Rivers State Shines At Nottinghill Carnival
THE
journey to Rivers State’s participation in the Nottinghill Carnival,
which held on August 28 and 29 started a few months ago. The Director
General of the Rivers State Tourism Development Agency, Dr. Sam Achibi
Dede, had a dream to open up the cultural and scenic beauty of the
ancient city of Port Harcourt to the world.
Since Rivers State, with its very diverse and rich culture also has the country’s oldest carnival, CARNIRIV, Dede decided to introduce the event to the world at the Nottinghill Carnival and thereby attract the desired interest to the state and the country.
Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Rotimi Amaechi, gave his full support to the effort and ensured that funds were made available despite bureaucratic bottlenecks, which almost killed it.
The scheme that involved putting a traditional float with 35 masquerades on the carnival parade came with huge logistic challenges, which the Director General sought to lessen by contracting Zmirage UK to act as consultants and facilitate the troupes participation in Nottinghill.
He couldn’t have chosen better consultants. Mr. Shabaka Thompson, executive director Zmirage UK, is also the former CEO of Nottinghill Carnival Village.
Well versed in the intricacies of carnival participation, Shabaka was able to get a band, Peoples World carnival band to agree to host the visitors. This is a very important aspect of the whole thing because Nottinghill Carnival is no longer taking on new bands.
To put a float in the parade therefore, one had to affiliate himself to an existing band whose outlook must be similar to yours.
Luckily, CARNIRIV found a welcome home with the friendly Peoples World band members. The next step was the float construction. At extremely short notice, Shabaka was able to get all aspects of the construction taken care of including hand molding the crabs, which are a definitive feature of the float design supplied by RSTDA. A nice reception was planned for the visitors at The Africa Center in Covent Garden, hotels were booked, car pickups were organized and everything was set. All that remained was for the 35-man team of masqueraders and drummers to get their visas, which had been painstakingly applied for a few weeks earlier.
The wait for the visas was simply agonizing. On and on, it went until late in the evening on August 24 when they were informed that all the visas had been denied. Shock and disappointment overwhelmed Dr. Sam Dede, the Chairman of the RSTDA board, Hon. Emeka Nwoke and a director of the board Mr. Yibo Koko who already had visas were faced with the option of travelling alone without the troupe or staying back and losing not only a golden opportunity but also the huge amount of money already expended on the project.
The d DG and his chairman decided to see it to the end. As Dede is wont to say, “the show must go on” and the show indeed went on. A well-attended reception was held for the RSTDA team at the Africa Center in Covent Garden. Anchored by Nollywood actress and Vice President of the Association of Movie Producers of Nigeria, Lillian Amah-Aluko, the event had a pot pourri of nationalities all eager to savor the rich culture of Rivers State.
Reported live by Bubbles FM, the online radio station owned by London-based Nigerian, Lookman Sanusi, the reception which ended with a lavish dinner catered by Mrs. Golda John-Abiola had questions from the audience and online from listeners thrown at the director general. It was a consensus at the end of the evening that Carniriv 2012 was the place to be.
On Monday, July 28, the stage was set for the grand unveiling of the RSTDA team at the Nottinghill Carnival. As early as 9am, the truck bearing the float was already positioned on Woodfield Road behind Harrow Road police station in Nottinghill.
Sherif Yekini of Zmirage Nigeria was on duty adding finishing touches to the float with RSTDA branded flexes, embroidered Rivers State traditional fabrics and other branded materials.
While working, we took in the scores of seductively dressed Carnivalistas both young and old who seemed determined to enjoy themselves and all the carnival offered.
At last it was time for the carnival train to roll.
The Carniriv brand ambassador, Yibo Koko, in full gaily-coloured traditional outfit complete with cap and scarf strutted his stuff, danced his heart out wriggling his waist and gesticulating with his fan. The bells and mirrors on his outfit jingled and twinkled and the fans ran after him like rats after the pied piper.
As the DJ in the RSTDA float pumped out hit after Nigerian hit music, the fans yelled and danced away singing lustily along with the music. Suddenly a hush fell as the crowd parted directly behind the float and a bemused figure pushed his way through.
Dede took in the surging crowd singing and dancing to music from the homeland and a big smile spread across his face. The lion had come home and in spite of all the challenges, the show still held. Posing for photos with adoring fans and dancing to the music of Fela, Timaya, Tuface, 9ice, Bracket and Wande Cole, the Director General of RSTDA proudly led his team and the float down the winding roads of Nottinghill.
