Moofy's "Sauti na" feat. Buzo Danfillo

My friend, rapper Buzo Danfillo just sent me this video of singer Moofy's "Sauti na" that he features on. I haven't heard any of Moofy's music before, but I love her voice. It's a really fresh sound, quite different from the usual auto-tuned "nanaye." Enjoy.

Mo Sabri - I Believe In Jesus (lyrics)

Here is a song I have been completely obsessed with tonight, after I read this article "Muslims who Follow Jesus" by Carl Medearis. He highlights the music video "I believe in Jesus," by Muslim Pakistani-American musician Mo Sabri, which points to the many similarities in the way that Muslims and Christians think about Jesus. The most important thing, he says, is not the differences in belief but that we are following him.

I was so touched by this song--seriously, I am filled with joy whenever I watch it--that I transcribed the lyrics, which you can find below the embedded video.

You can follow Mo Sabri on Facebook and on Twitter.


a

Mo Sabri: “I believe in Jesus.”

“The angels said, ‘O Mary, indeed God gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name shall be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary.’” Surah Al-Imran, Verse 45

Verse 1:

This ain’t a song about bottles in the club

This is about a role model filled with love.

A teacher, a preacher, with guidance from above,

Sent to represent a message of peace, like a dove.

In the West, they call him Jesus, in the East they call him Isa,

Messiah, Christ, the same person that you speak of.

Ask me why I wrote this song, and I will tell you because

There’s too many people silent, it’s time for me to speak out.

The son of a virgin, they say it is illogical, probably improbable, but God made it possible.

Gabriel told Mary that her son would be phenomenal,

His voice was always audible, the opposite of prodigal,

He overcame the obstacles, people attacking him. He was a walking hospital,

with heathen he was compassionate.

He healed the sick, raised the dead. Shout out to Lazarus.  I’m talkin’ about Jesus of Nazareth.

Chorus:

If we don’t have peace, we’ll end up in pieces.

Treat people the way that you want to be treated.  

If you do believe it, sing it and repeat it.

I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Nananananana, Nanananana, I believe in Jesus. Nanananana, Nanananana I believe in Jesus.

Verse 2:

Ah, I’m just a follower of Jesus.

What that means is I follow what he teaches.

I’m not the type of person that just wants to give speeches.

I’m trying to be the person that will practice what he preaches.

Yeah, cause I’ve observed people just say the words.

But faith in him now is more like a verb. That’s why I wrote this verse.

To remind us to serve. Cause if you haven’t heard, faith is dead without works.

How can we say we believe that God exists when we always act the opposite.

It’s ominous, how we only care about our own accomplishments,

and we’re quick to break our promises. We got to put a stop to this.

We all sin. I know that we are human.

But we cannot keep  on using the same excuses.

Now is the time  we need to prevent the abuses.

Listen up, I got the solution.

Chorus:

If we don’t have peace, we’ll end up in pieces.

Treat people the way  that you want to be treated.  

If you do believe it, sing it and repeat it.

I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Nananananana, Nanananana, I believe in Jesus. Nanananana,  Nanannana, I believe in Jesus.

Verse 3:

Why does our religion always have to cause division?

In reality, we’re all more similar than different.

Jesus wanted unity, but nowadays it’s missin’. 

We gotta use our vision if we want to do his mission.

Can’t you see we’re all children of Adam, brothers and sisters.

If you don’t agree, you haven’t read the scriptures.

Picture when Jesus comes back to Jerusalem.

Will he be happy with the way you’ve become?

We’re livin’ wrong. But today’s a new dawn.

So sing along to this song like David singing the psalms.  

Now raise up your arms to give alms with open palms.

Cause Jesus brought a message, let’s follow it till we’re gone.

Shout out to my dad and mom for blessing me in my youth.

God’s insistent proof that his message is the truth.

This song is just a lesson to remind me and you,

to ask ourselves this question, “What would Jesus do?”

Chorus:

 If we don’t have peace, we’ll end up in pieces.

Treat people the way  that you want to be treated.  

If you do believe it, sing it and repeat it.

I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Jesus. I believe in Jesus. I am not afraid to say that I believe in Jesus.

Nananananana, Nanananana, I believe in Jesus. Nanananana,  Nanannana, I believe in Jesus.

Skit:

Mo Sabri: Hey man, you forgot your wallet

Man (that looks like Jesus): Wow. Thanks. Why did you come all this way to give it to me.

Mo Sabri: Man, I just want to treat people the way I want to be treated. What made you do all those good deeds earlier?

Man (that looks like Jesus) : Man I just try to live my life according to the way Jesus lived his.

