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Nneka is the Future
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Beware of making assumptions about her petite stature and cute exterior. This young woman is something serious.She has a distinctly refreshing approach to making music, bending messages of awareness, action and optimism through a kaleidoscope of hip hop, soul, reggae and afrobeat. She punches your apathy in the face with a furious flow and celebrates the beauty of Africa with warm blends of Nigerian and English.
She is honest almost to the point of being abrupt.
I was introduced to Nneka by her manager who made a point of my New Zealand nationality. “So? I am from Nigeria,” a just woken, but immaculately groomed Nneka replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
But a stunning smile and an extreme sense of humility smoothes any sharpness. Nneka is grateful of everything that has become her, and nothing, especially not her music, is taken for granted.
She is genuine, gorgeous, intelligent and candid. And she is the future of musical activism.
You have a very interesting background, I was hoping you could tell me a little bit about who you are and your journey to get to where you are today.
My name is Nneka, Nneka Egbuna to be precise. I am of Nigerian and German origin. I grew up in Nigeria and I am a musician. I have been performing and recording for the past five, six years. I have released three albums and I am performing today in Paris.
And you spent some time living in Germany?
Partially, not much anymore.
And that was for university?
Oh you mean, ok yeah yeah.
I moved to Germany at a certain point, that was in the year 2000. I did not go there for studies initially but I had to leave Nigeria at that period of time, at that certain point in time and I found myself in Germany despite the fact that that was not my goal to be there. Where I eventually started studying and then got into music, learned the language, got to understand my German side. My first encounter with my white side of me, more or less.
Spent like five years there, where I also got to meet the record company.
And what did you study?
I studied Archaeology and Anthropology.
What made you choose music as your form of expression?
I never chose it. I found myself doing it more or else as something that I needed as a sort of a therapy at the time. So, its not like I really chose it, I never really made up my mind on making it professional today.
I’ve not really made up my mind even now. Despite that I earn my money and I fly around the world with and it predominantly takes most of my time and it has helped me move back to Nigeria it is too difficult to accept that it is my profession because it is something that I love and something that I am not very rational about.
Your style is so eclectic, it draws from so many genres, musically who has inspired you?
Well, I have listened to a lot of music, especially a lot of Nigerian traditional music. From Nigerian traditional music down to Bob Marley, Nina Simone, hip hop, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep. So it’s very versatile.
I love your collaboration with J. Period, why do you think hip hop resonates so strongly with your mission?
Because, the beginning was hip hop. When I met Farhot, DJ Farhot, the person I work with, he was a DJ, then just a simple DJ who was playing hip hop beats in clubs. And when I met him, he introduced me to hip hop and I introduced him to a world he had never been in contact with before, which is the African world. These two worlds meet and they want to understand each other.
I would thank him for bringing me, introducing me to hip hop, where I eventually started to find passion in the beats and we kinda mixed hip hop, which is his background, with mine, to make what we have today. Which I think is very authentic and unique.
That was my next comment your style is so distinctly African still, is this an intentional part of your music, to highlight the Africaness of it?
Not necessarily, it just comes out naturally. Because, I am somebody, like I mentioned earlier, its not like I think a lot about how to do my music. It is important for me that I do not think about what people like and do not want to please the ears of the record company or the masses. It is about me expressing myself at the very point at that very stage and being able to find healing and give healing through the music that I am doing. So, it has to come from my heart.
It comes naturally and if today it sounds reggaeish and tomorrow it’s hip hop and the next, tomorrow it is raga, soul or afrobeat then that it is how it is.
I know that Fela had to travel to America to discover his own Africaness, what did you learn about yourself after moving to Germany?
Well, I definitely understood that I was an African then. Before that time I would just randomly, absent-mindedly walk the streets of Lagos. First of all I didn’t even know I had color, because even in Nigeria I was black, you know what I mean, despite the fact that I was mixed.
My getting to Germany, the racism started. Not always, but I was in contact with a lot of this racial discrimination.
It’s not like moving to New York or Atlanta…
Exactly, you don’t have that much population of black people in Germany.
So that was one that trigged me into even being more proud of my origin and going back and doing more research on who we actually are and where we come from.
I would say yes Germany made me more African than ever. And when I go back home now I notice that there is so much that we Nigerians, we Africans do not know about ourselves and it is high time, it’s about time that we raise awareness.
Why do you think Western Europeans have such a negative attitude and ideas towards Africans and immigrants in general? You know, I have met taxi drivers who were formerly surgeons and mechanical engineers…
Well. That is a difficult question. I have worked in a company in Germany where I was cleaning in a cinema. I was cleaning every morning and the people that were working with me were Nigerians and Ghanaians. I worked two and a half years in this company.
