{"id":41368,"date":"2019-10-15T11:52:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T10:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/felas-stories-confusion-break-bone\/"},"modified":"2020-11-04T16:13:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T15:13:07","slug":"felas-stories-confusion-break-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/felas-stories-confusion-break-bone\/","title":{"rendered":"Fela’s stories: Confusion Break Bone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I say confusion
Everything out of-ee control
When everything out-ee of control-ee
E go be say, it Pafuka-oh (Pafuka na quench)<\/strong> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Abidjan, 2001: I receive an unlikely offer. I\u2019m invited to stage the play Le Fou du Carrefour [\u201cthe crossroads\u2019 madman\u201d] in Lagos, Nigeria, under the title Madness Junction. This urban fable was penned by the great Ivorian playwright Hyacinthe Kakou in 1994, and depicts a frenetic African city invaded by garbage and other toxic waste originating from industrialized countries. The city\u2019s arteries are blocked. Vehicles can no longer move freely, workers can no longer get to their respective occupations… The people grumble. The cops beat them down. The economy is blocked, the country is suffocated. Everyone complains, but no one does anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day, one of the inhabitants feels he has had enough and starts cleaning the city. They call him \u201cthe madman\u201d. What could he do where the government has failed to improve this situation? But the man persists. And the city becomes clean again. But as a result repercussions break out: those who lived off the garbage find themselves unemployed and begin to complain. The madman must be driven out. The government grants the injunctions of the protestors. The madman is chased away and garbage accumulates again. Everyone complains… But no one does anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is Lagos! <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

To put on this play in Lagos is a real challenge for me. I am worried stiff. My level of English is as low as you can get. Cameroon is certainly bilingual but I speak English only when the Francophonie card cannot be played any longer. Fortunately, I\u2019m a bit of a \u201cPidginophone\u201d. As if that wasn’t enough, Cameroon wages in open conflict with Nigeria, the two countries fighting over the Bakassi peninsula. If I decline the proposal, they will say that I am afraid. Who has ever seen a Cameroonian confess that he\u2019s scared, huh? So I decide to take up the challenge. As you may know, in every big megacity, there is always a sign saying \u201cwelcome to\u2026\u201d this or that. But in Lagos it\u2019s simply: \u201cThis is Lagos\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Francophone, you generally pee your pants a little in advance. All the terrible stories they told about the country invade my mind. But, hey, so far, so good. The vehicle drops me off at Ekoyi, the wealthy residential area. I still need to translate the play, because I want to perform it in English and Pidgin. In my mind, I would need a bilingual Nigerian or Cameroonian to help me with the translation. Someone also, who can bring me into the lively atmosphere of the popular neighborhoods, so I could immerse myself in the energy of Lagos-city. Ekoyi is not this kind of neighborhood, and I guess it is where young student Emmanuel Macron stayed at the time of his internship in Nigeria. Fortunately, I am told that they have found me a fearless translator. And that he\u2019s on his way…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you would have never guessed who I see getting off a rusty minibus in the parking lot of the French Alliance in Lagos? A white man! A smiling guy, dressed in a shirt, a pair of jeans and… clogs. Clogs, in Lagos! To top it off, he\u2019s Belgian! Neither an Englishman, nor a Flemish Belgian, no! A Walloon, thus a French-speaking person. But what the hell can a Walloon Belgian do in Lagos, eh? This is not Kinshasa! I cannot believe my eyes. This must be some kind of joke. Does anyone seriously think that I will put up a White man in Lagos? It does not make any sense. At best, this would be a call to murder. Here, the Whites are barricaded inside their residential neighborhoods, behind high barbed-wired walls, protected by armed guards. White ghettos. So who is this guy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Smoke it, it\u2019s Belgian dope! <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Right from the beginning of our exchange, I realize how much I was wrong. Every single one of my prejudices would disappear, one after the other. I discover that this Belgian guy had lived in Nigeria for 25 years. As a European, one must be seriously crazy to do that. So when he tells me that he has worked with Fela, I am dumbfounded. He even went to jail with him. Lagos is already an overcrowded city, so can you imagine the state of the prisons? What\u2019s more, with a White guy inside? This is just too surreal. For me, there is no doubt: this Belgian is a madman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man invites me to go for a ride in the slums of Lagos-city. I climb into the spooky minivan. And fasten your seatbelts: I am sitting in the passenger seat. My Belgian guide starts the engines and drives like crazy. The Nigerian way. I start thinking that it was not a good idea to go with him. He even zigzags, and curses the Nigerian drivers, sometimes in Yoruba, sometimes in Pidgin. I feel that all this is going to end in a bloodbath. But to my surprise, Nigerian drivers seem astonished to hear a White guy talk Pidgin without a foreign accent. They conclude that he has somehow turned into a Nigerian. This would explain why they don\u2019t react to his insults. Phew! But as we exit Ekoyi, a monstrous \u201cgo-slow\u201d swallows us. Read: one of these famous inextricable traffic jams that only happen in Lagos. This is only the first day of my journey, and here I am immersed in the nightmare that Fela sang in \u201cConfusion\u201d, in 1975. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When one finds themselves entangled in the traffic jams of Lagos, they can only think of this song, and its sister-version he recorded fifteen years later, \u201cConfusion Break Bones\u201d \u2013 or \u201cCBB\u201d. Imagine the scenario: stiffness in a hearse that has just crashed into an artery of the crazy city, Lagos. Fela foresees the damage done: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Na him be say when we say confusion e be say e pafuka
Na him be dat we dey tok confusion e break e bone confusion e break e bone nko, nko o nko, nko o nko,nko o nko,nko o nko, nko o nko
Dead body get accident yeepa
Confusion break bone ni yeepa<\/strong> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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