Mo Sabri: That’s awesome man, I believe in Jesus.

Man (that looks like Jesus): That’s tight man, I had no idea. Tell me more.

Chika Unigwe's novel On Black Sister's Street wins the NLNG Prize

The Nigerian Liquified Gas Limited (NLNG) Prize has just announced that Chika Unigwe's novel On Black Sisters Street: A Novel (Modern African Writing Series)
 has just won the $100,000 literary prize.

Premium Times writes: 

Chika Unigwe,  a Nigerian writer based in Belgium, has won the NLNG  sponsored Nigerian prize for Literature, 2012.

Ms. Unigwe was announced winner of the literary award on Thursday 1 November at a world press conference held at the Ocean View Restaurant in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Chika won for her novel, On Black Sisters Street.

“What is striking about Chika Unigwe’s novel is the compassion that informs it,” Abiola Irele, chairman of Judges for the prize said.

[...]

Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Nigeria, and now lives in Turnhout, Belgium, with her husband and four children.

She is the first foreign based Nigerian writer to win the NLNG prize which was hitherto reserved for locally based Nigerian writers.

I have not yet read the novel but just ordered two copies on Amazon (one for me, one as a gift!). The novel describes the lives of  four African women who are lured to Belgium in hopes of a better life but end up working as sex workers in Antwerp. 

Unigwe did more than just library research on the lives of sex workers. In this interview with Black Voices, she describes the "participant observation" ethnography she did to be able to understand the lives of these women:

BV: You were so curious about the lifestyle that you bought clothes and thigh-high boots and spent two years among women in the red-light district. What was that like? Would you do it again and would you recommend it for others? 
CU: I spent two years researching and writing the novel. I went to the women because I had no idea about their lives as prostitutes, and because I wanted to know what it felt like to walk those cobbled streets of the red-light district. I wanted to feel what it was like as a woman to be on that street, and to be looked at as a possible worker. It was only by doing that that I could somehow, in a very small way, inhabit the skin of my characters and write them truthfully. It was awkward at the beginning. Would I recommend it to others? I think as long as one is comfortable doing it, that sort of research helps more than any literature.

On Black Sister's Street beat out two other novels on the short list: Olusola Olugbesa's Only A Canvas, which unfortunately, no one I know knows how to get a hold of, and Ngozi Achebe's Onaedo - The Blacksmith's Daughter

An NLNG press release on the short list (I have not yet seen a press release about the winning novel) describes the jury who made the choice:

The chairman of the panel of judges is Prof. Francis Abiola Irele, Provost of the College of Humanities at the Kwara State University and Fellow of the Dubois Institute, Harvard University.  Other members of the panel are Prof. Angela Miri, Head of the English Department at the University of Jos, Prof. Sophia Ogwude, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at University of Abuja, Prof J O J Nwachukwu-Agbada, Professor of African Literature in the Department of English, Abia State University and Dr. Oyeniyi Okunoye, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and a Section Editor of Postcolonial Text, a journal affiliated to the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. 
Other members of the Advisory Board, besides Professor Emeritus Ayo Banjo, are Dr. Jerry Agada, former President of Association of Nigerian Authors and Prof. Ben Elugbe, President, Nigeria Academy of Letters.

To learn more about Chika Unigwe, who writes in both English and Dutch, check out her website. She is the author of six other novels, and many other works of short fiction. You can also read her first reactions to the prize in several lovely interviews: Elnathan John interviews her for Daily Times. Abubakar Adam Ibrahim interviews her for Weekly Trust. And Uche Umez interviews her on her favourite books for his blog.

You can purchase On Black Sister's Street on Amazon here: 

A Kindle version of the book is also available here: 

Amazon also sells two other titles that include her short fiction:

and

If you are interested in the nine other books longlisted for the NLNG, I've copied a list (quoted from an NLNG press release) below, as well as links to those available on Amazon. I hope the longlisting will help give publicity to those books published in Nigeria and which are yet not available online. Maybe a publisher who has access to Kindle will buy the rights?

The list, in alphabetical order of the authors' surnames, is as follows:

1. Ngozi Achebe Onaedo: The Blacksmith's Daughter
2. Ifeanyi Ajaegbo Sarah House
3. Jude Dibia Blackbird
4. Vincent Egbuson Zhero
5. Adaobi Tricia Nwuban I Do Not Come to You by Chance
6. Onuora Nzekwu Troubled Dust
7. Olusola Olugbesan Only a Canvas
8. Lola Shoneyin The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives
9. E E Sule Sterile Sky
10. Chika Unigwe On Black Sister's Street

Ngozi Achebe's Onaedo--The Blacksmith's Daughter. I have just started reading this, and it looks like the sort of historical fiction I devoured as a high schooler. I'm looking forward to reading more!




