“A lot of people don’t know anything about the North. In fact, they don’t even know Nigeria. The North was a wonderful, peaceful country where Muslims and Christians coexisted. The nightclubs overflowed every night in Kaduna and we didn’t know anything about separate groups called “Muslims” or “Christians.” Like I said, there were seven or eight active bands in town.
Chubby Checker came to play in Kaduna in those years. James Brown came to play. I remember standing right next to him and something happened and it was like, James Brown was in tears. His wife was a half-caste and one of the boys walked up to him and—I remember this clearly—the boy walks up to him and says, “Soul Brother Number One, how come your wife is white?” And James Brown was in tears, he said “No, she ain’t white! She ain’t white! SHE AIN’T WHITE!” [laughs]. But what did we know in those days? Any half-caste was white to us! And the boys were so disappointed; they expected his wife to be black because he sang “I’m Black and Proud.” [laughs]”
An excerpt from Uchenna Ikonne’s interview of Nigerian singer/songwriter Bongos Ikwue. Click HERE to read it.
No comments:
Post a Comment