|
British Nigerian Deftly Sidesteps Tricky Question: “Where Are You From?” Dec 3, 2022 Greetings, My year of live performance has almost come to a cl
|
|
British Nigerian Deftly Sidesteps Tricky Question: “Where Are You From?”
Dec 3, 2022
Greetings,
My year of live performance has almost come to a close, and the last few performances have been particularly satisfying. There was a very-well-attended performance of each of my plays: I performed Call Mr. Robeson in Eastbourne, where the great man had been a big hit over several years in the 1930s. The programme note for the Grove Theatre performance recalled this and announced plans to commemorate him in the coastal town. |
 Lawyer @ Birmingham Rep |
Earlier, I had enjoyed what was easily the largest, blackest, most diverse audience in this country for Just An Ordinary Lawyer so far. The Birmingham Rep studio was at capacity for a performance for the Birmingham Law Society. A lovely compilation (silent) video was made that encapsulates the beautiful atmosphere of the occasion, and my programme note looked at the similarity of European politics to that in much of Africa. My special thanks to barrister Earl Pinnock, who came up with the idea after seeing me do Robeson in a cold church hall in Birmingham almost three years ago. |
I have also given three talks at two universities recently – all of Art As A Weapon: Some Pan-Africanist Examples. It is my newest creation, and seemingly as popular and well-received as anything else I have done. I presented it first at Edge Hill University, then at Brighton University en route to Eastbourne for Robeson, and then again back at Edge Hill University “by popular demand,” to a larger audience. It was very heart-warming to be told by a young Polish student afterwards that that was the best lecture she had ever attended, and that she wondered if there was any way I could take it to Poland!
The head of the law department was also there (I had invited him in the hope of performing Lawyer there sometime) and he expressed his appreciation in a very lovely tweet!
Enquiries for this are also welcome, including online to your class or community. This is also possible with the sharing of any of my other talks or workshops or with my two plays which, although available online, would be enhanced with a live Q&A session. |
 View trailer |
Next...
My first foray onto Netflix is here! Okay, I’m only a very small (fleeting but speaking) part in the first episode of a new 6-part series, but RICHES is now available to stream. I play the priest who buries the Nigerian business tycoon whose death kicks off the ensuing drama. It will also be on ITVx from December 22.
Art As A Weapon - Some Pan-Africanist Examples will be presented at Storiel, North Wales on Saturday, 10 December at 2pm. It will be complementing an art exhibition by my friend Audrey West, titled A Cappella Storiel: Redemption Songs, which is on until December 31. Audrey can be seen on my project Mapping "Greatness," for which I still welcome participants.
I have had many auditions for film, TV and commercials recently, and I continue to hope for good news on that front soon. Meanwhile, my various writing projects will keep me occupied as I continue to line up more live performances. |
Other “stuff.”
Those of you outside the UK may have missed the recent news that a member of the Royal Household here was forced to resign after asking the Black head of a charity, “Where are you really from?” William, Prince of Wales, is said to have said that there is no place for racism in our society as his and his wife’s trip to the USA was about to be overshadowed by the scandal and by the release of the trailer to the Netflix series featuring his brother and his dual-heritage wife, Meghan. |
 She asked me: "Where are you from?" |
I wonder whether this news item reached the people in Qatar, but I often find the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera a much more reliable source of certain kinds of information than the BBC or any of the rest of mainstream media. For example, here is someone else taking offence at the same question: “Where are you from?” in a part of the documentary The Labour Files. That simple question, misrepresented and weaponised in the BBC Panorama hit job Is The Labour Party Anti-Semitic? as shown, undoubtedly contributed to one of the greatest democratic travesties of modern times. Once again, for those who haven’t seen it, I highly commend The Labour Files, which contains the following quote at the very start: “The Labour Party is a criminal conspiracy against its members.” Part 1: The Purge; Part 2: The Crisis; Part 3: The Heirarchy; Part 4: The Spying Game.
Qatar may be out of the Football World Cup while England remains in the competition, but Qatari journalists win hands down against the BBC’s, as you will see. |
Where am I from? At independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria was a federation of three regions: Northern, Eastern and Western - in which Ibadan, the city in which I was born in 1962 - sat. Two coups, a civil war, several military and civilian administrations, subdivision into dozens of states and two constitutions later, the country is in such a mess that I cannot call myself Nigerian with as much pride as I would like - and what’s worse, we didn’t make it to Qatar! I am nonetheless definitely proud to call myself African, which is why in international competitions, I support African teams. At the time of writing, we are a day away from Senegal playing England in the knockout stages of the World Cup. I hope Senegal wins. If they don’t, I hope England goes the distance, and that they meet the USA (whose next match is hours away as I finish this) in the final. I say that not because of any particular love for either country, but because the stage will thus be set for something that even mainstream Western media will be powerless to suppress in the same way as they do so much else. How many times have they shown the pro-Palestinian actions in the competition, or the humiliation that Israeli journalists suffer as so many people refuse to be interviewed by them? |
Imagine the scene at the final: the country that bankrolls the Israeli army to the tune of billions every year, meeting the country whose dominion over that part of the world a century ago gave it the arrogance to carve out territory for those against whom there had been so much discrimination in Europe for centuries, regardless of who lived there already. A USA/England final would be the perfect occasion for the whole world to witness a protest that would become as iconic as the Black Power Salute of the 1968 Mexico Olympics (which I portray in Lawyer), which saw two African Americans and a white Australian make a silent gesture that spoke much more eloquently about peace and justice than most silver-tongued politicians do, as they try to hide the fact that they are beholden to the arms and fossil fuel industries, and to global capital. It won’t matter to me who wins the football match: hopefully the whole of humanity - and particularly the Palestinians – will. |
Two more bits of news of relevance to Israel/Palestine: Firstly, here in the UK, where I was involved in two incidents with Palestine Action against an Israeli arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, comes news that Elbit has lost some contracts with the Ministry of Defence as a direct consequence of PA’s two-year sustained campaign. This suggests that direct action works, and must continue, notwithstanding the possible personal repercussions for activists. |
And secondly, a brand new Al Jazeera documentary about The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the prominent Al Jazeera journalist, exposing the cover-up by Israel, and the pitiful attempts by the Biden administration to justify taking no action on the death of an American citizen.
Parting shots: Awesome Firepower |
 Garland Nixon on MOATS | | |
|
I leave you with two videos. In the first, an American journalist, recently banned from Twitter, is interviewed by a UK journalist who has responded more impressively, defiantly and creatively than anyone I can think of, to the loss of his platform on the banned RT. The guest argues that the Europeans are the laughing stock of many in the United States, over the Ukraine war. George Galloway’s The Mother of All Talk Shows is well worth catching.
The second is of Charlot Magayi, founder of Mukuru Clean Stoves, which turns metal waste into energy saving, affordable cookstoves for under-served communities in Kenya. Mukuru is the slum in which Ms. Magayi grew up, and her company has just won one of the five Earthshot 2022 prizes, presented by Prince William in Boston. |
 Falkner Square, Liverpool, by Tayo Aluko |
That’s all for now. Kindly forward this as you see fit. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss booking one of my shows or talks anywhere in the world, in person or virtually. Click here to leave a (public) comment, and here to support me materially.
Wishing you all the best for the coming Holiday Season and New Year.
Yours,
Tayo Aluko |
 Call Mr. Robeson | |  Just An Ordinary Lawyer | |  What Happens? (Tribute to Langston Hughes) |
|
|
|
|
|
