The words are: ‘Nyash’ and ‘Wahala’.

Coined from the West African pidgin, a local corruption of the English language, it is widely spoken predominantly in parts of Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

In these countries and beyond, pidgin is spoken with distinctive inflections that vary from country to country.

And the two words - ‘Nyash’ and ‘Wahala’ have come to become omnipresent in the daily lingo of the people from this region.

To canonize pidgin, King Charles III liberally injected it into his banquet speech at Windsor Castle in honor of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was recently in the United Kingdom on a state visit.

In a masterful end to a well scripted and equally masterfully delivered speech, the English monarch said in near perfect pidgin: “Naija no dey carry last”, to the uproarious applause of the large Nigerian audience in the room.

Back to the ‘Nyash’. And to the ‘Wahala’.

In pidgin, ‘Nyash’ simply means the backside of the human anatomy and particularly and pejoratively used to refer to that part of a woman’s body.

And to those more won’t to commit the ‘sin of looking’, you will but agree with me that most Black and African women are generally well endowed.

However, those of our women unfortunate to have a natural deficit in the ‘Nyash department’, have resorted to cosmetic argumentation to help enhance their physical persona.

Whereas ‘Wahala’ on its own means trouble. It clearly has a definitive Yoruba origin.

Wahala’ as a word is derived from Yoruba urban street culture which has since been grammatically inducted into the pidgin vocabulary.

Thematically, it will interest you to know that I am staying with the ‘Nyash’ for the purpose of this article.

Not for good reasons.

Lately, the number of deaths of our young women who have lost their lives while under the knife has become alarming.

Although, there are no verifiable numbers of women who have been casualties of the ‘Brazilian Butt Lift’ (BBL) worldwide, this surgical procedure has the disrepute of having the ‘highest mortality rate of any aesthetic surgical treatment’.

Verifiable information about BBL also cataloged dizzying numbers of patients who have developed permanent complications from this procedure.

This year alone, Nigeria lost four high profile personalities to BBL. This has sparked intense debate about the ‘unregulated cosmetic surgery boom’ in the country, according to online news reports.

Similar cases have also emerged across the continent - Ghana and South Africa - and the rest of the world.

On a personal note, and as a father of a daughter and an uncle to my many nieces and cousins, I have a dog in this fight.

Like most concerned parents, I would like to see a measure of regulatory oversight in the cosmetic surgery industry especially in Africa and particularly in Nigeria.

It is on record that Nigeria has arguably one of the worst health care systems in the world. Ask Chimamanda Adichie who just lost a son.

And as far as I am concerned, I am of the opinion that healthcare issues should be addressed as civil rights matters. A subject matter for another day.

Black people all over the world more often than not get the short end of the stick when it comes to healthcare.

Remember COVID?

Available statistics show that more Black people died needlessly from COVID than other ethnics due to discriminatory practices and (wait for it!) racism.

In most parts of Africa, perhaps with the minority exception of South Africa and Egypt, the healthcare sector is irredeemably broken.

Alongside, education and food sufficiency, healthcare delivery must be prioritized in every African nation.

We cannot afford to have our young people continue to die avoidable deaths when their rulers and family members japa abroad for medical treatment. Even for minor ailments.

That is the real ‘Wahala’.

With the United States (I live in California) as the backdrop for this piece, my investigations reveal similar patterns around the world - a dysfunctional maze of bureaucracy.

Stories abound of rude officials, incompetent and undiplomatic. And at the end, you wonder why they exist at all.

Try calling or emailing any of these embassies and you would be fortunate to ever have someone come to the phone or respond to your email.

Return your call? Forget it.

More often than not, citizens of these African countries have to physically show up at the embassy offices to get anything done. Even in this digital age.

In writing this piece, a diasporan told me that it is easier to get through the proverbial eye of the needle than it is to obtain a piece of document out of one of these missions abroad.

Most worrisome are stories of shakedowns of their own citizens by embassy officials.

