I Am A Fulfilled Man

Sir Victor Efosa Uwaifo, the accomplished academic, sculptor and musician, who gave Ekassa, a traditional Benin music international recognition, is truly a man of many climes. With many chart bursting releases to his credit and a hand in many endeavours in which he has been successful, the man many people would readily refer to as Jack of all trade says he is not done yet with his first love–music. In this interview with ERNEST OMOARELOJIE, Uwaifo talks about his life, music and other commitments

Q: We know of several Victor Uwaifo persona – the musician, sculptor, academic and politician. Which of these is truly Victor Uwaifo?
A: This is a question that will probably take me a whole day to answer. What I will do is to give you a short profile.

• Sir Victor Efosa Uwaifo.

Q: In what ways have each of these personae influenced you?
A: They all have in their different ways, given me fulfilment. I am a fulfilled man. There is nothing I would have wished to be that I have not become. You know that money is not everything. It is when you are happy with whatever you are doing and you do it well that you get results that make you happy and fulfilled. It is like, years back when I went into the arts, same time with music and I did Commercial Arts, now Graphics at Yaba College of Technology, I thought something was still missing. It’s like doing this sculpture thing. Something was still missing even though sculpture to me is the mother of all arts.
That is why several years after making a name, fame and money, I went back to school. I went back to the University of Benin where I did sculpture  and earned a First Class. I did not stop there because I went for my Masters. Now I am a research scholar working on my Ph.D and who knows, before you know it, I will be a Professor. The sky is the limit. The bottom line is that I am a fulfilled man because everything I have done has given me fulfilment and I will not keep all of them to myself. I want to impart the knowledge to the younger ones. Where theory fails, experience takes over and where even experience fails, enthusiasm alone can pump failure into success. In everything I do, I am very enthusiastic.

Q: What made you take music as a career?
A: I didn’t take to music if you follow my history. I was already an Assistant Head of Department in NTA as a Graphic Artist when Joromi became a hit. At that point, it became difficult for me to continue to work while travelling out every now and then to play music.
And then I went back to school to read. It was like I was in almost every field work, academic and music. So I was in music while still jostling with academics. It was just that at some points, music took the greater prominence because even today, I am still doing virtually the same thing I did in the beginning–music, academics, sculpturing, just name them.

Q: The way you play your music makes it so easy and natural. Who taught you how to play music?
A: Not exactly. But I took lessons from local palmwine guitarists. Then I developed from there. But you know I come from a family where music runs in the blood. So, one of my brothers, he is deceased now, but he taught me the rudiments of music, and when I was in St. Gregory’s College, Lagos, I also read music. From there I played with bands, with Victor Olaiya, E.C. Arinze before I really learnt orchestration. When other bands came to Benin in those days, I would check them out. One on one, mostly the guitarists, we would exchange ideas. But I had a unique style because I created my own pattern which sets me apart. I did so many things with the guitar that had never been done before–the way I play and pull the strings, playing the guitar like a keyboard and creating effects with it, even when there was no computer or any related electronic guitar in those days. Essentially, I was making the guitar talk. I went on and on and then came up with the idea of spinning the guitar. I am the only one who spins the guitar in the whole world. Nobody has ever done it till now. I would spin it and the guitar would spin around as if it is a television trick.

Q: What is it that informed your brand of music?
A: I created many brands of music. The reason is that I hear and see music. Another reason is that I see and hear arts. Music has form just like art and building. You see bungalows, skyscrapers, etc, and you will see differences just as in cars. That is how music is. So, Highlife, for instance, though it is an umbrella of most other music forms in West Africa, is where my music evolved. Akwete for example is derived from a brand of clothing of that name. It represents colours, musical notes and what have you. That was how I came up with the Akwete rhythm. Take red for example. It is a very strong colour. Take do, the first musical note, and you will find a parallel in the red colour. Take black, the strongest colour, and you will find appropriate notes. It covers the whole notes. The combination of colours in the Akwete clothing is what informed the Akwete rhythm. It is just like the rainbow; you can also play that into musical notes. When I graduated from the Akwete rhythm, I entered into  another from called Mutaba. From Mutaba I went into Ekassa. Ekassa is unique because it is a type of music in the Benin Kingdom used during the coronation of a new Oba. It is quite different from Akwete or Highlife. I could have branded them Highlife but chose to give them a form that is different because each has its own structure. Then there is Sasakosa. From the point I did Sasakosa, I decided to liberate myself and went  into what I called Titibiti. They are ways of expression just like democracy.

Q: Nobody plays your kind of music and you are no longer as active in music as you used to be. Are you happy that you are bequeathing your repertoire to the younger generation?
A: They play it in some ways but the real problem is the guitar. The guitar I played was ahead of this time. I came ahead of my time. What I am trying to say is that I came about 200 years before my time. I don’t actually belong to this generation. I realised that a long time ago. But I am happy.

Q: We grew up to know and love Sir Victor Uwaifo’s music. Somewhere along the line, however, you veered into politics, academics, etc. Was it part of the search for fulfilment or part of your original plan?
A: You can call it part of the search for fulfilment or original plan because I had always wanted to express my other sides of life–culture, tradition and arts, and recently, in the area of tourism. It happened that when I was the Commissioner for Arts and Culture in Edo State, my ministry was not funded at all and for that reason, nothing actually happened. But I didn’t want to allow my dreams to die hence I decided to set up a tourism site (Revelation Tourism) in my compound.

