CROWN TROUPE OF AFRICA CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE

From a Living Room in Bariga to Three Decades of Transformative Performance Art Lagos, Nigeria – January 2026 – Crown Troupe of Africa marks its 30th anniversary this year, celebrating a journey that began on June 1, 1996, in the living room of Juju music maestro King Sunny Ade in Bariga, Lagos.

Founded in 1996, Crown Troupe of Africa is a Lagos-based performing arts company dedicated to creating responsive and meaningful artistic works that celebrate African culture and address contemporary social issues through dance, music, and theatre. On the other hand, King Sunny Ade is known globally for many things that have secured his legacy in world music, but not many people know that he was instrumental to the beginning of the troupe. As it thus celebrates the milestone, Segun Adefila Oriade, the Artistic Director, expressed gratitude to the legendary musician.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Huddled in that living room that day, June 1, 1996, were Oriade and a couple of friends, including Sele, Cynthia, Kunle, Loice, Ada, Femi, Bola and a few others.

“We had nothing but our passion and guts. We wanted to start a performing arts company and that was what we did. Granted, we were young, but we were also determined. We did not have sufficient resources, but we had courage. The world did not see us those days, but the universe did,” recalled Oriade.

The group was so driven that, initially, they barely thought about how to acquire the necessary items they needed. There were no drums, no costumes, no props and not a single thought for food on the table, but they pressed on. Oriade added, “For us, our talents and our dreams were just enough! They were all we needed. All we wanted to do was to sing, dance and go the full length of the acting stage—we were boiling. The world was waiting.”

AGAINST ALL ODDS

Living in Bariga back then, the options out there were no options for dreamers like them. Some of them were in the thick of things as well. Turf battles were rife. The streets were not smiling. To be a young person in Bariga meant you had to be as tough and rough as they come because ‘àwon ti Bariga kálá’, suggesting ‘Barigarians are mean’. Oriade personally was getting deep into the rough side before God saved his life through the arts.

When they started, the neighbourhood thought it was another dangerous gang rising. Some feared them, many ignored them and some came to fight them but somehow, they managed to hold their ground without buckling. They fought the ones that came to test them, wooed the ones that feared them and ignored the ones that ignored them. It was a battle on all fronts.

Even their families didn’t believe in them; they were worried about their future. They couldn’t deal with the fact that any bright and serious person would want to waste the morning of their lives ‘dancing and singing around town’. The group, however, remained undaunted and fully committed, knowing that if they failed, that was it. No soft landing.

They would meet in the mornings and sing and dance till evening. When it rained, they were there. The scorching sun was no deterrent either.

BUILDING FROM NOTHING

Three months into the journey, Kunle, King Sunny Ade’s son, a founding member through whom they got their first rehearsal ground (his mom’s sitting room), left for the US. He was their first choreographer. After his departure, they moved from the sitting room to Sunny Ade’s compound and that was where they marked their first anniversary in 1997.

Their first instrument, a gong, was given to them by a barber whose shop was opposite where they rehearsed. Their first set of costumes were ‘stolen’ from the basement of KSA’s house. King Sunny Ade—who used to be a great theatre artist himself, a seasoned actor to the core—had much tucked away in his house. Their first drum was given to them by a friend and fellow artist who started out before them, Art Osagie. It was Osagie who took them to the National Theatre, encouraged them to join the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) and the Guild of Nigerian Dancers (GOND) and generally opened their eyes to see what the field was all about.

Oriaded noted that it was a real struggle keeping things together back then. He remembers how he and Sele, one of the founding members, would trek from Bariga to Adeniyi Jones in Ikeja to beg companies for patronage and then they would walk back to rehearsals on empty stomachs, thirsty and dusty but always ready to engage their dancing and acting skills. It goes without saying that hunger was a permanent feature too. Not many were willing to help a bunch of ‘lazy youths’ who preferred to waste their time dancing and singing instead of finding gainful employment.

There were days they would carry their sparse musical instruments on their heads and move from street to street, looking for wherever they would find people partying and begging them to let them perform for them at no cost. They didn’t think they were rendering a service that needed to be paid for.  They felt some sense of rare acceptance and self-worth whenever and wherever they were obliged to perform.

DANCING WITH NATURE

There was a time they had no place to rehearse, and their only option was to go to an island with one of their members, a fisherman, an Egun chap named Paul. This was the phase in the history of Crown Troupe when dreaming and dancing with nature was an embodied reality. Paul would take them in his boat to a dry place in the middle of the river, where they danced, mud clinging to their feet, making it difficult to lift their legs while dancing, but the legs had to be lifted. That island became their natural gym, where they built their muscles. They would rehearse till late in the evening after which Paul would bring them back to the shore after a day’s rehearsal. Those were tough days, but they didn’t bend.

