MARRIAGE: CAREER BOOSTER OR WRECKER?

The complexities as to what makes a successful career are as indistinguishable as a mixture of ethanol and water. Although most suggestions centre on hard work as the predetermining factor influencing the success of a career; patience, resilience and good-luck are also essential ingredients in the mix. Talents and skill also contribute to career success as demonstrated in sport stars like Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Kobe Bryant and Mohammed Ali. They have all reached the zenith of their careers by displaying their talents in their various sports. In this part of the world, many people look primarily to the heavens for inspiration in daily endeavor and God  other than personal prowess  is rendered tribute.

Having observed the careers of people over the years, I have come to discover another factor-marriage- which may seem innocuous at first but has proved to be as important as hard work in building a career and possibly maintaining it. As you read along, you will also discover like I did the importance and significance a marriage can be to the success of your career. My argument is not cast in stone and may have its flaws but am sure you would find it quiet compelling.

JUST BEFORE YOU SAY I DO

The institution of marriage is one that was commissioned by God in the Garden of Eden. And right from when Adam said “I do”, Eve his wife managed to assist the devil in bring down man’s empire on earth. Adam’s career was ruined and he began to toil and sweat. An illustrious career of keeping and tending to the Garden metamorphosed into tilling the ground. Life suddenly became hard for Adam. The hustle was born…

In 2007, the Nigerian music industry welcomed the entry of a new artiste to the music scene. He was ingenious, talented and his kind of music was rare. The grit, talent and originality he brought into his music were found nowhere else in the industry. He was unequalled and unparalleled. The Radio stations buzzed with the song, Gongo Aso virtually every five minutes.  Abolore Akande a.k.a 9ce was the man of the moment. He was everywhere; in the club, in your car stereo, on the streets in VGC as well as in Ajegunle. 9ice became ubiquitous. His duet with Tuface, Street Credibility is in my opinion a Nigerian classic. Other hits like Kind of Life and Party Ryder put his songs on every body’s mouth. But in July of 2008, Nice decided to consummate his relationship with Tony Payne his girl friend at the time (who coincidentally was instrumental in making the album successful) and ever since then 9ce’s career has seemed to nose dive. His sophomore album has not lived up to expectation and the controversies surrounding his private life have overshadowed his career. None of his new tracks on his latest album have held us spell bound like the Gongo Aso album.

If you think 9ce can still boast of a career, this next example will certainly put things back into perspective. I cannot say whether Emmanuel Ifechukwude Okose or Soul E had a career before his marriage to his banker wife, Queen Ure Okezie. But after his separation (or divorce) from his wife, Soul E has since been wiped off our memories. For someone whose single track, “Soul E Baba dey here” did so well even so that Tuface sampled it in his own track “No be small thing Oh”, one would have expected an album release. Soul E’s modicum claim to success occurred while he was still single but his decision to walk down the aisle might have done him more harm than good.

If examples from the local scene are not convincing enough, let’s go somewhere else…

Eldrick Tont Woods popularly known as “Tiger Woods” is a man that changed the face of golf in the last two decades.  He is to the PGA what  Michael Jordan was to the NBA. Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships and 71 PGA tour events. In July 2010, Forbes announced Woods as the richest sports man in the world earning a reported $105 million dollars. Following his “misdemeanor” (quite a few of them) in his private life, his career has gone from bad to worse. In fact, Tiger can’t be said to be a shadow of himself right now. The resplendence and swag he once showed on the golf course is all gone. On October 31st of 2010, Woods lost his number one ranking to Lee Westwood. As at May 2011, Woods is ranked #8 in the world and he is now on his longest streak (18 months) without a title in his entire professional career. He has lost a good number of his endorsement deals including those with Accenture and General Motors among others.

