Four Days of Imaginative Feast of Performances, Conversations at LIPFest 2021

By Vanessa Obioha

For four days, the Lagos International Poetry Festival (LIPFest) held thought provoking conversations and performances that left virtual and physical audiences spellbound. LIPFest, like most festivals forced into hibernation in 2020, or compelled to adapt wholly online, returned this year with some of its physical elements, including two well attended performance events and a film screening, at the African Artist Foundation and Terra Kulture respectively. The festival held a total of eight events with 20 guest writers, poets and public intellectuals from across Nigeria, Ghana, the US, Kenya, and South Africa.
Opening on October 24 with a virtual writing workshop facilitated by American poet and activist Aja Monet, the activities segued seamlessly. Monet’s workshop was quickly followed by a conversation moderated by broadcast journalist, writer, and editor, Buchi Onyegbule, featuring, human rights lawyer and activist Ayo Sogunro; author of the bestselling political memoir, ‘Love Does Not Win Elections’, Ayisha Osori; and political pundit and party stalwart, Demola Olanrewaju.
Living up to its theme, Danfo For Sale: Party Politics as a Vehicle for Change, the conversation explored the systemic disenfranchisement of young progressives from Nigeria’s ideology free and historically corrupt system of partisan politics, with its arguments straddling two diametrically opposed points: engage the existing system from within, or pull it down and rebuild.
On its heels was an equally charged panel featuring award-winning journalist, Mercy Abang, lawyer and activist Dele Farotimi, and tri-sectorial leader Abosede Geroge-Ogan, on the role of civil society in salvaging Nigeria from the wreckage of political leadership. Nigeria’s democratic space, in spite of its many challenges, is the fruit of hard won battles fought by activists of all shades who for decades relentlessly dared series of dictatorships at the risk of jail time, exile and death, delivering a democracy largely inherited by new generations of courageous technocrats determined to expand civic and political spaces leveraging on technology, and a fearless willingness to challenge the old order without compromise. Old struggles, new tools, and the very present struggle to lift Nigeria’s political class to the competence, daring and ambition of the rest of its population, was the crux of this deftly handled panel.
LIPFest, which over the years has provided a global platform for the showcasing of emerging and established storytellers, poets and musicians, launched its inaugural poetry slam for young poets and spoken word artists between the ages of 18 and 35, an initiative which according to the organisers is geared towards encouraging and rewarding new waves of storytellers, poets and spoken word artists. It turned out to be a contest for the ages and, for many, one of the key highlights of this year’s festival. For one, there was One Million Naira cash prize for the winner.
Shortlisted from a flood of entries, 10 contestants battled it out under a cloudless sky heavy with excitement and anticipation at the African Artists Foundation. For an event slated for 4pm, the venue was teeming people by 3pm. There was music, drinks, and that quintessential Lagos offering, small chops. The contestants did not disappoint. They bent language before a dazzled audience, cheering and hooting all the way. The judges included pioneer spoken word artist Sage Hasson, Lydia Idakula, whose open mic venue, Taruwa, was the take off point for many of the city’s beloved poets and musicians, and the Ghanaian folklorist and poet Nana Asaase.
After two keenly contested rounds, the 10 contestants were whittled down to five, including Loveth Liberty, Fragile Dogubo, Mariam Oziohu Abdulsalam, Wayne Samuel, and Toby Abiodun. The third round turned out to be a two horse race with Fragile Dogubo and Toby Abiodun effectively splitting the audience’s affection and compounding the task of the judges. At the end, there could only be one winner, and it was Toby Abiodun who walked away with One Million Naira richer and with the title of Slam Champion.
“Took my depression to a poetry slam and won it,” he tweeted hours later.
The following day’s activities began with the film screening of the documentary ‘Odia Ofeimun: A Literary Life’. Directed by the poet and filmmaker Sage Hasson, the film captured the universe of stories and texts that captured the mind of a young boy from rural Nigeria, shaping him into one of the most enigmatic figures in Africa’s cultural history. The screening, which according to the organizers, was the first in a series of documentaries covering the life and work of some of the continent’s pioneering storytellers, was accompanied by poetry readings by members of the audience from the master poet’s vast and still expanding body of work.
Terra Kulture, the venue of the film screening, was also the venue for the festival’s command performance event, an evening of words and fireworks headlined by writer, poet, actor and musician, the legendary Saul Williams, who delivered a performance that held the audience spellbound. For three hours, a full hall of people meditated, danced, shouted, and silently absorbed the words and music of the poets and musicians whose carefully curated sets made for a memorable evening. From veteran poet and playwright Dike Chukwumerije to Ghanaian sensation, Asaase, from AlhanIslam from Kaduna, to Lardo Adekunbi from Jos, and many others in between, there were words aplenty from established and emerging voices. Adding color to the evening were the musicians with the pure poetry of their songs, Femi Leye, Johnny Drille and Eutk Ubong, all making the night one for the history books.

The closing day of the festival featured two virtual conversations. First, The Future of African Stories, a session on the sustainability of publishing, ownership, and distribution of African stories. Expertly moderated by stalwart Nigerian writer, poet and novelist, Richard Ali, the panel also featured Executive Director of Africa No Filter, Moky Makura, Kenyan writer and editor of the fast growing Lolwe literary magazine, Troy Onyango, co-founder of Accra’s Pa Gya Literary Festival, Elizabeth Johnson, and linguist, poet and writer, Kola Tubosun. We must, “Consume our own content, invest in our own platforms and right size the funding,” Mokura advocated.
Bringing the festival to a close was a passionate keynote lecture tagged ‘The Ghost of Sankara: Reframing Leadership and Society in Africa around an Ethical Core’, and delivered by investor, businessman and public intellectual, Dr, Akintoye Akindele, who charged the audience on the importance of reclaiming African dignity from the distorted sands of history and inspired them to harness the coalescing forces of demography and technology to shape a new direction for the continent, guided by the timeless moral codes of our forebears.
With such an outstanding outing this year, LIPFest is gearing up for its eight edition which has been slated for October 27 – October 31, 2022 with the theme ‘Babel’.