Monday, September 15, 2008

Let Word Mend Our World!


Word like an egg
Roll down the mouths
Of some satirical sages
From edge to edge
Under the sacred,
Aged tree, christened: The Samarkaned
At the heart of National Theatre.



Just like the ancient ways of Africans. At night, children will gather themselves under a tree at twilight to listen to folk-stories from a traditional storyteller. And No story will be told without a sequential lyrics of poetry having chorus and stanzas. The children, who are the audience, will sing along with the storyteller - who sometimes is backed-up with an orchestra.



But today, this tradition is almost not in existence, even in the villages where we should still have some raw substance of our culture and tradition. And the is the reason why the Culture Advocates Caucus(CAC) and Goethe-Institut come together to revive this interest tradition of the African people with a modern view. Behold, WordSlam was birthed!

No one dare cage the word-
Spoken must be the word
That must mend the World...

At the beginning of the this movement, sometime in July of the year (July 5,2008), Culture Advocates Caucus with her partner - Goethe-Institut, promised to take the event tagged: WordSlam...a feast of poetic flights, to the street by making it a quarterly event. Then, the maiden edition which paraded poets like Akeem Lasisi, Iquo Eke, Edaoto, Juke Verissimo, Sage Has.son, Cornerstone, Muri Amulegboja, Awoko and Dagga Tolar was held within the premises of Goethe-Institut -the German Cultural Centre on the Island. Even though the rains threatened to displaced the staunch audience from their seats, the sonority of the poets' intonations wedded with succulent sounds booming from the ensemble percussions, glued them to their seats minding whether their clothes get wet or not. The first edition of WordSlam was an amazing success.

Word they slammed
Sagely on the Island-
Now on the Mainland
With word sages mend the World!

Saturday - September 13, 2008, fulfilled the promise of the Culture Advocates Caucus and Goethe-Institut by putting poetry back on the streets of Nigeria and Africa in general. The second edition of WordSlam which exhibited five artistes from the maiden edition also introduced six artistes selected from the Open Mind and Mic session of the past edition. These artistes include: Sage has.son, Edaoto, Dagga Tolar, Cornerstone, Awoko and Ayodeji Akinpelu, Aye-ola Mabiaku, Uche Nwadinachi, Lanre Ari-ajia, Segun Eluyemi.


Let the poet speak
Sincerity of his mind
With succulent word...
Let the musician sing
His freedom song
In accordant with the rhythm...
O, let the hunter chant
Not with witty words
The ills of this village...


Actually, there is will of choice of theme for this event since its inception, but this edition of the event had two prominent themes which are Corruption and Love. While some poets wouldn't drop anchor without letting the government realize that if care is not taken war-revolution will be the last resolution to this climax of shameful-drama of theirs being stage at every Local government, State and the FCT of the country - Nigeria. Ayodeji Akinpelu led this dialogue with his poem which discussed every ill of the country current statoscope. Sage Has.son, who would later perform a poem on love, also raged his distaste for the present economy and political stand. Dagga Tolar, the Ajegunle human right activist and Cornerstone, who is equally an activist and Edaoto continued this journey of emancipation and total freedom with their poetry and songs.

Swinging of waist
Twinkle the eyes...
Dangling of breast
Tingle the heart...


As it's certain that we can't cry all the time, some poets at the wordslam 2 dazzled the audience their erotic poetry, not minding the fact that the Muslims amids the audience are fasting. Aye-ola Mabiaku, the younger sister of Dele Mabiaku, who was forced to perform at the event by the orgernisers led this second phase of the thematic preoccupation initiated by the poets themselves. Fasting apart, if you're not mature at heart, you may have running stomach by listening to these poets. Is it the "behind" poem of Sage Has.son you can resist or the body gesticulation of Aye-ola in accordance with each line of her poem or Awoko who picked a light-skin lady from the audience to be able to do justice to his love poetry rendered in Yoruba language...these poets are irresistible.



It was fun all through. Every member of the audience did enjoyed themselves. Bunmi Oyinsan, Toyin Akiosho, Toni Kan, Austin Njoku, Segun Adefila are some of the celebrities that grace the event.

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