And the people I was working with, you are right, most of them were qualified, educated engineers and doctors, cleaning toilets. Their certificates were not acknowledged. I even recall when I came to Germany for the first time I had my Nigerian SSC, SSC is the Senior Secondary examination standard and my O1 levels, everything.
I was applying for a seat in the university, and this guy was like “No. I am sorry. I can’t give it to you.”
Why? Despite the fact that I had good grades. He’s like, “Yeah, Nigerians we can’t really prove if it is real, if your certificate is real.”
Those type of things, preconceptions, reputation.
It must be hard to be constantly doubted just because of where you come from?
But the problem is also us. We also give people the wrong perception of Africa. It’s not just corrupted, its not just negativity, there is much more than that. And this is the picture that I try, attempt to eliminate, want to eliminate, by showing the world, listen positive things also come from our countries, from our continent.
Can you explain your philosophy on love?
Love is when we begin to realize that it is not just about egoism, about self-profit, self-gratification. When we learn to appreciate the space and dignity of our neighbor and are ready to sacrifice to a certain extent.
You are very spiritual, but I think you also understand the problems of organized religion, how did you reach this understanding with God?
I used to be a very strong born again Christian, you know what a born again Christian is?
I do.
That was back home in Nigeria. It was very, it was good for me. It helped me read the bible almost more than ten times and keep away from certain things that I would have gone into because of the type of life that I was living. As in how my environment was.
So, the word of God kept me away from doing drugs and doing prostitution. There was no food and there was a lot of what we call Wahalla back home. If not for the word of God I would have gone astray.
Coming to Europe made me understand that you can read between the lines of the bible and not just take the words the way they are. In the bible it says if you sin in your life you are liable to hellfire. Its straight up, if you do this, this is what you get. And I do not believe that God did not want us to read in between the lines and use our own understanding and use our own mind to understand what life is all about. OK, we have religion, we have everything written down in the word, then we have our own common sense.
So you have to combine that which is written with that which you know and see what is good for you.
I got to know other religions, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam. I would never ever criticize anyone. Back in the days I used to. I would say if you are not a born again Christian you will not come into the kingdom of God.
Someway, somehow I still do believe in it. But it is kind of a chaos in my head because I still do very much believe in the African tradition at the same time, which has a lot of similarities to the bible. It is just that people do not know. The deities they, they… how do you say?
Correlate?
Exactly, they correlate to the figures and characters in the bible. So its almost as if Christianity comes from the African religion. We need to do some research on that.
You’d be surprised, there are so many links between so many religions. I think one of the saddest things about religion being the source of so many problems, is that they are so similar and they are saying so many of the same ideas.
That’s it. That’s why I always end on going back to the statement that Gandhi made, “Every religion is like a river that flows into one ocean.”
Do you believe that music can really effect change?
Yes. If you are honest about it. If you are honest about your message. If you are connected to your music, truly, then it will bring change.
If you are just doing it, and singing about change or singing about all the problems in the world and you are not really connected to your message, then no.
Do you think we are beginning to see global progress in relieving some of the problems that you sing about?
You know, yes.
I think the Western World is becoming more outgoing towards Africa in general, especially America. Despite the fact that we still have problems and there is still a lot of things being hidden.
There is a lot of progress going back home, happening back home. In Jos in Nigeria, we recently had a demonstration, a non-violent demonstration. Normally we never have peaceful demonstrations. Everybody just goes wild, and then you see tear gas and police are fighting with civilians. This time around it was a peaceful demonstration against, no for, electoral reforms for the 2011 presidential elections which are going to take place.
The Lagos State Governor is doing very well. He is investing a lot of time and energy in building and up and building Lagos.
I am only talking about my side as in life from what I see that is happening in Nigeria. And when I travel to the States, people are becoming more conscious, and the more conscious we become about each other and that we are the part of one world and we are actually all connected, then yeah, there will be a positive movement taking place.
How has anthropology and archaeology influenced your music?
Wow.
Getting to know all those other students definitely inspired me. There are some people who are just stuck in their libraries for the rest of their lives and they hide behind knowledge and books and then they become intelligent fools. That has inspired me.
“Intelligent fools,” I like that.
I mean when it comes to the content of the subject, the discipline that I studied Archaeology is the study of man and artifacts, evolution, where we belong, where we came from, where this whole thing is heading to.
It is like the study of the quest of life. Which is actually what I have always searched for, even within my music. What am I here for? Who am I? What am I supposed to achieve or fulfill?