When a particular mission here in America decided some years ago to farm out the processing of passports to private companies ostensibly to decongest self-inflicted bottlenecks, it got worse - with horror tales of gross incompetence.

Conversely, my investigations also revealed that embassy staff at one of these African missions are

routinely owed salary arrears.

And you wonder how they survive.

I am told that staffers invariably resort to self-help - bribes from vulnerable individuals, side hustles such as buying essential goods and shipping them back home for small profits and even laundering monies for corrupt politicians and senior officials.

Now compare and contrast the role of African diplomats posted overseas to the role of their foreign counterparts serving at duty posts across Africa.

In Africa, ambassadors of a country such as the United States and Eurozone countries wield enormous power and influence.

They are literally on first names basis with African presidents and prime ministers. I am reliably told that many an African head of state dread those ominous phone calls from ambassadors of these ‘powerful’ countries.

Recently in Pretoria, the newly posted US ambassador to South Africa, Leo Brent Bozell III wasted no time in engaging in a spat with his hosts.

He told the South Africans that he ‘didn’t care’ about South African court rulings on the struggle song: ‘Kill the Boer’ and that as far as the US is concerned, the phrase constitutes hate speech.

By the way, Ambassador Bozell is a right-wing conservative appointed last December by President Donald Trump Trump to checkmate the ruling ANC’s perceived oppression of the country’s Afrikaans population.

In Nigeria, I have equally watched with mixed interest, the recent announcement by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of his approval of 65 ambassadors-designate.

Thirty-one of them are political appointees, with names of his controversial acolytes such as Femi Fani-Kayode and Reno Omokri.

And as much as Tinubu is well within his powers to appoint anyone, he so desires to represent his country overseas, his choices have ignited a firestorm of resentment.

But, observers who had criticized him for acting rather tentatively in filling the ambassadorial positions in the first place, believe that he did not do justice to this critical presidential assignment.

Integral to such discussions about ambassadorial appointments, for many, is that there is a somewhat overinflated notion of what ambassadors do.

Or, how important that they really are in the grand scheme of things.

In a country with a runaway inflation rate, mass unemployment and a bleak economic outlook, it is only wise to question the rationale for the appointment of such a large number of persons essentially for political patronage.

Ambassadors are usually portrayed as some oleaginous characters who spend their time playing golf, attending black tie dinners, and like some diplomat told me, “having quiet entre nous encounters with all shades of characters.

“And judging from the way some political appointees initially misunderstand the job, they are less than attuned to the actual job”.

In conclusion, I cannot help but question the whole idea of maintaining so many diplomatic missions abroad - that are largely ineffective, underfunded, and poorly managed.

In today’s global environment and in a changing world order, Africa has to approach the diplomatic representation as warfare. Short and simple.

No more niceties of the past.

After all, the rest of the world don’t give a flying fig about the continent.

Africa has what the world needs. Let them come get it. On our terms.

Abroad, Africa needs her A-team. Anywhere it has presence. Not some upstarts. With a demoralized staff.

In today’s world, perception is everything. Perception quickly turns into reality.

What every African country needs abroad is a lean and mean team of diplomats.

Diplomats who know their onions. The ones who mean business.

But I would have loved to have attended the memorial service of the Very Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr.

Held Friday, March 6 in South Side Chicago at the House of Hope church, the event was attended by three former US presidents - Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Also in attendance was former Vice President, Kamala Harris.

They all spoke.

Africa was ably represented at the event by two sitting presidents - Cyril Ramaphosa (South Africa) and Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

I also learned there was a good representation from the continent from various countries including Nigeria whose current president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was once upon a time a Chicagoan.

Rev. Jesse Jackson has a history with Africa.

From the apartheid days in South Africa to the troubled era of Sani Abacha’s regime in Nigeria, Rev. Jackson was front and center.

And as Clinton’s special envoy to Africa, he crisscrossed the continent several times, made friends and established strategic alliances for the United States.

