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Jul
23
Loomnie’s thoughts on his childhood and his musical experiences
Szavanna: Greetings and many thanks for doing this interview. Please say a few words about yourself and/or your blog.loomnie: I am a Nigerian blogger working in Germany. I discovered blogging a couple of years ago. It started as a sort of personal reflection, but as the audience increased the posts have become sort of modified. These days I blog about places I visit, movies I watch, books I read and music I listed to. There is no theme to the posts, really; I write about whatever catches my fancy.
Szavanna: Since there are more and more posts on music on your blog - (the last one was about a South African band, Freshlyground), in your Blogger profile you say you like Miles Davis, you wrote about Tinariwen, Ali Farka Toure, Bongos Ikwue and others - it shows that you are interested in a wide range of styles. Where does this interest come from - any specific reason for being so open to music from so many countries - any strong musical background that explains these musical choices?
loomnie: I really don’t know where the interest comes from… ok, let me think about it. I grew up as one of four children in a middle-class family in a Nigerian small town. There wasn’t much to do socially apart from being with friends in school and listening to the radio. The public service radio was pretty and most of the Nigerian music I have recently blogged about I listened to on the radio while growing up in the 80s and early 90s. They also played jazz music from artistes like Tico Rico, Louis Armstrong, Earl Klugh etc. Also, my grandfather died sometime in the early 90s so I literally inherited his library. His library was rich so it opened me up to a lot of things. I kind of ‘discovered’ jazz during my university days, but the striking thing was then when I formally discovered it it was because it reminded me of the kind of music I used to listen to growing up. I explored a bit and found other interesting kinds of music that I loved… the lists just kept growing, jazz, latin jazz, blues, soul… the older sounding the better. Now I am tuned to some younger people. Discovered Joss Stone, Jamie Cullum, Renee Olstead a couple of years ago, just about the same time I got acquinted with the music of Ali Farka Toure and Amadou et Miriam Bagayoko… and as you can see on my blog, I am still exploring. I hope I answered your question.
Szavanna: I’d like to ask a few questions about your childhood. I am not sure if you grew up in Lagos or somewhere else - please tell me a bit about the place you grew up in.
loomnie: I already said a bit about the place…. It is a small town, kind of ancient, town. It is in the Yoruba-speaking part of Nigeria. It is not special in any way, just one of those towns that are slow and comfortable. I think that informs why I don’t particularly love big cities
Szavanna: Can you tell me about the role music played when growing up - did you play any instruments, did any specific type music influence you - any musician or style of music and made an impact in any way?
loomnie: My mother belongs to a church whose joint national choir has about the largest orchestra in Nigeria. I attended the church myself. My mother plays the viola, that obscure sister of the violin. My younger brother plays the piano, and I tried learning the flute too… I dropped it after a while, and I still regret it now. It would have been nice to have that right now. Yes, there was some music in my life as a kid growing up. Actually, thanks for asking these questions; they are making me think more about my life as a kid!
Szavanna: Have you ever made instruments (anything to make noise with:)from material that you found at home when you were small and if yes what type of instrument was it (drums, or shakers or a guitar etc.)- or if not - do you remember someone else doing so?
loomnie: No, I don’t think I ever make any instruments as a kid…well, the thing was that anything could be a drum: the tabletop, the wall sometimes, a whole lot of things. But I never made any instruments…
Szavanna: Some time ago West African idol was on TV and we were watching many of the initial auditions which I found quite entertaining for a while since here in South Africa we don’t usually get to see programs from other countries in Africa (sadly). One of the judges was Dede Mabiaku - who (if I know it right) is a Fela student. What do you think about the show and about Dede’s music?
loomnie: I am sorry but I didn’t watch Idol West Africa at all… I was in Europe when it aired.