Then they broke up after a while. The founding members of the group split up and went their different ways about two years into the journey, although that initial bond remains unbroken till date, as evidenced when they all came together to celebrate their 25th anniversary in 2021. Personally, that period of splitting up was a defining moment for Oriade. He had to determine whether to hang up the boots or carry on and forge ahead. He surrendered to the latter impulse, since he had heard it said that whatever was worth doing was worth doing well. He decided to go back to school after five years on the streets, to hone his skills by seeking an intellectual basis for their creative outbursts. The natural place for this was the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, under the tutelage of teachers who were also mentors that helped Crown Troupe find its voice. This was the period when they also met an organization called the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA). It was CORA that gave them the courage to use their voice and the platform for the voice to be heard.

New members, mainly Oriade’s coursemates from the University of Lagos, joined the group and the fire of passion intensified. They were creating new works on a yearly basis. They would create a new work, take it to FESTAC town, where CORA had its secretariat and show the work to the members comprising Toyin Akinoso, Jahman Anikulapo, Ropo Ewenla, Chris Ihindero, Ayo Arigbabu, Deji Toye, who would sit and watch these works and through their guidance and criticism, they created works that were responsive and meaningful. Works like Fellow Countrymen, Aluta, Exodus, Dreams and Voices and others went through this process before getting to the general public.

THREE DECADES OF IMPACT

Over the years, Crown Troupe has metamorphosed into a breeding ground for talent and has produced artists and companies who are also nurturing other young artists. The recognition and laurels and awards have followed and now they are in their 30th year of an eclectic artistic adventure. Just like that! “Today, our hearts are filled with gratitude for the journey and everything in between,” enthused Oriade. “This year 2026 is about the expression of profound and deep appreciation to all those who started, have passed through and are still Crown Troupe for their commitment, dedication and contribution to the growth of the company. Immense gratitude also goes to you all for the show of love, good wishes, prayers, words and acts of encouragement, and solidarity bestowed on us over the years and till date.

“We are grateful to those who spoke for us, those who paved the path for us, those giants on whose solid shoulders we stand to reach the sky of our dreams—the names are numerous, but the cosmos knows you. May your lives be filled with fulfilment and gratitude. What else can we do but say ‘THANK YOU’ for reminding us to keep aspiring to be who we are meant to be.

“Let the celebration begin! Adupe o. Ire Gbogbo!”

Ifeanyin Kalu’s family in Lagos are currently bearing an extremely heavy burden.

His lifeless body is said to be in the mortuary of the Nigerian Air Force, Lagos, while his mother’s body is in another mortuary in the same city.

While the mum, Mrs Oluchi Kalu, passed away in August – she was said to have died of cardiac arrest – Ifeanyin, a dancer, actor and arts instructor, was said to have been knocked down on Ikorodu Road October 20, 2021, while he was on his way to work.

The family are thus double-bereaved and are also crying for justice.

Phenomenal.com.ng learnt that they are expecting compensation from NAF, but the Force was said to be offering them N200,000 towards his burial.

There is indeed a major confusion over the amount being offered and what it is meant for.

A top artist who relayed the sad development in a Facebook statement on Wednesday, Segun Adefila, said the family were indeed crying for justice.

In a chat with Phenomenal.com.ng, Adefila said the family felt double assaulted by the amount the NAF was offering as compensation.

“It is very sad, honestly,” Adefila, who is the founder and director of Crown Troupe of Africa, said. “Ifeanyin was knocked down while going to the school where he taught students arts.”

But authorities of the Nigerian Air Force have said that the money being offered is not for compensation.

According to its spokesperson, Eyitayo Atteh, the amount is N300,000, not N200,000.

He noted that it was only a form of support for the family based on what was agreed upon with them.

In a phone interview with Phenomenal.com.ng on Wednesday, Eyitayo said the accident actually happened on what he called a BRT corridor, suggesting it is a spot no one is even expected to cross.
Many Lagosians would, however, note that the Lagos State Government does not permit non-BRT buses to ply the road too.
Atteh yet added the NAF was not basing its stand on the issue of where the accident happened, but rather agreed to support the family based on their request.

“We are even the one who reported the matter to the police. We had a meeting with the family. I represented the Air Force. They requested support towards the burial of the deceased. They actually requested N500,000. You know that it is something to request an amount, it is another to offer what is immediately within capacity and based on the issue. That is why we offered to support them with N300,000. This, as I said, is a support towards the burial.”
Eyitayo admitted that Ifeanyi’s body is still in the NAF’s mortuary.

