BANTU has a new song titled “Wayo And Division”. Released Friday 24 March, Ade Bantu Odukoya says it comes in the wake of the recent general election in Nigeria that is still making a buzz in the country and around the world.
“In the aftermath of a highly contested and extremely divisive electoral season, we would like to share our new release “Wayo And Division” which drops today,” AdeBantu says while announcing the release. “The song was written to remind our listeners–and Nigerians in particular–of the pitfalls of partisan and ethnicity politics. We wanted to reflect on how for decades, poverty and fear have been weaponised by Nigeria’s ruling elite, military dictators and politicians to distract and stop the oppressed from uniting and resisting their oppressors”.
The singer goes on to encourage everyone to Download/Stream the song here: https://bfan.link/wayo-and-division
BANTU is a 13-piece band based in Lagos, Nigeria, according to a Wikipedia post. Their music is a fusion of Afrofunk, Afrobeat, Highlife and Yoruba music. The group features multi-instrumentalists and singers who perform as a collective.
Nigerian-German brothers Ade Bantu & Abiodun, Sierra Leonean-German-singer Patrice and Nigerian singer Amaechi Okerenkwo founded BANTU in 1996 in Cologne, Germany. BANTU is an acronym for Brotherhood Alliance Navigating Towards Unity and according to band member Ade Bantu the name was also chosen to honour South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Bantu Biko.
The band’s first recording was “No Vernacular (Humber Version)” which they released on the Cologne Carnival compilation Humba 2-Fastlovend Roots in 1996. Their debut album Fufu was released in 2000 and it became an instant success in Nigeria earning them two radio hit singles: “Nzogbu” (featuring Trinidadian Rapso artist Brother Resistance) and “Fire Inna Dancehall”. After the departure of Amaechi and Patrice from the band a second self-titled album BANTU featuring Jamaican drummer Sly Dunbar, Peter Tosh guitarist Earl “Chinna” Smith, Positive Black Soul and Pee Froiss from Senegal was released in 2004 with Ade Bantu & Abiodun handling most of the vocal duties. In 2005 Bantu was awarded the Kora Awards (the Pan African equivalent of the Grammies) in the categories “Best Group West Africa” and “Best Group Africa” for their third album release Fuji Satisfaction a collaborative effort that featured Nigerian Fuji music singer Adewale Ayuba. In 2011 Bantu released their fourth studio album titled No Man Stands Alone an album of collaborations mostly recorded in Nigeria. The album featured Highlife music legend Fatai Rolling Dollar, Nigerian singer Sound Sultan and Nigerian-German singer Nneka amongst many others. Since 2013 the BANTU collective has been hosting Afropolitan Vibes a monthly live music concert series and annual music festival in Lagos, Nigeria. On 7 July 2017 the 13 piece BANTU collective released Agberos International. The 10-track album was produced by Aman Junaid. It features Tony Allen on drums (“Niger Delta Blues”) and Nigerian spoken word poetess Wana Wana (“Oni Temi”). The music on the album straddles Afrobeat, Highlife, Funk and Hiphop, while the lyrics have been described as witty, political and satirical.[8] In September 2020 BANTU released Everybody get Agenda, an album which has been noted to comment not only on the socio political atmosphere in Nigeria but on the entire African continent while addressing issues of urban alienation, xenophobia and migration. The album also features Seun Kuti on the song “Yeye Theory”.
