Abuja, June 21st

[Toyin Falola]

Abuja retains the elegance of its entrance, the symbolism of its power, the status of wealth, in ways similar to how Batuta described the city of Cairo centuries ago.

The young men and women have left me behind, pushing my ideas to the cemetery of the dead.

The streets are vibrant, the sound and colors bring back the music of Lucky Dube in where are all the same: “different colors one people”.

The world of negative politics is banished in night clubs. At Ibiza Groove Lounge, a crowd pulling night club, the eclectic music including of R. Kelly, Asa, Dillon, Beyoncé, Bado, Flavour, refuse to reflect the gloom of a dysfunctional state but the opportunities of creativity. In here, the oxygen got no objection but to be fused up with ‘shisha’ smokes everywhere, where not just its holder get fumed up but all.

The gender free toilets expand the space of knowledge; the fashion the frontiers of modernity, the language and words the brilliance of informality.

Abuja teaches me that Africa is about people, and the more we understand our people, the anchors of their hope, the spirituality of their emotions, the joy in having little and the energies of life the more we see the future of hope.

I leave with happiness.
TF


Sent from my iPhone