See the man who said his happiest moment would be the day he is dead!
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| Okonfo RAO Kawawa |
" of course , I am not human . I am not a spirit either . I am a specially crafted piece of art work by God " he said during the interview .
Though, he admitted that his attitude and actions are influenced by "whoever, I don't know . You know we listen to different music , dancing to the rhythm of our different drummers . So I don't worry my head with that'' In this rare interview with Alarinka Agbaye , the man whose dancing group usually draw the biggest attention at the Osun Osogbo Grove during Osun Festival , the musician , sculptor and artist maintained that his happiest moment will be when he is died! . Excerpts.
Who
is RAO KAWAWA ?
Thank
you. I am also interested in who is RAO
Kawawa. Rao is Rashidi Ajani Omoniyi, Kawawa is a nickname and Okonfo is name given to me by the
Ashante’s in Ghana as a priest . In Ghana, a priest is called Okonfo so my name has to do with Ghana , Arabic and Yoruba languages and
nickname . So I am Okonfo RAO Kawawa. I am
a chap born in Ghana some years ago 1949
by Yoruba parents from Osogbo, I went to school in Ghana
and later we came down to Nigeria stayed
for 2 years and I went to Germany for
further studies. I studied German. I am a polyglot and a unique artist . Many things put together in a man . I
built the world biggest drum in Germany and sold to Japan customer, so I’ve
been doing this artistically work
spiritually because I never learnt them from any man . The inspiration brought the technique and I’ve been doing this to to survive in Germany. So I opened a
centre called Africa house where I teach African
drumming and dancing , I’ve been
doing this now for 39 years.
How many years do you stay in Germany?
I stayed in German for only fifteen years without coming to
Nigeria, This is my 26th year of staying in Nigeria.
Why did you decide to come back?
Why I decided
to come back home? You know we like to stay in our hometown it is the best you
can do stay home where you were born or your hometown you enjoy it more
than somebody been a stranger in another country. I came down to survive and to
live here for further studies, I’d like to know more about classical traditional music and
dances which I think my knowledge then was never enough.
Did you at any point regret ever coming to Nigerian?
You mean disappointment? No . To me,I think it is the best thing I can do in my life, to come back home ,
if i don’t come back nobody can force me But it is not good going far away without coming back to ones root . what is the use of being born and get lost. I struggled to come back after fifteen years
with my children and wives.
When
coming to Nigeria about 26 years ago what was your projection like?
I just think
of coming back home to settle down and have a Centre where we can do more research
about African music and dances, and
about spirituality which has made me to be what I am today . I believe the
spirit is higher more than all techniques and I was doing it in a way to get more involved into spirituality to
get some achievements, get more money and
give me children part of . I came home to settle down to enjoy the Africanism ,
the African people and almost to give my
best to my people here and not only to the white people. So .long, I am alive to enjoy Africanism., African music and dances and technologies of
Africa which are not dead not only to sit in
Germany working with the Germans
and teaching the American
dance and music . And I am so glad the the people appreciated my passion by conferring on me the title Baba Ewe which means father of
the Youths and later Baale Eleyele, representative
of my family.
To
what extent have you been able to serve your community in Nigeria since you
came back home ?.
Yeah , I have been teaching people drumming, without taking money. I don’t live on the money I made in nigeria .I rely on the revenue I garner from Germany .I have been assisting the economy of my hometown. 
People
see you as a weird and wild human being...
Weird and
wild ? How can a wild man be reachable ? A wild man cannot be reached because he is
wild . I am not a wild man because i am
cool and intellectual too.
Are you a rich man?
I can call
myself a rich man butI am not a poor
guy, I know people who are rich, rich people controls million I don’t have a
million butI do spend my own kobo kobo
to make life relatively okay for me
Your
appearance doesn’t look like somebody who had been to Germany, you look like a
jungle man because this is a jungle, why
the jungle lifestyle?
The jungle is always jungle. You can change Osogbo to be
Oso Ilu or Oso City, It is not possible the meaning of Osogbo is Oso Igbo ,-the wizard in the jungle .The same meaning I coined for my Centre - Jungle Communication Centre
and it comes from Osogbo which means Igbo {forest or jungle} . And how do you want a jungle man to look like ? You want me to look like a man from Manhattan City ? No way .
So why all this effigies, sculptures, the
shrines and others, are you an herbalist ?
Yeah, we do an'
herbalistical' work too. Spiritual work
go with herbalism and healing . Wherever I am, I have to have
my hands
doing something around me. So the sculptures here tell the story of my
life, coming down here you have too see something that makes you feel you are in another
place . The sculptures are to me powers of gods and I tried to express this when they visit here to go round to see what we
are doing and I can explain to people , you know to me sculpture is not just a joke or an empty
air.It says something. And expression is
something we need in the artistic world . So I do sculpture , carving, metal
work to express my feelings, not only
for sales.
Are
you encouraging people to go into arts?
I do
encourage them, That is why I take money from the white to train them free. So teaching them without
collecting money is also part of my personal assistance to the people. So when
you know how to do it you know it, I’ve sponsored more that twelve people abroad.
People
sees you as a cultist .That you were initiated in Ghana .
I am not a cultist . I am a traditional believer and practitioner .I got initiated in Ghana . We got to
trained to be possessed. We call it AKOM in Ghana, and you are trained to get
possessed. To get in trance. That is not cultism..
Is that in line with your belief
My belief?
I mean your religious belief .?
I don’t have any religion.Exported religions are tricks being used to colonised our identity and turn us to European robots .