However, his most dominant role in the continent was recorded during his series of vociferous campaigns in support of South Africa’s Black population during apartheid.

Along with so many other African Americans, Jesse staged incessant protests at the South African embassy in DC during apartheid. And he got arrested several times and was in and out jail for the South African cause.

By the way, I was able to watch the Chicago funeral service on television - from the somber eulogy of President Biden to the fiery oration of Rev. Al Sharpton, one of Jesse Jackson’s surviving protégés.

Arguably, the best tribute by my own assessment was given by the Reverend’s scion, US congressman, Jonathan Jackson. The best I have heard from him. And I have heard him a few times.

Between a voice laced with a tinge of grief and a heart filled with familial pride, he evoked the unmistakable Jacksonian oratory fire.

The way he waltzed his way with piercing words throughout the speech was exceedingly remarkable.

He ended his speech with a refrain that I am sure will continually ring in the ears of the hearts of most of America: “Rise! Rise Jesse! Rise!”, he crowed.

And before the end of his speech, almost everyone in the audience was on their feet as he exited the podium in the midst of a huge ovation.

Having had the privilege of meeting and interviewing a good number of the vanguards in the civil rights movement in the 80’s, I was gripped by a sense of nostalgia as I watched Rev. Jackson’s coffin draped in colorful flowers.

I could remember like it was yesterday how the civil rights initiatives of his generation made us feel as new immigrant arrivals in America. Their passion for the motherland - Africa - was genuine.

Before then was the era of the dashikis. And most African Americans wore their traditional African clothes with pride.

To that generation, Africa was hallowed. Sacred.

Many took African names. And helped destroy the African stereotypes and myths in the American mindset.

I remember also leading at different times groups of African American tourists and business people on pilgrimages and business trips to the continent.

The anticipation and excitement on their faces were always palpable.

On arriving anywhere in Africa - Senegal, Gambia, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa; you name it - and they were in absolute awe.

I vividly recall a dozen of my African American compatriots and friends who relocated to the continent and swore never to return to live in the United States. Only for visits.

Within America, that was the period of a cultural awakening. Between these new arrivals from Africa and the African Americans, relationships were forged, friendships were made and marriages were consummated.

Literally springing up in most US metros were several Africa-themed festivals and soirées.

However, the fervor for Africa was to take a detour - a slip up- especially for the new generation of African Americans, and new African arrivals, beginning in the first quarter of the 2000’s.

During this period, we noticed a surge of interest in Africa more among the Caucasian demography.

In Hollywood and the overall entertainment industry, the same trend was observed. It was as if the Mandela mystique had waned.

With the present global upheaval, especially within and around the United States, there is no better time than now to reset the tempo in this vital relationship between Africa and the African American Diaspora.

I must admit that I was immensely impressed with the speech of South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa at Jesse Jackson’s memorial service in Chicago last Friday. He hit all the right notes.

He told the Jackson family and the larger African American people that he flew nine hours from Johannesburg to Chicago purposely to express his country’s gratitude to the Jackson family and the larger Black community in the United States for what the good reverend and Black America as a whole did and sacrificed during their support for Black South Africans in the dark days of apartheid.

“We as the people of South Africa”, President Ramaphosa said “are here to say thank you.

“The African National Congress, the organization which I lead with which Jesse Jackson worked closely also say thank you.

“We are not only here in mourning but in gratitude, a deep abiding and unpayable gratitude.

“You gave us your husband, your father, your patriarch.

“You shared him across an ocean, and across the continent, across marches, across prison gates, and inauguration days.

“When South Africa needed a friend in the corridors of power, you allowed Jesse Jackson to be that friend”.

That was the moment I had an epiphany. About the need for a realignment between Africa and the African American Diaspora.

In these times of growing extreme nationalism all over the world, we have to come to terms with the reality of our collective existence as Black peoples - that our survival and fortunes are inextricably linked.

That’s a fact we know but chose to ignore.