Q: Listening to your music, one never fails to notice one peculiarity. It’s all about folklore. Was that a design?
A: That is right. It comes from the passion I have for culture and tradition. Even if I compose, whatever it is, it ends up sounding like folklore. If you listen to the latest work I did after my 50th anniversary on stage, a cross spectrum of my repertoire over the years, I re-arranged some of them to give it colour but they ended up having that thread run through them.

Q: One will also find that most of your compositions are somewhat surreal, haunting, yet melodious. How did you succeed in building all of that into your music?
A: It is about creativity. If you are an artist, your aim is to interpret a scenario whenever you paint a picture. In the process you give it flesh and form. In music, it is about the same thing. You create sound and give it form. It is like when I want to pay solo. I don’t just play solo off the cuff. I think of a scenario, close my eyes and interpret it with my guitar. Imagine for instance that there is a storm here, raining cats and dogs, with thunder roaring and lightning striking. You know, I have to find a creative way of interpreting that into my music with the guitar. Or imagine that you are in a car in motion but suddenly, something dashes across the road. The next reaction is to step on the brake. As a musician, what I do is to imagine and recreate that screeching sound musically. It involves creativity, thinking. The same applies to the question you just asked. Some of them are deliberate because as a musician, you should have an extra perception that makes you create something from the unknown. That is because an artist has to be esoteric because he has privileged information, known only to a select few.

Q: One also finds advice for others in some of your works. Why did you make that a recurring theme in your music?
A: If you look at the society, you sometimes want to put down some contribution, especially if you consider certain situations as not being right. You see it as a responsibility to advise people to be careful. In most of the songs, you will find satire as a major vehicle. From that vehicle, you can build up whatever message and then transport it across to those who need it.

Q: You composed and sang Joromi a long time ago. Beyond launching you into international limelight, it is still a kind of national anthem. What was in your mind when you were composing it? 
A: It was actually taken from folklore, except that I gave it soul. In Joromi, I played the guitar the way it had never been played before and that made it very unique. It became a hit and was on the BBC chart. That was how I earned the first gold. For ten years, no other musician had any other gold until singles were phased out. You go and find out. I will give you a million dollars if you find any West African who won gold single. That is how singles was phased out and the LPs came in before others started having gold. So I was ten years a gold recipient before any other musician. If you find any other musician who had gold in Nigeria or West Africa, come and take a million dollars.

Q: The other track that kept people wondering is Guitar Boy. In it, you recounted an encounter with a mermaid. How true is the encounter?
A: I have said it before. As you may well know, something that is esoteric is unknown and understood by special people because it is a privilege. I have said it once too many and I am tired of saying it.When I finish the Mammy Water corner in my tourism site, you will find the simulation of that encounter. I have said times without number and I am repeating it now like a record stuck in the groove. But the truth is that it is real. It is real. I played very late into the night because I used to spend time and strum my guitar at the Bar Beach late into the night. Everybody had left, including members of the Cherubim and Seraphim group. It was almost 2am when it happened. There was nobody around and I was the only one and for many years, I did not go to that beach again. I then wrote the song and I gave it the guitar the way it should be.

Q: Did you receive anything from her?
A: That is entirely between the two of us, not for any other person.

Q: You have played music to world acclaim. How much of it translated to wealth?
A: It is all you are seeing. It is me. You have seen me, my house. The issue is not just about money. We are talking about fulfilment. Put money aside because it does not actually interest me. You might have all the money in the world without health or for that matter, peace. So if you are asking, how does that translate to wealth? I will tell you health is wealth. I am rich. I have fulfilment, happiness, just everything. Part of it is what I have been able to impart on others. But I am not the richest man and we are not talking about that. We are talking about  fulfilment.

Q: Music and women are like Siamese twins. How much of women did you have?
A: I was always careful because I had a focus, I had a dream and I didn’t want anything to derail me, even up till now. So, apart from the Ten Commandments in the Bible, I set for myself another ten commandments. It’s a long story but it guided me and it’s still guiding me. I didn’t drink except socially.

Q: What about drugs?
A: I never set my lips on anything drugs because for me, music is enough madness of its own. How do you expect me to add another drug to such madness? The fact is that a true musician is drug itself and he doesn’t need any other drug because he can get excited just doing music.

Q: What then would you say is responsible for the high incidence of drug use among young musicians?
A: The reason is that they are not real artists. They want something to propel them or put them into form. That goes to show you that not everyone who plays music is a musician. It’s not about writing songs alone.

Q: How would you compare music of your time to what we have now?
A: Music of the old, if you will permit me, is what you can refer to as evergreen, music that can stand the test of time. If you want to listen to real music, listen to music of old. That is why you still find many people and mostly young people, running after music of old. Look at the market and you will find even music that came before my time. Is it a surprise to you? Check them out–from Cha Cha Cha to Bolero, Merenge, Quick Step, Fox Trot, Jazz, Soul, Reggae and others. You cannot compare music of old with what you have now. There is a world of difference.

Q: You have had a momentous career. Looking back, is there any particular event that you can recall as having the greatest impact on your life or career?
A: You may not believe it but I cannot recall anything that readily fits into what you are asking. For me, any obstacle or failure in life bears an equivalent alternative. So it is whatever I go through that some may look back and say it was sad or something is for me a challenge. The truth is that such challenges propel me to greater heights. The reason is that there is no problem that has no solution if you look hard enough.

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