"She started with Fela and established the Afro Beat dance; she is a mentor, a motivation, a model. She laid the foundation of the career of many dancers. She brought out the meaning and rhythm of dancing in others. This is the VERY FIRST and ONLY Afro Beat Queen, when Fela’s band was known as the Kula Lobitos. She is the 64-year old ‘Dele Salami. GBUBEMI GOD’S COVENANT SNR met her recently and she recalls the pains and gains of her career as a dancer."
It was 4.45 p.m. on Sunday, December 28, 2014, when the cab pulled up in front of the New Afrika Shrine, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos, and a fair-skinned and elderly lady, alighted, with an escort in tow, she made her way into the hall, where people were already gathering for the Sunday night jump.
She stopped in her tracks, with a smile playing around the corner of her mouth, looked around, but recognised no one, likewise, no one recognised her, because she had never stepped on this ground, since the Shrine was opened in 2006. Strange, won’t you agree? that the very first Afro Beat queen to the legendary Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the lady that created the now legendary Afro Beat rhythmic dance steps, could enter the Shrine, sit quietly in a corner of the hall, and no one would even look her way. “This is a different generation”, she whispered to her escort, Sam Oku; “I won’t even know any of Fela’s widows if I see them.”
Soon, a journalist from the Daily Times arrived and sent word to Femi Kuti, that Dele Salami, the first Afro Beat queen, was in the shrine. Within minutes, his resident manager was around to usher the august visitor to Femi’s office, where he came to welcome the woman he had always known as a 20-year old and fondly called Aunty Dele.
When Yeni Kuti (YK, as she’s fondly called), arrived at the Shrine, at about 8.30 p.m., she pushed past the now-crowded hall to get into the living room/office upstairs, as she entered the room and sighted Aunty Dele, she was so excited that she jumped at each other and both hugged each other passionately; after a few minutes of rocking each other back and forth, Yeni announced to everybody, “This is the VERY FIRST Afro Beat Queen, when Fela’s band was known as the Kula Lobitos.
“She started with Fela and established the Afro Beat dance; she is my mentor, my inspiration, my model. She laid the foundation of my career and taught me everything that I do on stage. Aunty Dele brought out the meaning and rhythm of dancing in me. In fact, Aunty Dele handed me a mold to express myself and I have never looked back.” Hugging the elderly queen again with joy and gratitude literally written all over her face, Yeni announced, “East or West, this (the New Afrika Shrine), is her home.”
Before the happy duo went downstairs to the hall, YK ordered the penthouse, exclusively reserved for Femi, to be prepared for the queen to rest after the show.
As a proud athlete would display her talent on the tracks to her coach, Yeni mounted the stage to show the now 64-year-old queen the result of the training she had received as a young lady from her mentor, and as the audience yelled for more, the queen could not sit still because the Afro Beat bug bit her and, surely, the days of yore would have flashed through her face as she recollected how it was done back then. Without hesitation, she was on the stage with YK and, seeing is believing, both of them were a sight to behold, the crowd could not have enough as they watched with gaping mouths, the dexterity of Aunty Dele’s moves, despite her age! Coupled with the electrifying moves of YK on stage, the crowd went wild, jumping and shouting for more. “This is a clash of two originals. I wished Fela were here to see this now!” a fan shouted above the blast of music.
Soon after, Femi, basking in the euphoria, and beaming with smiles, stepped on stage to introduce the “young, old lady” who performed with YK. “I cannot do without honouring her: this is the first and only crowned Afro Beat Queen that started with Fela and reigned with Fela, when we all were small boys! Apart from YK, all other girls after her were afro beat dancers – this is the original queen.”
At a sign from Femi, the band resumed exactly where they broke off and the duo resumed their performance. Everyone on the dance floor joined in, but much as the crowd loved for Aunty Dele to continue her performance on stage, and much as she would have loved to continue, her body decided otherwise and she retired to her seat amid cheers from the crowd.
Going down memory lane, veteran journalist and anchor of the online weekend radio Kalakuta Chronicles, Alhaji Abdul Okwechime, told Daily Times that with Dele and YK on stage, it was a synthesis of the past and present. “Seeing the famous Afro Beat Queen here live is like pulling the past back to the moment. This brief moment has made it up for many of us, who were not old enough to see her reign in the ’70s.”
There was no official statement from the afro beat dynasty regarding whether the queen and the Afrika ’70 would resume show business again, but Femi assured fans: “You will be seeing her again.”
At dawn, the legendary dancer, in an interview with Daily Times, talked about her beginning as pretty little Dele Salami, with the Ukwuani-speaking people of Obiaruku, in Delta State
Born in Obiaruku, on October 14, 1950, to an Agbor (Ika) tailor popularly called Salami; her mother was Diana, one of the most beautiful ladies of Ogume, in Delta State. Dele, in 1968, was a fair and beautiful 18-year-old. She was better known about town as Baby Laskoto, and the name fuelled her radicalism and resolve to explore the world.
