Nigeria, the land of plenty

backstage promotion During Felabrations, a whole crew of artists are invited to perform on the New Afrika Shrine. They gather at the back of the building and enter through "l'entrée des artistes" (a bamboo gate with strong security) to avoid mixing with the public. artists at l'entrée des artistes Two tents were acting as lounges for artists to interact with journalists, furnished with carpets, sofas and fake crystal lamps, dim lights, so that trendy artists could spend a pleasant time waiting for their turn. Another tent was sponsored by Orijin a soft drink made with local plants, tasting a bit like campari; It was served as cocktail with palm wine. cosily lounging Another corner was well lit for interviews, and then at the back of the building a long tent with long tables where food could be served. One passage is leading inside of the Shrine, along one side of the stage, while another one is leading to "les coulisses". Bright yellow wall...

we styled up for Felabrations 2015 Fela Anikulapo Kuti was a character of Nigeria's recent history. He passed away of AIDS in 1997. He is remembered every year in a festival called "Felabrations" organised by his children at the New Afrika Shrine among other locations. The place is like a giant market hall, a large concrete hall topped by a corrugated iron roof set a couple of meters above the walls to leave the wind carry away the heat from the sun during the day and from humans at night. It is also a sort of ventilation for the weed smoked. Non smokers definitely have their fair share of passive smoking in the course of an evening. It is the only place where weed is tolerated by the police, and a few streets away from the Shrine, people get arrested if they carry some. active and passive smoking The place is popular with youngsters. On Friday night, the crowd was immense, thousands of people outside looking at the action on the stage over a giant outdoor scre...

make-up for the Gods, smoke for inspiration Fela came from a well-off family of Abeokuta. Soon after Nigeria was made independent, he went to England to study music at Trinity College, classical music at first and soon turned to jazz. He played there with a band called the Koola Lobitos which was fairly successful in the clubs in London in the early sixties. He went back to Nigeria and recreated his band, gathered influence from James Brown, highlife music and developed a musical style progressively known as Afrobeat. His band was renamed Nigeria 70 at the beginning of the 70's He travelled to the US on tour and was introduced by Sandra Izsadore to the conditions of black americans and the black liberation movements with the politics of Malcolm X among others. Upon his return to Nigeria, he became more active politically. He set-up a recording studio called Kalakuta republic and a night-club not too far called the Shrine. He was opposing to the rule of Generals who had po...

Happy New Year! New Year's Day in Lagos, what can one do? Going to the beach is obviously an option. The sun shines as usual and this is where many of us are going to have a good time. so let's do it! The day will go by easy, for most, while some will go the extra mile to have fun. Acrobats taking advantage of the piles of dead plants that invaded the lagoon in the past few weeks, some kind of water jacinth, to jump and do saltos. wishing you a safe landing this year Some will play football with the tenue de rigueur ( yours underpants must be clearly visible above your shorts). it's cool to show you're wearing underpants Some others will prefer a warm bath at sunset. taking a happy dip In any case don't neglect your style. flower power