K1, the musician, isn’t a subject of my interest. It is the reason I missed out on, until this morning, stuff that happened at his mom’s funeral. I stumbled on one video in which he had a Medusa stare, which the narrator interpreted as being mightily cheesed off about seeing uninvited guests at the occasion. He was in a funk. No diggity.
You can trust the algorithm to act based on the kind of interactions one has had. Videos shot at the event, including mash-ups, came to me in a whoosh. The narratives, based on K1’s words, were also colourful. From what I could glean, some alfas went to the venue uninvited, apparently in the belief that K1 was going to drench them in money. In one video, I heard the guy saying he had no money to give to them. In another, he told one alfa, obviously there on invitation, that the exhortation he expected from him shouldn’t be the type that buttered him up or head-rubbed him as a way of getting money off him.
In yet another, K1 was telling someone that some alfas, instead of going to his father’s house somewhere else, were all over where he was like a rash. “Ibi yi ni won wa ganu si,” he added. For non-Yoruba speakers and the less proficient, “ganu si” means leaving the mouth ajar, probably slobbering in anticipation of gratification. Money, he insinuated, the motive. Clerics with gaping mouths.
Vicious dropkick to alfa’s foreheads. Well, one alfa, not a Lagos-based one, has replied him. In a video I saw in the stream of the ones the algorithm was duty-bound to bring to me, the alfa, clearly irate, felt K1 denigrated members of his guild. He wondered why K1 could bitch about alfas expecting money from him when he’s an “alagbe” (alms seeker via praise-singing). He sorta believes it is the right of alfas to be given money, adding that he’d have put up a spunky resistance to K1 if he was there.
Big up to K1 for telling those alfas off. They won’t like it, but na dem sabi. I think some of them want to pentecostalise their trade.
I do not know much about the Islamic ecosystem. The little I see from those videos resembles the demand (not request) for pastor privileges among Christian clerics. While those in the Pentecostal ranks have a titanic sense of entitlement where privileges are concerned, they aren’t the only ones. I remember Mr. Peter Obi’s doughty resistance of the cartoonish Father Mbaka’s attempt to force him to make a donation. It is not true that Obi nor dey give shishi, as there are numerous reports of him giving to many causes, including relief.
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What he couldn’t stand was a shakedown common among religious figures, who think they are offering basket on two legs and into which people are obliged to drop money. The idea that tajia, aga sheriff, turban, even if bigger than a basia; cassock, mitre, collar, kilometre-long necklace with a giant cross or golf ball sized rings on fingers are necessarily revenue-generating items needs to be interrogated.
During burials, religious structures want to gouge the children and other family members of the deceased. Big up to K1 for telling those alfas off. They won’t like it, but na dem sabi. I think some of them want to pentecostalise their trade. I recently saw an alfa asking his audience how many imams own private jets in Nigeria. “None,” they chorused loudly. He then asked: “Se awon nikan ni n’sin ‘Loun ni?” He wanted to know if pastors are the only ones who worship God. His congregation replied with “nooooo”. He told them it was time Imams started owning private jets.
I don’t know how widespread this feeling is, but if it spreads, we will have serious commodification of the faith. What K1 fought off will be a minor irritation.
