BANNED MUSIC, No. 15, Nigeria, Wole Soyinka and Tunji Oyelana, "I love my country"

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Toyin Falola

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May 13, 2020, 9:41:30 PM5/13/20
to Yoruba Affairs, Yoruba Affairs, dialogue

The Song and the Lyrics of the banned music:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GyitDd7-JY

 

I love my country I no go lie

na inside am I go live and die,

I know my country I no go lie

na him and me go yap till I die.

I wan begin with history that war we fight in recent memory wey music wey come from barrel of gun...

Me I think I get cancer for me eye that's the reason why, cause when I look na two I see make I explain I think you go gree

I love my country I no go lie na inside am I go live and die, when e turn me so I twist am so, e push me I push am I no go go

Make you no worry both nations be friends, even when they fight they soon make amends when one back dey itch am, the other go scratch, when one lay egg the other go hatch, eggs na eggs but some are rotten, but make I tell you some are golden. I tell you my country no be one, I mean not to yesterday I born

I love my country I no go lie na in side am I go live and die, I know my country I no go lie na him and me go yap till I die.

One go proud the other so meek, one go hide, the other go seek, one country go slap, the other go turn cheek, and assume dey are playing hide and seek. The lovely twins of whom I speak, Mr. country hide and his brother seek. Country hide 2.8B he tell country seek, brother carry on, seek from Turkey to China sea, the more you look, the less you see. You thief 1Kobo dey put you for prison, you thief 10M na patriotism, dem go give you chieftaincy and national honor, you thief even bigger den go say na rumor. Monkey dey work baboon dey chop sweet-pounded yam, someday e go stop

I love my country I no go lie na inside am I go live and die, when e turn me so I twist am so, e push me I push am I no go go

One time we stack groundnut so high, like pyramid nearly reach the sky, palm oil dey flow from here to London. Cassava, plantain our fruits be champion, our cocoa compete with that of Ghana, mouth dey water to do the banana ...yam wey big like wrestler's thighs. Which rice get fame like Tappa rice, but now to eat na half my budget, food dey cost like golden nugget, the rain wey flow from open sky e only float presidential rice.

...Where all this food disappear; my belly dey rumble abi you no hear…

I love my country I no go lie na in side am I go live and die, I know my country I no go lie na him and me go yap till I die.

The day dey bring green revolution, country seek say e get salvation. It give out shout, e think at last with green revolution e go end him fast. Education is good for me and you, so lets give praise where praise is due. Green revolution was most educative and coincidentally most lucrative, education alone chop one quarter of the budget to teach the farmer what e never forget, posters left, and right and center. Green revolution by government printer

I love my country I no go lie na inside am I go live and die, when e turn me so I twist am so, e push me I push am I no go go

But that was nothing but chicken feed; a nation in need is my friend indeed. Summon the chief chemical analyzer to tell us the magic of fertilizer. Country seek hear, I no be miser, billions dey hide for fertilizer

I love my country I no go lie na inside am I go live and die, I know my country I no go lie na him and me go yap till I die.

 

 

I love my country - Tunji oyelana


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjq3Hg9-b7Y


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cacP-6gwz0A

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjq3Hg9-b7Y

 

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GyitDd7-JY

 

 

I love My Country by Soyinka and Oyelana

 

 

 

 

 

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Biko Agozino

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May 14, 2020, 10:30:12 AM5/14/20
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Strange enough, I knew of the song from allusions to it in the newspapers but I never heard it on the radio due to the ban and self-censorship by DJs. It was only in graduate school in Cambridge University that a Soyinka scholar allowed me to borrow his LP and I promptly dubbed it on my cassette tape recorder. The virus of authoritarianism causes havoc on cultural struggles for survival. I love my country I no go lie but if it turn me so, I fit waka go find greener pastures, body no be wood. Brain drain is better than brain in the drain, said Rajiv Gandhi.

Biko

Toyin Falola

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May 14, 2020, 10:38:30 AM5/14/20
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Biko:

I was privileged to have even been at one of the rehearsals!

I was too tired to do justice to the lyrics, as I needed to break the prose into lines….too tired. I still have the vinyl record.

The other side, “Chairman”, is more delicious, to use a word reserved for good food.

When God replenishes my energy, as coffee has lost its capacity to do it for me,  I will redo the lyrics and that of Mr. Chairman.

Oyelana subsequently relocated to London. I have his 2019 photos… Tunde Kelani is doing a film documentary on him.

TF

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