who were at the home and released six of them. A nanny and another unidentified person are still being questioned, Hundeyin said.
He said the investigation continues to "ascertain if it was truly drowning or otherwise."
Lagos Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu said Tuesday on Twitter that the child had a smile that "made the world smile" and offered his condolences to the grieving parents.
"Death leaves a heartache no words can heal and today, I express my deepest condolences to David and Chioma, over the death of their son," he wrote. "I pray that God grants you strength even as my thoughts and prayers are with you."
Davido, 29, and Rowland, a popular chef, have not publicly commented on the death. His representative could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Last month, they shared pictures of their son as he celebrated his birthday.
"I pray with all my heart that God grants you perfect health and pure happiness for as long as humanly possible. You will grow to be greater than Me, Happy birthday, son #BIG3," Davido wrote in an Oct. 20 post.
Rowland called her son the "love of my life.
"Mummy loves you so much, may God always bless you for me. God has been so faithful to us and I’m so grateful to be called your mummy," she posted. "May you be greater than your parents in Jesus’ name, amen. Love you twin! #big3."
Davido, who was born in Atlanta, has more than 25 million Instagram followers and is one of Africa's most prominent artists. His 2018 single "Fall" became the longest-charting Nigerian song in history in 2019, Billboard reported. He has collaborated with several high-profile artists, including Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Nas, Stefflon Don, Young Thug and Lil Baby.
The director of a documentary exploring Nigeria’s groundbreaking 1996 Atlanta Olympic soccer win amid domestic upheaval in the waning days of military rule hopes it can counter typical “stereotypes” about Africa.
“Super Eagles ’96,” which premiered at the London Film Festival on Thursday, charts the rise of the Nigerian men’s soccer team in the decade or so before its epic gold medal in the United States.
The victory by that flock of Super Eagles — as the national team is known — was the first global soccer tournament won by an African team and was celebrated across the continent.
But the film also chronicles the role played by the political tumult of the era, as opposition grew to three decades of military dictatorship in Africa’s most populous but fractious nation.
“You couldn’t tell the football story without telling what was happening at the same time, because they collide,” said director Yemi Bamiro, 40, on the sidelines of the festival.
In making it, the British-born filmmaker from a Nigerian family tried to tap into the pride he felt as a teenager watching the Super Eagles beat soccer giants Brazil and then Argentina to claim gold.
“I always used to feel — I still do, to an extent — that stories that come out of the continent are a little bit one note,” Bamiro said.
“This story always had the potential to be uplifting, like a celebration, to counter some of the stereotypes and perceptions of what happens on the continent.”
‘Hope’
The documentary, featuring interviews with former players and coaches as well as analysts and historians, details the Super Eagles’ ability to unify a soccer-mad country of more than 200 million and hundreds of ethnic groups and languages.
From victory in the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations followed by reaching the knockout stages of the 1994 World Cup, their success is set against the struggle inside Nigeria under military rule.
It highlights how the team’s greatest moment coincided with some of the regime’s worst atrocities under General Sani Abacha, when writer and campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmental activists were executed.
“It’s only football that would take the weight of this trouble away,” tough-tackling defender Taribo West says in the film.
“We needed heroes and football gave us heroes,” recounts lawyer Ed Keazor.
For attacking midfielder Jay-Jay Okocha, who like many of that generation later cemented his reputation at soccer clubs in Europe, the 1996 Olympics gave the country “hope that something good can come out of a bad situation.”
“Politically we were in a mess, reputation-wise we were in a mess, but that changed a lot of people’s view about Nigeria,” he says.
The country was under international sanctions at the time, while it did not compete in the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations — prior to the Olympics — following criticism of its human rights record by hosts South Africa.
“But the team made the world forget that they had issue(s) with Nigeria,” says ex-striker Daniel Amokachi, who later became a successful coach.
Military rule eventually ended in 1999, after Abacha’s death the previous year.
‘Define a nation’
Following the Olympics triumph, Nigeria held a two-day public holiday. In a sign of its continent-wide significance, three other African countries also declared national holidays.
“It was a gold medal for Africans,” argues West.
“After that, other African countries started believing that it’s achievable,” adds Okocha, noting Cameroon won soccer gold in the next Games in Australia.
The film notes the Super Eagles’ pioneering success helped accelerate the export of African soccer talent to Europe, notably to England’s Premier League.
