Lagos has always been Nigeria’s cultural capital. Given its maritime location as well as being the seat of political power in both the colonial and post-colonial eras, it was only a matter of time for the city to grow into its true cosmopolitan potential and become a place where people, ideas, and culture constantly collide.
Colonial accounts of pre-colonial musical forms are either sparse or glib. Narratives only become fluid at the instance of barter between western sailors and our ancestors, at the moment when musical instruments like guitars and horns became accessible to our communal sound and spirit.
Our knowledge of root forms remains rudimentary because change is constant and these changes mostly predate the grasp of technology. Precursor musical forms like sakara, asiko, apala, and agidigbo are still with us today, handled by old and aging practitioners who often pass it down bloodlines. However, highlife and juju music have been widely studied and documented, because they reached the height of popularity at crucial times in post-colonial history, a time of unfettered optimism and because it was also within the grasp of relevant technology.
Lagos, in the late 1940s , heavy with colonial presence, was not unlike any European city where nightlife thrived. The consequence of the interaction of natives and whites was the adoption of the latter's culture. Nightclubs in Lagos were vibrant and rewarding for the different players of its ecosystem—musicians, bands, promoters, food vendors, and drug peddlers—that made it function.
Numerous accounts remember Caban Bamboo, the nightclub owned by Bobby Benson, a vibrant cultural entrepreneur and impresario of his time. He, alongside his wife Cassandra, ran a theatre group that served as nocturnal entertainment. He also formed the Jazz Orchestra Band, which later became a springboard and offered tutelage to Nigeria's greatest highlife musicians. At the time, this band played classical ballroom dance, foxtrot, cha-cha, and swing for their elite clientele. They also did local numbers too.
You might also be interested