In 1968, there were no television, magazine or internet facilities, so exposure was seriously limited for youths, and when the Nigerian civil war ended in 1970, there were no international stars to look up to, so for the ambitious villager, who desired stardom, the world, in the pre-and post-war Nigeria, ended in the city of Warri (for Midwesterners of the time), or Lagos as the heart of Nigeria.
Dele’s determination to get away from her family might have been well-founded: her parents had divorced with her mum remarrying and living in Lagos. Dele, who had relations who were over- and virtually policed her around town, saw an opening for escape. “I wanted to join my mother. Obiaruku was a commercial town, which was just recovering from aftermath of the civil war at that time, but I didn’t just like the feel of home life; all the boys were after me, as if I was a magnet. I didn’t want to be a local champion, so I needed to get out of the community. With my mother living in Lagos, I had a destination”.
Running away from home
“Since our compound in the village was a walking distance to the motor park, it was easy to pretend I was going to the local market. On getting to the park, I boarded one of the highly visible black, Morris Minor cabs.”
But, like a gold fish that has no hiding place, someone had spotted Dele boarding the cab and, promptly, alerted young Dele’s relatives. Her brothers raced after and caught up with the vehicle and forced her to return to the village with them.
“O, my God”, Dele recalled, “They beat me black and blue; so severely that I made up my mind to flee again”, and she did, eventually.
“I arrived Lagos on a Saturday evening and located my mother at Ajegunle.”
After recovering from her wounds at her mother’s home, she visited her aunty, who lived at Ishaga Close, Surulere. She was a party person, and with some of her friends she met there, Dele joined them in regular partying. “At that time, the hot spots were either Bobby Benson’s Caban Bamboo, which was more highbrow, or Gondola Nite Club, but it was at Kakadu at Alagomeji, Yaba, that she saw Fela playing for the first time. The attraction was instant, Dele recalled.
“Oh, I loved his music, and I danced my heart out that first night. Fela came over to our table and said: ‘This girl, you can dance o; I want you to dance again, let me see’ and he went back to stage.” A smile of nostalgia lit up her face as she relived that night.
“Oh, I made a great show; I invented dance steps that knocked everyone out. I danced like never before and Fela liked it so much.
“Afterwards, he said he wanted me to dance for him, and that I should find two other girls, who would be dancing with me. He made two dance cages with enough room for a dancer to display.
“We found two dancers, Eva and Paulina; both were Yoruba girls, but I was the lead and outstanding dancer. Not long after, Eva and Paulina couldn’t cope with the demanding nature of our assignment and they stopped, that left me as the only dancer. Afro Beat was the latest music then and we worked hard to keep the tempo.” It wasn’t long before Fela told her he was travelling to the United States and wanted Dele to come with him and the band. “I leapt at the big offer. I told my aunty, who gave her nod; and being a fashion designer, she said if I was going to America with Fela, I needed good clothes. She went shopping and really designed some original styles for me. Fela got a group passport and we left.
“Fela’s manager in America at that time, Tunde Fadimu or so, took us to airport and we left Nigeria. We played in Washington, D.C. and after the show, we lodged in a hotel. We left for New York, where we had many shows, but we were invited back in Washington for more shows.
“The people loved our shows. Nigerians, black and white people, all really enjoyed Afro Beat music. Fela was electrifying and all over the stage, I was at my best all the time.”
That was where Dele was named the Afro Beat Queen before the Nigerian press picked it up.
“We performed in all major cities of America. We also spent time in Chicago. Thereafter, we moved to another city, where we saw great mountains. We went on to San Francisco, before we returned by road to tour other states including Los Angeles, in California State, New Orleans, in Louisiana State. We got to know many places in America because we were travelling by road.” Dele was the only dancer, all the while, and her fame became synonymous with Afro Beat music.
My romance with Fela
Commenting on her personal relationship with Fela, Dele was frank: “At our first meeting, Fela was my boyfriend; but, while it lasted, our business relationship was top priority. Fela could be crazy with love and spoil you, but he never toyed with his music, you had better be good or you are out.
“When we were performing in Los Angeles, Fela met one movie actress, Breny Hamilton and Fela arranged for me to stay with her, I think for accommodation reasons, because we were spending too much on hotels in the cities where we played, while Fela stayed with his African- American girl friend, Sandra Daniele.”
An incident happened that caused Dele to leave the lady’s home.
“One day, when Breny went to work, her younger brother came in, searched the house and took her gun. When she found out, she was very angry. After she had calmed down, she told me it was no longer safe for me to continue to stay with her, so she took me to one Papa Duke’s place.”
Papa Duke turned out to be a Ghanaian. “His wife was pleasant and she received me very well; his son, too. Papa Duke’s brother was also friendly. But, after some time, we fought in Papa Duke’s house, so I left. Before then, there was one Igbo boy, who had been ‘toasting’ me at the night clubs for a long time; I called him and moved in with him.”