Ifeanyi Ajaegbo's Sarah House is available on Kindle, but I was not able to access a link to the cover. Ajaegbo was the winner of the 2005 African Region Prize for the Commonwealth short story competition.


I haven't yet read Jude Dibia's Blackbird, but it is currently sitting on my bookshelf, as one of my to-read books. I have, however, read his striking Walking With Shadows , one of the first Nigerian novels I've read that deals with LGBT issues (though there were a few that preceded it, notably Al-khamees Bature's Hausa novel Matsayin Lover that has a few lesbian charachters, and a story in Labo Yari's collection A House in the Dark (Heart to heart) "Cavalier of the Plain," which very obliquely presents several lesbian charachters. Lola Shoneyin's novel, The Secret Lives of the Four Wives: A Novel
 also longlisted for the NLNG prize this year also presents a charachter with same sex desires.

Vincent Egbuson's Zhero  is listed at Goodreads here. I found it for sale on MaryMartin.com, but I can't vouch for the reliability of the vendor.

Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's I Do Not Come to You by Chance actually beat out Chika Unigwe's On Black Sister's Street in 2010 to win one of the Commonwealth Prize, Africa region prizes in 2010. I Do Not Come to You by Chance is a hilarious, though thought-provoking, novel that takes you behind the scenes of Nigeria's famous 419 scams. I highly recommend!

I couldn't find Onuora Nzekwu's Troubled Dust for sale online, but it was also listed on Goodreads. Tribune has an article about the launch of Troubled Dust, and you can read an interview with the author on Bivnze's Space.

Likewise, I could only find Olusola Olugbesan's shortlisted novel Only a Canvas, on Goodreads. His facebook page, however, describes where you can find the novel:

The book is one of the 15 nominees for The Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa 2012 & one of the LAST 3 FINALISTS of the NLNG PRIZE FOR NIGERIAN LITERATURE 2012. Book Available @ MOSURO PUBLISHERS. 5 Oluware Obasa Street, Bodija,PO BOX 30201, Ibadan,Nigeria. Tel: 0803-322-9113. E-mail: mosuro@skannet.com

Without having read any of the shortlisted novels, I think Lola Shoneyin's stunning novel The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives deserved to make the short list. I just read this novel last week, and I had to sit down and just think for about two hours after I finished reading. It alternates first and third person narrative to tell the intertwined stories of a polygamous household. It's one of the best novels I've read this year.

In 2008, I had the privilege to read an early draft of E.E. Sule's novel Sterile Sky, a coming of age tell of a young boy growing up in Kano amidst ethnic and religious crisis. I just got a copy two weeks ago and am looking forward to re-reading it and seeing how Sule developed and polished it before it was published in the new African Writer's series.

Amazon-ing my blog

I have long resisted monetizing any of my blogs, mostly because the ads seemed to make the blogs look cheap and crappy. However, tonight I did a little bit more exploration and realized that I could link to Amazon for books and films I am already talking about on my blog and get a 4% commission from any book bought by clicking through my blog (as long as it was bought within 24 hours). As I am in the last agonizing year of my dissertation and on a tight budget, the idea of getting a little income for something I already do, whether blogging or freelance seems like a good idea to me. I've added what I find to be a rather attractive slideshow of some of my favourite books/movies/music at the top and bottom of this blog, as well as a "my favourites" widget. If you find the slideshow to be annoying, you can just click on pause and it will stop scrolling. And as I have time, I might go through and put in amazon links to books and films that I've reviewed in previous posts. (Update: I've also started working on a "bookshelf", that shows off some of my favourite books and provides links to them.)

I also run a wordpress blog, which i post on more often, but they don't allow advertising, so I might have to start posting more often here on this long neglected one!

Anyway, dear reader--if there are any dear readers left--I hope the monetization of the blog doesn't annoy you, and if you do see a book you have been wanting to read displayed here, clicking through and buying on Amazon will give me 4% of what you pay!

Cheers, T-C

Here is an experiment on linking to a book, African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory
, a really useful anthology I have been using a lot as I write.

Lil Wayne - How To Love [Official Music Video]

sad, beautiful, it made me cry....

I often complain about the "NGO aesthetics" of what scholar Jane Bryce has called "donor films"--the sort of didactic "message oriented" films you see made on HIV prevention, VVF, and other social ills. I was speculating the other day, that the predominance of such films makes it very difficult to deal with serious issues like HIV in creative ways that don't turn off any audience who have seen and heard the message a hundred times before.