Courtesy ZMirage Multimedia
Since Rivers State, with its very diverse and rich culture also has the country’s oldest carnival, CARNIRIV, Dede decided to introduce the event to the world at the Nottinghill Carnival and thereby attract the desired interest to the state and the country.
Governor of Rivers State, Dr. Rotimi Amaechi, gave his full support to the effort and ensured that funds were made available despite bureaucratic bottlenecks, which almost killed it.
The scheme that involved putting a traditional float with 35 masquerades on the carnival parade came with huge logistic challenges, which the Director General sought to lessen by contracting Zmirage UK to act as consultants and facilitate the troupes participation in Nottinghill.
He couldn’t have chosen better consultants. Mr. Shabaka Thompson, executive director Zmirage UK, is also the former CEO of Nottinghill Carnival Village.
Well versed in the intricacies of carnival participation, Shabaka was able to get a band, Peoples World carnival band to agree to host the visitors. This is a very important aspect of the whole thing because Nottinghill Carnival is no longer taking on new bands.
To put a float in the parade therefore, one had to affiliate himself to an existing band whose outlook must be similar to yours.
Luckily, CARNIRIV found a welcome home with the friendly Peoples World band members. The next step was the float construction. At extremely short notice, Shabaka was able to get all aspects of the construction taken care of including hand molding the crabs, which are a definitive feature of the float design supplied by RSTDA. A nice reception was planned for the visitors at The Africa Center in Covent Garden, hotels were booked, car pickups were organized and everything was set. All that remained was for the 35-man team of masqueraders and drummers to get their visas, which had been painstakingly applied for a few weeks earlier.
The wait for the visas was simply agonizing. On and on, it went until late in the evening on August 24 when they were informed that all the visas had been denied. Shock and disappointment overwhelmed Dr. Sam Dede, the Chairman of the RSTDA board, Hon. Emeka Nwoke and a director of the board Mr. Yibo Koko who already had visas were faced with the option of travelling alone without the troupe or staying back and losing not only a golden opportunity but also the huge amount of money already expended on the project.
The d DG and his chairman decided to see it to the end. As Dede is wont to say, “the show must go on” and the show indeed went on. A well-attended reception was held for the RSTDA team at the Africa Center in Covent Garden. Anchored by Nollywood actress and Vice President of the Association of Movie Producers of Nigeria, Lillian Amah-Aluko, the event had a pot pourri of nationalities all eager to savor the rich culture of Rivers State.
Reported live by Bubbles FM, the online radio station owned by London-based Nigerian, Lookman Sanusi, the reception which ended with a lavish dinner catered by Mrs. Golda John-Abiola had questions from the audience and online from listeners thrown at the director general. It was a consensus at the end of the evening that Carniriv 2012 was the place to be.
On Monday, July 28, the stage was set for the grand unveiling of the RSTDA team at the Nottinghill Carnival. As early as 9am, the truck bearing the float was already positioned on Woodfield Road behind Harrow Road police station in Nottinghill.
Sherif Yekini of Zmirage Nigeria was on duty adding finishing touches to the float with RSTDA branded flexes, embroidered Rivers State traditional fabrics and other branded materials.
While working, we took in the scores of seductively dressed Carnivalistas both young and old who seemed determined to enjoy themselves and all the carnival offered.
At last it was time for the carnival train to roll.
The Carniriv brand ambassador, Yibo Koko, in full gaily-coloured traditional outfit complete with cap and scarf strutted his stuff, danced his heart out wriggling his waist and gesticulating with his fan. The bells and mirrors on his outfit jingled and twinkled and the fans ran after him like rats after the pied piper.
As the DJ in the RSTDA float pumped out hit after Nigerian hit music, the fans yelled and danced away singing lustily along with the music. Suddenly a hush fell as the crowd parted directly behind the float and a bemused figure pushed his way through.
Dede took in the surging crowd singing and dancing to music from the homeland and a big smile spread across his face. The lion had come home and in spite of all the challenges, the show still held. Posing for photos with adoring fans and dancing to the music of Fela, Timaya, Tuface, 9ice, Bracket and Wande Cole, the Director General of RSTDA proudly led his team and the float down the winding roads of Nottinghill.
Courtesy ZMirage Multimedia
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