Szavanna: I have always been interested in finding out more about the life and times of Fela - how did he and his music influence the communities around you while growing up?
loomnie: Fela was great in so many ways. I think that he is the greatest musical export Nigeria ever had. And he deserves every accolade that has ever been showered on him… of course, except the ones that take him to be a deity. When Fela died I was only 17 so he didn’t have much influence on me when he was still alive. His influence came much later. I remembered listening to his music along with the others on the radio when I was growing up, but in my small town things didn’t really get to us. I guess that if I was in Lagos at that time I probably would have more stories to tell. I can tell you stories about Fela but I don’t think I really have any rights or qualifications to do that; there are qualified people who have done that and are still doing it.
| loomnie’s Page | Authors Page: Szavanna |
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Jul
17
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHoQFWF3bEg]
Jul
17
Nneka… Victim of Truth
Filed Under Music, Reviews | 2 Comments
One of my colleagues told me today that she had a CD for me. About an hour ago she walked into my office with a copy of Nneka’s Victim of Truth. I have since been listening to the CD, and I am finding the music really charming. I have googled her,found her website and her Myspace page. Please guys, check her out.
Nneka was born in Warri in 1981 and she now lives in Germany. She says that Fela, Mos Def, Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill are her musical role models. One can hear the Lauryn Hill influence in her music. I still think she reminds me of someone I can’t really place right now… if you guys can think of someone please leave the name in a comment. You can also check some videos on youtube and on her Myspace page I am really looking forward to more good things from her.
Jul
10
Ishtar Interviews Loomnie
Filed Under Interview | 6 Comments
Not long ago I met fellow blogger Ishtar, a Swedish lady who volunteers with an NGO in rural Niger. What struck me was how much she loves what she is doing, and how she describes her relationship with the people of Tanout, the area in which she works. It was sort of nice for an African who likes Scandinavia to meet a Scandinavian who likes Africa. I was interviewed by Ishtar sometime last week. Here is the interview…. I am sorry the post is not as filled with pictures as the one on Ishtar’s blog.
Touring the World in Search of…
Peopleized by: Ishtar - Tuesday, 10 July 2007 When discovering Loomnie’s Blog, I was immediately intrigued as we could very well have traded geographical lives with one another. Born in Nigeria and an expert on Naija affairs, he makes a better Westerner than myself in many regards…
Ishtar: When you started your blog in 2006, you were looking for a job in Nigeria. What made you start a public blog? Did you let your friends and family know about it?
loomnie: Ehm… actually, I started blogging in 2005, even if I had only one post in the year. Now, more seriously, I started blogging just when I was about to leave Sweden to go back to Nigeria. I just discovered Blogger then, and I knew next to nothing about blogging. It was a time when I was pretty much confused about what to do with myself. I had finished an MA programme in a really good university, didn’t know what steps to take after that, and, after stumbling on blogging, I decided to write a message to an imaginary audience. If you read the first blog - and the next few ones too - they were written in a sort of reflective way, without much thought about the audience. Also, when I got to Nigeria and started looking for a job it was a bit disappointing in a way, and writing about the disappointments was therapeutic in a sense.
So, in a nutshell, I would say that I started blogging without really knowing why I did. But then, when I left Sweden I found that it was a pretty easy way to keep all my old friends updated about things happening to me. All I had to do was to send them an email with my address, and with a request that they bookmark the page. I guess that answers my question about letting my friends know about it. My family? Well, you would find that I haven’t mentioned anyone of them in a direct way in any of the posts. We are four children in my family, and one of my younger brothers now knows about it. It wasn’t like I was hiding it from anyone, it is just that I never got to give talk to them about it. I would gladly give them the address… you can see that it is not an anonymous blog.
Ishtar: From reading your blog, you seem like a guy with pretty high standards, who doesn’t settle for second best, unless forced to do so. So tell me, what are your life aspirations? Have they changed over the years?
loomnie: Pretty high standards? Oh yea, I have pretty high standards, but I probably would not agree with you if I thought that would be a good thing. I think it is not a good thing when one sets standards that would almost be impossible to attain. Most people like that are almost never satisfied with whatever goals they achieve because it could always be better. Ishtar, I hope you understand what I mean.
