Wednesday, April 07, 2010

The Eko Festival, Lagos poem

music

I saw The Tragedy of King Christophe yesterday at the auditorium in Unilag. Although the space would seat about a thousand, there were about as many people in the cast/crew as in the audience (about 30.) The show was gooooood, and it only cost 250bucks (less than $2 - even I can afford that.) It was performed by the Jos Repertory Theater, so basically, good stuff.

I don't want to get attached to the place, but there I go falling in love. Anyway, now I've seen a play at Unilag, only one more social to-do item: swim at the guest house. My last sweetheart/ex plans to visit, so that could be the occasion.

Other things to certainly do, math/tech-wise: give tensors many more hours of study, figure out what Finite Element Analysis is and teach the software part, and do a Mathematica club starting next week (so I can learn along with others as Caltech taught me to do.) The mathematica club could be extended to a cool teacher-training thing so I may push for that, and the FEA stuff would be extended to some research project thingie on lung modeling - Jesus!

This play was part of the ongoing Lagos Black Heritage Festival (let's just call it the EKO FESTIVAL), a week-long funfest with an average of ten events a day from the Island to Mainland to Badagry even. Wish I would go to Badagry - it's been many many many years - and the beach. Why am I thrilled about the festival, even if I'm only doing a few events? For Lagos to be cool, there must be these public events, we must break the class-centrism a bit and have a collective cultural space.

I checked out the regatta on Saturday in Lekki, a play last night in Yaba, likely to see another play - A Season in The Congo , also written by Aimé Césaire - at TerraKulture tonight , then maybe roam around Victoria Island tomorrow. The festival closes on Friday and will be missed. P.S. I know it will be bigger next year. Eko o ni baje o.

Might as well share my Lagos poem here. Wrote it over a year ago. You should love it. Whatever.

SUFFERING AND SMILING

We hold these truths to be self-evident:
That where there is a child
There must be a cane.
That before you make ends meet
There will be some pain.

That Lekki is the part of Lagos
Closest to heaven.
That after such a brutal week
We deserve a good wedding.

That Fashola does the work,
Tinubu dey behind am.
That Allahu Akbar
No dey disturb Revival.

Say do me I do you
God no go vex.
Say jazz pass jazz
Na so sense pass sense.


Say my people for village
Never sabi Rat Race.
If no be for football
Man pikin for don crase.

One Nation under Fela,
we dey suffer, dey smile.
“Eko o ni bajẹ:”
this town no go spoil.

8 comments:

t said...

Fell asleep at the movies that night so skipped Thursday's events. Next time...

Erik Donald France said...

Wish I was there. Beautiful peom and take. Sad when some things are so sparsely attended. I remember in New Orleans USA seeing a great blues singer with about eight people, while next door maybe a hundred mobbed a karaoke scene -- I suppose they preferred hearing themselves more than a wiser person down the line. Ah, mortality . . .

Kiibaati said...

Witty poem, it put a smile on my face. I really ought to pick up my pen again.

t said...

Re: "Other things to certainly do, math/tech-wise: give tensors many more hours of study, figure out what Finite Element Analysis is and teach the software part, and do a Mathematica club starting next week (so I can learn along with others as Caltech taught me to do.) The mathematica club could be extended to a cool teacher-training thing so I may push for that, and the FEA stuff would be extended to some research project thingie on lung modeling - Jesus! "

I did some of this, really proud of myself:
I learned Tensors very well from a preprint textbook by Heinbockel see here. It has taken many many hours of LED-lit late-night study to get through most of Section 1, which is all the fundamental math. So now I can half-understand the Tensors Chapter we covered in one week of CDS202 at Caltech. All this stuff is fun, but I'll admit it's too hard.
I learned a teeny bit of Mathematica and requested to teach a class. It's a start.
I haven't yet tried FEA, and I sure haven't taught it to anyone.
I need to leave my job soon, because their research interests don't square with any I might have, because I don't like the city in the first place, because I don't see any long-term future of great success if the attitudes irritate me so...

Alexander said...

lovely poem my dear. Captures Lagos like never in a photo...

t said...

thanks Alexander.
I am happy!

t said...

Guess what I did today? Saw Roi Christophe again. Same play, same company, same festival, new location (Freedom Park, off Broad Street, Lagos), five years after the first time.
So glad Pelu told me about this today, and I hustled down there (one hour each way) and now I'm satisfied to have seen this nice show that I've been eager to.
Also, there's something about 'downtown' at night. I mean Marina/Broad Street. I completely love the potential in the bare spaces, the breeze, the spare vehicular traffic, the sight at that time of the night (about 9:20pm, after the play)

t said...

More about the April 19-20 show from lagosblackheritagefestival.com :

Date: Sunday, April 19 Time: 7pm; Mon. April 20, Time: 7pm; Venue: Main Stage, Freedom Park, Lagos.

AIME Cesaire (1913 – 2008), an Afro-Martinican Francophone poet, author and politician wrote The Tragedy of King Christophe in 1963 as a drama of decolonization of events in 19th century Haiti. Henri Christophe (1767 – 1820) was a freed black slave and cook who aided Toussaint L'Ouverture in the liberation of Haiti and was army chief under Dessalines. He waged a savage and inconclusive struggle with Alexandre Petion, the champion of mulatto supremacy who retained control of South Haiti. In 1811, entrenching himself in Northern Haiti, Christophe declared himself King as Henri I and entered upon an energetic but tyrannical reign. He created his own class of slaves and modeled his Empire after the absolute monarchies of Europe. His dictatorship, was translated into efforts to build a magnificent capital city upon the hill which he called 'the citadel'. Money, labour and materials were not spared in the efforts to build this modern city on the hill. King Christophe surrounded himself with lavish and sometimes ludicrous magnificence. In 1820, when he was suffering from partial paralysis, revolts against his rule broke out led by his trusted lieutenants and generals. In despair, he committed suicide.





ABOUT JOS REPERTORY THEATRE: Founded in November 1997, the JRT commenced programme implementation in 2000 as a not-for-profit, independent theatre organization based in the ancient tin mining city of Jos, Plateau State. The JRT utilizes theatre to confront and challenge crucial issues which affect the society with the ultimate aim of educating and entertaining audiences. The Jos Repertory Theatre presents the annual Jos Festival of Theatre, which has become a nurturing ground for new playwrights, new directors as well as creating an insight into the Nigerian theatre repertory.

THE CAST (click)