We have seen from Woods, 9ce and Soul E that marriage (especially failed ones) can destroy what has already been achieved regardless of hard work and talent. But these examples do not give an accurate picture. On closer study, you would also discover that marriages do not necessarily have to come to an end for a career to be affected drastically. Many times when women meet their spouses, they are sometimes forced to resign their jobs and follow their husband wherever he goes. Female bankers and oil workers who have began to build illustrious careers sometimes abandon it when their career choices conflict with their husband’s.

When last did any of you see Richard Mofe Damijo (RMD) in a NollyWood movie? After his marriage to Jumobi Adegbesan who was the host of the TV show, Lunch Break on AIT, the couple has since left the limelight. Jumobi abandoned a thriving career at AIT to build a home instead. In this case, their Showbiz careers did not end because of a failed marriage but the union still altered their career path. Marriage informed the decision to opt for a quieter life when  their talents on screen were a delight to watch.

A similar but less dramatic example can be found on the pulpit. The Charismatic Pastor Chris Okotie is considered one of the most successful clergy men in Nigeria. His evangelical TV program, The Apocalypsis was a must watch. Many People stayed glued watching Apocalypsis not only for spiritual edification, but also to listen to the robust vocabulary the man commanded.  Chris Okotie was the epitome of show business. The musician turned pastor turned politician is an enigma in his own right. But most of his achievements were made when he was married to his first wife Tina. After they became estranged, Pastor Chris re-married. Pastor Chris and his House Hold of God church are not as popular as before. His TV program does not air anymore and it seems his new wife has “tamed” him a bit.  

This relationship between bad marital relationships and failed or altered careers isn’t exactly linear. There are also coordinates outside  which may disprove my analogy. The likes of Bukky Wright, Keffe, Madonna, Will Smith, Nicholas Cage, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Drew BarryMoore, Jennifer Aniston, and Woody Allen all have successful and thriving careers bad marriages notwithstanding. Some have remained unmarried while others have remarried and taken their careers to new heights. Elizabeth Taylor and Larry King both have eight failed marriages between them and yet had illustrious careers in acting and journalsm respectively.

While I have illustrated how some marriages have impeded carriers, you should also know that examples abound of people whose lives have been made better by taking their sacred vows. Tom Hanks was not exactly “prosperous” career wise until he was divorced from his first wife Samantha Lewis who he married from 1978 to 1987. While married to Samantha, none of his movies earned any notable critical acclaim. After he divorced her and married Rita Wilson in 1988, Hanks became a house hold name. His movies Big, Forest Gump, Sleepless in Seattle, Saving Private Ryan, Da Vinci Code, Toy Story to name a few are all blockbusters and have earned him several academy award nominations. You might argue that he kept on improving on the talents he already possessed but why did his turn in fortune come after he remarried? Doesn’t this suggest that if you get the mix right as far as marriage is concerned, your career will soar?
A Nigerian example would be Olu Jacobs and Joke Silver who have broken frontiers and grown from strength to strength in their acting careers. If Olu Jacobs and Joke Silver seem like old timers to you, then Dare Art Alade may appeal more to the younger generation. He too seems like he has gotten it right in that department. His second and third albums better his first which he released when he was  still a bachelor.

The intricacies that govern relationships and careers are not one to put into a box like I have tried to do here. All I have done is to bring the association into our everyday life.  Look around you, at the people you meet, your bosses in the office and see for yourselves. They might not be celebrities but its all there for all to see. If one is happy in their private lives, there is a fighting chance  their chosen career path would flourish as against if the reverse were the case. The fact is this: what happens behind closed doors affect our emotions to the extent that our jobs may become affected. We may not have to even look as far as Tuface to see how mismanagement of private affairs can affect our careers negatively. Examples are right there for us to see-The secretary who makes mistakes while typing the minutes because of a row with her husband and the girl friend who can’t concentrate on her studies because her boyfriend may be seeing someone else could both jeopardize their future because of personal issues. The way we manage this personal issues is actually important as the career itself.

