Akeem Lasisi
Controversial artiste, Portable, has released the video of a song he composed to mourn Queen Elizabeth.
In the style of Yoruba’s mourning poetry such as rara and oku pipe, he laments the departure, saying, ‘Mama Charlie ti ku” (Charles’s mother has died’ repeatedly.
Although his tone is a mixture of humour and lamentation, he notes in the song that the Queen’s death is a call for sober reflection for all mortals as no one knows who is next.
He then asks God to help forgive any sin the deceased might have committed.
Also, Portable, who has leapt from one controversy to another since he hit the limelight with ‘Zazuh’, in which he features Olamide, also exploits the All Progressives Congress’s presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s slogan ‘Emi Lokan’ – It’s now my turn – to stress that it is the turn of Prince Charles to be the King of England, chanting, ‘Iya Charlie ti ku/ Charlie lo kan (Charle’s mother has died/ It’s Charles turn’.
Unlike some people who have been greeting the Queen’s passage with rebellion, saying she was part of the slavery/colonialism oppression that they believe is the root of Nigeria’s/Africa’s problems, Portable does not seem to have any issue with the legend.
Rather, he mourns her, and goes to the extent of enlightening the non-elite public about whom she was, telling them she is the one whose image is on pound sterling.
Portable may have come out in a little comical way, history will remember him for composing a dirge for the Queen.
One does not yet know which other Nigerian musician may do so, but it is not a strange thing in the industry, really.
Harrysong had, for instance, composed a song when Mandela died, and it was the viral success of it that gave him a breakthrough.
In the past, the likes of King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, Kollington Ayinla and Wasiu Ayinde had also celebrated deaths of iconic personalities – especially the late Obafemi Awolowo.
