Dr. Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and I did exactly the same thing as teenagers. We would wake up in the middle of the night to sing around the city waking people up to pray and prepare ramadan meals. We called it "were" music, basically chanting, with one drum and sekere. I was the sekere man, and a lead chanter. You needed a minimum of three people, but more boys is better for voice power. As boys would always fight over dividing the proceeds, the bigger the team, the bigger the fight, but hours later, no one would remember any fight. Parents were split over what their kids should do, and many opted for crafts and apprenticeship, while only a few went to secondary schools. I went to school but also learnt masonry. Then the Civil War came, and most of my age-mates were recruited into a hurriedly built army both on Biafra and the so-called Federal side. Just walk to Mokola, say you are 18, and that would be the last time that your parents would see you. Sikiru, my dear brother, joined the army on the federal side (I hate this "federal" label!), and began our art in the army. He later left the army and became a full-time musician, becoming the preeminent Fuji star, the definer of a new genre. Unparalleled, unmatched, peerless, he and Kollington Ayinla were bitter competitors…..more later. A transformational figure, I will ask him some hard questions in the next world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=413KJ-Hm9ek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU3UIByb1XA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV_fuGJ0xEA
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