 Humans are emotional beings. Our emotions affect the mind which is required to work. Finding the right balance between mind, emotion and health is essential in everyday performance. Albert Einstein, one of the greatest minds that ever lived found it very difficult to find this balance and he said this concerning his marriage: “I can love humanity, but when it comes to close relationship, I’m a horse for single harness. I failed twice, rather disgracefully”. His two marriages suffered because he was married to his work instead. Perhaps if he had given either of his wives attention, we may never have known that E=mc^{2 .}

I can go on and on but this would only make sense if it was brought home to you wouldn’t it. Are you married? What decisions on your career has your marriage influenced. And if you aren’t, this is probably the time to ask this question again before you take the plunge. Will this marriage make or break me?

©2011 Ewoigbokhan Otaigbe Itua

THE APRIL MISCELLANY

A view on a few items on television in the past month.

Politics

Of course politics was the most common topic on local television this past month. What can I say? Election is za zeitgeist! Jonathan won, the senseless riots won’t change it, the courts won’t either. Close to the election I sensed a landslide. Not necessarily because of the political calculations made by those who know and those which claim to know, but because of the overwhelming manner of his campaign. Before the elections, the man had tens of adverts on all available media; my dreams were perhaps the only space he didn’t conquer as that has been suffused by species of a different gender and of more attractive stock. Finally, the self congratulatory NTA with its claim of being the largest network in Africa could prove it and they excelled putting their Oga on every programme so that it was 1 GEJ ad per 3 regular ads. By the time INEC shifted the elections the stations couldn’t have believed their stars and would have loved another cancellation. Luckily, for the rest of us Jega came through.

Eventually, the man’s dominance on television was mirrored by his sweeping victories, victories borne on the wing of incumbency, celebrities and the very catchy tune: Goodluck to you, Goodluck to everybody, good luck Nigeria eh! (That song must have been hard for a songwriter that cares about semantics, where to capitalize the g’s, when to space the words making up the man’s name etc.) I remarked to a friend that a voter might be supporting Buhari but on approaching the booth, the mind might just play a small trick as he/she subconsciously whistles the tune and carried on the wave of a half remembered lyrics and an easy melody, thumbprints on the space beside the umbrella.

Yes, manifestoes are great, grand even. But music can be intense and nothing beats an easy-to-whistle melody.

Muna and the Music

Speaking of music, I caught the Soundcity Top Ten Countdown on one of those days and saw the Waje video for So Inspired. The song features Munachi Abi (or Muna) who’s trying to go hard this been one of several songs I have heard her rap. In fact, she’s featured on two songs on the countdown, the other is Tha Suspect’s I no send you remix. I’d visit that song later.

The song’s video is pretty and has a message. Like anyone knows, those two things are never quite pulled off in Nigerian videos, not together anyway and this is no exception.

The video opens with an abusive husband? (Boyfriend? Lover? ) in the process of inflicting a black eye on a woman, he shouts but doesn’t quite hit her suggesting perhaps he’s through with his business. Soon she flees the place as a dodgy voiceover relays a motivational speech I didn’t catch. The beat kicks in and voila! there’s Waje singing while somewhere in the background, Muna’s gams can’t escape the lens as she sways waiting for her verse and when she gets her cue she attacks the camera ferociously, decked in a skimpy commando gear with war paint under her right eye perhaps to deemphasize her beauty. Is it important, you may question. And the answer is: it is. 

It was Zadie Smith the British novelist that remarked in a review of V concerning Natalie Portman’s performance that, “She crumbled under her beauty”. It’s a sentiment that almost captures Muna’s desire to transcend modelling and forge a career in Hip-hop. However, Muna, which is a grossly unwieldy name, doesn’t crumble as much as is defeated by her beauty. Such a beauty cannot be taken seriously as a rapper, except she spits the impossible line which so far I haven’t heard. That is not saying she raps poorly on this track. She doesn’t. The point is, she needs something to distract watchers and cosmetic war paint is not going to do it. Ghostwriter, anyone?