“It’s almost like that was the thing that made Europe aware that there’s all this untapped potential on the continent, in all these incredible places,” Bamiro explained.
A quarter-century on, the director believes the Olympics victory retains a topical message.
“It tells you that you can’t define a nation by the things that its government does — and I think that can be said for a lot of countries, not just African countries.
“Look at the mess we’re in here,” he added, referring to ongoing economic tumult in Britain.
The London-based filmmaker — whose first feature “One Man and His Shoes” also screened at the capital’s annual 12-day festival, in 2020 — said he now awaits the documentary’s reception in Nigeria with some trepidation.
“It’s the most profound sporting achievement in Nigeria’s history so, yeah, if we haven’t got it right, we’re in trouble!”
Despite the growing popularity of Nigerian movies, Nollywood is struggling. It is ranked as the world's second-largest producer of films, but lacks the resources to compete with Hollywood and Bollywood. Al Jazeera looks at the challenges in an industry that releases hundreds of films a year - but fails to make the shortlist at international festivals. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reports from Lagos, Nigeria.
Nigeria’s entertainment sector has contracted for the first time since 2019. Data from the Country’s Statistics Agency says the entertainment sector's GDP shrunk by nearly 6 percent despite overall growth in a nation that is home to Africa’s largest economy. Kelechi Emekalam has more.
Amazon Prime Video today announced the launch of the localized version of its streaming service in one of Africa’s biggest markets: Nigeria. Just as it did in Southeast Asia some days back, the tech giant is attempting to boost its subscriber push in new markets like Africa by increasing its investment in local production, unveiling slates of localized originals and introducing discounted Amazon Prime membership offerings to customers.
Amazon Prime Video launched in Africa in 2016 as part of its global push across more than 200 countries worldwide, bringing some serious competition to Netflix’s global plan launched that same year. However, versions of the service available in the region have never featured the local-language interfaces, subtitling and original content offerings typical in more developed markets.
That changes today in Nigeria and the whole of Africa as the company plans to launch in other markets like South Africa. In a tweet by its official account, Prime Video Naija, the company said that customers in Nigeria can stream more than 20,000 original TV shows and movies within its ecosystem, such as “The Boys,” “All or Nothing,” “Reacher” and “All the Old Knives.” According to its website, the service will cost ₦2,300/month (~$4) after a seven-day trial. Thus, for the first time, users in Nigeria will be able to subscribe to Prime Video using their local currency, and unlike how most have accessed the platform for region-specific content in the past, they would not require a VPN to stream content on the service.
Prime Video and other streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Canal+ and Showmax are vying for Africa’s 2026-projected 15 million video-on-demand subscribers. According to Digital TV Research, an analytics firm, Prime Video has 600,000 subscribers in Africa and might add 1.5 million new subscribers compared to Netflix’s 3 million subscribers in the next four years.
To gain more market share amid a streaming war for African content and eyeballs, Prime Video has been collaborating with filmmakers and content creators in Nigeria regarding the production of original and licensed content. The past couple of months has seen the service make strategic moves, such as closing theatrical outlet agreements with Anthill Studios, Inkblot Productions and Evoke Studios, hiring Insight Publicis as its creative agency and recruiting senior executives like Wangi Mba-Uzoukwu, head of Nigerian Local Originals, to develop original video content in Nigeria, Africa’s largest film industry.
Amazon Prime Video’s first Nigerian show is “Gangs of Lagos,” a local original crime action movie that follows three friends’ lives as they navigate the streets of Isale Eko in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, scheduled to be ready for launch later this year.
In 2013, Bianca Okorocha, a Nigerian artist who performs as ClayRocksU, received a DM from one of her Twitter followers. It was an invitation to Metal and Romance, a party in Lagos focusing on rock music — a genre long plagued by negative stereotypes in Nigeria. When she got there, she couldn’t believe what she saw: a whole community of fellow rock fans. “It was one of the happiest moments of my life,” she recalls.
Okorocha grew up listening to her father’s rock records, mostly by foreign bands. Through her teenage years and early adulthood, she immersed herself in punk fashion. But she noticed that people were always wary of her. “In church, I was always called to the pastor’s office for one complaint or the other,” she says. “People always gave me the side-eye and refused to approach me. So I didn’t expect to see so many people in tune with rock music.”
