00:05
Q – TELL ME A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
OK, my name is Oluwatosin Kadiri. I'm married, I’ve got three kids. I’m from the richest culture from Nigeria, the Yorubas. And, I finished from the University of South Wales. I did my masters in management and I'm here in Wales.
00:28
WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN NIGERIA?
Yeah, growing up in Nigeria is very, very interesting. Where you have families around you, your siblings, your loved ones. Is very interesting. We have a lot of things we do out there. We go out for picnics. Living in Nigeria is fantastic actually.
00:49
DESCRIBE YOUR HOMETOWN OR VILLAGE IN NIGERIA.
Yeah, like I said earlier, I came from one of the richest cultures in Nigeria. They are called Yorubaland. We have a lot of things we do, we like party. In fact, my hometown, I'm from Obu State, in Jebu precisely. So, we love party and then we make party very colourful. Yeah, if you go on the internet, just Google ‘Jebu’, you will see we have… there’s a particular time of the year, we call it Ojude Oba, where everybody home and abroad, they come home to celebrate, to greet the king. So anywhere in the world where you are, you have to come home. Then we dress in a different attire, we have ‘aso oke’, aso oke is from the Yoruba tribe, like this one I’m putting on. So we have different colours and is always very beautiful. We use a wrapper, then blouse and gele (Nigerian head wrap). So we have different colours, beads, you know, we dress so colourful and we make the occasion colourful. That's where I come from.
02:02
Q – WHAT MONTH OF THE YEAR IS THAT THEN?
Of the year? Uhh, April, like Easter period, yes, that's where it's always come on.
02:12
Q – IS THIS DIFFERENT TO MASQUERADE?
Yes. So like in my village… if you have any chieftaincy titles, you have to come home, we have the Warriors, we have the Kingmakers, we have so many chieftaincy titles, everybody comes home. We have the horse riders, so many things. So some of them come with ores, some of them come with gun, some of them just your chieftaincy title, you come and then everybody goes to the king then to greet the king. So you have to come with your family. So to differentiate each family, so you have to come with different colours. So everybody, nobody wants to come, you know, being one, so you have to come with your best, in your best attire. So that's why it's always colourful. So we have it done on an open ground, is going to be as big as this. So everybody sits according to their chieftaincy title. Then you go one after the other to greet the king. So if I'm going, maybe I'm from the Warrior family, now I'm going to greet the king, every one of my family member, friends, loved ones come with me, but we must have a uniform. Then we go, sometimes we have the horse tail, sometimes some goes with the horse, different chieftaincy title.
03:26
Q – SO IS THAT THE KING OF THE TRIBE?
Like I said, I'm from Ogun states, so Ogun states we have the Jebus and we have the Egbas… but this particular event is done by the Jebus. So when we go… so in my own town… we do it three days after the Muslim festive period. So in my own town we have Masquerade that we do during Easter period… they have different masquerade, then on a particular day we will be set up for everybody to come out of their rural areas to go and greet the king. So that's how it's done. So then we have a particular village that is like, um, like a capital, like a city of every small rural area, so everybody still come out from there to greet the king.
04:21
Q – SO WHEN YOU SAID YOU HAD HORSERIDERS AND WARRIORS, ARE THEY ROLES THEY PLAY IN THE FESTIVAL OR IS THAT THE ROLE THEY PLAY IN SOCIETY?
Like the Warriors, like I said, if you are from the Warriors family, like sometimes when there is war there is always a particular person that leads the team. Then sometimes we have people that, you know, enthrone the king, we have the Kingmakers, so they are from a particular family as well. So we also have the horserider, those are the ones that will come with the horse to greet the king. So they would dress the horse and comes on their own. So different chieftaincy titles, that’s how it’s done.
05:03
Q – TELL ME ABOUT THE TRADITIONAL NIGERIAN DANCE.
Like I said, I'm from the Yoruba culture. We dress this way, if you saw the talking drummer [SEE INTERVIEW WITH AGBOOLA BABATUNDE TIMOTHY], he was putting on this type of aso oke but in a different colour. So we have our own dance style, we call it ‘bata’. So, where we have to count your legs, the talking drum would speak, then you dance according to what the talking drum is saying. So the talking drum speaks, so you dance, you say what the talking drum… you tap into what the talking drum says. So that's the culture where I come from. So, our dance is different from the other culture. We have different cultures in Nigeria but where I come from we dance with the talking drum.
