playnext.fm

Afropop Worldwide · Afropop Worldwide

Hip Deep in the Niger Delta

December 4, 2025·59 min·4 clips
90-year-old Anthony Odili, the last surviving member of Rex Lawson's band, reflects on 69 years of music and outliving all his colleagues.
A tribute opens the hour. Before the Niger Delta story starts, the production asks listeners to send memories of Georges Collinet and honors his 65-plus years in broadcasting. Then Port Harcourt takes over. Duncan Mighty calls himself a Port Harcourt boy, and the host sets that pride against the pull of Lagos. The city once drew people in. Now, the transcript says, entertainment no longer works there the way it did when Port Harcourt felt like a center of attraction. War sits close to the music. The program turns to eastern Nigerian highlife after war, when musicians trapped by conflict rebuilt their repertoires around survival and reconciliation. Edi Ukwedi becomes a marker. His "Happy Survival" lands as a postwar wish for repair, not just a song title. Anthony Odili speaks plainly. As the last surviving member of Rex Lawson's band, he warns younger Biafra voices not to reach for a war their elders still remember. His plea is simple: let there be peace, ask the living grandfathers, and treat the past as a warning, not a destination. Collinet then points toward social activism in Port Harcourt and Ogodiland, plus live highlife circa 2017. The scene moves outside. At the Okrika waterfront, one of Port Harcourt's poorest neighborhoods, listeners gather in an open-air space called The Shed for a free public concert. Michael Wemedimo guides that stretch. He introduces himself as someone raised in Nigeria, with an English mother and a Nigerian father, and the host names him as a filmmaker, producer, activist, and community organization director. The credits close the loop, thanking scholars, producers, Michael Wemedimo, Ana Bonaldo, and the Chikoko family, with the music still tied to dedication, spirit, and local struggle.

As heard by us

Port Harcourt's music opens onto oil, war, memory, and public life in the Niger Delta.

Hip Deep in the Niger Delta follows Port Harcourt through music, oil, war, and local pride. Georges Collinet opens with Duncan Mighty claiming his Port Harcourt roots, then widens the frame to a city where militancy pushed entertainment elsewhere and where the Biafra war still…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When you want Port Harcourt, highlife, and a story of war, oil, and music in Nigeria in one sweep.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on
Apple PodcastsSpotify
Play clips from this episodeMore from Afropop Worldwide