African China AKA Chinagoro
Label: Blue Pie Productions
Artists Genre: Urban
The Evolution of African China
Far from being the obvious, since launching himself
into the mainstream music world about two years ago,
Chinagoro, a.k.a African China, may have stood out as
a dependable, yet emerging social crusader of great
reckoning. With his name almost becoming a house-hold
name in many homes across Africa, African China
parades a talent, very prodigious and could be
described as “rare and different from what Ojo would
refer to above as 'playing the music of destructive
values.” While storming the music scene with an
uncommon tempo, Chinagoro recreates with his craft,
the images of reggae singers of yesteryears. With the
unceremonious exit of the likes of Majek Fashek, Ras
Kimono and The Mandators, all Nigeria’s past leading
reggae singers, Chinagoro’s entrance into the music
wavelength of Nigeria appear something like rekindling
and re-modelling of the undying spirit of fighting for
the oppressed masses through the art of music.
His emergence in the Nigerian music scene, no doubt,
revolutionizes the myopic, almost streamlined music
culture in the country. He came with a bang, and
consequently took the stage with a thundering storm.
Listening to his kind of music invokes feelings of
redemption.One cannot but acknowledge African China’s
redemptive philosophy which reunites his fans with the
rhythms that defined the music of the departed reggae
legend, Bob Marley. His high sense of creativity and
accomplishment of high quality entertainment and
philosophical undertone combined with liberating
enlightenment, makes him the hope of tomorrow’s reggae
icon in the world of the Black race.
More than ever before, Chinagoro’s kind of reggae
possesses an unusual driving force which comforts,
arrests and at the same time, refreshes the soul while
it encourages and re-arms the people for the great
task of making a better society. Like the
thought-provoking messages of the departed reggae
legend, Bob Marley, and of recent, the South African
reggae maestro, Lucky Dube, Chinagoro demonstrates
lots of promises for his generation.
Engaging him recently in a chat, aboard an ADC Airline
en route to Abuja, was a delightful encounter. Indeed,
inside the aircraft, this young artiste was
passionately enthusiastic and his voice resonated with
delight. “My name is Chinagoro alias African China. I
am from Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State. I got
into music at the age of seven, that was when I got
involved in entertaining people. I was into dancing
while my elder brother was one of the notable drummers
as far back as in the 70s and early 80s. There, I
learnt most of my dance steps, and later joined a
miming club, where I started practising how to mime
other notable reggae artistes such as Bob Marley,
Lucky Dube, and the rest of them. While I was doing
this, I saw the potentials in me. I then grew up with
it. I wrote my first song titled Am in Luv with You
when I got into the secondary school in 1990,” he
narrated.
Chinagoro added that, with the passage of time, he
realized that music was an integral part of his being,
especially when he saw himself performing at birthday
parties, night Clubs, Bachelors eves and other social
engagements. I discovered I could write songs. I
discovered that music was really in me, so that was
how I got into music,” Chinagoro further narrated.
Even when his songs translate into something of a
reflective mirror for society, the Imo State-born
musician likened himself to a social crusader of
sorts. “I don’t see myself attacking the government
with my music. I am only but a social crusader. In
that sense, my songs center on the happenings around
me. All the musicians cannot just be singing about men
and women, love, romance etc” he said, adding: “If you
look at the history of music in Africa, for instance,
you will discover that it was only South African
singers that were able to hit the world music scene.
Talk of people like Chaka-Chaka, Brenda, Lucky Dube
and the rest of them. Nigerian artistes have not
gotten that kind of exposure and that is why I felt I
should do something different.”
Chinagoro, however, acknowledged the fact that his
songs are fashioned after those of the great reggae
singers of our time. As he pointed out, “the music of
Majek Fashek, Lucky Dube, Ras Kimono and others,
really made a lot of impact on my music." He also
admitted that, apart from being influenced by the
songs of these artistes, the redemptive music of Bob
Marley remained a major source of inspiration to
him.
A confirmation of this claim promptly lies in his
performance. Beyond doubt, Chinagoro’s stage display
bears the semblance of the great singers with
arresting passion. So arresting that the effect of the
witch-hunting and his suffering soul became reflected
in the countenance of his audience. Unlike the
corruptive music of his contemporaries, Chinagoro’s
songs are natural, pure and plain. Aside the fact that
his songs of oppression stemmed from a deeply
humanistic foundation, he applied rich and sometimes
imitable dexterity in commenting on the depleting
values of the society.
But how did he come about the name, African China, you
may want to ask?.“African China has something to do
with my original name, Chinagoro,” he muted, adding,
“from Chinagoro comes China. When I was in the
secondary school, my friends used to pronounce my
name, China-Goro. So, each time I entered the
classroom, my classmates would start laughing at me
and my class teacher then, would mute, O da-bi omo
China (meaning, he looks like a Chinese boy).”
“From there onwards, I was nicknamed African-China.
Though, while in secondary school, I used to get
annoyed quickly and sometimes, react negatively but
when I discovered that I could not help it, I became
used to the name and consequently accepted it as a
part of me.”
He also recalled that the need to identify with his
root, especially when he wanted to go into music
properly, altogether necessitated his deliberate
desire to attach “African” to his name. He reminisced:
“When I decided to go into music, I did not want to be
identified with the name, China alone, because I did
not come from any of the Asian countries, I rather had
the desire to make my name sound more African than
Asian, because of the fact that I am a black man. That
was how the name, African China came about.”
Notwithstanding, positing that Chinagoro’s songs
remain not only a product of the environment in which
he grew up as a child, but also, that of his years of
suffering as a son-of-a man-of- no-means and someone
who never knew who his biological mother was, is not
to imagine the absurd. Chinagoro, from childhood was a
product of society and one who was equally meant to
learn to survive in a hard way. At less than two
months of birth, his mother died to usher him into the
world without a guide, governed by misadventure,
greed, wickedness, materialism and oppression of the
have-nots by the haves.
Emotionally, he recalls, “my mother died when I was
two months old. I did not enjoy the cares of my
mother. When I eventually finished my secondary school
in 1996, there was nobody to assist me in furthering
my education. My father then was retired from the
Federal Ministry of Works and Housing and his pension
was not enough to cater for seven of us in our family.
So, I found myself working at the Nigeria Ports
Authority as a laborer, carrying bags of rice and ice
fish after my SSCE examinations.”
“I also hawked on the streets, worked as a cleaner and
had to quit my menial job just to build a solid
foundation for my future. The government, I must say,
has no vision for the youths of this country. That is
why crime is still on the increase in the country
today,” he asserted.
Chinagoro recalled how his experience after the
release of his maiden album with track, “If I say O.P
and you say C, na you sa bi..’ brought him in direct
confrontation with the deadly group and the area boys
known as Agberos, in Lagos who wanted him either dead
or alive, helped to fire his imagination and his
musical idiom.
African China is an MGN, Blue Pie + Perfect Pitch
artist. African China is available digitally
throughout the world on Blue Pie Productions and at
all leading digital retailers on the planet.
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