I don't know the background of Lil Wayne's music video, How To Love,

and whether there was any NGO involved in it. I doubt it, but I think filmmakers working with "donor" agendas could learn something from it. Perhaps there's something about the emotional punch of the short form of the music video, the expectation of sexy context from Lil Wayne, and the uncontrived sincerity in it that catches you unaware. There is a message here, but it feels more like "truth" than "propaganda", and I can watch it over and over again.

soyeyya [love] by XDOGGinit

My current music video obsession. I think this may be one of the best Hausa-language music videos I have ever seen. The camera-work is great, and the story is well-told, and the rap beat is so catchy I have been listening to it non-stop since yesterday. Interestingly, this was apparently made in 2006 (which you can tell if you know the Kannywood stars featured--who have aged somewhat since the making of the video), but only just uploaded to youtube a few months ago. The Hausa is a bit non-standard (the use of danmama, danbaba, instead of yar for a girl) but exciting all the same. X-Dogg init is definitely a musician to keep an eye out for.

blocked

blocked, blocked, blocked, blocked, got up at 5am to write. nepa went off just as i realized i hadn't boiled water for tea to wake me up. stared at my screen and dozed between words. finally curled up on the couch with my feet on two stacked bound volumes of newspapers and my head in the deep hole in my couch and slept off with my laptop blinking and purring beside me. (thank God for my investment in an inverter and battery). woke up and decided to read a few more documents from the censorship board, three chapters for the ur-text on northern nigerian cinema culture by B.L. 11:42am haven't written anything. wishing i could do everything everyone wants me to do for them, wishing i could do everything i want to do, no duties, and instead doing nothing but read. sometimes reading helps me start writing. in this case, it just makes me wonder if i can ever write anything so long and so elegant and so beautifully cited, with theory interwoven throughout the historical detail.

i try to remind myself of the sermon in hausa i heard yesterday, "perfect love drives out fear." yesterday it was comforting, inspiring, left me with a glow throughout the day. now i just feel guilty. i do not love [this topic? myself? God? my lost love? my department? my friends whom i am disappointing by refusing to go out and visit?] perfectly, therefore i fear. i fear writing. i fear disappointing. i fear not meeting a deadline.

nonsense.

i do not fear writing. i love writing--this sort of meandering spiel, for example--the reason i started this blog back when i was writing my (awful) masters thesis. i can naval gaze through typing all day long and gain a lot of insight from it. i fear academic writing. the necessary perfection of it. the craft of it. the "jobness" of it. if this article were a blog post, I would be done with it by now, and with a million links and photos too. And probably hundreds of more people would read it than will read this book chapter.

enough kvetching, i've wound out some of the tension in my head. back to the article.

it's on censorship. and perhaps i should try getting myself to write by just not censoring myself. this is not an article for publication, i will lie to myself, it is a blog post that people can google at midnight. i can edit it out later.

Blogger Nostalgia

I spent more time than I really had this evening reading back over old blog posts from this blog. I miss it. I miss writing everything that I am thinking in diary fashion, a lot of which was boring but which sometimes turned up jewels of observation and description. I miss working through my thesis and my thoughts on this blog as if it were a workbook. I miss writing about random walks, the sleepless nights before travelling, about my childhood and my friends. I miss the blogging community and the other bloggers who would often leave comments here: Christian Writer, Teju, Texter, Toks-boy, Jeremy, even the gadfly Fred, and all the others. I miss the satisfaction that this blog brought, and the feeling that even if I was procrastinating something by writing here, that I was building up an archive that I could look back on, in dry spells, for inspiration. And I was right. It has been.

My attention has been taken over by my professional blog, with my real name. I can't write that one off the top of my head with little editing as I did this one (I've let it go too long without an update too, because I can't stand the thought of the hours it will take to properly update), and the damnable addiction of facebook, which has grown too large and too demanding and too invasive--yet i still can't leave it alone. Both forums lack the intimacy and playfulness of this blog that I began in the days when the Nigerian blogging community was just beginning and was still small and affectionate and not as glossy as it is now.

This is the way our lives progress. I now write for money, and am beginning (the key word is *beginning* here) to crank out academic publications. People now write my public email address with comments on my writing and "like" (I blush) my public facebook page. These things, too, are satisfying, but perhaps just as temporal as this blog. The next hurdle on my horizon is finishing the dissertation (in partial requirement for the PhD), which should have been done last year, or now, and perhaps I should return more frequently here as I try to write, much as I did when I was writing my MA thesis.

