Music

Soyinka to Davido: No Apology is Required

 

The controversy that trails the release of a new music video by Davido’s signee, Logos Olori has sparked reactions in the polity.  One of them is from The Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka who has said that Davido has no reason to apologise for the creative work.

In a press statement he stated: “No apology is required, none should be offered. Let us stop battening down our heads in the mush of contrived contrition – we know where contrition, apology and restitution remain clamorous in the cause of closure and above all – justice. Such apologies have not been forthcoming. In their place, we have the ascendancy of petulant censorship in the dance and music department. Just where will it end?

“Most forms of worship – from the Hare Krishna to Hinduism and lesser-known religions – seek transcendental experience through the medium of dance. It goes beyond mere elation or euphoria and involves surrender of the ego to the mystical and sublime – through dance. The secularization of that medium stretches across religions and offers the artistes’ a means of invoking a sense of spiritual community, through a common act of self-surrender.”

Although Soyinka admitted that he had not seen the music video, he insisted that it is within the right of the artist to make dance video in a religious setting.

“As already admitted, I have not seen the clip, but I insist on the right of the artiste to deploy dance in a religious setting as a fundamental given.  Such deployment is universal heritage, most especially applicable in the case of Islam where a plot of land, even without the physical structure, can be turned, in the twinkling of an eye, into a sacral space for believers to gather and worship in between mundane pursuits.

Dancing in front of a mosque cannot therefore, on its own, be read as an act of provocation or offence but as affirmation of the unified sensibility of the spiritual in human. Let us learn to read it that way. Those who persist in taking offence to bed and serving it up as breakfast should exercise their right of boycotting Davido’s products – no one quarrels with that right. However, it is not a cause for negative and incitive excitation. The greater responsibility is to face squarely the root issues of religion in the nation.’’

Earlier, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has issued warning message over the controversial video. The group had alerted the Department of State Services to invite Davido and his signee for questioning.

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