Saturday, September 27, 2008

Street Names of Abuja, Nigeria's New Capital, Do Not Honor Fela Sowande or Akin Euba




[Akin Euba; The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural Perspectives by Godwin Sadoh; Quality Paperback (2007)

Vanguard
Written by Obi Nwakamma
Sunday, 28 September 2008

LET me start by congratulating the administration of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja for finally doing the right thing. Well, perhaps, we should say, for finally coming, like Solomon to judgment, on the matters of naming the streets of Abuja. This past week, the FCT released a list of names of Nigerians for whom streets are to be named in Abuja. That is a good thing. A city contains cultural memory. It is the mark, indeed the archive of a particular kind of memory: how a people have moved through time and space; a marker of taste and significance. Abuja is a new city, carved straight from virgin land.” “Among Nigeria’s great cultural icons of the 20th century would certainly be counted great composers and musicians like Fela Sowande, Laz Ekwueme and Akin Euba. Yet the FCT list does not count them as worthy as Kanu Nwankwo.” [The Nigerian composers Fela Sowande (1905-1987) and Akin Euba (b. 1935) are profiled at AfriClassical.com]  [Full Post]

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