Ramadan Blue: From Were to Fuji, Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister.

[Toyin Falola]

Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and I did exactly the same thing as teenagers. We would wake up in the middle of the night to sing around the city waking people up to pray and prepare ramadan meals. We called it “were” music, basically chanting, with one drum and sekere. I was the sekere man, and a lead chanter.  You needed a minimum of three people, but more boys is better for voice power. As boys would always fight over dividing the proceeds, the bigger the team, the bigger the fight, but hours later, no one would remember any fight. Parents were split over what their kids should do, and many opted for crafts and apprenticeship, while only a few went to secondary schools. I went to school but also learnt masonry.  Then the Civil War came, and most of my age-mates were recruited into a hurriedly built army both on Biafra and the so-called Federal side. Just walk to Mokola, say you are 18, and that would be the last time that your parents would see you. Sikiru, my dear brother, joined the army on the federal side (I hate this “federal” label!), and began our art in the army. He later left the army and became a full-time musician, becoming the preeminent Fuji star, the definer of a new genre. Unparalleled, unmatched, peerless, he and Kollington Ayinla were bitter competitors…..more later. A transformational figure, I will ask him some hard questions in the next world.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=413KJ-Hm9ek

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU3UIByb1XA

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV_fuGJ0xEA

 

 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Professor Toyin Falola,

Great Respect!

So, you were, used to be, are a real guy! (Not one of these)

You cannot imagine the thrill with which I read this your posting, that you were a teenage musician! I myself could not imagine the thrill before the thrill happened, actually sitting in front of this computer and reading your revelation whereupon my estimation of you ascended unto the seventh heaven.

I had a similar thrill early in 1991 the first time I listened to our dearly departed Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and his seminal release of that year:  New Fuji Garbage . The unimaginable thrill – a veritable catharsis, occurred 20 minutes and 45 seconds into the First song “ Refined Fuji Garbage” when the guitar erupts into the By the Rivers of Babylon solo! Another dimension of the great Yoruba culture. What do we have? We have culture!

BTW, Re-  a later theme in this forum,  “prafessrs” who have never even been near the place and yet think that they are the Father of Buckingham Palace English or the father or one of the fathers of English Literature and all the big grammar that evolved and is still evolving with it. It is indeed a preposterous question: How can some Nigerian pint pot from near Ilorin think that? By the time I finished secondary school I had already  joyfully zapped through the major writers of the nineteenth  and twentieth century and all the great poetry and still don’t feel that I’m anywhere close nor should I dream of suggesting any improvements to anybody’s letter or prayer  to the king of kings or to a lesser being. As  for those who do that for show, beating their chests and usurping much public space, doing so verily illustrates  Pope’s criticism

“Of all the causes which conspire to blind

Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind,

What the weak head with strongest bias rules,

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.”

 

 

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[Vik Bahl]

I have been forwarding the Ramadan songs that Oga Falola has been posting to a dear Muslim friend of mine.  She says that these songs are now a highlight of her days and asked me to share this song by the Moroccan singer Douzi on her behalf with the USA Africa Dialogue family.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGPxhAv5b98

Vik

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

TF:

This is interesting!  You could not have grown up in Ibadan in the 60s and 70s with its large indigenous Muslim population without noticing the importance of  Wėré music particularly during Ramadan.

Some of our house helps, particularly those with Ilorin connections used to laud the excitement of the music stamping their feet on the floor as they chant and extolling the virtues of previous Ajíwéré musicians.  

Im sure the late Akin Euba did some work on this in Bayreuth under indigenous religious music.  I can still recall the call in those days:

' E dìde ę mü sàrè ję

Àbę o nî gbàwę ni?

Wake up and fortify yourself.

Dont you recognise its fasting season?

Its interesting to trace the evolution of Wákà and Fújì music from this source, particularly Wákà.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>

Date: 28/04/2020 11:11 (GMT+00:00)

To: dialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ramadan Blue: From Were to Fuji, Dr.Sikiru  Ayinde Barrister.

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