During Metal and Romance, she was shocked to hear Danjuma, lead singer of the metal band 1 Last Autograph, growl — something she’d never seen a Nigerian do. “When I saw them perform, I said to myself, ‘No way I’m not going to collaborate with these guys,’” she says. She’d later become friends with Danjuma, and perform and release music together with 1 Last Autograph, including the metal single “Down” in 2014. These days, they’re still playing together anywhere rock music can be found in Lagos and elsewhere in the country.
And they’re not the only artists leading a new wave of Nigerian rock. For the Love of Woman and Country, the latest album by Lagos’ Oma Mahmud, features both Afrobeats and punk-rock songs, along with songs that blend both genres. “There’s a lot of people that actually want to listen to [rock] songs like this,” Mahmud says. “Every single time I perform my music, it’s usually one of the highlights of the night. Mostly because most rock songs are people just venting their frustrations, and living in Nigeria, [it’s] a country where almost everybody’s frustrated.” His music speaks to Nigeria’s everyday problems, such as corruption, poor government, and a failing economy. Mahmud’s high-energy performances make his audiences feel connected to his music. “They immediately lock on to the music and feel like I’m their best friend,” he says, “like I’m telling their story.”
With artists like Burna Boy selling out Madison Square Garden and Wizkid and Davido doing the same at the 02 Arena, Nigerian music is becoming part of the Western pop mainstream. Could Nigerian rock be the next breakout sound? Okorocha thinks so. “If we can combine the rock that we love with Afrobeats, it may go a long way,” she says.
While rock music is often aligned with non-conformity and resistance, in a hyper-religious society like Nigeria, the genre is also branded as evil — or even associated with the occult. “Most people just think rock fans are listening to something demonic,” says Deoye Falade, who started listening to rock and metal in the mid-Nineties and now attends rock festivals and meetups in Lagos. “The kindest reactions I often get is that this is noise.” But, he says, he no longer cares. “When you like something and you understand it, you just enjoy it.”
He recalls a video of a Nigerian wedding that trended on Twitter in 2018, which featured the couple and their guests headbanging to System of a Down’s “Toxicity.” Some viewers couldn’t understand why Nigerians were partying to rock while dressed in agbada. “But you don’t have to paint your faces or rock the fashion before you like rock music,” Falade says.
A 26-year-old Lagos-based graphic artist going by the name of Queen, who has loved punk and metal since she was 13, says she felt shunned by her peers for listening to music from her favorite bands Bring Me the Horizon and Asking Alexandria. “People were wary of talking to me, and I struggled to make friends,” she recalls. “Once I started rocking and nodding my head, my roommates would say ‘the spirit’ had possessed me, which is weird because even the Christian music they listened to is pretty much rock music — just a softer kind.”
But rock music wasn’t always perceived like this in Nigeria. In the 1970s, after the Nigerian Civil War, and as the country was experiencing an economic boom fueled by the discovery of crude oil, rock bands like Ofo and the Black Company, War-Head Constriction, the Hykkers, the Funkees, and the Lijadu Sisters graced the airwaves with psychedelic rock and funk that captured a distinctly Nigerian sound. These artists chronicled the evils of the civil war, and Nigerians reveled in a renewed sense of optimism that turbocharged the growth of the nation’s music industry. But leftover war trauma and unresolved tensions got swept under the rug — along with Nigerian rock.
Music historian and researcher Uchenna Ikonne, who spearheaded the two-volume compilation Wake Up You! The Rise and Fall of Nigerian Rock 1972-1977, says that rock’s youth appeal in Nigeria — which set it apart from the then more popular genre of juju — ultimately hurt the genre. “In Nigeria, [young people] have the least amount of disposable income, compared with the West where teenagers have jobs and can spend money on entertainment, buy records, and support artists,” he explains. “Teenagers [have never really had] jobs in Nigeria, and the ones that do are doing it to help support family. So rock music had a niche culture that had a hard time sustaining itself, as opposed to juju artists like King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey who would make entire albums praising the richest aristocrats in the society. Those social elites would in turn attend their performances and shower these musicians with their money. … So while juju artists were making money hand over fists, rock artists were struggling.”