Fact is: Africa needs her Diaspora. And her Diaspora needs her mother:

Africa.

It’s devastating impact on the psyche of the continent and her Diaspora lingers on - economic, cultural, political and social - are evident everywhere you look.

Like a mad tailor, the Europeans set out to tear up families, ethnicities, and cultural boundaries with no recourse to rhyme or reason.

Over rounds of rum, gin and whiskey and other spirits, these drunken buccaneers sat behind the shiny oak tables in the quaint German city of Berlin and decided to make a mess of a people they hardly knew, and whose civilization they did not know predated the history of the entire Europe.

All this for the sake of economic gains and power. Raw power.

More than 100 years after, the Europeans and their allies are still unsatisfied. Their appetite for Africa’s vast natural resources seems insatiable.

Ask France. Ask the English. Ask the Germans. And ask...

During the Cold War era, the former Soviet Union had jumped into the fray - a fight for a piece of the continent - under the banner of supporting African freedom fighters.

And now as Russia, they are back with an economic agenda. And for global influence.

During the struggle for self-determination and independence, the Soviets conveniently offered a pre-colonial Africa a place from where to fight.

Then came the Chinese. With bag loads of money, they were willing and eager to buy everything African.

Latest arrivals - the Americans - apprehensive of growing Russian and Chinese influence came with strong-arm tactics.

They demanded political reforms, human rights protections, and economic subservience. They wanted control. Absolute control.

They pressurized the continent for a place for the US Africa High Command.

They were however roundly rebuffed. But the Americans persisted.

Under the current administration in Washington DC, the original goal of the United States for a military presence on the continent has taken a slightly different tact.

With an already tiny toehold in Accra, Ghana where it maintains a ‘logistical and cooperative’ hub, the Americans have surreptitiously found their way into Africa’s most populous nation, Nigeria. Boots on the ground.

The Americans who have always had a fascination for Nigeria seized on the opportunity presented by the widely reported cases of genocide against her Christian population to intervene. On moral grounds. Presumably. So they said.

Not many of us believe the Americans. We sincerely believe that the agenda is far from moral.

Today, as I write, there are about 200 US combatant troops on the ground in Nigeria. We are told they are there for training purposes.

Preposterous. To say the least.

Down south, the United States’ first power move at asserting her influence in the continent was to intimidate South Africa, the second medium power country in the continent apart from Egypt.

It accused Pretoria of targeting her White Afrikaans population for physical elimination.

Under this patently spurious guise, President Donald Trump invited and literally humiliated his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa at a White House meeting before the whole world.

Then came another opportunity for the Americans to announce their intention to engage in yet another power play in Africa - the DRC/Rwanda debacle.

For the gluttonous Americans, the military skirmish in the mineral-rich Eastern DRC was a fortuitous opening to sink their teeth into the pie.

Quick on his feet and smelling blood, President Trump wasted no time in dispatching his daughter’s father-in-law, Massad Boulos to the Congo.

Up until now, the fragile peace process between the DRC and Rwanda is still up in the air.

Back to West Africa.

The sudden emergence in West Africa of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) known in French as Alliance des Etats du Sahel - a political union between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger upturned the geopolitical calculus.

They kicked out France and distanced themselves from the regional bloc - ECOWAS - and aligned with Russia.

Sensing and preempting a Russian plot, the Americans piled pressure on Nigeria whose current leader is rumored to be a compromised American asset.

What you now have is a US Africa High Command through the back door.

Though denied, facts on the ground and intelligence sources confirm that the Americans now have a functional military base in Nigeria.

With an initial tiny number of US troops in the northernmost part of the country, the base has been strategically positioned to give coverage to the entire Sahel region.

And if I am to believe the fable that once they arrive, American troops never leave - they metastasize - and that exceedingly troubles me.

Sixth sense tells me that a US military base is also inevitable in the DRC or somewhere near if lasting peace continues to prove elusive in the Eastern Congo.