There’s hope still: director Darren Aronofsky gave Portman a role that she could stand up to. Muna would be hoping for same. It might not matter if she couldn’t be seen.

So believe it, it is true: Video killed the Radio Star.

Eni Duro’s Absence

At different times, I have been appalled by the songs on the countdown. This time I am shocked by what they’ve left out. I am not going to whine about the short run of Darey’s The Way you Are. What I don’t understand is how Olamide’s Eni Duro wasn’t topping the list or at least on the countdown.

Clarence Peters gets the most airplay these days and that is deserved, he has put together some fine videos but I get the feeling his run would end soon, like DJ Tee’s. The cause being the same elements can’t be rehashed ad nauseam. What he needs is a reinvention.

Which is exactly what DJ Tee has done with Eni Duro, he has produced the best indigenous music video on television today. He borrowed the basic idea from J. Cole’s Who Dat, mixed it with Olamide’s lyrics and produced a video as gritty and playful as the song’s lyrics. It was not shot in a studio with a rich palette of colours but on the streets, which takes considerable skill as the cinematography cannot be tweaked as precisely as a makeshift studio can.

And there’s that last scene with the man- DJ Tee- in a worthy act of self indulgence. He gestures on a laptop screen as a bare foot half naked kid closes the PC and walks away.

Priceless, just priceless.

©2011 Oris Aigbokhaevbolo

Asokoro, Abuja

OSAMA, OBAMA, AND GOVERNOR YUGUDA

Osama bin Laden

The world was greeted last week with the pleasant news about the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Up until his demise, Osama had been the United State's most wanted man for over a decade.  The death of the man responsible for the murder of over 3,000 people on September 11 2001 was met with jubilation and funfair in many US cities especially by Ground Zero in New York. Many held placards that boldly read: "thank you Obama" to show their appreciation to their President. The 25 million dollars bounty placed on Bin Laden’s head since 2001 did not seem like much of a motivating factor as the manhunt proved to be futile for many years. Some claimed he had died, others believed he was in the some cave or bunker planning his next terror attack. Osama bin Laden was found in the most unlikely place; not a cave or a hole as widely thought but in a 1 million dollar mansion in Abbattabad Pakistan. US Navy SEAL forces killed him and two other people in a “fire fight” bringing the hunt finally to an end.

Reports suggest that Bin Laden had lived in his Pakistani mansion howbeit in sparse conditions for about five years! He must have had a good laugh watching the frustrated efforts of the American military in Afghanistan. US intelligence got lucky and followed the trail of a courier that ultimately led them to Bin Laden’s hideout.  Two stealth helicopters carrying an elite squad of military men and a dog entered into Pakistani airspace and carried out a forty-minute mission. The helicopters used were some sort of new technology and the only reason the world now knows about their existence is because one of them malfunctioned and the team decided to blow it up after the mission.

Al Qaeda struck the United States of America some in 2001. The frailties and vulnerability of US was bare for all to see.  Everybody recognized that the world’s most powerful nation could also be hit. Americans did not feel safe on US soil anymore. Suddenly the assuredness and perceived cockiness was dealt an unlikely hand. The US seemed a bit demystified and the message of terrorism-fear-was engraved in the hearts and minds of her citizens.

President Obama watching the Pakistan Mission

Osama bin Laden was the heart and soul of Al Qaeda and he sold his hate ideology to fertile minds which took terrorism to a whole new level. This new recruits considered him a god and saw him as a rallying point in carrying out their wicked acts. His existent meant that freedom which America stood for was compromised. America and Americans didn’t feel so free. Osama was a constant reminder of their sordid past. Osama alive, gave vivacity and hope to his ideology which made the war on terror a lot more difficult to tackle. The US knew that finding Osama was quintessential to bringing down the Al Qaeda Empire.

