My Soccer Blues

This last week was bad for me as a Nigerian Soccer fan. My team, the Super Eagles were thoroughly beaten by the Ghana's Black Stars. It was a defeat no Nigerian soccer fan (hmm so I think) never expected. I never expected it too. I think the best way to describe it is to use the Red Sox and NY Yankees example. It is like you being a Boston Red Sox fan and Yankees handed you backside to you in a sweep in the World Series or something. It was a supposed to be a friendly but to a lot of fans on both sides, it was more than a friendly. It is a bragging right you have until the next game between both teams.

I couldn't explain why I went into some kind of blues after this game. I even refuse to read any of the game reports. It was just too much for me to swallow. I used to think I am bigger than all these kind of emotions but nah! I couldnt pretend...it was just too hard for me to swallow.

Talking about Blues, I have really had it bad since I discovered soccer when I was like 8 years old. I didnt get into the scheme of things until I was in Junior Secondary school in Nigeria (equivalent of middle school here). I remember the joy I felt watching the likes of Nduka Ugbade, Jonathan Akpoborie, Victor Igbinoba lifting the then JVC U-16 World cup in China in 1985. I was barely 10 years old then but I was so happy. Fast forward two years later when the class of Osundu, Oyekale, Lemmy Isah, Chris Nwosu and the rest were robbed in the final of Kodak U-17 World cup in Canada 87. Nigeria lost to the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) in the final. I cried my eyes to sleep. It was like I lost a loved one and I couldn't understand why my team would lost by penalties when we outplayed the soviets throughout the game. It took me days to recover from the blues.

Another Nigerian team that broke my heart was the Flying Eagles class of 87 at Chile 87 U-20 World cup. I was devastated. With names Like Etim Esin, Adeolu Adekola, Peter Nieketen (sp), Thompson Oliha, Ladi Babalola, Willy Opara, Nosa Osadolor, Nduka Ugade and the rest, we were beaten blue black by Brazil in the opening game. God! it was painful. I sat glued to the seat after the game trying to understand how Brazil could beat that scary team of talents I have ever seen played like they were some sort of soccer neophytes. I guess I believed to much in the hype orchetrated by the Oracle of Ibadan, the late Sam Akpabot. How I loved the guy's analysis in Nigerian Sketch Newspaper then. Even at the age of twelve of thereabout then, I loved reading newspapers and I was already a sports addict - Football/Soccer being my crack and any Nigerian teams victory makes me high. Of course, I was always like a crackhead without his fix whenever Nigeria lost.

After the Chile 87 debacle, I told myself I wasn't going to get into blues because of any soccer game but I didn't also stop myself from being overjoyous when Nigeria wins. You know, the kind of joy I felt when Nigeria beat Brazil by two Kanu's goals in the dying minute and the other in the extra time. I was totally delirious with joy. I sat down watching the game with my uncle Wale Owolabi then at the middle of the night and two of us were jumping up like two fats kids in a candy store. It was orgasmic. I think, it is not possible to show so much joy when your team wins and refuse to meet it with as much disappointment when your team loses. It is just not human. I guess that is what I experienced again this last Tuesday.

As much as I tried not think about the defeat, it wasn't possible. It is like starving yourself while sitting down in an eatery all day and claiming you not feeling an hunger pangs. Just impossible.
Tuesday was really bad but by the next day I was ok. Of course, I learnt Nigeria whipped Equatoria Guinea in the Olympic soccer Qualifier in Abuja. The expecatation that this is a team that could bring me another good moments is enough to forget my blues.

Talking about Drums

I have always been an admirer of Drums since I was 7 or 8 years old. I remember going to church then with my mom and transfixed by this visiting drummer boy drumming with so much passion, dexterity and smoothness that even as a small boy then couldn't ignore. From that day on, my "ear' for drumming developed and I totally fell I love with an art I never learnt but enjoyed listening to its output.

I went to Ohio in 2003 or sometimes and I saw this dance troupe with a perfect choreography to the blistering and magical sound of Bata. I was moved. The africanness in me surged and the flow of my emotions nearly broke into the well of tears - The refreshing sound and its rapidity was that good. Also good were the steps to the frantic beating of the Bata that no electric drum can ever produce. It was a sheer representation of everything that is good with the Yoruba drums.

As much as I love drums, it is a dormant hobbies for me. I never crave for it until I am in its vicinity again but everytime I hear the sound of good drums especially Gangan (the talking drum) and Bata those yesteryear feelings come back again and I am taken back to my boyhood years

I experienced this when I was in college. There was this Christain Music Festival at Obafemi Awolowo University called Livingspring. Livingspring is the stage where a lot of Christian musical groups become known and the known ones get better known. It was and I hope is still a refreshing three days of raw talents, entertainment, ingenuity and just plain ministrations devoid over over-spirituality that normally accompany a lot of Nigerian christain programs. There was this group from one Baptist church in Ibadan with this wicked gangan known as Asaju. Oh my God, it was Ecstatic! The rhythmic concoction led by this asaju was something my body still retains the taste till today. The sheer orgasmic feeling the body of the iya - Ilu, Olele, and Gangan Asaju drums brought to my mind was something only found in the fantasy world.

Fast forward to yesterday at the baby christening of Femi and Sola's baby at CAC Agbala Itura, Seabrook Maryland. It was time for the choir to sing and then comes the gangan drummer. It was an undiluted brilliance with the way he manipulated the drum and dictated the directions of the songs and controlling the pace of the dancing bodies as worshippers were lost to the beautiful aura of the charming beats.