Talking Drum Festival holds at last

By Akintayo Abodunrin - updated: Tuesday 22-07-2008

Alaafin of Oyo,
Oba Lamidi Adeyemi IIIAfter some postponements, the much talked about Talking Drum Festival with the objective of celebrating the device described by a commentator as “a monumental and unique contribution of the Yoruba to world musical heritage,” will begin tomorrow.

The three-day event will start by 10.00 a.m. at Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan, with a keynote address titled “Rebirth of the talking drum: Its past, present and future.” Director, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Professor Dele Layiwola, will deliver the keynote which will be followed by a workshop/art exhibition with the theme “The art of drum.”

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode (SAN), will be the special guest at the celebration of the expressive musical instrument with the power of speech while Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III , will be the chief host.

Ought to have been held last year when the idea was mooted by the Ayan Agalu Soungobi Foundation in collaboration with the Alaafin, the festival, according to the project director, Morakinyo Daramola, was postponed to make it bigger and allow more partners come on board.

According to Daramola, the Federal Ministry of Culture, Skye Bank and Nigeria Distilleries have bought into the vision of celebrating the talking drum, an instrument equally adaptable to war and peace, celebration and lament. Daramola disclosed that Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, will be given the award of “Pillar of Culture”at tomorrow’s event while Mr. Sola Akinfemiwa, Managing Director, Skye Bank and Olori Bisi Obashola will be decorated as “Ambassador of Culture”.

General Alani Akinrinade, Daramola added, would declare the talking drum workshop open. Speaking further, Daramola disclosed that events like Ayan Agalu Soungobi veneration, drumming and dancing show, young drummers’ show, hunters’ night, talking drum carnival and fuji night, will hold on Thursday and Friday. Sir Shina Peters and Alhaji Sefiu Alao, the project director said, would entertain guests at the events.

Speaking in an interview with Arts & Review last year on his support for the festival and why the talking drum should be celebrated, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, who is going to lead a large delegation to the event tomorrow declared:

“We have drums, music all over the world. Why do we celebrate classical music, Beethoven? Why do we celebrate the blues? Why do we celebrate soul music? The talking drum is also found among the Hausa, Junkun, among people close to the Savana region and people in the Sahelian area.

“It deserves to be celebrated because it is one of the devices that Africans, the Oyo people nay the Yoruba gave to the world. The dexterity displayed in beating the drums, the fact that the drum can be used to pass messages is enough to celebrate this important cultural device of the Yoruba people.

“Even non-Africans, Europeans, are coming here to learn the talking drum and it will be a disaster if these people go away and in future because we neglected it, they have to teach our people how to beat the talking drum. I went to the US around June, July 1999 and I was stunned by a Professor of Linguistics in one of the American universities who brought his talking drum ensemble to welcome me at the airport.

Although he is an African, he had with him white men he had trained beating the drum saying “Kabiyesi, kabo, se daada lode? They welcomed me, asking if I arrived safely. Supposing the African Professor was not there, the white Americans easily could have drummed.

“Apart from these, across the country, certain festivals and monuments are being declared World Heritage Sites like Osun Osogbo. Nobody knew UNESCO would study for a long time the Ifa corpus and now they have discovered that it’s a system of knowledge, not mumbo-jumbo.

If we, who are the creators, the inventors of this cultural device, if we propagate it, celebrate its uniqueness and the positive impacts it could have on people, if we are able to bring it to the world, surely the world will know that Africans are intelligent and have evolved certain things that the rest of the world can learn from. That it is not only Western cultures and values that should be embraced.”

Of service to God and humanity

Cover of the book. A review of ‘Biola Layonu, Freeman Okosun, Rufus Kehinde and Amos Ishola’s Kolapo Ishola: A biography of an illustrious patriot by Akintayo Abodunrin.

INADVERTENTLY, this biography of Chief Kolapo Olawuyi Ishola, Governor of Oyo State during the truncated third republic, sheds light on some political issues in the ‘Pacesetter State’. For instance, two titans of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chiefs Richard Akinjide (SAN) and Yekeen Adeojo, have been claiming responsibility for bringing the party into the state before the late Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, took control of it.

But on page 147 of the biography entitled Kolapo Ishola: A biography of an illustrious patriot, written by four resourceful biographers and journalists, Messers Biola Layonu, Freeman Okosun, Rufus Kehinde and Amos Ishola, Ishola, member, Board of Trustees (BOT) of the PDP avers that “...when we got to the second stage of the election, Adeojo who won the PDP Oyo State governorship ticket persuaded Alhaji Adedibu to join the PDP and lead his political campaign.

Unfortunately, he lost out in the Oyo gubernatorial election ... It was at this stage that Alhaji Adedibu, with his wealth of experience and resources took control of the PDP in Oyo State...” Nowhere in the 210 pages of the work is the name of Chief Richard Akinjide mentioned.