I miss anonymity. That is, perhaps, the major reason I do not write here as often. This blog has become too visible. Too linked to my public persona. I would say "I can't just kvetch here anymore" but I suppose that is what I am doing. Kvetching. Publically. Some would say "whining." For no good reason.

Many of my blogging friends from the days when I was regularly keeping this up have taken down their blogs, others let them lie fallow. Some of them have become famous authors, who have gotten rave reviews in world presses and nominated for major awards. Others write, now, for money too. But I can't bear to take this blog down. I let it remain, an archive, the place I file youtube videos I like, and my occasional outlet to write things that are not academic and are not professional--to write little rants and creative bits and bobs that fit nowhere else but here.

This space comforts me. I think I will come back more often.

Patience

Music video by Nas & Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley performing Patience. (C) 2010 Universal Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.

speechless.... incredibly beautiful on multiple levels....

Ice prince ft Brymo - Oleku (naija music 2010)

A song worth obsessing over. I've loved this Ice Prince song since I first heard it. An American journalist currently visiting Nigeria for the first time, just sent it to me again telling me how obsessed she was with the song. She also googled the lyrics, which can be read here. She was surprised (as I am) at the dismissive tone of a bjmighty on the nairaland thread who said "Just normal rhyming. He can do better."

Naija-people, sometimes we don't appreciate what we have, until someone from the outside points it out to us.

flame

fire flared fierce, then flickered down to a warm steady flame, a light that glimmers through cracks in clay, feeds on air and dust, faith, hope, and love, when wick and wax is gone.

#Jan25 Egypt - Omar Offendum, The Narcicyst, Freeway, Ayah, Amir Sulaima...

I should go to bed tonight, but I am obsessed with Egypt.

Here is a video that has been going around: #Jan25 Egypt. On YouTube, the notes read:

"Inspired by the resilience of Egyptian people during their recent uprising, several notable musicians from North America have teamed up to release a song of solidarity and empowerment. The track is fittingly titled “#Jan25″ as a reference to both the date the protests officially began in Egypt, and its prominence as a trending topic on Twitter. Produced by Sami Matar, a Palestinian-American composer from Southern California, and featuring the likes of Freeway, The Narcicyst, Omar Offendum, HBO Def Poet Amir Sulaiman, and Canadian R&B vocalist Ayah – this track serves as a testament to the revolution’s effect on the hearts and minds of today’s youth, and the spirit of resistance it has come to symbolize for oppressed people worldwide."

It begins

First they ignore you.

Then they laugh at you.

Then they fight you.

Then you win.

The song was apparently posted on YouTube a few days ago, but, as music and art so often is, it was prescient, confident of success, yet reflective on the anxieties of revolution: “We know freedom is the answer, the only question is, ‘Who’s Next?’

Requiem for Sazzy: Mr Chairman Music Video

A few months ago, I posted Sazzy's video "Doubt" that was obsessing so much that I must have hit replay for at least two hours. He was no doubt one of the most talented of the up and coming musicians in Nigeria.

Sazzy passed away on October 23, 2010. He had sickle cell anemia, but his friends point to the negligence of the doctor as a major contribution of his death.

When I watched this final video posted by Sazzy's friend, music-video director, and co-founder of Intersection media, Korex Calibur, I was overcome with both sadness and a strange excitement. The song is brilliant. The video is brilliant and evidence of how much we would have had to look forward to if he had lived.

Respect, Mr. Chairman. We will miss you.



To buy the mix-cd "The Take Over" put out by Sazzy and DJ Atte in June of this year (which also features Ziriums, whom I have written about before) , see NotJustOk.com.

Scrap of a myth--Draft 1

snake locked

and stone eyed, she guards

her lonely island. Stop

your ears, escape

with splintered oars.

Her song is not for you.

FDNY paramedic and rapper Farooq Muhammad reminds people to "Call 911"

I have been feeling a little homesick/nostalgic for Brooklyn recently, and this video, which I found when googling for "street medicine" after an inspiring meeting with street medicine pioneer Dr. Jim Withers yesterday (the public affairs section of the US embassy brought him to Nigeria to give several talks about his medical work with homeless populations in the US), hit the spot. The video reminded me of what I loved about New York, and also makes me think of my sister who worked as a paramedic for several years before starting medical school.

