Lagbaja: The Masquerade, the musician, and the genius
The Masquerade
Lagbaja is the first masquerade who defies tradition and culture to become the first masquerade, who sings, plays musical instruments, releases albums, and becomes a brand ambassador for a telecommunication company in Nigeria.
Lagbaja singing. Getty Image
Before Lagbaja, masquerades only appear during festivals and rituals. They dance and recite incantations. Some of those masquerades perform extra-ordinary or inexplicable acts that beat human imagination. Lagbaja doesn't possess any of those masquerades extraordinary acts, but he has what they don’t have. He sings rather than mumbling incantations, he plays musical instruments instead of spitting fire or wielding canes or juju.
The other thing that stands Lagbaja out from other masquerades is his ability to use his songs as instruments for social justice, entertainments, and weapons to fight despotic and corrupt leaders.
Before other masquerades know it, Lagbaja had won awards, accolades, and street credibility. These days, most of those masquerades no longer stay in their shrines and expect to be worshipped by their worshippers. They are swiftly changing with the changing world and are gradually following Lagbaja’s step. Now masquerades are abandoning their shrines, markets and village squares for music videos.
Lagbaja’s mask or masquerading is not to keep the masquerade tradition alive or to represent the ancestral spirits. His mask is used as an icon of man’s facelessness; the anonymity of the ‘so-called common man’. The mask and the name embody the faceless and the voiceless in the society, especially in Nigeria, then Africa. And Lagbaja is a Yoruba word that means ‘nobody in particular’.
Lagbaja playing the saxophone. Getty Image
The Musician
Lagbaja, real name Bisade Ologunde, released his eponymous debut album in 1993. The album was well-received by people and critics.
What makes Lagbaja’s music unique from other music is his blend of musical instruments and style. His music is a pastiche of influences ranging from traditional Yoruba music to jazz to Western orchestral. Critics refer to the groovy fusion of Lagbaja’s music as afro jazz, afrobeat, highlife, and Afropop but Lagbaja christened it AFRICANO, touching on the prominent use of African drums and groovy nature of his music. Lagbaja is one of the major artists who fujified Afrobeat.
Lagbaja albums are not just meant for songs, they are cultural exhibitions: They promote the Yoruba culture and African arts.
Lagbaja lyrics are chiefly sung in Yoruba and English, or a blend of the two languages with some touch of the Nigerian Pidgin English. Lagbaja is undoubtedly Fela’s protégé, but he was able to formulate a styleless, unique, Afro-rhythm that has no semblances with his mentor style of music. But most of his lyrics focus on social issues and injustice, just like many of Fela’s.
Although some of his songs are meant for entertainment (just like some of Fela’s songs), yet he would skillfully inject sarcasm on boiling social issues and throws a subtle shot at bad government officials. Musically, Fela is more militant, abrasive, and iconoclast than Lagbaja. Fela’s music is laden with brass and drums (not gangan and bata), Lagabja music is a fusion of juju, highlife, and jazz, and hence the prominent use of traditional Yoruba talking drums- gan gan, bata, and omele. (Although Fela’s earlier oeuvre were influenced by highlife before he created Afrobeat, his signature sound and tune.)
Lagbaja’s songs are mostly mild tempo and polyphonic, and he could compose gutbucket caprices, and switches from one musical style to another while glibly code mixing and code switching. Another obvious difference between Fela’s and Lagbaja is their sartorial ensemble. Lagbaja is always heavily clothed, but Fela is mostly no frills and, at times, preferred wearing brief to any elaborated clothing.
Picture of Lagbaja. Getty Image.
The Genius
Lagbaja’s stage entrance is theatrical. At times, he appears beneath the stage, other times he climbs down from a wall or from a crane with his saxophone and his trademark mask.
Sartorially, musically and art wise, Lagbaja is more of the subculture than culture. Besides etching out a unique style of music, Lagbaja also melds the traditional Yoruba masquerade, poetry, and chants into music. He uses Ijala (hunter poetry), Ofo (incantatory poem), Aro (Elegy), and Ayajo (Malignation). Listen to the grandfatherly-like rhythm of ‘Suru Lere’ and you will hear how he skillfully blends some of the aforementioned traditional Yoruba poetry into the song.
Also, Lagbaja masquerading is guerrilla. His ability to remain mystique and incognito, even to this moment, makes him a genius. His masquerading can be likened to that of Banksy, an anonymous England-based guerrilla graffiti artist, political activist and film director of concealed identity. Banksy started stenciling elaborated ‘eye-deceiving’ or 3D images in his home town of Bristol. Later he moved to London and started springing his satirical street art and revolutionary epigrams combine with dark humour graffiti on roads, walls, bridges, subways. Even when offered awards, he refused to show up for fear of being unmasked. His twitter avi is a masquerade, nobody knows who he is.
Guerrilla art is more rebel, expressive and fine art than any other art because of its realness and rawness. It’s a form of art that refuses to be cramped into the societal box of inhibition. Lagbaja is guerrilla in his approach to society and this makes him out of the ordinary. It takes gut for one to deviate from the society that’s always willing and ready to bury one’s dreams and ambitions into its casket of norms. But the deviant Lagbaja chose to break away from the societal casket of norms and inhibition and decides to mask himself, create his own sound and flourish in his music and arts.
Beyond being nameless and incognito, Lagbaja brings the dying Yoruba masquerade culture to the limelight and makes it an export just like what the artist Jelili Atiku is doing with the masquerade art. Jelili Atiku is another deviance artist who never embraces the societal box of restrictions of talent and creativity. Though Jelili is not incognito, his art is guerrilla and he is also exhibiting the Africa masquerade culture to the Western world. Lagbaja, Banksy, and Jelili Atiku have aroused conversations on their arts through their imaginative performances, provocative and spectacular use of striking attire, unsettling body languages, and unusual props to open up dialogue and influence popular attitudes.
Lagbaja is extraordinary; so does is his music and art. And he would remain evergreens like Fela and other musicians of old.
