The sun is hot and traffic flows slowly as music enthusiasts make their way to Lagos’s Jazzhole, a shop that has morphed into a cultural hub over decades. The crowd, many of them young, are there for a documentary screening celebrating the Lijadu Sisters, stars of the Nigerian music scene in the 1970s and 80s, whose music is making a comeback.
Konkombe: The Nigerian Pop Music Scene (1979) traces the history of music in Nigeria from the days of wandering minstrels to the era of recording artists such as Fela Kuti, Sonny Okosun, King Sunny Ade, IK Dairo and the Lijadu Sisters, a band formed and led by identical twin sisters Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu, who burst on to the scene in 1969.
The two women shattered the music industry’s glass ceiling in Nigeria, becoming pop stars against the odds in a male-dominated industry and championing women’s and social rights. They went on to make five albums: Urede, Sunshine, Danger, Mother Africa and Horizon Unlimited, and their music, mainly rendered in English and their native Yoruba language, tackles themes such as social justice, corruption, poverty, women’s rights and romance. Speaking out in a country under military rule, they faced harassment and even assault.
Now, those albums are being remastered and reissued by the Numero Group label, bringing the sisters to a new audience.
Korede Akinsete is one of more than 50 people sitting in the packed, stuffy room at the Jazzhole to watch Konkombe, which has also been shown at select screenings in the US and UK in December. Akinsete, who is a communication consultant, discovered the Lijadu Sisters’ music, a blend of juju, jazz, disco, funk and Afrobeat, in her early 20s, a decade ago, and is thrilled that they are being talked about again.
“I would say the impact they’ve had advocating for women to be free and independent and to speak up is a legacy that we see carrying through even in the musicians of today,” says Akinsete, who also saw the film in New York.
Musician Adé Bantu grew up watching the sisters as a fixture on national television. “They were always intertwined and they would finish each other’s sentences. And these were extremely beautiful women as well, which was an add on. So I have been a fan since I was a kid,” he says.
In 1988, the sisters went on tour to the US with King Sunny Ade, and decided not to return home. They were rarely seen for nearly three decades, until 2014 when they performed in honour of the Nigerian music great William Onyeabor. Taiwo says the long hiatus was due to a series of circumstances including both sisters suffering illness. Then, in 2019, Kehinde died.
“When she passed, it was too much pain for me. Those who knew us understand that we are very close,” Taiwo, 75, tells the Guardian by phone. “So it was not easy for me to jump up and say I am going to record, I had just lost half of me.”
Taiwo set foot on the African continent for the first time in nearly 40 years this year when she visited the republic of Benin, and became an Ifa priestess.
Now she is starting to work again. “I am recovering from that shock and I am able to do it now,” she says.
The Lijadu Sisters’ music has inspired and influenced a new generation of artists such as Amaarae, Hayley Williams and Tems, as well as resonating with today’s youth.
Valerie Eguavoen, a civil rights advocate based in the US, recently discovered their music through Instagram. “I came to Jazzhole a few days ago and they told me about this [screening]. I really enjoyed some of the records, the one they played in the documentary today, I think is incredible. I wish there was more stuff like this,” she says.
“Those who like our music the most now are youngsters,” says Taiwo. “Some just encounter it on the internet or their grandparents play it to them … It is a thing of immense pride.”
The last album the sisters made was the first to be reissued on vinyl this year. “The reason for starting with Horizon Unlimited was that instead of starting with their very first album, we wanted to reverse the order and begin with their final release,” says Taiwo’s manager, Eric Welles-Nyström. “Then we will work backwards. We have also worked very hard to unearth releases that have never been available in the west.”
As the documentary ends in Lagos to resounding applause, the audience starts to leave, with many already sporting their new Lijadu Sisters baseball caps.