This music video was apparently made in 2009, but I love how, in the midst of all the shrill controversy about the supposed "Ground Zero" mosque, the presence of a rapping paramedic, Farooq Muhammad, who grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn, reminds an audience that there are millions of Muslim Americans, many of whom who are as passionate about being good citizens and helping people, if not more so, than their cynical and ignorant "haterz." A New York Daily News article on Farooq mentions that he was one of the firefighters dispatched to the World Trade Centre on "9-11:

Muhammad has been with the FDNY for 14 years, and was at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Like a lot of emergency responders, he went down that day to help out, and ended up getting trampled when people fled the buildings.

He says the videos are not a way out of the department to a new line of work. He loves the job, he says. As he raps in the video, "I'd do it for free."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/02/2010-06-02_paramedicturnedrapper_turns_to_youtube_to_promote_music_videos_about_ems_unit.html#ixzz10XgtUdeK

Enjoy...

Poetry that touches the deepest part of me

From Rabindranath Tagore's The Gardener

61.
Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet.
Let it not be a death but completeness.
Let love melt into memory and pain into songs.
Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings over the nest.
Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night.
Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment, and say your last words in silence.
I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.

62.
In the dusky path of a dream I went to seek the love who was mine in a former life.

Her house stood at the end of a desolate street.

In the evening breeze her pet peacock sat drowsing on its perch, and the pigeons were silent in their corner.

She set her lamp down by the portal and stood before me.

She raised her large eyes to my face and mutely asked, "Are you well, my friend?" I tried to answer, but our language had been lost and forgotten.

I thought and thought; our names would not come to my mind.

Tears shone in her eyes. She held up her right hand to me. I took it and stood silent.

Our lamp had flickered in the evening breeze and died.

--

And a John Rutter piece from the Choir Boys:



The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face to shine upon you
To shine upon you and be gracious
And be gracious unto you (X2)

The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you,
The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you,
And give you peace, and give you peace;
And give you peace, and give you peace;

Amen, Amen, Amen
Amen, Amen, Amen

from the priestly blessing in Leviticus (here sung in Hebrew):

‎"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." Numbers 6:24-26 (NIV)

Sazzy - Doubt

I usually have a more ideological reason for liking music/music videos, but I after hitting replay on this one at least ten times, I'm posting this one because I find it very groovable. Enjoy. Sazzy's "Doubt"

ZIRIUMS: THIS IS ME Music Video

Readers may remember my earlier posts on the Hausa hiphop artist Ziriums, who was interviewed on CNN, and who wrote the scathing song "Girgiza Kai," which was later banned by the Kano State Government.

Now based in Abuja, Ziriums started out recording with Intersection's S. Solar and T-Rex in "Government Money" and also on a Yoye track (no video) "If you no Like My Music." Ziriums now has a hot new single video "This is Me." His "twisting" in Hausa has a punch that isn't quite comparable with anything else in contemporary Nigerian hiphop, and I suspect it will take him far. For more on Ziriums, see his My Space Page. (UPDATE 2 September 2010. Ziriums also now has a YouTube Channel. To listen to and buy Zirium's other songs or his entire album, This is Me, see the links to the album on itunes, myspace, and amazon [below].)

(see below the video for my very rough rendition of the lyrics)

“THIS IS ME” (Thank you to Ziriums for providing me with the lyrics in Hausa of the first two verses. He and Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu did the translation of the third. I'm also grateful to Osama bin Music, Zirium's brother who helped me correct a few of the lines My translation is very basic and flawed, and corrections are welcome. )

INTRO:

ASSALAMU ALAIKUM – ASSALAMU ALAIKUM

YARA KU FITO HIP HOP,

Kids come out to the Hiphop

MANYA KU FITO HIP HOP

Big guys come out to the hiphop

YARA KU FITO HIP HOP,

Kids come out to the Hiphop

MANYA KU FITO HIP HOP

Big guys come out to the hiphop

CHORUS:

THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4

NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4

(This is me, Ziriums)

RAP 1:

BA’KO BABU SALLAMA MUGUNE KU BIYO SHI DA ‘KOTA,

The guest who does not greet with sallama is evil, chase him away with a stick.

NI NA AJE GARIYO DA ADDA NA DAU ‘KOTA TA MIC,

I dropped my javelin and my machet, I took up the mic

DA FARI SUNANA NAZIR

To start with my name is Nazir

BN AHMAD HAUSAWA LUNGUN KWARGWAN

Bn Ahmad Hausawa from Kwargwan neighborhood

YAYAN OSAMA BN MUSIC

Big brother of Osama bin Music

AH’ SHUGABAN TALIBAN NA HIP HOP A K-TOWN

Head of the Taliban of Hiphop in K-town

REVOLUTION ZAN NA MUSIC NA ANNABI SAY ALRIGHT (ALRIGHT x3)

It’s a music revolution. All who know the Prophet, Say Alright (Alright x3)

NINE INNOVATOR NA RAPPING DA ZAURANCE TWISTING DA HAUSA

I am the innovator of rapping with twisting in Hausa.

