Naira Marley and the ‘Marlian’ counter-culture

“Naira Marley” is a twenty-five-year-old Nigerian musician. His musical genre is described as “Afrobeat”, although it would appear more appropriate to label it “African Rap”. Afrobeat, of course is a term made famous by the eternal and irrepressible “Abami Eda” – Fela Anikulapo, whose value to Nigerian and World culture can be seen from the fact that his footprint looms large to this day.

Naira Marley’s real name is Azeez Fashola. He was born in Agege, a suburb of Lagos that has grown into a densely populated, essentially proletarian city in its own right. He moved to Peckham, a troubled heavily black neighbourhood of London, at the age of eleven, and spent several years there before returning to Nigeria.

The young man from Agege is rapidly becoming a potentate on the Nigerian musical scene. Last month, he headlined his own massive show, titled “Marlian Fest”, and launched his record label – “Marlian Records”. And just last weekend, he won an international music award.

Naira Marley has a huge fan base. They call themselves “Marlians”.They are a rambunctious presence anywhere he performs. They revel in being “outsiders’, and as a trademark, they are disrespectful of rules and agents of law enforcement.

Already in his young life, Naira Marley has had some celebrated run-ins with the Law. Sometime last year, he was arrested by Police on suspicion of being a “Yahoo” boy. He was detained in prison custody before he eventually secured bail. His travails inprison, as well as his dismissive attitude to social mores, are celebrated in the heavily loaded lyrics and visuals of his hit song“Soapy”.

…ole l’everybody

…eni le mo ba sa ni barawo…

 …Everybody is a thief… The crime is in being caught)

But the controversial musician’s personal escapades are as nothing compared to the alarm occasioned by the cult-like following he seems to be acquiring among the young, not just in the heavily populated poor neighbourhoods where his motor-park, street language with its many slangs is the accepted medium of communication, but event in the well-heeled circles of Ikoyi and Victoria Island.

The craze of proudly pronouncing themselves “Marlians’ and damning the consequence is spreading through schools and neighbourhoods among teenagers and young adults, and it has left many parents scratching their heads.

The defining attributes of Marlians are roughly said to include the following: “NO MANAZ” – any effort to behave like “decent” youth is frowned up; No Belt: Marlians would not be caught dead wearing a belt on their trousers; Smoke Weed, and perhaps use other drugs of abuse, such as “Coke” and Tramadol; Respect nobody; Eager to go clubbing every weekend; Crazy hairstyle – dreadlocks or scruffy; Don’t fear anything, even death (MAFO); Must love Naira Marley’s music and be ready to stand up for him; Not to pay excessive attention to studies (most “Marlians’ are students); Strong focus on sex, including masturbation – another theme depicted in“Soapy”.

The Marliansociological epidemic is catching the eyes of school administrators, including the high-brow private Universities where many of the male and female “Marlians” come from. Parents of secondary school children are terrified by stories that their wards may be taking off their underwear and heading for Marlian parties instead of going to school. Apparently, young ladies are not supposed to put on underwear to class on certain days of the week.

Older Nigerians who lived through the travails of Fela at the hands of Obasanjo and the humourless Buhari-Idiagbon diarchy may be tempted to feel a sense of déjà vu, comparing the idiocy of barely letter SARS officers arresting young Nigerians with dreadlocks and computers on the streets and extorting money from them under the threat of being hauled in as “yahoo boys” to Fela’s all-too-many arrests and beatings, and the military invasion of his home in Idi Oro, following which he was dragged naked through the streets. Not many days after the last event, of course, Fela, wearing a cap fashioned to conceal the still-fresh wound in his head, and with one arm in a sling, was launching his new song “Kalakuta Show” on stage. The crowd, high and low, were dancing with a frenzy. The song is played in different parts of the world, to this day, as part of a big stockpile of protest songs – Zombie, Alagbon Close, Pansa’ that have become part of the treasure of world culture. Nowadays everybody loves Fela, and even the denizens of the establishment who would not be seen dead near the marijuana-infested air of the Shrine in those halcyon days claim him for their own.

It would be excessive flattery to even speak of Naira Marley in the same breath as Fela, but it is pertinent to ask, for whatever it is worth – what is the young man’s cause? And how should a sane society counter the “Marlian” subversion of its values?

Coming out of prison, Naira Marley sang “Soapy” which basically says everybody is a thief, so get off the backs of Yahoo boys. And in Tesumole, the “religious” anthem of “Marlians”, he openly admits procuring “coke” for his sex partner and smoking cannabis himself. Death, he implies, will come anyway. Why fear? The musicianship is passable, the beat danceable. The message is outrageous, which is why it is winning souls even of mainstream Nigerian youths.

Countering the “Marlian” counterculture cannot be by the dour righteous Buhari-Idiagbon formula all over again. Society needs to rediscover, reaffirm, and operationalise its values day to day before it can save its children from a counterculture that does not believe in anything and sees no lofty good to strive for except money, sex and drugs. In the event, just the public venting of parental outrage or – God forbid, giving renewed fillip to Police to enforce a morality they don’t have themselves will only help to stoke the counterculture further.