NIGERIA: Aspiring musician who was a scavenger in refuse dump in Lagos to perfrom at London's IndigO2 concert

Record ID: 233922

  • Title: NIGERIA: Aspiring musician who was a scavenger in refuse dump in Lagos to perfrom at London's IndigO2 concert
  • Date: 29th May 2010
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ERIC OBUH aka VOCAL SLENDER, SINGER, SAYING: "My experience living in the dump, working in the dump as I always tell people, what took me to the dump is my music; so the experience I got, in the dump, I know it is painful sometimes when I see myself working under the sun or under the rain, I feel very painful, sometimes I feel sad, most of my mates wh
  • Embargoed: 13th June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA25GMQL78NPQW82W1T7YH1ANOK
  • Story Text: One of Nigeria's most aspiring musicians, who lived and rummaged through a giant garbage dump in Lagos for items he could sell to raise money to record his songs, has been invited to perform at IndigO2 London concert on May 31.
    28 year-old Eric Obuh a.k.a Vocal Slender was spotted by a London based music promoter after a BBC documentary showed him working in the Ojata garbage dump to raise money to record his album. The music promoter has visited Vocal Slender in Nigeria and offered him one years recording contract and will also produce a music videos for him.
    Vocal Slender grew up on the streets of Ajegunle, a sprawling ghetto in Lagos famous for producing the country's successful movie actors, footballers and musicians.
    He said that he it never occurred to him to lose hope while living and scavenging in the garbage dump, sometimes under sub-human conditions. In order to counter his poverty and hardships in life, he composed his hit song "Owa Yapa" about his imaginary abundance wealth.
    "The best way to make it in life is to prophesize positive things into your life, so I just decided to prophesize some money in life through that song. I am filled with money up to my tooth [sic] up to my tooth [sic]" he said.
    Vocal Slender said he would have joined gangs to make a living on the streets of Lagos but knew better. He said most of his childhood friends who decided to live the rough life in the streets of Lagos were now all either dead or in jail.
    He said his decision to work at the dump was purely out of necessity to succeed in his music.
    "My experience living in the dump, working in the dump as I always tell people, what took me to the dump is my music; so the experience I got, in the dump, I know it is painful sometimes when I see myself working under the sun or under the rain, I feel very painful, sometimes I feel sad, most of my mates whom we started this thing together have already made it, look at me in the dump...it pains me, but sometimes again, this good feeling always come in me that I actually make it but I don't know how."
    Vocal Slender said being invited to perform at the upcoming IndigO2 London concert was a dream come true to him.
    But he said added he was still not so sure about the trip because it depended on whether or not he got a visa to enable him to travel to the Britain.
    "I say it makes me feel great, it makes me feel like God has a divine plan for me so, like the articles that I have seen, that I am from the slum of Lagos to O2, it makes feel that from nowhere, I am now somewhere, from nobody to somebody and it makes feel like God has a divine plan for me so God who started this work in me will surely finish it," he said.
    Slender said his inspiration came from real life experiences and events that took place in the country.
    In the year 2000, when the country was experiencing religious and political clashes, he composed a song for peace.
    Nelson Brown, a one time top music producer in Nigeria and mentor for Vocal Slender, offered to produce and record his first song for free.
    Their friendship has grown stronger ever since, despite Brown's own tribulations with music piracy syndicates in the country which have left him penniless after decades of producing award winning music.
    "I am very happy for him right now and at least he is going to play his first international show outside this shores and that is very good for him and good for the Nigerian business as well."
    The BBC documentary that helped discover Vocal Slender has, however, not been well received in Nigeria. Government officials have lamented it's aim and called it an insult to the city of Lagos.
    Makin Soyinka, son of Nobel Prize Winner Wole Soyinka, heads the Lagos Film Office, a government funded project aimed at marketing Lagos as a safe haven for film making, believed the BBC documentary was uplifting.
    "The documentary showed how resourceful, how honest the average Nigerian is as opposed to all these images of crime and corruption, 419, these are the real majority of Nigerians eking out an existence in very harsh and challenging circumstances and being very creative and cheerful about it. Those are people with absolutely no thought of crime or corruption, they just wan to work hard and make a living and I believe that is the spirit of Lagos and I believe that is what came out mostly through the documentary," said Soyinka Meanwhile as Vocal Slender waits to catch his first flight to perform at his first ever international show, the sprawling city of Lagos, home to over 15 million people, continues to grapple with dealing with the African traditions on one hand and the demands of being a modern Mega city on the other hand.
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