Music video controversy in Nigeria: Logos Olori misreads a religious time bomb
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Tuesday, August 1, 2023
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Recently, Logos Olori – a Nigerian singer who is signed to Afrobeats superstar Davido’s music label – released a video with supposedly Muslim men dancing to his song Jaye Lo in front of a mosque.
Key Points:
- Recently, Logos Olori – a Nigerian singer who is signed to Afrobeats superstar Davido’s music label – released a video with supposedly Muslim men dancing to his song Jaye Lo in front of a mosque.
- After an outcry, the controversial video had to be taken down by Davido because it sparked the ire of Muslims in Nigeria.
- There were public burnings of Davido’s image on posters in the Muslim north and fervent calls to have him remove the video.
Religious tensions
- Nigeria, a largely Muslim-dominated country, has been plagued by religious conflicts in contemporary times.
- The religious uprising, which resulted in thousands of deaths, was an attempt to impose a “purer” version of Islam.
- The country is governed by powerful religious sentiments – both Islamic and Christian – that make it, at most times, ultra-conservative.
Freedom of expression
- A sophisticated way of assessing the Logos Olori controversy is to state that it’s about the right to freedom of expression.
- But on the streets, it’s often unveiled as a tussle to establish “purer” standards of religious practice.
Art or gimmick?
- But there is also a larger question; is this really art or a lowbrow attention-seeking gimmick?
- But young African-American women who twerked atop the Elmina Castle in Ghana were criticised for bringing the slave dungeon into disrepute.
- In the elevation of the risqué and the substituting of art with entertainment there is also a blurring of the distinction between the sacred and the profane.
- In my view, Logos Olori’s portrayal wasn’t conceived as a piece of art but a gimmick (and perhaps a form of cultural appropriation) that ultimately backfired.
The common good
- Most entertainment clearly isn’t art and the limits of individual rights and freedoms are often defined by the effects they have on the common good and social cohesion.
- For a polity as diverse as Nigeria in ethnic, cultural, religious and political terms, the issue of freedom of expression and individual liberties in relation to the common good has been problematic.
- And for the good of all, it’s better we take heed.