Questions have been raised about why the US did not ask for the ISI’s (Pakistani intelligence) assistance on the mission. Apparently, the US government did not trust Pakistan.  They had had a terrorist in their country all these while, a few kilometers from the capital Islamabad and it was inconceivable that elements deep within the Pakistani government were not complicit.

The death of Osama has sent a clear message to every terrorist in the world. If you mess with us, we will seek for you, we will find you and we will kill you. This has brought to light the will and strength of the American justice system.  When crimes are committed, catching the perpetuators and bringing them to justice is essential for the strengthening of institutions. It instills belief and trust into the citizens. Osama remaining alive and in hiding was a spit on the graves of the families of the people that lost their lives.

President Obama

President Obama has taken most of the credit for the killing of Bin Laden and rightly so. He showed strength and character in leadership as the US president. When President Obama learnt that Osama bin Laden could be living in Pakistan and his hideout identified, he had several options available to him. One was to send in a drone or a smart bomb to reduce the house to smithereens. This option came with its attendant disadvantage. If you say you have killed Bin Ladin, people will ask for evidence. The evidence would have been buried in rubble and taken months to unravel and might have possibly seemed impossible. Doubts would first be raised over the legitimacy of the mission then questions would have to be answered about sending a missile into another country. People would see this as an affront on the Pakistan’s sovereignty. It would have been George Bush and Iraq all over again. Still, this would have been the easier, safer and most convenient choice. Rather, President Obama took the riskier but decisive action to send an elite squad into Pakistan knowing that failure would certainly end his reelection into the White House. The economy is considered Obama’s major strengths and a goof on security or intelligence matters would have heightened doubts about his capabilities especially as this was his first major decision on security issues. Memories of the 1972 massacre of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich and the snatching of Elian Gonzalez in 2000 would have played over in his mind.  But Obama was more concerned about the American people than about himself. He knew what finding Osama meant to them and America as a country and he risked his Presidency in the process. This kind of exemplary leadership is lacking in most leaders in Nigeria.

Governor Yuguda

Our leaders think about one thing only -themselves-when in office. I don’t have the words to describe the comments of Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi in reference to the slain Corp members during the post election violence. It is something you may have heard on radio or read in the papers. Governor Yuguda practically insulted the sensibilities of the parents of the killed youths in the raid. Hear him: “They (dead Corpers) were destined to experience what they experienced. Nobody can run away from destiny. When they were serving under me, they were the happiest in Nigeria. Immediately, I handed them over to INEC, it was the responsibility of INEC to protect them. They were not the only ones affected. My own house was burnt; they almost lynched my first son. It is part of their destiny. I was also attacked in 1979”. 

I have gone over Governor Yuguda’s comments over and over again to look for a sensible explanation or an excuse for his callous and insensitive statement. The first thing he says is that it is not Yuguda’s fault. It is the fault of INEC. What sort of leaders do we have? Leaders ought to take responsibilities and not push blame. Is INEC the chief security officer of the state? The governors collect over 400 million naira monthly for security vote outside their regular allocation to protect themselves and for state security. And now he openly declares and it is INEC’s responsibility to protect people within his state.