05:47
Q – IS THAT IMPROVISED DANCE? SO THE TALKING DRUM PLAYS SOMETHING AND YOU FOLLOW IT?
Yeah, sometimes. It depends if you are really dancing to the cultural dance, you have to listen to what the talking drum is saying or probably sing and the talking drums beats to this song. So that's how it works.
06:07
Q – DOES IT CHANGE EVERY TIME YOU DO IT?
Yeah, it changes, if I change the song it change the beats.
06:15
Q – WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT NIGERIA?
I miss party, yes. I miss party. Every Saturday there must be a party. Especially where I come from, there must be a party. Yes. My culture is very rich. So there is, every Saturday there must be party. If there's no party, then something is wrong. Yeah, so I miss party. I miss jolof rice, that's our common food. I miss, jelof rice. Then we also have a common language, we call it ‘broken’, so that's why if a Nigerian says in Nigeria, you say “hafa now?” [a casual greeting in Nigerian ‘Broken’ English that means "how far?”], so it's very common among us, so that's the common language that bonds everybody together. Yeah. So I miss all those things.
06:57
Q – WHAT IS JOLLOF RICE?
Jollof rice is pepper rice, let me put it that way. That's red, orange rice… It looks as if it's going to be very hot, but it depends on how you prepare it anyway.
07:11
Q – WHERE DOES THE COLOUR COME FROM THEN?
Yeah, from the peppers, we have the bonnet pepper, we have the tomatoes, we have the… [veg] yes, so that's where it comes from, that's where the colours come from. Then we have the tinned tomatoes… where you call it paste, so, I use paste, if you use paste the colour comes in, yeah. is thing so much where we call it a fast and personal space, yes, so I use space while I'm yes, if you space the colour comes in, yeah. Tomato paste [LAUGHTER].
07:37
Q – CAN YOU JUST DESCRIBE A TYPICAL SATURDAY PARTY?
Oh my God [LAUGHTER], you want to be in a Yoruba Nigerian party. This is how it’s done, let me use a wedding… In my culture where I come from, if your great grandfather has not been buried, like, a party has not been done, if your father dies, you can't do the burial. You have to do your great grandfather, you have to do the party. And this is how it comes, the children comes together, the children have the same attire, it's always colourful, so the childrenswear is always different from the guests… so we pick a particular material and you know sell it out to people, people with love they buy, then so, different styles and so… if I'm inviting my friends I can decide to pick a particular material. If my sister is inviting our friends, hat's how it gets colourful now. So if my sister is inviting her friends, she’ll pick another material. So, so that when we get there, because it's going to be an open field, I can know my guests, she can know her guests. Do you understand how it works? That's why it's always colourful… my friends will come now and they won't have where to sit or probably won’t have anything to eat 'cause I'm occupied with activities. So we differentiate everybody's guests with the material. So it makes more colourful and more beautiful. Then, food is free. We have different varieties… we’ll make preparations for food for the whole family. Then I myself will make preparations for food for my friends [MIC INTERFERENCE], in case the family food is not enough, so there is going to be surplus of food, there’s going to be enough food for everybody to eat. So that's how it's done.
09:39
Q – HOW IMPORTANT IS THE FOOD IN NIGERIAN CULTURE?
It is important because if you invite me to a party and I, I have nothing to eat, next time you invite me I might not come. So food is very important in Nigerian party very, very important because before you know it you say “ah, I came to your party and I have nothing to eat, no, no, no, no, I'm not coming next time.” So we always make sure, and that was why the material thing comes up, whereby I have to know my guest, you have to know your guests so that I can satisfy everybody.
10:11
Q – WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST ABOUT LIVING IN WALES?
Well, the people they are accommodating. I've lived in Tonypandy, so to tell you I've gone through Treorchy, the valleys, I’ve gone through every other place, people they are accommodating. In fact, when I was coming from Nigeria, my pastor used to be a medical doctor, and I think he has practised here before, so the moment I told him I said I'm going to South Wales, oh well that's a lovely place, the people there are accommodating and you know, I was not disappointed. Yeah.
10:46
Q – WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE LEAST ABOUT LIVING IN WALES?
