kagablog

By Dike Okoro

Afro-beat poet Ikwunga Wonodi has a new album! Deep Sleep (2007), recently released in Canada where it was produced by John Maclean for World Record Productions Studios in Toronto, is abp Ikwunga’s latest addition to his ever-growing fame in the music genre made famous by the legendary Fela Kuti from Nigeria. I was thrilled to learn of the release of Deep Sleep, because I interviewed abp Ikwunga shortly after the release of his first cd, Calabash (2005), for Chimurenga magazine. And, after listening to the album, I must admit that Deep Sleep, which features musical and vocal support by the Canadian Afro-beat group Mr. Something Something, is a work of admirable ambition and historical underpinnings.

In this album, abp Ikwunga shows his awareness of both past and recent African history while also illustrating his distinctive style that mixes Afro-beat, jazz, and oral poetry. The songs in this album are filtered with African idioms, folklore and social realism. Abp Ikwunga explores Pidgin English, which is typical of his style, as he forages new grounds in his musical exploration. His lyrics are well written and blend well with the bass, drums, percussion, guitar, tenor sax, gourd maraca, flute and vocals of Mr. Something Something. Listeners unfamiliar with abp Ikwunga’s music will find the songs in his cd much longer than the regular radio versions aired across the world. But those familiar with Afro-beat music will definitely enjoy the lengthy improvisations and intermissions that characterize much of the songs in this album.

Deep Sleep is already rated number one in Canada’s CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation–Radio) Music chart that also features the likes of Youssou N’Dour and many others from across the globe. Vancouver’s renowned Earshot Magazine also rates the album number one on its chart.

Many of the songs in the album illustrate abp Ikwunga’s reflection on human conditions and the economic plight of most underprivileged Africans. In “DNDABP”, which is an acronym for Dat Niger Delta Afro Beat Poem, abp Ikwunga dialogues with history as he laments the present-day condition of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region where there’s mass destruction of rainforest, flora and fauna as a result of oil exploitation by multinational oil companies. In this song, abp Ikuwnga employs repetition to drive home his message and the images conjured through his lyrics reveal to us how grounded he is in the cultural and literary history of his place of birth. Lines such “I invoke Rex Lawson, to carry sweet High Life melody leggo-down / on akpuruka like me, to inject into / dis salt-water-Port Harcourt-boy-poetry”, express his homage/tribute to his musical idols and the musical traditions that inform his music. Rex Lawson, born in the Niger Delta, was considered the most important voice in African highlife music in the 1960s and 70s.

Further references to individuals and folklore in this song illustrates abp Ikwunga’s desire to explore history and oral tradition:
Mami water (mermaid) smile
Capture me inside your eyes for a little while
Big brown eyes wey dey shine & twinkle
Soften my today in dis my life wey rough like the shell of periwinkle
Dis simple Fisherman invocation like from the biro of Gabriel Okara
Di youth voices got to be heard, or else nah so so wahala
And if you see the youth for inside dem canoe
No push dem down, no make dem canoe capsize
Bring dem to negotiate…guide dem safely to waterside

Listeners familiar with West African folklore will automatically link “Mami Water (mermaid)” to the water goddess associated with various forms of worship among the Yorubas in Nigeria, and certain groups in Haiti and Brazil. But abp Ikwunga references the water goddess here as a metaphor for the Nigeria government and begs for her understanding as the underprivileged youths from the Niger Delta struggle economically while also protesting the lack of jobs in their region. Other notable references in this song include abp Ikwunga’s tribute to the pioneer African poet from the Niger Delta region, Gabrial Okara and his classic book of poems, The Fisherman’s Invocation. In short, the physical world of the Niger Delta is also alive in his abp Ikwunga’s song as he mentions waterside, canoe, periwinkle, etc.

“Di Bombs” is another song in Deep Sleep that has a strong listener appeal. Already a viewers’ favorite in Youtube, this cut from Deep Sleep has also been penciled down as a soundtrack for the forthcoming Hollywood movie by American movie producer Forest Whitaker that covers the life of former Ugandan child soldier and current world welterweight boxing contender, Kassim Ouma. The film is scheduled to debut something next year. In “Di Bombs”, abp Ikwunga shares his postcolonial concerns for Africa while also lamenting the historical wars and imported weapons of mass destruction used warring groups within the continent:
Di bombs, di bombs
Di bombs are built in London
Di bombs are built in London 1
But di bombing is in Congo, di bombing nah for Togo
Di tanks, di tanks
Di tanks are built in Russia
Di tanks are built in Russia
But di shelling na for Angola, di shelling na for Rwanda

For a budding African artist who started early on by opening shows for Femi Kuti at Fela’s Shrine in Lagos, abp Ikwunga has traveled the long road to stardom. Yet not many of his fans know that he juggles his career as a physician/professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, USA, with his career as a recording artist, or that he is the son of Chief Okogbule Wonodi, a first generation Nigerian poet. But such facts are the notable references that define the personality of this artist and educator who has donated over $100,000 from proceeds from his first album into helping the victims of genocide in Darfur as well as funding The African Alliance for the mentally ill (TAAMI), “a non-profit organization he founded to raise awareness for mental illness in African communities.” Perhaps if there’re doubts as to what inspires abp Ikwunga to continue to make strides in his distinctive style of Afro-beat music while also serving humanity in ways that make him a renaissance man/humanitarian, those doubts have been put to rest by the encomiums and recognition showered on his latest musical effort, Deep Sleep, by the international community.