But, according to him, it will be released once the family request it, while the N300,000 will also be released accordingly.

Also speaking on the matter, Ifeanyi’s brother, Ikechukwu Kalu, noted that the NAF said its vehicle only brushed Ifeanyi, who was then, according to the NAF, allegedly knocked down by a hit-and-run vehicle on the main road.

“But investigation we made in the area revealed that the impact from the NAF’s vehicle was already terrible. Those around the place said it was what actually brought down my brother, before it landed on the main road.”
Ikechukwu noted that, their mum, whose corpse is also in the mortuary, earlier died of cardiac arrest, according to doctors. He added that she died in August, two months before her son’s passage.

“It is a very tough situation for us as we speak. My mum and brother are in mortuaries. Different mortuaries in the same city. I am a fresh graduate without any job yet. It was Ifeanyi who was supporting us from his little earnings. Now, he has been knocked down,” Ikechukwu added.

Meanwhile, this is how Adeila originally told the story in a Facebook post on Wednesday:

IFEANYIN KALU CRIES OUT.

Ifeanyin was a young Nigerian artist who was diminutive in stature but gigantic in strides. His life was one huge struggle for survival without a thought for crime but through a dint of hard work.

He was a prominent member of the Bariga Artists Forum (BAF) and Guild of Nigerian Dance Practitioners (GONDP). He was also a founding member of Dachrismofa Art Troupe and an alumnus of Feetprints Africa and the assistant director of Kings and Queens Art Academy- a children focused theatre group.
His creative energy lit up every gathering he attended.

Born on the 15th of July 1990, Ifeanyi was the second son of his economically disadvantaged family and the fourth child. He was a major breadwinner of the family, a bread not only rarely gotten but also never buttered.
Their mother and matriarch of the Kalu clan passed on on the 27th of August 2021.

On October 20, 2021, Ifeanyin’s life was cut short on the express way of Ikorodu Road. He lived with his aged father and 6 siblings and left them at home on that fateful day for a job he just secured. He was on his way to a school where he was helping to teach the pupils cultural dance and music.

A Nigerian Air Force vehicle traveling on a BRT lane knocked him down.
Ifeanyin’s body is still in the Nigerian Air Force base mortuary.
Ifeanyin’s mum is also still in another mortuary.

His bereaved family who are definitely inconsolable at the moment also stands the risk of not getting any form of tangible compensation from those whose vehicle knocked him down EXCEPT.. .

Segun Adefila’s Crown Troupe of Africa is among organizations taking part in The Art of Facing Fear, an international production for the digital play devised specifically for Zoom app. The project is an international cast with artists from three different continents: Europe (Sweden, England and Germany), Africa (Cape Verde, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe) and South America (Brazil).

According to the producers, the text refers to a dystopian world after 5.555 days of quarantine due to a pandemic crisis. In this isolated world, many things are not available anymore for people. Despite the government’s absolute control on digital communication, they still have the chance to keep in contact to each other via internet.

At the end of the performance, artists and audience may gather and chat as an international community.

The co-producers of this production are: Cie Kaddu (Senegal), Crown Troupe of Africa (Nigeria), Darling Desperados (Sweden), Oddmanout Theatre Company (England), Os Satyros (Brazil), Portuguese Cultural Center of Mindelo (Cape Verde), Village Gossip Productions (South Africa), Tell-a-Tale (Nigeria), The Kwasha! Theatre Company (South Africa), The Market Theatre Laboratory (South Africa) and Unga Klara (Sweden).

Os Satyros – theatre company from Brazil

Os Satyros is a Brazilian theatre company founded in 1989, by Ivam Cabral and Rodolfo García Vázquez. It has produced over 100 plays performed in over 20 countries and 2 fiction films. It was also the founder of SP Escola de Teatro, a major pedagogical institution for stage arts in Brazil.

The company has been researching the relation between technology and theatre for 10 years already. Several of the company´s productions have used internet, robots, apps and cell phones on stage. When the pandemic started, it decided to go into the research of new possibilities for digital theatre using the zoom app.

The Art of facing fear – Os Satyros, Brazil

The first production of ‘The art of Facing Fear’ had its premiere last June 13th in Brazil. Os Satyros started the rehearsals after the quarantine was established in Brazil. Rehearsals happened exclusively online and the actors were spread all over Brazil and abroad.

In the original production, the Swedish actress Ulrika Malmgren was a guest and took part in the whole process of devising from the zoom possibilities, from her home in Stockholm.