Ikonne also draws distinctions between Nigerian rock artists and the country’s most recognizable musical icon, Fela Kuti. On one hand, Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat sound shares stylistic similarities with Nigerian rock: percussive rhythms, and grungy electric guitar and organ work. (Compare the solos in “Ije Udo,” a track by Seventies Nigerian rockers Magnificent Zenians, for example, with Fela Kuti’s “Shakara.”) But, Ikonne says, “coming from a middle-class background, Fela was able to sidestep the struggles of rock artists at the time, as he had more resources.” In the end, his experimentation with Afrobeat, highlife, and rock, coupled with his larger-than-life personality, attracted more attention than his rock peers. “When [Fela] perfected his sound, it kind of upstaged and cannibalized the Nigerian rock scene,” says Ikonne.
By the Eighties, an era that saw a growth of Christian revivalism in Nigeria, heavily influenced by the Moral Majority movement in the United States, rock music gained a bad rep in the country. Those prejudices have lingered for decades. Even in the 2000s, Dammy Lawal, who grew up listening to foreign rock artists and would go on to found the Metal and Romance fest, faced criticism for his taste in music. “Most of what I was hearing was that it’s the devil’s music,” he recalls.
In 2013, Lawal started a BlackBerry Messenger group where he and his friends could share rock playlists. “We had people sharing songs from Disturbed to Linkin Park, AC/DC to Creed, and so much more,” Lawal says.
The collective grew and transferred to WhatsApp. As each group reached its member limits on the app, newer offshoots were formed: RockazWorld, Rock Republik, Rock Haven. Eventually, Dammy decided to host an in-person event: Metal and Romance, where he also met ClayRocksU. “It was meant to be a meetup for sharing music playlists and dancing to our favorite songs, but by the next year, members started demanding that we include performances,” he says. “That was when we knew we had to host an actual show with a bigger venue. We were on to something.”
In October 2015, Rocktober Fest was born. Rock bands and artists visited from all over Africa to attend the show. More than 700 tickets were sold, and 15 performers delighted fans. The numbers grew exponentially over the next two years.
Lawal believes that African rock artists need to embrace their culture, rather than simply emulating Western sounds. “The best rock songs are the ones that have local flavor,” he says.
Oma Mahmud agrees, saying that Nigerian rock artists have to make rock music “native” to the country. “I can perform regular punk-rock songs, but I know who I expect to listen,” he says. “But to scale, the rock has to sound [more] Nigerian.” He says that his friends often play his songs in front of random people, “to see if it’ll draw a reaction.” It always does. “When you hear rock music that sounds like it comes from here,” he says, pointing to his heart, “it catches people’s attention.” In 2021, Afrofolk artist Johnny Drille featured a punk-rock song on his album Before We Fall Asleep — a politically satirical rock song in pidgin that involves growling — to positive reception.
ClayRocksU excels at something similar, fusing Igbo language and local pidgin folk elements with punk rock. In February 2021, she released “Amin” with her band, the Misfits, creating a subgenre of sorts: “Afro-rock.” With the song — a feel-good tune sung in Nigerian pidgin and blending punk rock, Afrobeats, and folk — Okorocha and Co. are also attempting to challenge the negative stereotypes attached to rock music in this part of the world. The singer recalls performances where audience members were shocked to learn that what they were listening to was rock music. “Sometimes, people don’t care about genre,” she says. “They just like what they like.” The lyric video for “Amin” now has 12,000 views on YouTube, a feat she’s achieved organically.
“Not bad for a rock artist in a country where no one listens to rock, eh?” she asks.
US-based Nigerian adult-entertainment star, Judith Mazagwu, popularly known as AfroCandy, is set to unveil a studio, where she will ply her trade in Nigeria.
The controversial entertainer has hired an apartment somewhere in the Ajah area of Lagos and is currently furnishing it to taste.
“I’m just trying to set up my business here, so that I can be visiting home regularly.”
The porn star also has confirmed setting up a multi-purpose studio, which will be unveiled after she returns to the country again.
“The studio is not in my new home. It will be located in a separate environment and it will serve as a general production studio. So anything can be done there”, the porn star revealed.
Also, confirming the development in an Instagram post, the pornstar wrote: “ Sweetie, I didn’t quit, just busy setting up the stages, wait for it!! #afrocandy is coming!!”
The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) on Tuesday said that it generated N653 million from tickets sold across the country in May.
Mr Patrick Lee, National Chairman of CEAN, disclosed this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
“We had total sales of N653,229,100.00 for the month of May 2022. “21 Nollywood films shown in May accounted for 28 per cent of total ticket sales while 14 films, Hollywood films accounted for about 69 per cent, with “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” being the major outliner.
