In Nigeria, music has long been used by individuals and movements seeking social change. In the 1950s and ’60s, this was particularly true, as successful musicians openly addressed issues of the day.
The most remarkable is the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Fela’s music was a movement of social consciousness and justice against oppression, the late legend made the world sit up and take notice of the energy of African art and music.
Before the World Cup euphoria, Nigeria’s albeit the world was trending ‘This Is Nigeria’, a satirical but blunt music video by Falz (whose real name is Folarin Falana). Falz’s localised and adapted from Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ to unveil various social, economic and security issues bedeviling Africa’s largest economy.
The video had within a week garnered about 4 million views on YouTube. It has also received more than 10 folds of that figure across social platforms and other download sites. In the midst of the frenzy, there are two critical sides to this phenomenon.
Based on macro audience review, many Nigerians applauded the video as a creative rendition of the stark reality in Nigeria. Some others see it as an overtly-negative content that offends religious sensitivities. However, despite their delicate fault lines music videos and creative contents such as ‘This Is Nigeria’ might have unintended consequences and more importantly a bigger picture that portends mostly beneficial outcomes for Nigeria.
A balanced story?
Many intellectual quarters of Nigeria and Africa at large have expressed their displeasure with foreign versions of Nigeria (and even Africa’s) history and contemporary realities. They are seen as either simplistic or one-sided history written from the correctness of Western values. Just like Fela, Evangelist Sunny Okosun and many icons did in the tail end of the 20th Century, creative products such as this would in the long term be seen as a balanced local version about the realities of Nigeria and its socio-political mental-state in the 21st Century.
Pushing local talents
In the last 15 years, they Nigeria’s entertainment has witnessed a renaissance. While many more people have joined the industry, it has more importantly generated more talents and directly and indirectly employed millions of youths. The growth in the access to the Internet and digital media platforms is a dynamic nitro pushing local talents beyond imaginations of many who thought African talents will not carry on the legacy of telling our story to the world in a connected era that we live.
Building national branding
Part of the bigger picture is to look at the positive consequences of this sort of content. Despite relative frailness of Nigeria’s democratic experiment, there has been a steady progression in its development. This cannot be divorced from social and civil activism pushed by entertainment icons in the last 30 decades.
Going beyond logos efforts like this no matter how harsh they come, end up giving Nigeria a better image before the world as a country that reevaluates itself to get better. This makes the work of media and marketing experts easy to sell Nigeria to the world without relying on vague slogans.
© SBI Media. This article was published by SBI media in their Nextgen newsletter of July 9, 2018