Over the past few months, we have seen Nigerian artists, fashion accessories and ideal become the toast of foreign media conversations. In 2018 alone, Nigerian artists featured on foreign media publications probably than any year before then.
Superstar, Davido featured on legendary Power 105.1, New York music and culture show, The Breakfast Club; several Nigerian artists became the toast of Fader and Complex US and Complex UK; TheNativeMag had an article feature on Complex UK’s list of the best articles of 2018 and so forth.
Equally, after the success of Burna Boy’s 2018 smash, ‘Ye’, the song gained incredible representation and topped year-end lists by Passion Weiss and OkayPlayer. Two years prior, Wizkid got a spot with Ebro Darden on Hot 97. The list rolls on, detailing the representation of Nigerian artists, introducing us to the world.
In the same year, Nigerian dance, Shaku Shaku became a featured celebratory dance on the NBA2K19 video game with a brilliant motion grab that perfectly captures the dance.
How the obsession has now gotten to Nigeria
Legends like King Sunny Ade, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and others were signed by foreign labels to fill the void left by the death of Bob Marley. The experiments yielded mixed results. Majek Fashek gave it another shot when he got signed to Interscope in the late 80s. The story of Majek Fashek is more of a cautionary tale on drugs than the success of blowing up a Nigerian act on the world stage.
After the collapse of the music scene in the early to mid 90s, things picked up in the late 90s.
This renaissance was symbolized by, 2Face Idibia’s smash, African Queen was a soundtrack on the American comedy, Phat Girls. 2face Idibia also had a collaboration with the troubled legend, R. Kelly and T-Pain featured on a song with rapper, Freestyle and then, 2Face Idibia.
The inflection point was when D’Banj and the now defunct Mo’Hits Records became affiliated with Kanye West and GOOD Music. D’Banj’s ‘Oliver Twist’ charted at Number eight on the UK singles charts. Then came the international media and hence the Afrobeats narrative was created and packaged to the world.
Western obsession with Nigerian culture since 2016
Coinciding with the lesser western obsession with the UK Grime and Drill scenes, Nigerian is popping; we know it. The internet era we live in is driven by numbers, virality and noise. Thus, nobody wants to be left out of the conversation, so everybody has been finding a ‘unique’ angle to get a taste of the Nigerian honey-pot.
It’s understandable that money must be made and these media people must be part of an organization. It is also understandable that the exposure will be positive for Nigeria, but some of these media platforms have simply been making a hash of Nigerian culture stories.
The most terrible one remains the Vogue feature than implied Nigerian singer, Wavy the Creator was the artist behind the Shaku Shaku anthem when she was only biting off the movement. The Rolling Stone article on Davido could also have been better.
In the same vein, the New York Times piece on the underground Nigerian rock scene - especially Gothic rock made then seem like the pioneers of Nigerian rock bands when they were 70’s rock bands mainly from South-Eastern Nigerian that toured Europe.
Like that was not enough, the dastardly 2017 article by Vice on the supposed ‘DIY’ fashion of Lagos youth was a dire exploitation of the Nigerian alte scene and the avant-garde they stand for. I literally saw a human being wearing a Shoprite nylon for skirt. Even worse, those models look Kenyan, not Nigerian.
As Pulse music writer, Ehis Ohunyon put it earlier today, “As much as these positives are compelling as it presents a win-win situation for the artists and the industry as a whole, there are a few dark spots that perhaps should not be overlooked.”
Foreign media needs to do better
First, foreign media needs to stop quit the posturing and milking for relevance, to not seem backward in the race to get something done in Nigeria – we appreciate the representation, but they need to stop the misrepresentation of facts and the limitation to elites in documenting Nigerian culture stories.
The heartbeat of Nigerian culture is the inner-city, away from Lagos Island camaraderie and fistful avant-garde shows and parties. The truth on Nigerian culture as in Ghana or South African is formed by the lower middle class to the lower class Nigerian citizens, who stay in the semi-ghettos and the ghettos of Lagos and other major Nigerian cities that represent culture.
If you want to document Nigerian culture, you must ask the right people the right questions, not the people you feel could have the answers. You must stop the assumption and broaden the range and social standing of people you ask the major question in Nigeria.
For example, Zlatan has arguably been the hottest Nigerian rapper over the past four months in Nigeria, but somehow, nobody has been featured him, because he’s not from Lekki or other bougie parts of Lagos – representation has to be true, not partial.
The only way foreign media can ever tell Nigerian culture stories is by research; at the moment, they seem to ignorant to get anything right. Even worse, they seem too eager to be a part of the conversation that write compelling truths. They need to understand that Nigeria is more than Lagos Island; Lekki and Ikoyi.
They need to be vertical in their research and evaluation; they need to work harder to understand how to assimilate what goes on, not just accost any artist and ask him or her to feature on a huge publication. Of course, he or she wouldn’t reject the exposure and whatever the foreign publication calls him or her.
The writing and authenticity of what they write also has to improve. Enough of the fake empathy and corny adulation of uniqueness and avant-garde concepts.
Credit to DJBooth’s feature on Santi and the Nigeria Alte movement, we need more of that. It also behooves the modern Nigerian media to tell some of these stories. If they won’t tell our stories, we should tell our stories.