While Dele stayed at the Duke’s home, she took up a part-time job with a confectionery company.
“They made cakes, cheese and burgers and my pay was two dollars per hour. Typical of American life, after a long time living with the Igbo boy, he saw another babe, moved in with her and left me alone in his house.
After staying there for a while
I thought that I had better move out. I called Sandra, who took me to her home, where Fela was also staying.”
Confirming the black movement ideology that revolutionised Fela’s music, Dele told Daily Times: “It was that long stay in America that transformed Fela’s ideology, and Afro Beat moved from jazz to the afro rhythm that became even more popular.”
“If I had thought of getting a passport for myself and had a resident permit while we were in America, I would not have returned to Nigeria with Fela. One of his band boys, actually, didn’t return with us.
Unlike all the girls that flocked Kalakuta upon Fela’s return, Dele never lived in the Republic, but she set the standard for Afro Beat dance. “Many young girls just liked to dance for Fela after they saw me dance, but Fela told them: ‘If you can’t dance like Dele, you’re not a dancer.” So they started by watching me dance, and began to learn the pattern; but then Fela decided I should teach and manage them. That was how the number of dancers grew.
“Yeni was then a young but willing girl who showed a lot of talent. I decided to coach her with passion because I loved her like a daughter”.
Business relationship with Fela
“We had a very good relationship, while it lasted. We never quarreled nor disagreed. Fela respected talent and he gave me free hand to bring out my best in me. When I started dancing for the band for the first time at Kakadu, Fela was my boyfriend, but after I got serious with my part of the band, we stopped our relationship and faced the business aspect. I worked for what he paid me. The salary was a token, but money had value at the time; it was when our money exchanged for 50 kobo to the dollar. Besides, whenever I wanted anything extra beside outside salary, Fela always obliged. He had a good soul.”
The dancing and coaching contract flourished and many dancers, then living with Fela, had caught up with the Afro Beat dance, each one dancing fairly well. Dele remembered a head dancer, named Eniola, the daughter of a high court judge, but something went wrong and the contract broke off abruptly.
The Ebenezer Obey factor
Ebenezer Obey first saw me in Ghana, when Fela went for a music festival. We lodged at Nima Hotel. Ebenezer also came for the festival; during the show we (Paulina, Eva and myself) performed like Ghanaians never saw Afro Beat dancers before. So, when it was dark, after the show, Ebenezer Obey sent somebody to call me. I went to meet him and, I spent the night with him, before we returned to Nigeria.
“When we returned, we continued the relationship until I became pregnant, and that became a problem between Fela and Ebenezer. Fela took an exception to that, because he cherished the part I played in his band. The two musicians quarreled so much that Fela included Ebenezer in his album ‘He Miss Road’, but over time the quarrel seized.” But another issue came up over the paternity of the baby girl after she was born. “Ebenezer took good care of me; he got me an apartment at Ishaga, in Surulere, until the baby was born and doing fine.
“When Ebenezer’s father died, one girl from my town, Ruth, accompanied me to Abeokuta for the burial. Ebenezer lodged us in a hotel and behaved responsibly, until one of his managers named Awosika, began to incite him that my baby couldn’t be his, because she was very fair, pointing to Tony Benson – with whom I had a relationship before Obey sent for me.
“I told you my relationship with Fela after we came from the United States was purely business, so I had a relationship with Tony.
“Awosika continued inciting Ebenezer; others joined him in their suspicion, until Ebenezer suddenly changed his attitude towards me. One day, he called me and said he was not the father of the baby; that Tony Benson is the father. I said ‘okay, if that’s what you have decided, fine.’ Tony Benson didn’t refuse the child. Until she got married recently, my daughter’s surname was ‘Benson’. “When I told Tony what Ebenezer said, he was happy. He said: ‘Bring my baby, I want the baby.’ Because Tony Benson’s father was late, we went to his uncle’s place in Ikorodu. The family received us well, performed all the traditional rites, killed a goat over Biola’s legs and the child was received into the family.” More than three decades after, the Queen still respect Ebenezer Obey.
“Since I left Maza Maza for Obiaruku, Ebenezer and I have not met. I learnt later his wife was dead. I would have called to pay my condolences, but I didn’t have his number.”
“By the time many dancers started living with Fela, I had already broken off from Fela. Well after I gave birth to Biola, I still visited the Shrine. Fela and I were still okay. His only cause of anger was that Ebenezer impregnated the star of his band and took her away.
“When Fela moved to Ikeja, I visited the Shrine, which was my first love and my starting point. Anytime Fela saw me, he would introduce me to everyone and tell them: ‘Men, this is my first dancer, the Afro Beat Queen’, that memory will live with me forever.”
No comments:
Post a Comment