Mohammedanism or Christianity . I don’t
belief in that.I don’t think about them .I think about my ancestors and I feel
bad the way things are.I do think of
going to the Mosque and jump over those people bending down.They say I am weird, no I am
not. It's just that things going on in my head are not just normal to me so I have to express my feelings . I have been
doing this and they think I am crazy. I am not crazy, I am saying this is not good for me why should I be there
and be saying Allah and all this
languages . I don’t want to
get lost in paradise , that is why is stay here in Jungle Communication Centres where I can worship the idols ,
dances to the music of the Yoruba,and other tribes in West Africa.
You
mention paradise now, where is the paradise
For me ,anywhere I feel good is a paradise . This words is
used in the Bible, and also use as Aljahnah in the Quoran, but its my own personal
feeling that will tell me whether the place is good or not. I am not joining
them to go into their own Alhjanah .I
want o go to Al Togo . I have been in
Ghana already. I. want to go to Al Togo . You cannot tell me this is the way to go to heaven,
why should I go to heaven, I am here to live on
this land on the earth to enjoy it and not
to go to heaven leave me here . My first album disc titled 'Dancing in the fire" so Inu ina yee gan la majo e
ba ara yin da sohun, They want to
put our souls down so that we can become
fear and frightened. I don’t want to do
that . I am just like crazy do my things
in my own way and that’s is Ok. My father told me " hey Rashidi , you are crazy and you need to go to
psychiatric" And I said " no i am not crazy you
are crazy. Why should you knock your
head on the ground calling Allah, and other things you don’t know come
and join me here to dance to real
African dance , worship African gods,
and enjoy your life
Are your children following your path?
Yeah all of
them,
How many do you have ?
Ai ka omo fun
olomo ( you don't take census of how many children you have ) You know that is the tradition in Yorubaland. I have eight children and to me
eight is a number of spiritualism . I have three here in Nigeria and the rest over there in Germany .So to me , I want my
children to follow my pat. , To do more research about our ancestors not only go in the computer way, in the white
man’s way, and be losing the real and authentic tradition and values..
About
26 years ago when you started Jungle Communication Centre here in Osogbo was it
flourishing then?
I can say
that people were coming here to find out what is going on here. Some
do come here to learn while some were here to waste their times . I had almost forty guys staying
here before and later they started running away. They don’t have the
patience of learning and concentrating on what they come here to do ,they just want the wealth,
that is the trouble with the young ones .They don’t have any trust our society any no longer.they are after
wealth ,rich and money that is the
spiritual power they are looking for.
What
do you thinks is responsible for all these ills and problems in the society ?
In our
society we have all become Americans. I called it American Yoruba . We are all
after wealth and we use capitalism and most of our people don’t even have feelings for the others. They want
to cheat, to shoot and kill others . And this their feelings is not
genuine for African , not African ways . Before, Africa was the only place
where people can exchange views without killing without shooting but today, Africa has become a place only for
money, money, money, so robbery and killing and shooting have
become part of us like America
You
mean adhering to the traditional ways can heal the society of
these vices ?
It can help
us because we if we all believe more in our ancestors there will be no more killing,
no more robbery everybody want to do the
best but when you have become African American
everybody are now more cruel, greedy and vicious.
How often do you communicate with the spirit?
I do
everyday . I don’t have any other job. It is the only way to survive for me . I have to call the spirits for money and good luck . I can’t just sit down and say things will happen just like that.,
How
did it bring money?
It brings
connection, it send people down, for example if I tell the spirits that look ," I am broke ," The spirits will propel people to come and give me money
either from my students overseas or people coming to buy land.
Who
owns this land and how many acres?
Its my family
land. We own it from Asubiaro, to Abere and here, 600 acres was acquired by the government. And I am keeping bthe rest
What was the disposition of your parent towards
your belief?
Haa it’was tough . They said that it was a disgrace to
them being pious moslems for me joining the ancestral movement and began to dance or drum as a beggar.
Then
how do you interact as brothers and sisters
We have always be at longer heads.We are always fighting . And whenever they needed money ,they always come and my reply is ' if you don’t belief me
don’t come near me''
How do you
feel dancing on the street?
I feel high. It's only once in a year and I feel good, and that is during Osun Osogbo,I have some personal rites and also my personal festival that do here in my home I called it Boninka.
I feel high. It's only once in a year and I feel good, and that is during Osun Osogbo,I have some personal rites and also my personal festival that do here in my home I called it Boninka.
Do you plant or smoke marijuana?
Beautiful, I don't plant but
when you have it bring it for me, I will smoke. I don’t hide my feelings
If you die any moment from now is there anybody who you have prepared to take your role ?
That is
the case of god and not mine I’ve been able to live and do my own if i die, I don’t want to know what happen,.if
i die everybody should fuck off and let me go.
How do you want your
funeral to be packaged ? Your children may decided to take
you to the church or bury you in Islamic way.
Take me to Church or Mosque ? They will never try that . Ha ha ha they
know if they do that , I will just wake up and start slapping them. They will not dare it . I will prefer to go home with wild talking drum , dances , songs ,chanting . I will be happy that I am dead. I want to
be buried in the traditional way in Osogbo here . They should dance
around me for a whole seven days before
they now put me in a hole . I want a place where they can see me in the hole where I too can see them drinking and
smoking marijuana and say Baba buruku yi
ti lo a dupe, ( Thank God , this bad man has gone )
Tell us about your wives
My wives, the only one I have now is Olori Abeni .,I had so
many wives before her.
Sir, what makes you happy ?
That is a
big question, let me think deeply, Seeing my family, my
wife and children and my car ,
Not others like weed , fuck and drink ?
No. Those ones do not make me happy. They make me to think and think . When I see my children, family and
everybody functioning effectively, I
become happy
The happiest moment
When i die (
Laughter)