The production – Africa/Europe

The African/European version of the play will bring together artists from 9 different countries from 3 continents. The vast majority of the artists have never met physically and took part of digital rehearsals to devise the performance.

The idea is to establish the points in common among different national realities during the pandemic. What are the fears that took over mankind during this period globally? What are the effects of social intolerance and political extremism in the world today?

At the end of the performance, we ask the audience to stay in the room and we start a chat in simultaneous rooms. In this moment, the audience can talk freely to the artists and the other members of the audience about the performance, the effects of the pandemic in their own countries and the ways for a better political future.

Rodolfo García Vázquez – director and playwright

Born in Sao Paulo, Rodolfo founded Os Satyros in 1989. Throughout his career, he directed theatre and film and performed in 20 countries. Among his main works, there are the Libertine Trilogy, based on Marquis de Sade (Philosophy in the Boudoir, 120 Days of Sodom and Justine), the People Trilogy (Perfect People, Sublime People and Mean People) and Roberto Zucco (by the French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès).
He was also the artistic director for Interkunst, a German institution based in Berlin, for 7 years. In this period, he directed artists from over 25 countries in different shows such Instant Acts gegen Gewalt und Rassismus.

He has also developed research on technology and theatre, with a Master about Cyborg theatre and telepresence.

Ivam Cabral – playwright

Ivam is a psychoanalysis student, an actor and a playwright who has dedicated his career to the stages. Doctor in Drama by São Paulo University, he is the co founder of Os Satyros Theater Company. As an actor and playwright he won the most importants brazilian theater prizes and performed in more than 20 countries, in four continents: America, Europe, Africa and Asia. He is also the Executive Director in SP Escola de Teatro – Theater Formation Center.

Contacts:
Ulrika Malmgren – Darling Desperados (Sweden) +46 73 997 10 03 or darlingdesperados@gmail.com
Rodolfo García Vázquez – Os Satyros (Brazil) +55 11 946259474 or janna.satyros@gmail.com
Abdoulaye Diallo – Cie Kaddu (Senegal ) +221 77 271 66 35 or laye-diallo2@hotmail.com
Bola Stephen-Atitebi – Tell-a-Tale (Nigeria) +234 810 599 2000 or bolaatitebi@gmail.com
Clara Vaughan – The Market Theatre Laboratory (South Africa) +27 72 433 4311 or clara@marketlab.co.za
João Branco – Portuguese Cultural Center of Mindelo (Cape Verde) +238 995 10 76 or jgbprivate@gmail.com
Katta Pålsson – Unga Klara (Sweden) +46 70 235 05 80 or katta@ungaklara.se
Katy Weir – Oddmanout Theatre Company (England) +44 7515 862781 or katyweir1983@hotmail.co.uk
Napo Masheane – Village Gossip Productions (South Africa) +27 82 215 8222 or masheane.napo@gmail.com
Rudy Motseatsea – The Kwasha! Theatre Company (South Africa) +27 83 866 5224 or rudy@marketlab.co.za
Segun Adefila – Crown Troupe of Africa (Nigeria) +234 802 304 9128 or olomuaperan77@gmail.com

As utility artist and administrator, Francesca Emanuel, dies at 86, AKEEM LASISI writes that her impact transcends her lifetime

Multitalented artist and iconic administrator, Mrs Francesca Emanuel, bid the stage farewell on Tuesday. With her passage in Lagos, the country’s pioneer federal permanent secretary, actress, singer, poet and arts patron can be said to have joined an irreplaceable league of cultured saints.

A long-time associate of Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Emmanuel was an in-law to Macmillan Publishers Chairman, Chief Bode Emanuel. She was part of the genesis of the Soyinka theatrical enterprise and remained with the clan till the end. Even as she grew older, she would elegantly mount the podium at various arts fora. Her voice remained ever distinct as she was one of the few Nigerians who flaunted suave accents, so that when she spoke or read at events, every ear and mind submitted to the beauty of her elocution.

Some are, indeed, likely to recall that, based on the way Emanuel handled English language, she was in the class of the likes of slain Justice Minister, Chief Bola Ige; and legendary arts patron, the late Ambassador Segun Olusola. While Soyinka is in a class of its own, a former Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; and broadcaster-turned entrepreneur, Dr Christopher Kolade, are among the few classically-tongued still around.

The MUSON itself is another co-legacy of the departed. The reason is that the Emanuel family is among the legends who founded the centre that is synonymous with classical music and played a major role in the growth of contemporary music and other arts in Nigeria. That Emanuel’s impact is, no wonder, so real is evident in the wave of tributes that her departure has started evoking. For instance, seasoned dancer and founder of the Crown Troupe of Africa, Segun Adefila, says she was so instrumental to the survival of many young people that she paid their school fees.