The truth is that in Nigeria, we have the wrong set of people at the helm of affairs. The kinds of people that seek elective office do not have any empathy for the populace. There is a total disconnect between the leaders and the led. Governor Yuguda goes on to say that they (the dead Corpers) were not the only ones affected; that his house was also burnt. Somewhere in the Governor’s mind, a house and life are one and the same thing. There is obviously no value for human life in his statement. He equates a burnt house to slaughtered human beings. Is the loss the same? He further takes the spotlight off people like late Obinna Okpiri by saying his own son was almost lynched. Now, we are supposed to feel sorry for him right? The Governor didn’t stop there, what he had said was not bad enough. He had one more parting gift for the parents of these youths. He tells us he too was also attacked as a Corper in 1979! So in essence, what is the big deal about people dying in Bauchi State? If it happened in a South West state as far back as 1979, why is everybody making Yuguda’s Bauchi look bad. The Yoruba’s are bad too after all. He then decides to go religious by bringing destiny into the whole picture. What part of destiny is it to have ones head hacked down with cutlasses? It is only left to the imagination what those Corpers were thinking as the group of irate almajiri’s came at them. No Mr. Yuguda, this was not destiny. Destiny is when there is absolutely nothing you could have done about a situation after you have tried everything humanly possible. We did not try to save this guys, the country put them in harm’s way. This was not destiny, it was madness. What Yuguda has done by bringing destiny up is absolving the killers of the Corp members of any wrong doing. By bringing up destiny, he has implied that God killed the Corp members and the almajiri’s were only willing vessels. He has told us not to blame anybody; not the almajiri’s, not the Bauchi people, you could probably blame INEC but whatever you do, don’t blame Yuguda. This was all about him and his attempt to absolve himself of any responsibility. These are the words a serving governor has left grieving parents with. That the love, affection, and resources they spent went down the drain because of destiny.

I have said this over and over and over again and I maintain my position. There can NEVER be peace without justice. Osama Bin Laden’s death has brought peace and the feeling of Justice to the minds of the families of those killed on 9/11. Obama was right when he said justice had been done. The killers of this slain Corpers MUST be found. There is no other way around this. They must be tried in the courts and punished. If they are found guilty, a state execution MUST be televised on national television and broadcasted on radio sets. This is the only way it would stop. As I write this, these killers are sleeping on their mats, eating food and polishing shoes while parents are crying.

The rather surprising thing about this is that nobody is talking about it again. The news is gradually fading. We have all gone back to our businesses like nothing happened. If they are not caught and brought to justice, nothing stops them from unleashing mayhem again. Sometimes I wonder how our leaders sleep at night. How does anybody justify not taking immediate action about the NYSC scheme?

A major problem we have in this country is that nobody tells the truth. Everybody is concerned about their own skins. It is unimaginable that no prominent person in government (Governor or even the President) has told Yuguda to apologize, clarify or withdraw his statement. In a normal country, Yuguda would have resigned by now. But here in Nigeria we are peculiar-one of a kind. Here we celebrate criminals and sew Aso Ebi’s to welcome them from prison. Here, the sons and daughters of looters seek elective office and are voted in. Here people win election while in prison. It is simply disgusting.

Governor Yuguda has said he was misconstrued and his words were taken out of context. But he has since not bothered to put it in context or tell us what he really meant. This is not the first time NYSC members have been killed needlessly yet all we do is talk. Their deaths aren’t affecting anybody. The only mention I have heard about this is that the National Assembly want to “debate” over it. One question; if it was a senator’s daughter or son mauled to death, would this be a subject for debate? Who exactly would be debating? The out-going members (over 50% aren’t coming back) or the in-coming ones who have to learn the ropes of the law making business first? The truth is that if we want to do something serious about this, we would have done it a long time ago. We don’t even have to repeal the law setting up the scheme for something positive to happen. We can start by preventing more youths from going to these death traps. I have friends serving in Bauchi and Kaduna and they are already receiving calls from their superiors to get back to work! Apparently we don’t learn from our mistakes. The sequence of sweeping ugly events under the bushel has started again as they are told to get back to work as if the almajiri’s are no longer in Bauchi. There is no plan to prevent the ugly past from repeating itself again. This is like offering someone who was caught cheating in an exam a double promotion. There is no plan to punish the states or the perpetuators. States like Bauchi, Kaduna and Niger ought to be punished for not protecting the lives of Corpers. It should serve as a warning so that the people that live in these towns will appreciate anybody in national service and do all they can to protect them if anything like this come up again.

In any other country in the world, no Corpers would be sent to these places for at least a year. But in ours, it has taken less than two months. Youth Corpers aren’t soldiers, most are actually kids just out of college in patriotic service of their fatherland. Obviously reforming the NYSC is not in the personal interest of some people so we will continue to pay lip service to issues like this. Honestly I am tired of writing about Nigeria. It is simply frustrating. All I desire is that we have good leaders. With good leadership a lot of these problems would be solved quite easily. If leaders are empathetic, then they will feel what every Nigerian feels. It would not be rocket science to solve simple problems.

The elections are over, and many new and old leaders have been (re)elected. We can only hope the old ones have learned from their past mistakes and the new ones aren’t on the same path of error. The only way forward is for our leaders to begin to take difficult but necessary decisions like President Obama. President Jonathan must begin to do what is right and not what is convenient or what will please any particular region of the country. Some decisions may not win him friends or votes but they will save plenty of lives. Obama, while watching the SEAL team inside Osama’s hideout must have questioned his decision but within him, he knew what Americans wanted. He knew they wanted Bin Laden’s head and he was prepared to give it to them even if it would cost him. He knew it was about justice and even if he failed, he was prepared to fail to please them. Let President Jonathan do same.

©2011 Ewoigbokhan Otaigbe Itua

CONNECT THE WORD

Everything is connected! Or at least some things are in life as well as in art. Everybody has made a connection between seemingly unconnected events in their lives and as a tribute to these connections I have decided to share some of the connections I have made in art.

This is not an academic exercise and I am by no means referring to the extremes of such allusions as to Dante or Shakespeare nor do I mean the meat-and-potatoes type that you find in MI’s Safe, but of the midway kind, the type that requires a brain but not a sparkling erudition; the type that can be gotten with an average knowledge, curiosity and a memory. You may not even need a substantial portion of your memory dedicated to the art form, as most of the connections are made subconsciously and for the rest there is the internet, after all as Roger Ebert says, “for memory, modern man has Google.”

But even using Google efficiently requires effort and some skill especially when you only have the barest of data to insert in the search bar. So you do require an active brain and willing fingers after all.

 Sometimes you may get lucky: I saw the movie Going the Distance and it contains a hilarious Top Gun reference I’d have missed if I saw the movie weeks before. Let me explain: I downloaded the song Take My Breath Away a fortnight before I saw the film and it was only then I knew the artist and realized it was a soundtrack. So when Drew Barrymore laughed and said, “Take me to Berlin”, I laughed with her both because the scene was truly funny and because of the irony- I had wanted to see the movie earlier but seeing it later made me enjoy it more.

Sometimes “getting the joke” isn’t chronologically linear, that is, sometimes a recent discovery helps explain an earlier reference. I only just realized that the Green Day 2007 record Jesus of Suburbia was a play on the title of a 1990 book by Hanif Kureishi The Buddha of Surburbia. And I did not make the connection until this year when serendipity led me through a sequence of events: first I read the English novelist’s short story Intimacy in 2009, and then read an interview in 2010 where Tolu Ogunlesi quoted Mr. Kureishi when asked what it is to be a writer. This year I remembered that short story and “wikipediaed” Kureishi and got names of earlier novels- the Surburbia book was one of them. Voila!

There are high-falutin allusions that are made for classrooms and conference tables, but those discussed here are not for formal gatherings but for sitting rooms, chatrooms, bedrooms even, when the closeness you feel to the words or discovery are mirrored by the proximity of the listener to you. The type everyone has come across but are not entirely given to connect because sometimes the references are indirect and may cross genres or even media- Time magazine used EM Forster’s admonition, Only Connect, in a piece on Mark Zuckerberg who had never heard of the English novelist.

Most times the hindrance to connecting may be missing out on a previous event, other times it is the thinking that understanding the reference is immaterial to enjoying the material in itself. A true fan would tell you otherwise; he/she would tell you that familiarity with nursery rhymes and fairytales leads to a more robust enjoyment of the Shrek franchise and seeing more than a handful of horror flicks generates more laughs from the spoof Scary Movie.

