Welcome to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s African shrine

By Sulaimon Olanrewaju

Then: Fela and his peopleFive hundred metres to the place, you have no doubt where you are headed. The pervading smell in the area is distinctively that of marijuana. The smell is so strong that wearing a perfume by the residents of the area will be a waste of time. The biting whiff of marijuana will swallow the soothing scent of the best French cologne. Welcome to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s African Shrine.

As you approach the gate of the shrine, the smell of marijuana becomes stronger. To uninitiated nostrils, it is an assault, to the gurus, it is a calming pleasure. As you cross the gate to the premises, the assault to your nostrils becomes so strong that you begin to sneeze. A kind hearted lady in scanty clothing looks in your direction and asks if everything is okay.

“I will be okay. Just got a cold.” You say to cover up. “All you need is a smoke. I can spare you a wrap.”

“Very kind of you, I will get a smoke after a drink. I would hate to deprive you of your precious wrap. Thank you all the same”

“Then you must be new here. At the shrine sharing is a way of life”.

“Thank you, I’II be all right.”

Fela’s daughter, Sola, dancing at the
shrineShe leaves and you move into the shrine. The shrine is one with a difference. It is not a place to pour libation or pay obeisance to any deity; it is a place for self expression. It is a place of extreme liberty. It is a place where restrictions are restricted. It is a place where class is de-classified. It is a place to enjoy probably the best marijuana ever grown. It is a place where you can do anything you like how you like it and when you like it. At the shrine you can do anything, absolutely anything except drugs, according to a poster on the wall.

The place is quite spacious. There is a small storey building which hosts two bars; one on the ground floor and the other on the first floor. The ground floor hosts separate toilets for male and female. Then there are sections on both floors where people can sit down to eat, drink, smoke and discuss.

There is also a hall-like space, which though covered, has no walls. There is a band stand where musical instruments are on display. The only thing that bears the semblance of a shrine is a small place that looks like a graveyard with all sorts of effigies and one of the tight fitting long sleeve-shirts that Fela used to wear while alive.

You wander to the bar to get a drink. Then you move about the premises. As you move about, you notice some unattached girls who have taken great care to ensure that nothing about them is left to the imagination, sitting by themselves beside the walls. You wonder if they are call girls but you are not man enough to ask them their status. So you continue your wandering even as the sneezing continues due to unrelenting puff of marijuana smoke from every direction.

There is no escaping the smoke assault except by leaving the premises. But you are not ready to leave yet, so you trudge on. Then you get to a section, right in front of the bandstand where some people are playing table tennis. There is a boy of about 15 years who seems to be in charge. You take a seat beside him and engage him in a discussion.

“How much do I need to pay to play if I want to?

“N100.00

A pause “I am dying to have a smoke but I don’t know where it is sold here. I just moved to Lagos from Kaduna. Can I get a wrap?

“You can’t get any wrap here. You have to go out to the parking space to get your wrap. I can get it for you”.

“How much is a wrap?

“N20.00”

“Do you take Indian Hemp?”

“Occasionally. Do you want me to get some for you?”

“Not yet.”

“Do you know how I can get one of these girls?”, you ask pointing in the direction of the unattached girls.

“There are some that came with some men. Those ones don’t go near them. But others like that one (points to one) are free, you can have them. Some of them are dancers, which mean you can’t get them until after the band has performed.”

“When will the performance start?”

“9.00 O clock.”

You check your time; it is not even 8 o’clock yet. So you decide to go and have a

look at the parking lot where marijuana is sold.

“Let me get some wraps”. You tell your young friend. “I will be back”.

By the time you get outside the shrine, the hope of getting fresh air wanes. The crowd outside outstrips the one inside with almost every one hanging a wrap of marijuana on their lips. You try to hold your breath but after a while you decide to let go and let in a lungful of concentrated marijuana smoke. You continue to endure the marijuana smoke assault until you get to the parking lot. Just a few cars are parked there as many people decide to park outside. But there are about six functional shops in the spacious lot with all of them selling hard drinks and marijuana. You observe as people buy marijuana without any inhibitions. Some just light their wraps as soon as they buy while others mix some other things with the content of the wraps before lighting them.

Now, it is 8.45p.m. and the band boys have started testing their instruments. By the time it is 9 O’clock, Afro beat, that unique genre of music that gave Fela his fame and fortune, is in full swing. The boys are just good; the trumpets, keyboardists, guitarists and the drummer are all very good. The music, doubtlessly marijuana-inspired, does some good things to the senses.