Add to this that the Chinese who are heavily invested in the continent. France is still licking her wounds. And most likely plotting a comeback.

Bugged down by the Ukraine war, Russia still has its eyes set on Africa.

Meanwhile, the other European powers are circling around the carcass that is Africa.

Given the paucity of quality leadership in and around the continent, I sincerely believe Africa could be on the path to re-colonization. Economically and politically speaking.

I hope I am wrong. But sincerely wrong.

Pissed about the direction of the country. And at those behind the wheel.

The ministry’s statement contains no new information. Simply hollow.

Was it meant to deceive and to create a veritable distraction - that the project is still proceeding on schedule? We may never know.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I must state that from its inception, I have always been skeptical about the nature and idea of this white elephant project which is estimated to cost Nigerian taxpayers approximately $12 billion USD.

To some of us, the whole thing smells like another well-appointed opportunity for the ruling party to feather its election war chest in readiness for the 2027 Presidential election.

We know that they will need the money to buy votes and to pay off anyone who stands on the way to victory.

Already, most of Nigeria’s serving governors have been seduced or coerced into joining the ruling party - the All Progressives Congress (APC).

However, the ruling party has denied all allegations of turning the country into a one-party dictatorship. Its leaders, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu swear that the governors are jumping ship ostensibly because their various parties are sinking.

Really?

You can tell that to the marines.

Nigerians are smarter than you give them credit.

In charge of the Lagos-Calabar Highway is one of APC’s hatchet men, Works minister, David Umahi who I understand is nursing a presidential ambition.

He is aspiring to be the first elected executive president of Igbo extraction after Bola Tinubu’s second term. That’s a story for another day.

Equally worrisome is the identity of major contractors handling the 435-mile Highway project.

Enter the infamous Chagoury brothers - Gilbert and Ronald.

The Chagourys are buddies of the president. That’s an open secret.

The Tinubu’s and the Chagourys literally own Lagos.

It is believed that Hitech Construction Company Limited owned by the Chagourys, a Lebanese Nigerian family was awarded this contract without a bid.

More troubling is that Tinubu’s son, Seyi is a member of the board of another Chagoury-owned company, CKD Integrated Industries.

The Highway project is said to be designed to connect multiple coastal cities.

Really?

However, observers have questioned the commonsense benefits of this project when existing road networks around the country lie in abysmal neglect and unconscionable disrepair.

It’s a universally known fact that Nigerian roads are death traps. And many have died on those roads.

A number of people have been wondering why the authorities have not opted for a masterplan that could fix the existing roads of which most are said to be federal concerns rather than engaging in the grandiose Lagos-Calabar Highway project.

The answer is blowing in the wind.

Africa woke up to the sad and somber news of the overthrow of one of the continent’s greatest leaders, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who was the first Prime Minister of Ghana.

Popularly known as the OSAGYEFO, Nkrumah was prime in the pantheon of Africa’s post-colonial young leaders who literally showed Europe the door. Out of the continent.

For those who may not already know, Osagyefo is an Akan (a Ghanaian ethnic group) word for ‘Victorious Leader’. The title is traditionally reserved for leaders in pre-colonial Ghana who excelled in warfare.

He was in the same political class of the early freedom fighters who read the colonizers the riot act: Africa has come of age. We can run our own show. Hit the road Jack.

Nkrumah’s contemporaries at the time were Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Tanzania), Dr. Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea-Conakry), Modibo Keita (Mali), and Milton Obote of Uganda.

These young men formed the bulwark of anti-colonialism in the emerging continent. In actuality, they influenced a whole generation of leaders who followed in their footsteps.

Unlike his counterparts, Osagyefo who was American trained drew the hostile attention of the colonialists more than his peers because of his international appeal.

While his fiery rhetorics and charisma were loathed by the colonialists and the West, he made friends with the East. The former Soviet Union to be exact.

