Akeem Lasisi: The three-in-one man
| credits: http://akeemlasisi.com/
Singers, poets, writers abound within the Nigerian creative space. Yet, none wears the multiple caps that Akeem Lasisi wears. Lasisi, a sprightly 45-year-old Yoruba from the country's South West is an accomplished journalist, performance poet and musician.
The evening was far spent when he sat down for a chat one working day in January. Lasisi had just left his desk at PUNCH, Nigeria's biggest newspaper where he is the Arts and Education Editor. His job for the day was far from being done but his subordinates were holding forte back in the newsroom.
"I have also been lucky that my company tolerates me," he says, his back to a dark swivel chair, as he tries to explain how he juggles his day job as a journalist with his creative pursuits. "I thank God that PUNCH pays well and the pay is consistent. So, I can plan and also invest my resources in other pursuits. Some conventional artistes can't because they are broke."
The Nigerian media space is a cluttered one. A 2013 report puts the figure of community and national newspapers and magazines in the country at 100. However, pay is low and media companies are notorious for owing journalists back wages.
Lasisi studied English Language at the Obafemi Awolowo University, one of Nigeria's venerable tertiary institutions where Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka once taught literature and drama.
He says, "I would say it started in childhood. I was born in a village where arts and life was part of daily life. I grew up watching the way of life of the rural people and listening to their music. It made me aware of cultural issues."
Although Lasisi acted plays in primary and secondary schools, it was in the university that the creative seeds of his childhood blossomed into lifelong interests in journalism, poetry and music.
"When I got to the university, I started writing, especially plays, in Yoruba and English," he reminisces. Soon, he had a first manuscript entitled, Osanolugbo: the story of a twelve-year long land dispute.
But poetry proved a tougher nut to crack than prose. Though an avid listener of the musical poetry of Yoruba's master poets like Ogundare Foyanmu, Odolaye Aremu and Alabi Ogundepo, he felt poetry was a difficult genre.
Challenged by his artistic minded friends, however, he started writing poetry in 1990 and, in his words, "I couldn't stop."
"I felt if the traditional people could recite quality poetry and do it well, I could experiment with performance poetry," he says.
After his first degree, Lasisi taught for years in Lagos before joining a newspaper. He led the schools' drama clubs and spent his spare moments with other poets at a popular watering hole in downtown Lagos.
"Music came in as I experimented with my pupils. I had the instruments and students, so I chanted poems and they beat drums," he says.
The period of this experimentation was a volatile time in Nigeria history. The military had just annulled a presidential election that produced a Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist, M.K.O. Abiola as president. Protesters and soldiers clashed on the streets.
"When Abiola died, I wrote a poem titled Post-Mortem. I composed other songs and poems and recorded my first album in 1999," he says.
Within a short while, Lasisi's mastery of two difficult genre of Yoruba hunters' poetry: Ijala (hunter's ode) and Esa Egungun (the masquerade's panegyrics) became public knowledge. Invitations to local and international poetry festivals soon followed.
Today, Lasisi is a much sought after performance poet in Nigeria and abroad. He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Association of Nigerian Authors' Poetry Prize, 2000 and 2005. He has also authored five books and produced five musical albums.
His inspiration, he says, is his environment and Nigeria's volatile political terrain. His most recognizable poems either speak truth to power or agonize over the inequities of the Nigerian system. One of such is Iremoje, a poem he penned in honour of the late author and human rights activists, Ken Saro Wiwa. Wiwa was executed by the regime of military dictator, General Sani Abacha.
Lately, however, Lasisi has been writing romantic poems.
"I would call it love poetry," he says with a trace of mischief. "I have written poems for up to four ladies. What informs that is that when I got promoted as a line editor, I couldn't go out on assignments like I used to, I had to draw inspiration from the people around me in the office."
As the interview draws to an end and his duty as a journalist beckons again, he says, "Many people tend to hate poetry. They think it is too difficult. But I argue that the poetry we grew up listening to was interesting and people gathered to listen. My mission is to make people love poetry"
http://www.punchng.com/feature/people-places/akeem-lasisi-the-three-in-one-man/
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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