Living in Wales or living in UK, I don't know, well, let's say the weather. I'll say the weather because we have, we have every season for every weather. We have the time we have sun, we have the time that is raining. So here… I can't go out without my umbrella because I can't predict what will happen in the next two minutes. But in my country, we have rainy season, we have dry season, we have when it's sunny, we have ‘harmattan’. Harmattan is just like when it's a bit cold, but it would be a bit cold in the morning, but in the afternoon, it would be itchy, like very dry, but in the morning when you come out, it's like everywhere is you know… there's so much cold in the morning. That is the only time we experience cold. And it’s around December time.
11:51
Q – WHAT’S FASHION LIKE IN NIGERIA?
Fashion? Oh my God, we love fashion. Yeah, yeah, we love fashion. Yeah, we love fashion. We love fashion.
12:08
Q – WHAT LANGUAGE IS SPOKEN IN NIGERIA?
I’m from the Yoruba tribes of Nigeria, we speak Yoruba. That's what we speak. Yeah, well, we have a general language, which is Pidgin, where everybody, like my friend that just left the seat now, if she speak a traditional language, I can’t understand. Yeah, I can't understand what she's saying, if I speak mine she can’t understand. But we have a particular language that combines us together, which is the Pidgin, at least the simplest English that everybody can communicate.
12:39
Q – MY FATHER’S NIGERIAN, HE’S FROM THE YORUBA TRIBE, AND I’VE WANTED TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE MYSELF, DO YOU KNOW ANYTHING THAT WOULD HELP WITH THAT?
Yeah well, technology will help. Yeah, sometimes you just, you know, use the Google, just say tell me I want to eat in Yoruba, then probably your dad… he should try to tell you some things like, come here. So sometimes she just she she just try to tell you some things like “come here”, like ‘wá’, that’s ‘come’… ‘Go’ is ‘ma lọ’. So those simple ones… ‘eat’ is ‘jẹun’, so those little ones, simple ones you can learn it from him, like ‘come’, ‘go’, you know, sometimes we speak as if we're fighting so that's our tone!
13:34
Q – IS FOOTBALL AN IMPORTANT PART OF NIGERIAN LIFE?
Oh my gosh, the last two weeks or one week has been dramatic [REFERRING TO AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS 2023]. Yeah, if you go on the internet, it’s crazy! So I stopped watching football, especially Nigerian football, because it raises my high blood pressure [LAUGHTER]. Yesterday was, uhhh! Because the noise was everywhere, “we’re going to win the World Cup! We’re the giant of Africa! Blah, blah. We won Ghana, we won South Africa!” So everybody was glued to their TV and because Nigerians, what will I say?... we are very creative people, we already have so many things on social media to celebrate the day, but unfortunately we came second. But still, there's still going to be a party anyway. [LAUGHTER] That’s one thing about Nigeria, there's still going to be party, that we know, we lose, there must be a party.
14:35
Q – DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE FOOTBALLER?
Yes, at the moment, Victor, Victor Osimhen, at the moment.
14:46
Q – DO YOU KNOW JAY-JAY OKOCHA?
Of course, our legend. [INTERVIEWER – HE’S A GOOD FOOTBALLER] Very good, yes. Very good, yes.
00:14:56
Q – WHAT INSTRUMENTS ARE USED IN TRADITIONAL NIGERIAN MUSIC?
Yes, we use like, the Afro beats, we are known as the you know, the king of Afro, let me put it that way. The Afro beats, we make use of the talking drum, we use flute, we use the jars, we use the keyboard, so many things. We use the bell, like the traditional ones, there's this bell we use, we use so many things, we have so many instruments.
15:31
Q – DO YOU LIKE THE FOOD IN THE UK?
Food? Yeah, well I don't have choice because I'm here now, so I have to learn how to eat. Then I got kids, so obviously they have to eat from the school, you know, meals… but what I love, which is mashed potato and fish. Yes, that's my favourite. With gravy. Yeah, that's my favourite. Yes, mashed potato. Then I love, if I prepare the baked beans, I do not eat, but if I eat baked beans outside, it's always different… I love baked beans.
16:07
Q – HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE TRADITIONAL FOOD?
Every day, yeah, we have to eat jollof rice, we have to eat the soup. We have what we call soup, we have okra, we have vegetables. So our vegetable is actually different, so we have vegetables, we have ordinary sauce with rice. We have fried rice, we have jollof rice… it’s everyday.
16:32
Q – DO YOU FIND IT DIFFICULT TO FIND THE INGREDIENTS?
Well, because we have more Nigerians around now, I think it’s a bit easier. We have African store in Treforest, we have one in Ponty. