Follow @9jaLife Fela’s Contemporaries: 5 Socially Conscious Nigerian Musicians From The 1970s This Is Africa invites you on a journey back to a time before Autotune with African Classics Radio, when singers recorded with live bands and real instruments, producing hits that we later came to refer to as “rare grooves” from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, vinyl copies of which now sometimes change hands for eye-watering amounts. To enhance your experience, we will, from now on, also be writing about some of the seminal artists and albums that you can hear when you tune in. We hope you enjoy the journey. Nigeria's music is as diverse and varied as her people. But taking a historical look at the brave Nigerian musicians who imbued their music with sociopolitical messages and themes is at once fascinating and frustrating. It's fascinating because many of these musicians were visionaries. They knew what they were talking about. They might not have had all the answers, but they were publicly addressing the issues through music. The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging it. The frustrating part for me is listening to a 35-year-old song and realizing that the problems addressed in the tune remain problems today. I suppose that shouldn't be surprising. With respect to Nigeria (and the entire continent of Africa), there are post-colonial reasons why this is the case, but for the sake of brevity, I'll leave that topic for another day. This is about highlighting the musicians that sang about issues facing the common man. Obviously, the first name that comes to mind when you think of socially-conscious and politically-driven music in Nigeria is Fela Kuti. He is without doubt the most influential and globally musician Nigeria has ever had. However, he wasn't the only Nigerian musician tackling sociopolitical issues in the 70s. Here are five lesser celebrated Nigerian musicians who also championed social justice. 1. JONI HAASTRUP In his heyday, Joni Haastrup was a pioneering Nigerian afro-rock musician and the front man for a band called Monomono in the early to mid-70s. They released two albums titled Give the Beggar a Chance – The Lightning Power Of Awareness and Dawn of Awareness. Haastrup [...]
