Chukwuka Echefu Fortune is a Nigerian-born artist whose songs depicts ease and reflects living style and standard for living. In this interview with select Journalists, CEF as he is fondly called speaks on his music direction, Nigeria and other issues.
Excerpts…
Talking about Jideofor, et al
CEF’s new album Jideofor is easy on the ears but heavy on the mind. Animal farm is the African reality. More especially this is the Nigerian reality where the pigs are the leaders and the dogs are the forces, and we eat and destroy ourselves more than any other person.
Animal farm is inspired by Georg Orwell’s book of same title.
Because I respect Dike Chukwumerije, there was no other person who we saw that understand the idea of this song. It was also coming from a place of understanding that we are a part of those animals, and that we have the responsibility… when you listen to Chuwkuemerije, he is more than pointing figures. He is self-reflecting, looking deep within. He was painting a picture of the Nigerian realty. So, when we had an opportunity to create, he was the best person for this. I told him a few days before recording and he came that weekend and just wrote the song in one go. we didn’t have to think much because it is our reality.
Nature is the perfect teacher. A tree is rooted. It grows and expands and has branches and fruits. I am very Igbo. For me, it is important to take roots in your cultural heritage. As much as we are lost somehow, I don’t speak very good Igbo, culture is so potent that we haven’t done anything in terms of exploring the beauty, the sounds, the melody the rhythms, the spirituality and the essence of our culture. We are constantly looking for very other thing apart from who we are. And for Genti Music that is part of our mantra, to get back to the roots. It’s like taking a branch and trying to make it stan don floor. But when you get to the rooted, the music is honest. We are very Igbo boys, maybe not in the lingua but in our hearts we are. It is important for us to represent our culture and still interact with the world but understand where we are coming from, and to do that we must be rooted.
I had a conversation once with Sadimas Nwoko, he said, “when you are rooted culturally then you can be universal.” When you understand who you are, then you can go the world. You don’t need to constantly change your identity. When you find yourself, you take that identity to the world and the world is interested in that originality. The music is about staying rooted, and finding more and digging deeper. When you want to build you dig. The deeper the digging the more solid the foundation. This is just the start. We haven’t explored anything. We will be more Igbo about this.
Wearing white
Why I wear white is because it teaches me patience and consistency. It teaches me not to care, but also to care, because I see and can’t hide but be aware of my fears, my failures. Just like when you get white stained, it’s very obvious. It constantly reminds me of my frailties, my form, who I am and the fact that regardless of how much the dry cleaners washes it cannot stay clean. It is a constant reminder to check yourself and clean your mind. The white is a spiritual reminder to check myself.
Challenges encountered when composing this body of work
It is challenging even from a creative space, finding the team of people who understand the vision and are able to create it, and so I am very thankful for the creator for the kind of people who I have worked with on this project. I say we because there is no individualism here. I didn’t play all the equipment. All these little contributions gave birth to this work. This is a community project, and that is really what made it easy. That’s what made it what it was. It was all of us. And that’s what made bringing up a child easy in the past. This was a child for us. This was a community project. I was just one of the people who contributed to the project. What made it less difficult is that a team of people who believed in the idea came together to create this project.
When do we expect video album?
We don’t want to say never say never. But our style and what we look out for it to create live experiences. In terms of official music videos, we are still looking at the model but we have a lyric video out already. We have live videos. It was the experience of the 60s and 70s that we are trying to explore. There is going to be a lot of live videos and live experiences, and we will be sharing all of that.
The cavemen are my brothers we have been working together and doing thing things. But it is as the spirit leads. But we are definitely open to collaborations. That’s how you build things. Like is aid the cavemen are my brothers, we already have things in the offing, and I know it will be very powerful. We all want to come from a place of power. The two people you named cavemen and as a are very inspiring. I got my first guitar after listening to as a, and the cavemen are literally my brothers.
It is like the guitar or the piano, they are traditional instrument if the west. For us identity is key. We need to be able to go back to our roots. I had a concert in Brazil a few years ago, and went into a music store ad saw the ‘Udu’. The vey small ones that you barely find here anymore. It is used in few places like Mbaise. But Brazilians have taken our instrument, and explored it to a higher capacity. in India, percussion companies have taken the instrument to levels beyond what we have here. But we don’t know what we have. This is our pride, out heritage that we are going to pass down to our generation. We must be able to take those instruments and begin to infuse them in day to day living.
For us, some of the things we want to be able to do, is take some of our traditional instruments that are no longer played. The sonics from those instruments are amazing. We want to be able to do this. When we collectively begin to do these things, we start to regain our identity. And with that continue on the journey to exploring this and digitalizing them. That is what we are doing and we are going out continue on that path.
Afrobeat is still alternative music to someone who is listening to rock in America. There is nothing small about what we are doing. For the fact that ships are not sailing on your sea does not mean that you are small. This is not alternative. Or it could be but we are not small. We are putting our lives, our energy into it, and we are going to continue building it. I don’t identify Genti with alternative music. Genti is what it is. We are not going to downplay what we are doing. There are a lot of people already doing what we are doing but maybe not in the exact same way. What we are doing is telling ships to come and sail in our seas. As artistes, we don’t really create but discover. And sometimes we discover that which was lost. We have discovered this path, and clearing the grass and asking people to come on it.
Staying true to himself
It is all about the call. I believe that we all have different paths in life. For us, one of things is to shape the cultural and spiritual consciousness. We are keen on going back to roots. When there is a yearning deep inside your core, or your soul, only if you want to deny or pretend, which often leads to frustration. You can’t run away from the calling. For us, it is not really about becoming very famous or being entertainers. It is the responsibility that is heavy on the mind. It is burden but not a yoke that we cannot carry. It is like having a child. When you wake up every morning and look at that child you are remind that have responsibilities you are aware I have to go out and work.
Marriage and family’s impact on his craft
Family teaches you so much. It teaches you responsibility. It teaches you wisdom. Family is key. It is responsibility. It is a yoke you can carry but not a burden. Family has continued to teach me responsibility, how to be introspective. Because you begin to realise that If I shape my life better my family will be better. If I shape my family better, my community will be better. If you shape that small community, the nation gets better. That’s the effect family has. It teaches you to Jideofor.
Very soon we will be going on tour, towards the end of October starting here in Abuja. We want to use Abuja as our base, and there expand to the world.
On the upcoming elections
I have an interesting perspective of politics and democracy. That whole religious idea of constantly seeking for a messiah to come from somewhere and change everything. Politics is much more than that. because change starts from the inside. In summary, I will say that if you are trying to have a better life, start from inside because it is easy to point fingers and say “I am looking for help there. If I want my solution from this person. Or that this person will come and change Nigeria. Nigeria is too grand for one man to come and change overnight. Moreover, history shows that people always complain about the people in power, even though before he came, he arrived like a messiah.
This same story with Christ. He came as the messiah and the same people he was trying to save, killed him.
On the coming elections, I will advise Nigerians to make the best candidate yourself. Vote yourself. Vote for responsibility, vote for Jideofor. Vote to jideofor for yourself, and when you do that if we are going to have a good leader, he would know that he can’t mess around with people who know where they are headed. But if you are ignorant, when you are not rooted or know your spiritual bearing, anybody can come to deceive you.
