Award-winning performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, has dropped a new video titled, Ada, Ada, which comes off his new album of the same title.

According to the poet, the fresh offering is a celebration of love along with other values. He says: “Primarily, Ada, Ada is a celebration of a lady called Ada. Because she is the object of attraction, her name is endlessly chanted in the accompaniment song by Edaoto, a fantastic artiste I often work with.”

Lasisi explains further: “But as Ada, Ada is a celebration of love, it is also a celebration of poetry. I want to continue to present the art in its entertaining and enjoyable form. It is actually about selling the art to more people, so that they can savour its beauty. Yet in the process, we try to pass some other messages, which discerning ears and mind will readily grasp – killing multiple birds with the same stone, kind of.” 

The poet, who is also a seasoned journalist and lecturer/Public Relations Officer at First Technical University, Ibadan, Oyo State, states that the work is also a ploy to recreate a Yoruba folk song involving a dog and greedy tortoise. In the tale, the tortoise begs the dog to take it to where it secures food, during a famine. The dog takes the tortoise to heaven – in the sky – where its dead mother now resides but remains benevolent. While returning, however, the tortoise takes more food than it can carry, and thus has to beg the dog to relieve him of some of the baggage. It now sings, “Aja, aja o, ran mi leru …” 

Related News

Shot at First Technical University, Ibadan, the video stars Teemiesamuels, an Ibadan-based up and coming dancer and actress, who gives a good account of herself in the performance. She is supported by some dancers whose act gives Lasisi’s poetry a total experience – poems, music, dance and theatrics.

The production features three short poems, interjected with songs. Lasisi, who had featured some movie stars in his earlier works – including Yomi Fash-Lanso, Kabirah Kafidipe, Bukola Awoyemi, Okele, Pa James, Ropo Ewebla and Oyin Elebuibon, has released several poetry videos. These include Eleleture, Udeme and Asabi Alakara.

Born in Ibadan, Akeem Lasisi is the author of award-winning poetry collections that include IREMOJE: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa and Night of my Flight: The Poetry of a Lady about to Wed. Both won him the Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury Poetry Prize. The alumnus of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, University of Lagos and Oyo (Osun) State College of Education, Ila Orangun is also an English language tutor and publisher of phenomenal.com.ng.