Friday, September 19

Fela!

Before going to watch the musical, Fela!, I attended the mandatory debrief of Africa's history with Timothy Beaucage in the LGS Lounge. He went through the timeline of major events that occurred in Africa, with a focus on Nigeria--where the main character was born.

I realized how naive I have been all my life, learning about "World History"--a facade for Eurocentric history. I am now much more informed about the lesser known, but equally important, history of Africa and its wrongful divisions of land by the Europeans up north. The lines drawn through tribes and the borders that encased extremely different cultures show the utmost ignorance of the Europeans. Once divvied up, each of the careless European countries claimed pieces of the pie for themselves. I had grown increasingly perturbed as Tim further discussed Africa's political chronology.

The main point of the informational session was to prepare us for what we were about to see--a magical, musical masterpiece of the interpreted memoirs of Fela Kuti. Although Tim did not delve deep into the life of Fela (that's the job of the musical), he laid down the solid foundation necessary for us to understand and make the connections between the political history of Africa (with concentration on Nigeria) and the life of Fela throughout the show.

Fela! was absolutely phenomenal. As soon as we walked in through the crowded doorways, we were immersed in an almost "alien world”--the music was blasting and the walls were completely covered in African political artwork.

As the show progressed, I went through a series of emotions (sadness, happiness, anxiousness, irritability, and anger). It was easy to be empathetic to such a powerful and true story. I felt like I was there, and it upset me that I was so helpless. But then, the show became interactive as well--the audience began to mesh with the actors. In Nigerian Pidgin English we rang out,

"I go many places
I see my people
Dem dey cry, cry, cry."

Our voices were calm yet, commanding. Our voices were one. Our voices made a difference.

Written by Yoko Liriano