Not many people know that the refrain at the end of Banky W’s Strong Thing is from the Notorious BIG song, N.O.T.OR.I.O.U.S  T.H.U.G.S: “So many girls/ I gat to find one/ All these girls/ is she the right one/My situation is a tight one/What you gonna do…” Of course not knowing this does not prevent anyone from dancing to the song, but perhaps it is good to know if you are involved in an argument on Banky’s songwriting especially as he carries the Umbrella remix albatross. There’s also the Obiwon line in Onyinye: “Don’t be a hard rock when you really are a gem,” that line is from Lauryn Hill’s That Thing and that crude last line delivered by Muna in Tha Suspect’s I no send You (remix) was used by Missy Elliot in her Under Construction album years ago.

A facebook friend made me realize that “I bet you think this song’s about you” from Janet Jackson’s Son of A Gun might have been modified from Carly Simon’s “…You probably think this song is about you” from the song You’re so Vain. Fast forward to 2010 and you hear that line almost rendered in its entirety in Mike Posner’s Cooler than Me. (In a rare example, a song lyric has been derived from standup comedy: American comedian Chris Rock joked sometime in the nineties that he’d never raise hit a girl but he would shake her vigorously, in the noughties, Kanye West relayed the same on the song Bittersweet.)

Lines are not the only features that can be connected, there are words rhymed by several artists spanning decades, spanning genres. Lips-hips have been used by everyone, from the rock band U2 to the rapper Too short; world-pearl-girl is another popular one, the earliest song I know to have used it is Prince’s Diamond and Pearls, Wizkid used it in his Gidi girl, Anita Baker in Sweet Love; dance-chance-romance and boy/toy rhyme are popular across genres too.

Connections can also be made with regards to concepts: every time Durella shouts Enemies, it should not be taken as a crude if meaningless chant but as a continuous interpretation of western hip-hop’s fascination with ubiquitous and often faceless ‘haters’. Rihanna might have gotten some people aghast with the song Rude Boy when she says, “Come here rude boy. If you big enough…” but few years ago the female R&B group TLC had sang a line along that line in Girl Talk, “When you finally get your blood flowing, it would be looking like a pinky with a glove on it…” You don’t need to be a genius to see the connection between both, a little attention delivers it to you.

If the repetitive lyrics in popular music appear to be the caused by lazy songwriting, it cannot be expressly said of some fiction writers when such is seen their works, to be sure even they borrow lines from previous works and religious books especially the Bible. There’s a line from James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room modified from the Psalms. While that reference might be obvious to the religious person there are some from books so diverse that it is near impossible to conceive of the authors meeting yet a connection can be made but only if a phrase or a sentence persists in the memory. I found the following in Joseph Kanon’s The Good German and Pete Hamill’s collection of short stories, Tokyo Sketches:

“Laughter after all was a form of intimacy.”

“…a bed laugh, intimate as touch.”

The first is from Hamill, the latter from Kanon. Both lines speak of the intimacy of laughter, a sentiment perhaps impossible to argue with and it is possibly the veracity of the opinion that gives both writers the appearance of originality. We would never know but I believe it would be stretching it to say Kanon- whose book is more recent- channeled Hamill, the more plausible rationale being like some science discoveries stumbled upon by two different scientists working independently of each other.  This accidental type of connection gives the most joy when discovered, as it appears you are privy to a secret even both authors are not aware of.

No one person can get all the references or make all the connections possible- the realms of knowledge are infinite and the individual mind is vastly limited- but it helps to at least make some effort at getting the reference and/or making the connection if the appreciation of any type of art form is to be robust. It is not merely a chore for the critic but to a lesser degree for everyone who gets some form of satisfaction from consuming a particular art form.

In conclusion, let me ask, the title of this piece is connected to a program on cable television, can you make the connection?

Aigbokhaevbolo Oris

11th April 2011: Asokoro, Abuja.