But the girls are better. Their well parted mini skirts are intended to fire the men up. They move so dexterously to the sound of the music being played yet, their bodies sing a different tune. The girls, with their upper region let loose, are a sight to behold.

You think you have seen the best performance ever until they decide to move their derrières to the Afro beat. Then you watch with your mouth agape lapping up every move the girls make.

But, you are told by a man sitting beside you, that the girls dance better behind closed doors to a music that could only be heard by two souls conjoined for a period of time. He does not, however, forget to add that the expertise displayed by the girls in the other dance is hinged on the generosity of the dance partner.

You check your time piece and it is 9.50p.m. For a home boy that you are, that’s pretty late. You stagger to your feet and discover that your head is light. As you move towards the gate you realize that your steps are not balanced. You actually miss a step or two. As you leave the gate, a whiff of smoke hits you in the face and you say deliriously and inaudibly, “Surely, Fela or his spirit or both of them, live on”. You remember the song, “I’ve got cocaine (or marijuana) dancing round my brain.”

Then you flag down a commercial motorcyclist and say in a voice that you can hardly recognize as yours, “Okada, Opebi straight. Please, be careful o!”

IGANDO: The town by the pool

By Bunmi Obarotimi

A street in Igando The traffic was heavy so the young man presumed it must be Iyana-Iba, the place where Lagos State University (LASU) was sited, as that was the other place the Mushin bred man expected such a traffic jam after Ikotun. In his mind, he termed other areas as developing and the traffic there to him, should never be that heavy. He told the Taxi driver he chartered from Mushin that he would be getting off at the school’s main gate from where he hoped to find his way.

The driver, who was annoyed at the kind of instruction the young man passed to him when they were still far from his destination, asked him if he had never been to that area before as they were still a bit far from his destination. A relatively surprised man asked the driver where they were as he knew they had earlier passed through Ikotun and the next place he expected to experience a traffic hold-up was Iyana-Iba, but to his surprise, the driver informed him they were actually in Igando.

Igando is a peaceful town in Alimosho Local Government Area of Lagos State, it is strategic as it serves as a link between people living in Ikotun, Ejigbo and Okota-Isolo area on one axis and those from Egbeda, Isheri-Olofin and Iyana-Ipaja on the other axis to the main road of Iyana-Iba, the location of one of the state’s tertiary institutions; the Lagos State University (LASU).

The traditional Igando indigene led by Isiba of the Onimoba title migrated from the ancient Birni Kingdom around 16th century, they touched so many places on their way but their intention was to eventually settle in a place where there was a pool. They finally settled beside a pool and while they were there, they met a man called Osidana and they decided to plant trees around the area, they resided here together for some time before Isiba, the Onimoba of Moba moved further to build a hut for himself.

Though Osidana was the first king at that time but it was Isiba, the Onimoba of Moba who ruled after him that was more popular. It was because Osidana the first king died without leaving a child to rule the slot of his family that reduced the ruling family in the town to two which are; the Moba family and the Isalu family as the early settlers are only from these three families.

They were initially known as kings as they all answer to their different family names as the kingship title, this went on till the death of the three founding fathers and it was after their death that the people decided that their throne should be under the same name. They deliberated on the different options they have in the process of choosing the right name for the throne will bring the different compounds together.

The deliberation led to the present choice of name they answer to which was coined out of their initial plan when they set out of the ancient Birni kingdom that is to find a place where there is a pool of water, which in Yoruba means “Igan Odo” that later changed with time to Igando.

The present ruler of the town is His Royal Majesty Oba Lasisi Gbadamosi and he is the first ruler with the title, Onigando of Igando. He had a standard six certificate from a school in Egan town; it was after this that he started working for a cocoa merchant where he worked as a store keeper. After working in this capacity for some years, he ventured into the business himself as a beans trader before redirecting his finances into the

transport business, it was as a transporter with many lorries and buses that he was chosen by the oracle as the next king of the land. Igando has graduated from the old local dwelling of years back to become a modern town that can comfortably compete with other areas in the state, the new Igando can boast of elites and artisans alike, the population of civil servants in the town is tangible, likewise their counterparts in the private sector.

The major market could be said to be the major crowd puller the town can boast of, as people come from different areas to patronize the market which open to customers every day except on days the state government calls for market closure. Igando like many big towns in Lagos sleep late and rise early, a situation that shows that social activities in the area is thriving.

Igando is a town where both indigenes and non-indigenes live peacefully since the king attained the throne in 1978, the spate of development in the town is enough to show that the ruling king of the land is progressive as his thirty years on the throne of his father has seen diverse developments even from the time of erstwhile Governor of the State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande to the present administration of Barrister Raji Fashola.