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Nigeria: A Blend of Culture, Spirituality With Saharan Praise
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This Day (Lagos)
COLUMN
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
Lagos
Nigerian exports abroad are of various variants. Just like Chinua Achebe blazed the trail at the literary level, a Nigerian group is threading similar path on the musical front. Falilat Abiri encountered them in Lagos recently.
Fifty years ago, Chinua Achebe, a then aspiring young Nigerian author, decided to make a point about the fact that African culture and traditions were not crude and retrogressive as portrayed in some European literatures. His response to that misrepresentation came in the form of the classical novel, Things Fall Apart hailed today as the greatest work of fiction in Africa and which has been translated into several languages.
Today, Dr. Joseph Takon, a Nigerian and pastor of City of David, Atlanta, Georgia (a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God) in the USA is making the same point in his own unique way--that God could be served in a unique and colourful African way without the usual stereotypes and tinges of paganism. This, he is doing through "Saharan Praise" (aka "An African Praise Celebration"), a semi-annual music fiesta that showcases African culture and traditions via costumes, songs and dance steps in the beautiful and bustling city of Atlanta.
A typical "Saharan Praise" atmosphere invokes the memory of the typical Nigerian church programme-feisty Pentecostal atmosphere, indigenous choruses, drumbeats, dance, dance, and dance. But most remarkably, traditional African costumes, mostly from Nigeria, in all their breathtaking splendour. But for this parish, one of the largest of the more than 200 parishes of the RCCG in the USA, Saharan Praise is only one of the things that make it thick, which makes it the hub of the high and mighty among Nigerians in Atlanta as well as other nationalities.
It started in 2004 and named then as African Praise, the musical fiesta, according to the church, was conceived with the understanding of the value of worship; a power packed evening representing a diverse array of African music and artist showcases, designed to uplift and inspire. Since its inception, Saharan Praise has attracted thousands of attendees. It offers an interactive exchange between the community and international Gospel music artists. Through participatory musical inspiration, Saharan Praise celebrates gospel music and sets the stage for an empowering community event.
Saharan Praise has also attracted many musicians from a number of countries especially Nigeria who usually thrill the audience in soul-lifting choruses and worship songs. This year's event which held recently saw popular Nigerian musicians, Broda Martyns and Yinka Davis ministering in songs.
In recent years, "Saharan Praise" has assumed a big status and has fast become the signature programme of the Church. In the last one held recently, the event had to be moved from the moderately big Church auditorium to a major event centre, the Hilton Hotel in Norcross, Atlanta, so as to accommodate the ever increasing crowd constituting people from different races, and African countries. In widening the scope of Saharan Praise, this year's event was celebrated around the period of the Black History Month, a month which celebrates all that is black, and that is praise-worthy.
Olabimpe Obafemi, a Nigerian and member of the Church who has attended the program from the very beginning and is an active member of the church choir, said Saharan Praise is one event she zealously looks forward to every year. "You should see how the excitement bristles in the air. It's a truly awesome time of worship wherein people can forget who or what they are and dance to God's Glory with so much enthusiasm and energy. Our prayer is that it will get bigger and better, and that souls will be brought to the kingdom of the Most High," she said.
Takon, shepherd of the church, a Cross River State-born medical doctor turned pastor, explained that the programme was to draw attention to the fact that all that is African is not necessarily pagan. "It is a unique opportunity to serve God in the African way. I believe with all of my heart that long before Mongo Park sailed down the River Niger and marveled at the wonders of a continent yet to discover its greatness, our forbears were worshipping a God they did not know. And they did so with style, excellence and gusto," Takon explained.
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He further asserted that in those days, the native Africans had local instruments which produced musical notes and effects similar to the ones produced by today's keyboards, percussion instruments, horns and so on. "They might have been crude in some of their methods, but for heaven's sake, they worshipped, and celebrated God. And you know, the bible says that those who lived without the law would be judged without the law," he added.
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