“Comparing April with May, ticket sales improved by about 12 per cent, with May being the highest-grossing month in 2022, so far.
Lee noted that the top five highest-grossing films in May are: “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”; “King of Thieves”; “Sonic the Hedgehog2”; “The Lost City” and “The Perfect Arrangement”.
He said the films to be released across cinemas in June are: “Ex and Exes”; “Jurassic World: Dominion”; “The Order of Things”; “Flatus”; “Last Seen Alive”; “Light Year”; “Silent Baron”; “Black Phone”; “Elvis” and “Ile Owo”.
“It is exciting to see the mind-blowing box office performance of titles released in May.
“Like we all anticipated, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” led the park with over N330million to consolidate on the continued monstrous performance of Nollywood’s rave-of-the-moment, “King of Thieves”.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” now holds the record of the strongest weekend opening for a post-pandemic release in Nigerian cinemas.
“While “King of Thieves”, is so far, the highest-grossing Nollywood film since “Omo Ghetto the Saga”,” he said.
A Nigerian dance group with a disabled member has suddenly gained popularity after posting their videos to social media.
One video has tens of thousands of views. The dancers are children as young as five years old. They are called “The Incredible Kids.”
Their videos have been posted to the video sharing service Instagram. The children dance quickly to popular Nigerian songs. And they are busy performing in cities like Abuja and Lagos, Nigeria.
One dancer is 15-year-old Joshua Anum. Joshua has a disability. He lost his arm after an accident at the age of five. Joshua’s father left him and his 8 brothers and sisters. They did not have much to eat when growing up. But that has not stopped Joshua from dancing, and it has changed his life.
"Before I came here I used to go to parties, I used to fight anywhere I went and I was not going to school," said Joshua. "Since coming here I have started school and I read and dance.
Vera Anum is Joshua’s mother. She said that she was very sad when the doctors removed his arm. But now she is happy and proud of him.
"Everybody thought...he will not be useful in life. Our people at home said he is finished because somebody whose hand has been amputated from childhood, what can he do?” Vera said.
She said, “See him today, at least the whole world is seeing him, watching him how he is performing."
Maliki Emmanuel is the dance group’s creator. Emmanuel said that many of the dancers do not have a good family life, so he has offered them support and a home.
The students often gather around Emmanuel in his chair at his home and watch music videos together so they can get new ideas for the dance moves and performances.
Emmanuel hopes to expand his group with more children who need a home and love to dance. "I can teach them then we will bring them to the crew,” Emmanuel said.
Money from the dancers’ performances helps pay the cost of the children’s education.
By Faith Pirlo
Abraham Achirga reported this story for Reuters. Faith Pirlo adapted it for VOA Learning English.
Grammy award-winning superstar, Burna Boy is still soaring higher. The Afro-fusion pioneer has officially become, not just the first Nigerian music star to headline at the Madison Square Garden, MSG, New York, but also, the first to sell it out when he live-streams his wildly anticipated “One Night In Space” show at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden yesterday on YouTube.
This massive win for Burna Boy and the entire African continent goes to buttress his point in the lyrics of ‘Way too Big’ when he sang “Because I’m way too big”. It’s clear he wasn’t joking. Featured as a guest on the American Talk show “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”, Burna Boy left everyone including Trevor himself, in stitches with his naturalness and authenticity, a teaser of what to expect at the MSG.
The self-acclaimed ‘African Giant’,who has also revealed that an exclusive limited line of merch will be made available to commemorate this historic event as the first Nigerian musician to ever headline the world-renowned venue, however, promised a classic fusion of elements and themes combined with his explosive energy and the true spirit of New York City, which will culminate into an unforgettable night in New York City.
This ‘One Night In Space’ showcase follows Burna Boy’s recently sold out debut at LA’s The Hollywood Bowl, electrifying performances at 2021 Global Citizen Festival and The Governor’s Ball, as well as sold out international shows at London’s O2 Arena, Paris’ Accor Arena, Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome and more venues around the globe, as part of his 2021 Space Drift tour which echoes the sounds from his groundbreaking fifth studio album ‘Twice As Tall’, an immediate sensation, earning more than 5 million worldwide streams within its first hour of release.
Amazon Prime Video is looking to attract new subscribers from Africa through a new deal with Nigerian filmmakers. The movie streaming platform has signed exclusive streaming agreements with two Nigeria production companies, which analysts say could boost Nigeria’s film industry to become the country’s largest export.