NINE MAI SUNA BIYAR TSOFFI SU KIRANI DA ‘DAN TALA

I am the one with the the five names, the old folks call me hawker

MANYA SU KIRANI MUHAMMADU HAJIYATA TA KIRANI TACE NAZIR,

Other grown-ups call me Muhammadu, Hajiya (my mom) calls me Nazir

NIGGAS SU KIRANI DA ZIRIUMS

The Niggas call me Ziriums

SANNAN ÝAN MATAN GARI IDAN SUN GANNI SUCE NAZIRKHAN

Then the girls of the town if they see me, they say Nazir Khan

TO DUK KU KIRANI DA ZIRIUMS (ZIRIUMS. NI NE ZIRIUMS, ZIRIUMS)

TO, all of you call me Ziriums. (Ziriums. I’m Ziriums. Ziriums)

SUNCE WAI BA ZAN IYABA LA’ÁNANNU MASU HALIN TSIYA

They say I “supposedly” I can’t do it, that’s what the spiteful gossips say.

‘DARA ‘DAIRI YA ‘DIRU ‘DAIRA HATTA ZANANTU ALLAN YA HURA (BALA)

A little bigger circle, he jumps to a circle [CHECK] (Bala)

KOMAI NISAN JIFA ‘KASA ZAI FA’DO KAJI TIIIIIIM

Everything that goes up, will come down, you hear me Tiiiim

YAU GAREKA GOBE GA SOMEBODY,MAI LAYA KIYAYI MAI ZAMANI-AH

Today it is your time, but tomorrow somebody better will come along.

CHORUS:

THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4

NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4

(This is me, Ziriums)

CHORUS

RAP 2:

IM HUSTLING TAMKAR ‘DAN ACA’BA DARE RANA HAR SAFIYA

I’m hustling like a d’an achaba (motorcycle taxi driver), night and day, until the morning

DAMINA SANYI DA RANI DA DARI HIP HOP NI NAKE SO

In the time of the cool rains and in the hot season and in the night, it’s hiphop that I love

I WILL NEVER RETIRE NEVER GET TIRED,ÇOS IM ROLLING LIKE A TYRE

I will never retire, never get tired, cause I’m rolling like a tyre

GABA DAI GABA DAI MAZAJE NA HIP HOP(SAI MAZAJE NA HIP HOP)

Go on go on all you hiphop guys (you hiphop guys)

DUKIYA MAI ‘KAREWACE,MULKI MAI SHU’DEWANE,HANYA MAI YANKEWACE

Wealth comes to an end, power passes away, the road is cut off

SAI MUN HA’DU CAN FILIN ‘KIYAMA ANAN NE ZAKACI ‘KWAL UBANKA

Let’s meet there in the place of Judgment, there you’ll suffer like you’ve never suffered before

BA ÝAN SANDA BA JINIYA-GA ‘DAN BANZAN GO-SLOW

No police to escort you, no siren, you’ll see a terrible go-slow

CAN GEFE GUDA WALAKIRI DA SANDA MAI ‘KAYA KAI MISTAKE YA TUMURMUSAKA

There to the side the angel of hell with a rod of thorns, if you make a mistake he’ll beat you stiff.

SANNAN DUKKAN GA’B’BAN JIKINKA DUKA SUNE ZASU BABBADA SHAIDA

Then all the joints of your body, all of them will give testimony

RANAR BABU P.A DA LAWYER BALLE ÝAN BANGAR SIYASAGGA MASU

That day there will be no P.A., no laywer, much less those gangsters of politicans who

SHIGA GIDAN REDIYO SUYI ‘KARYA DAN ANBASU NAIRA,

Go into the radio house and lie to get naira (money)

INZAKA FA’DI FA’DI GASKIYA KOMAI TAKA JAMAKA KA BIYA

If you’re going to say something, tell the truth, in everything walk in the way of your forebearers

ALLAH BAIMIN KARFIN JIKIBA BALLE IN TAREKA IN MAKURE

God didn’t give me a strong body, much less a body builder’s neck,

AMMA YAIMIN KAIFIN BAKINDA HAR YA WUCE REZA A KAIFI

But he gave me a sharp mouth, sharper than a razor.

YES I’M SAYING IT.

Yes, I’m saying it.