Life aspirations? I guess when I decided to do a degree in development studies I thought about working with a development agency or an NGO. I wanted to ‘do’ development, and to ‘help people’. But coming back to Nigeria showed me that most of the people in the NGO ‘industry’ are actually there because they can make more money than they would either in the public or private sectors in Nigeria. After looking closer I saw that ‘development’ as an intervention might not work because people who work with the organisations are not knowledgable enough to take the perspectives of the people into consideration. Ok, maybe not knowledgable enough is not the right expression, maybe I should say they just don’t know enough about the issues they are supposed to be dealing with, and they don’t take many contextual issues into consideration in designing development programmes. This is not only in Nigeria but in the ‘developing world’ in general. I thought that the discipline that might actually be able to provide this bottom-up perspecive would be Anthropology because it is reputed to give ‘voice to the voiceless’ by listening to ‘local voices’ that otherwise would not be heard(actually, I was going to do a degree in Anthropology if I didn’t get on the Development Studies programme). These thoughts eventually led me to thinking of anthropology as a field of study.
Thinking about it now, I don’t know if I would say that my life aspirations have changed because I really don’t know if I had any clear life aspirations. Even now, what I am thinking about is doing a damn good work of my PhD, and on time, and other things will follow. I am thinking about doing a post-doc after that. I see myself working in a research institute and teaching in a university for some years to come. But I am flexible enough to accept another course. ‘We’ll see how it goes’ would be a good thing to say at this point.
Ishtar: When you started your blog, you were living in Nigeria. Now you’re working in Germany. What is your take on the difference between the Western and the African continent?
loomnie: Living in Germany is definitly different from living in Nigeria. For one, there are so many things you take for granted here that you would be happy to have in Nigeria. I could mention the electricity and security issues as examples. But then other side of this is that you constantly miss your family and friends. I also miss some feeling of warmness that I would get in Nigeria for instance… but I have to be hasty in pointing that that too could get too much in Nigeria. I guess that what I am trying to say is that there is no perfect place. Wherever one chooses to live one should know that one would never have everything.
Ishtar: What do you think the next ten years of your life will look like? Feel free to speculate!
loomnie: What do I think the next ten years would look like? I have no idea. I probably would be able to answer a question about what I would like the next ten years to look like. I know that part of it would be rough as I have to finish my dissertation and decide what to do with my life after that… and I am sure you know that it is not exactly the best of times writing up a dissertation. Also, a wife and kids would be nice in ten years from now…. and you can add the house with a white picket fence to the picture. 
Really, I would like to have a family and a place that I can call home. Anywhere in the world would be home as long as the family is there. And no, I don’t even have a girlfriend now.
Ishtar: Finally, what did you know about Niger before you encountered Ishtar News, and what is your take on Eden Foundation?
loomnie: Well, I knew that Niger is at the northern border of Nigeria, and that the country shares a lot in common with Northern Nigeria. But I must confess that I didn’t exactly know so much about Niger. I think I told you sometime ago that I have been in more countries in Europe than in Africa, and I plan to make up for that sometime next year, starting with a tour of West Africa. So watch out, I may be in Niger sometime soon!
I think that the foundation you described in the posts on your blog sounds really interesting, and I daresay even great, but I really don’t know so much about the foundation to be able to make any conclusive statement. But knowing that the organisation takes a long-term perspctive on issues is comforting because I am tired of the fire-brigade/ big bang approach of most of the NGOs around…. I think I really have to learn more about Eden Foundation.
| loomnie’s Page | Authors Page: Ishtar |
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Jul
8
Freshlyground
Filed Under Music | 3 Comments
Now, I am really sure that I am on a music roll…. Dave Lucas just called my attention to South Africa’s Freshlyground. Their music is a beatiful mixture of African pop, folk, Jazz…. Actually, you need to sample their music to see the fields they traverse. The ease with which they move between a smooth sounding pop, a bluesy jazz and a deep and involed soulful sound is sure going to make sure they remain popular with music lovers…. Here is their website, and here is Dave Lucas’ post on them. Thanks Dave.
Jul
3
Tinariwen
Filed Under Music | 6 Comments
Jeremy just called my attention to Tinariwen. They are a Touareg band who are said to be the first Touareg band to play electric guitars. You can read about them on Wikipedia, check their website, or their Myspace page. Thanks Jeremy.
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