Mourning her, seasoned actor and communicator, Ropo Ewenla, also notes in an online post: “Fare thee well, Mama Francesca. Exceptional soprano, great actor, first female perm sec.”

Publisher of ‘QED’, Olumide Iyanda, also recalls his encounter with Emanuel when she clocked 70. Then as a journalist with ‘Saturday Punch’, he had an interview with her, in the course of which she relived her involvement with the arts industry.
Iyanda says, “Nigeria lost a gem yesterday with the death of Mrs Francesca Emanuel (CON). She wasn’t just the country’s first female federal permanent secretary, she was also a matriarch of the arts. She excelled in everything from public administration to singing, acting and poetry. Her friends called her Franco. Those of us much younger called her Aunty Fran. She was mother to MUSON, NANTAP, NCF and many more. She lived gracefully and left this realm quietly.”

Former Commissioner for Tourism Arts and Culture in Lagos State, Mr Steve Ayorinde, also worked closely with Emanuel, especially when he was an arts and entertainment journalist, with a deep eye on MUSON. He recalls on Thursday that Emanuel never disguised her love for the stage, the studio, the TV and other arts channels to which she clung till she breathed her last. It is thus not surprising that she is prominently featured in Ayorinde’s book entitled Masterpieces.

He notes: “In my next life, I will not share music with the civil service. I will devote my life to the arts.’ This was how Aunty Francesca Yetunde Emanuel announced her disengagement from active music performance in September 2003, when her 70th birthday was celebrated with a fantastic classical music concert at the MUSON Centre, Lagos. She lived for almost 17 more years before transiting to eternal glory yesterday, Wednesday April 8 after a brief illness.

She was Nigeria’s first female Permanent Secretary, but was better known for her exemplary contributions to the arts, first as a member of Prof. Wole Soyinka’s Orisun Theatre and later as a performing member and patron of the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON).

“I had the privilege of interviewing Aunty Fran a few times and I did document several of her performances in my first book, Masterpieces: A Critic’s Timeless Reports (Spectrum Books, 2008). She was deeply creative, accommodating; a patriot, a lovely soul and an exceptional human being. The performing arts world will miss her dearly. But the heavens have just welcomed an angel back home. Adieu Sisi Yetunde. Sleep well…”

Commiserating with the family, President Muhammadu Buhari has also described her as a true patriot, amazon and administrator par excellence.

The President said he believed that Emanuel’s works would continue to be felt and honoured in the public service which she devotedly served as well as the arts, literary and fashion sectors where she excelled. He prayed to the almighty God to comfort the family, friends and associates of the deceased and grant her soul eternal rest.

The Dawn Commission, in a profile, puts some of the Emanuel’s exploits in perspective, saying Emanuel was a woman of many parts. Born on September 19, 1933, in Lagos to Francis Eugenio Aderinkoye Pereira, who was Chief Clerk in the Governor’s office, and Honoria Folashade Pereira (nee Caulcrick), a seamstress, she attended kindergarten classes at the Methodist Girls’ School, from 1938 to 1940; and primary school at Princess School, Lagos, from 1941 to 1945.

Relying on a perspective from the ‘Nigerian Women Pioneers & Icons’, the South-West development commission adds: “Thereafter, she gained admission to Holy Child College, Lagos in 1946. In 1952, after obtaining her Cambridge School Certificate in top grade, she was admitted to the University College, Ibadan (now University of Ibadan) where she studied Geography. In 1955, she obtained the Inter-B.A. after which she transferred to the University College, London for her main degree and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (B.A): Honours degree in Geography in 1959. Mrs. Emanuel had her professional career largely in the civil service. She went through the whole gamut of the various arms of the Federal Civil Service. She started as Assistant Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, 1959-1960, becoming, by this appointment, the first indigenous female Administrative Officer in the Federal Civil Service.

“Between 1960 and 1961, she was at the Federal Ministry of Establishment from where she was transferred to the Police Affairs Division in the Cabinet Office from 1961 to 1964. In recognition of her outstanding performance, she was appointed Senior Assistant Secretary, Secretariat of the Morgan Commission of Nigerian Workers, in 1964; Under-Secretary, Federal Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 1964 to 1969; Deputy-Secretary, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, 1969-1973; she also served as Principal Secretary, Cabinet Office, 1973 to 1974; and Secretary, Federal Public Service Commission, January to June, 1975.