CHORUS:

THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4

NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4

(This is me, Ziriums)

Third Verse

(translated by Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu (to the part about Dala Rock), after that it is translated by Ziriums, himself. Both Ziriums and Prof sent the translations to Alex Johnson and Saman Piracha for a documentary on Hausa hiphop, Recording a Revolution. Translations used by permission of filmmakers. I’ve made a few very small edits to both translations for a more informal feel)

CAN NA GANO FACE MAI SIFFAR LARABAWA

Then I saw a face like an Arab beauty

NA CE MATA ZO TA TAKA

I said to her, come on let’s dance

TA CE BA TA TAKU DA TAKALMI

She said she doesn’t dance with her shoes on.

SAI DAI IN TA TAKA A SANNU

But she will dance slowly

TATTAKA A SANNU

(Go ahead) dance slowly

AMMA KUMA KAR KI GIRGIZA

But don’t shake your body

DOMIN IN KI KA GIRGIZA

Because if you shake your body

RUWAN KOGI ZAI AMBALIYA

There will be a flood

SAI BARNA TA WUCE TSUNAMI

More destructive than Tsunami

HAR DUTSEN DALA YA TARWATSE

Which will destroy Dala Rock.

(From here translation by Ziriums)

TATTAKA KI TAKA RAWAR DON TAKU KI TAKE TEKU,

Dance, Dance my type of dance, so light you dance on the ocean-top

TAKE TAWA KISA MUSU TAKA TAMU AKE TAKAWA TAKA

Step like me ‘cause it’s our type of step they want to dance.

TATTASAI TANKWA DA TUMATIR ITA TASANI TONON TANA

Chilli pepper soup and tomatoes make me dig for earthworms

TATTABARU TARA NE NA TARE TUN RAN TALATA MUKE TAKAWA,

I gathered nine doves. We’ve been stepping out since Tuesday

(The following stanza is an old Hausa poem (according to R.C. Abraham’s dictionary) sung for a “children’s game of prodding heaps of sand to find things hidden there.” Zirium’s brother Osama bin Music explained that the game includes catching the hands of one on whom a twig falls. Ziriums left it untranslated, but I’ve translated the latter part, which I think I’ve understood correctly. If I haven’t please correct me!)

GARDO GARDO –GARDON BIDA

ATTASHI BIRE –KAMANIMAN

GYARAN FUSKA –DA WUYA YAKE

ZAN KAMA KA –

I’ll catch you!

KAMANI MAN

Catch me, then

KAMANI MAN

Just catch me then

CHORUS

THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4

NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4

(This is me, Ziriums)

Shout outs:

Intersection, Jam Bigz, Pro Okassy, Jah kozy, Sallama, Korex, Solar.

The House, man! You know what I’m saying?

Osama bin Music, Pastor Dan, Yo, this is Intersection, Jam Bigz,

K-town, baby. Daga Kano, Bahaushe, yeah Ziriums

When Ghana gave us hope...

i have a conference paper to write but that must wait for this most important match. NEPA takes the light around 9:15pm.

I search frantically for live streaming of the match, but it seems that world sports networks do not support Nigerian virtual spaces. ESPN says:

"ESPN3.com is available at no charge to fans who receive their high-speed internet connection from an ESPN3.com affiliated internet service provider. ESPN3.com is also available to fans that access the internet from U.S. college campuses and U.S. military bases.

Your current computer network falls outside of these categories.[...]"

Univision says:

"Lo sentimos, no este disponible donde te ecuentas otros utilizando la funcion de busqueda...."

I send out a status update plea to the Facebook masses and 18 comments later find live streaming on

http://channelsurfing.net/watch-fifa-world-cup-3.html

My solitary room is dark except for the glow of my laptop. The live streaming gives me freeze frames with brief moments of sound and action. outside i hear the gutteral growl of generators and in the distance, screams and shouts. i cannot tell whether they are joyful or devastated. I press refresh on Facebook every 20 seconds.

Into that uncertain space, come the written groans and profanities of FB friends.

There were these few days when it seemed possible--that the Black Stars of Ghana might lead Africa where Nkrumah never did. And that if they won, if they kept winning, if they should somehow reach that final match in the African Cup, then that would be a sign. all else would fall miraculously into place. Leaders would no more make pronouncement like kings. Africa would be the top of the world. The media would have to report something positive. The continent would be led by youth who follow the rules.

The World Cup for me was always more about the community I watched with than the game itself. Now, as I keep clicking refresh on Facebook to see the next comment, My laptop warns me that I have 5% battery remaining.

I am left lonely, restless and sad.