In America and the Caribbean, his charm netted him the friendship of proponents of global emancipation - W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, George Padmore, Maya Angelou, Malcom X, and of course Dr. Martin Luther King.

But all that came to a screeching halt when his government was ousted by a band of soldiers led by Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka.

However in a failed coup attempt, Kotoka himself was killed one year after.

And for a military ruler who was portrayed as a ‘liberator’, it was no surprise that in 1969, his colleagues renamed the country’s gateway airport in the capital of Accra after him.

For a country that gave Africa and the Black race so much - a place of pride in the world - because of Kwame Nkrumah’s bodacious stance when it was potentially dangerous to do so, he deserves a much more prominent place in Ghana.

Many of us believe that it should not have to take a parliamentary debate and vote to know that the name of Accra International Airport belongs to Nkrumah.

There is no disrespect intended in this article to dishonor the memory of Emmanuel Kotoka and his kinsmen exemplified by the minority leader of the Ghanaian parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin.

The minority leader who represents Kotoka’s homestead - the Volta Region - had argued that it was a betrayal of his constituents by the removing the name of their son from the airport.

I have no attitude either way.

For Ghana. For Africa. For the Black World. The name: Nkrumah simply means deity. Period.

What baffles me in this whole name-removing saga is that Nkrumah’s name was not mentioned. Not once.

Is this a case of a prophet not getting his due honor from his own people? Perhaps. But sad.

I am aware that there are other public places in Ghana named for the country’s first prime minister.

But what a better way to immortalize this mythical son of Africa if every visitor that arrives Ghana is greeted by the Osagyefo.

To the best of my knowledge, there exists no greater personality in the modern history of Ghana than Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

If properly positioned, his name, like the name of Madiba Nelson Mandela should drive up tourism numbers.

Ghana is of significant importance to Africa. And to the Black World.

I hope, my friend, President John Dramani Mahama is listening.

If you have not been following the latest melodrama on the Nigerian political landscape, let me bring you up to speed. For free.

Two ideologically opposed groups have recently emerged on the landscape of Nigeria’s eastern seaboard. And they are heating up the country’s polity.

The ‘City Boy’ is the brainchild of a group of young Igbo ‘millionaires’ who support President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda, a euphemism for a plan to secure for him a second consecutive term.

Whereas, the ‘Village Boys’ is an intrepid group of ordinary men whose clearcut agenda is to counteract the message of the ‘City Boy’ movement.

With the ‘City Boy’, their goal has been unambiguous: Win the votes of the Igbo states - Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo - for the re-election of Tinubu.

Not to be outdone, the ‘Village Boys’ who are preponderantly made up of members of the ‘Obidient’ movement, a vociferous support group backing the presidential ambition of Peter Obi instantaneously threw their hat into the ring.

I believe what first provoked the ire of the ‘Village Boys’ was the ostentatious and public roll out of a fleet of brand-new vehicles by members of the ‘City Boy’ group.

In a rather deft political move, the ‘Village Boys’ wasted no time in showing up. And they have been successful in instantly changing the coloration of the conversation.

And for a moment, the focus was no longer on the ‘City Boy’. For the shine has been taken off.

The ‘Village Boys’ message to the public was simple: We look more like you - Hungry. Unemployed. Forgotten. Abused. Oppressed. the Hoi polloi.

Without really saying so, they have successfully portrayed their rivals as the oppressors, the money bags, the fat cats, the privileged, the rich and the wealthy.

All this is for the battle for the soul of the people of the East. Politically speaking.

All available information reveal that Tinubu is hellbent on avenging his defeat in the hands of Peter Obi in his Lagos state domain in the 2023 elections. You will recall that Obi recorded a huge win against Tinubu in that election.

Now, Tinubu is spoiling for a revenge - beat Peter Obi in his native Igbo land. Or nothing. To him, it is personal.

It is no surprise therefore that the arrowhead in this foray into the Igbo states for Igbo votes is no other than the president’s trusted son, Seyi Tinubu.

