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It’s 1981 and Nigeria is booming. Oil was still bringing in the big petro-bucks and a new civilian government brought hope that the dark days of military dictatorships were over. A new album by a baby-voiced, permed, lipstick-wearing vocalist is riding high in the charts, capturing the mood of the nation perfectly. The singer was Oby Onyioha, the university educated daughter of the Godian prophet, His Holiness Ogbaja Kama Onu Kama Onyioha. The album was I Want To Feel Your Love, a collection of slick, up-tempo disco tracks, produced by the ‘Quincy Jones of Nigeria’, Lemmy Jackson. Handsomely packaged, sumptuously produced, it was as sophisticated and glossy as anything coming out of the west. The album also marked a cultural shift in Nigeria too. Oby Onyioha was a smart, modern woman exhorting her Nigerian sisters to ‘Enjoy Your Life.’ She wasn’t sitting around waiting for a man to call. ‘I Want To Feel Your Love’, she sang. And ‘I’ll Put It Right Again,’ not some dominant boyfriend. Bright, brash and living for the moment, I Want To Feel Your Love is the soundtrack of a Nigeria confident and ready to take its place in the world. - Peter Moore, www.africanrevolutions.com |
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