Nigeria, the land of plenty

Fela lives on Every year in October, Felabrations commemorate the memory of Fela Anikulapo Kuti for a whole week. This edition has been widely celebrated in several places in town. Obviously the biggest part of it was taking place at the New Afrika Shrine in Alausa. Freedom Park, in Lagos Island, has also had its fair share of Afrobeat celebration every night of the week. And for the VIPs, a function was organised at the Federal Palace hotel under a properly air-conditioned tent used for up-market weddings. Large VIP areas had been demarcated for the occasion, furnished with minimalist white sofas and a few fancy looking chairs and high tables towards the front of the stage. The line-up was great: Bez, Nnekka, Seun Kuti and Femi Kuti. One could have thought that it was worth going to only this event because of the great artist line-up and the fact that it was much more comfortable going there than all the way down to the New Africa Shrine which offers a somewhat rough environment ...

Keziah Jones and his famous hat Lagos is a city where music counts: bodies like to shake on the rhythm of percussions; churches are resonating with gospel; bars, clubs and pool parties rock at the sound of the latest tunes locally produced and heavily exported; and of course all the mobile phones serving to their owner their own selection through their earphones. But there is also the Musical Society of Nigeria ( MUSON ) which feature a school of music and is hosted in an old but well maintained building in Lagos Island, the MUSON center. african jam: Keziah Jones, Hammay Saho, Age Beeka, the Venus Bushfires, Nneka and the Muson ensemble The last week of February, MUSON produced a series of concert bringing together classical musicians playing strings, traditional percussions, chora players and a griot singer from Gambia - Hammay Saho-, a nigerian male soul singer - Age Beeka -, a nigeria female gospel singer - the Venus Bushfires - and two internationally acclaimed musicians ...