On how the once cordial relationship between the late Chief Adedibu and the immediate past governor of the state, Chief Rashidi Ladoja, broke down, Ishola has this to say: “On assumption of office, Alhaji Ladoja shut his door at us. He was not ready to see any leader. He sees himself as number one citizen of Oyo state and the leader of the party in the state that everybody had to look for before he could breathe.

And to aid his thinking, the PDP came up with a policy that the state governor is the leader of the party in the state. Alhaji Ladoja did not understand. Along the line, party seniority and supremacy was thrown overboard and Alhaji Ladoja carried it to the extreme.” (pg 147 and 148).

Unintentionally, the biography also confirms the fact that Ishola was the first governor to reward the late Chief Adedibu with money, a gesture the late politician reportedly later demanded from every person he assisted to reach a political office. In Chief Adedibu’s own words “As governor of Oyo State, Chief Ishola laid a historical record which can never be forgotten.

When we were planning for his swearing-in ceremony, I came home and met Lawyer Idowu, SAN (of blessed memory) with two big Ghana-must-go bags. He said the governor-elect has sent him to me to deliver the sum of one million naira... Chief Ishola told me of the covenant he made with God that the first money given to him for his upkeep would be handed over to me for my blessing...” (page 179& 181).

But then, that is how it should be. A biography, unlike a hagiography which tells the story of an individual but praises him/her too much, is supposed to bare all about the subject; warts and all. And this, the biography published by Media Report Projects does. The life of Ishola, Agbaakin Mayegun of Ibadan, first Ibadan son to become a chartered land surveyor and humanist is laid bare for the reader to see and take lessons therefrom.

Naturally, the early chapters (one to five) of the work which will be presented this Thursday at Mapo Hall by 11.00 a.m. focus on Ishola’s background, parents, education, family and beginnings in surveying. The reader learns that Ishola whom incumbent Governor of Oyo State, Chief Bayo Alao-Akala says “has been a great asset to the people” in the foreword of the biography was born in Akinpade, a community in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State founded by his warrior forebears from Ede, Osun State, on June 6, 1934.

The only child of his mother who was the third of the eight wives of Moses Morakinyo Ishola, the young Kolapo began his education at Methodist Primary School, Pade in 1943 and completed it in 1967 when he qualified as a chartered land surveyor from the South-West Essex Polytechnic, London.

Ishola, father of 10 successful children who acknowledge him as a firm but fine father– humane, prudent, fair, compassionate and hard working– after some years in public service retired in June 1972 to establish two private surveying and engineering services companies. Needless to say, Ishola excelled in private practice and was a toast of major oil companies, government and individuals from his base in Port-Harcourt. Years later, the young man from Akinpade ventured into hospitality and real estate businesses.

The sixth chapter of the biography which presentation will be witnessed on Thursday by eminent Nigerians including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dr. Olusola Saraki, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola Alao and top guns of the PDP from across Nigeria, x-trays the religious life of Ishola, a most superior senior evangelist of the Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) and Baba Ijo of the Mokola, Ibadan, parish of the Church.

Here, we are told of how, like most young men, Isola neglected his religious life only to backtrack and embrace Christ later. His liberal religious views as well as his selfless service in the vineyard of God are also chronicled.

Chapters seven to twelve of the biography illustrated with photographs of phases in the subject’s life reveal how service motivated Ishola into politics and how he won the first political post he contested for in 1988 as chairman of Akinyele Local Government.

His subsequent aspiration for the governorship seat and the attendant politicking, his victory and his pro-development stance reflected in his focus on construction of roads, provision of educational institutions, water, health facilities and empowerment of the rural people through development of the rural economy is also mentioned.

Some of Ishola’s addresses as governor that reinforce his belief in service and altruism are equally included. Ishola’s role in the actualiastion of the mandate of the late Chief MKO Abiola, also, is mentioned.

The thirteenth chapter of the biography contains Ishola’s views on major dramatis personae in the politics of Oyo State. He speaks on the late Chief Adedibu, Chief Rashidi Ladoja, Chief Yekeen Adeojo, Chief ‘Bayo Alao-Akala and on major political events in the country.

Anyone interested in knowing more about politicking in Oyo State from 1999 to the present will find this chapter irresistible. It is here the ‘village boy’ from Pade illumines hitherto dark spots in the political history of Oyo State.

In the last chapter of the work, the positive qualities of Ishola are attested to by friends, associates and beneficiaries of his generousity. The likes of the late Chief Adedibu, Bishop Francis Wale Oke of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Honourable Segun Olayiwola, Chief Dosu Babatunde, Professor Olajire Olaniran, Vice-Chancellor, Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Alhaji Hazeem Gbolarumi, Alhaji Nureni Akanbi and several others affirm that Ishola is personable, a thorough professional surveyor, patient, philantropist, reverences the Lord, honest, diligent and faithful to his friends. Ishola’s contributions to Oyo State are equally mentioned by these associates.

Going by the content of this well packaged biography, there is no disputing the fact that Chief Kolapo Ishola merits the foundation that would also be established in his honour on Thursday. Here, indeed, is a man who has diligently served God and humanity.