I think it is that quest that correlates to the, you have just taught me a new word, that correlates to my discipline.
Have you pursued your studies professionally?
I would love to. I would love to go into excavation.
Actually, maybe one or two excavations, because I have done a couple of excavations and it is really serious work. We were digging holes a whole three weeks. That was in, close to Hamburg a small town called…. What is the name of that place, well anyway, we found a medieval shipwreck. So, cleaning up the shipwreck because you really have to be careful, making sure you don’t break the wood.
And that really is with brushes and…
Yeah, really with brushes!
Then the rain comes and wets everything. It was crazy work, crazy work. Then the sun comes and breaks the wood because it’s wet then you have to go back and start patching everything together. We even found gold. Found pieces of gold.
Well anyway, one of these days I would love to maybe create a centre in Nigeria where we preserve artifacts because we have a lot of historical spots that are very important. In the north especially. Or in the south. You have a lot of these bronze artifacts and terracotta.
Could you explain for me the slogan “Africa is the Future.”
That’s the shirt, some guys from Paris that I was really supporting. I met them when they just started doing their shirts so I decided to help those brothers. And I think that sentence, that statement is very, very strong.
Africa is actually now. Africa has been the past, the present and is the future. So that is just part of the trinity.
Your album cover for ‘Concrete Jungle’ is literally African American.
Literally African American?
(Laughs)
Well it has got the American States in the shape of the African continent. I thought I was very clever saying that. Could you explain that a little for me.
The intention here was to stress the relationship between Africa and America, in the sense that everything that America, I wouldn’t say everything, but partially, most of what America has become today is due to what Africa has given it.
When it comes to resources, when it comes to history slavery times, people, even partially the culture. That’s just what I am trying to stress.
And reintroduce Africa to America. Because I mentioned earlier so many Americans, Westerners in general, have these negative connotations when they hear “Africa,” that it is mostly poverty, aids, or suffering and plight and disaster and corrupt people and politicians. So that is also one of the things I am trying to do.
I really hear it that in from ‘Africa 2 You.”
Exactly, in that track.
My girlfriend cant stop talking, “I want to go to Africa now!” after hearing that song.
Its so funny I’ve got so many Americans who like that song. Its crazy. And that is the most African song on that album.
I think that is what is appealing about it. It is much less produced, it more raw, more natural.
Yeah it’s like highlife.
It’s a really happy song.
It is very happy.
I know you have won some awards, the media loves you, what defines success for Nneka?
Hmmm. Success.
Success is peace of mind. To accept everything that you are going through, at every stage in your life. Whether it is negative or positive. That you just understand that hey, this is life and that it is not your own. It is God’s. It belongs to the Supreme Being, that is why you always have to be submissive and humble.
That is success. When you are always able to know that this life is not yours.
And what does the future hold?
Ohhhh. I don’t know my brother. That is a big big question.
(Laughs)
The future?
I don’t know. As for now we are giving love, we are doing the music, we are doing interviews, we are being supported. The future is OK.
If it comes to the musical aspect. We are going on tour. We are going on next tour with Nas and Damian Marley.
Wow….
Coming up now in May. Then we do a couple of festivals in America again.
Actually I am going to Nigeria now, to do some touring and after that I will be in the States.
And are you well known in Nigeria, is your message getting to Africa?
Yeah its coming man, big time. Ever since Letterman and the MOBO awards its exploding all over Africa. Its crazy.
Its so funny, like you said earlier on, why did Fela have to go out Nigeria to be acknowledged in his own country. And it is true, it is actually a very sad thing that people don’t take you serious until you step out, make it outside and when you shine they claim you.
Well, I hope that will change though. And I do notice that some local artists in Nigeria also blow up, they don’t necessarily have to go out of the country first to be respected. But those are musicians……forgive me, but the music they do is very plastic. But that is how it is everywhere. That sells more than heartfelt music.
Well, thank you so much for your time, if you could give a final word to our readers at Deft Mag.
Deft?
Like “to have deft touch.” Your music is very deft.
Like as in punchy?
As in subtlety punchy.
Hello everybody, my name is Nneka. I am here on Deft Mag. Read on, read in between the lines, regain or gain some knowledge and wisdom and continue supporting Deft Mag, supporting me. Spread love and God bless all of you. Thank you.
Simon is a regular contributor to Deft Magazine and active in the hip hop community in Paris. He earned his Bachelors of Law and Arts from New Zealand's University of Otago, Simon was also a DJ on Radio One Dunedin, in Otago, New Zealand.
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