Obviously with a bag full of money, he has been charged with the task of deploying an emergent cadre of Igbo businessmen as assets across the length and breadth of the East.

And for maximum efficiency, governors of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the region know better than not to provide the requisite support needed for the big boys from the East of the ‘City Boy’ movement to accomplish the bidding of the President: ‘Take the East for Tinubu’. By hook. Or by crook.

I can now authoritatively report that the stage is set.

And the eggs are cooling. The butter’s getting hard. The jello’s jiggling, according to the legendary American sports broadcaster, Chick Hearn.

Now let the battle begin!

From Lagos to London. Paris to New York. Johannesburg to Amsterdam. From Rio de Janeiro to Los Angeles. Remi Kabaka played them all.

Remi, who later in life became better known to his many admirers by the moniker: ‘Kaboks’, passed on quietly December 8, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. He was 80 years old.

A freak of nature, Kaboks could make the drum talk. He played anything drum.

Kabaka mesmerized on the drummer’s seat - trap drums, the traditional Yoruba talking drum, the conga and even the marching band drums - he was the maestro.

His gifting skills as a drummer and musician instantly caught the attention of record company executives, the public and the media.

British record producer, Chris Blackwell (who now lives in Jamaica) was fascinated by Remi’s talents and recommended the Nigerian drummer for sessions with leading bands in London and all around Europe in the 70’s.

For those who know or may not know, London was the entertainment capital of the world in the 70’s.

America only drew inspiration from the British pop music culture. For any act or artist anywhere in the world to make it to the apex of the entertainment world, you had to play the London circuit.

At the height of her musical suzerainty, the UK produced the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, et al.

That was the era when Remi ‘Kaboks’ Kabaka horned his craft in the British capital - at a time when there was an acute shortage of good energetic and innovative drummers.

He arrived on the UK scene when British music producers were beginning to ‘think out of the box’ with the fusion of African and Caribbean vibes into mainstream rhythms.

Before him were pioneers such as his countryman, percussionist Gasper (Gas) Lawal and Ghanaian drums virtuoso, Guy Warren (later known as Kofi Ghanaba).

‘Kaboks’ excelled.

He was ambitious. Charismatic. A good talker. With a bohemian fashion style.

It wasn’t any surprise that he was much sought after in the highly prestigious industry.

The Beatles came calling. Followed by The Rolling Stones and Bob Marley, Paul Simon, Miriam Makeba. And the list goes on and on.

The last time I saw him play was during Hugh Masekela’s World tour in the mid-90’s. In Long Beach, California.

After that, as he was used to doing (unannounced), he stopped by at the offices of The African Times/USA in Los Angeles quite frequently.

During one of those visits, he profoundly surprised me when he showed up with an old friend and mentor, another Nigerian and African great - musician and writer, the late Bayo Martins.

Uncle Bayo was visiting from his home in Germany. We all later had lunch at one of the many Nigerian restaurants in town. And caught up with stories about ‘home’.

It was a reunion of sorts. Last time the three of us were together was in Lagos.

Remi was also part of the African music renaissance in the UK in the 80’s with bands such as Osibisa (with whom he played quite frequently), the Funkees, Ofo The Black Company, etc.

Individually, he joined forces with the likes of Teddy Osei, Mac Tontoh, ‘Loughty’ Lasisi Amao, Jake Sollo, Kiki Gyan, and Larry Ifedioranma to create a new sound - Afro jazz - that swept through the London club circuit and captured the imagination of the British audience, Black and White.

Back in Nigeria, he had attempted to do some solo work. And to his credit, he recorded and produced an album with a single titled: ‘Funky Lagos’ that garnered considerable airplays before he migrated to the United States.

He is survived by his children, most notable being Remi Kabaka Jr., a record producer, and of course percussionist based in the United Kingdom.

Sleep well, ‘Kaboks’. You came. You saw. And you conquered.

Sun’re oo..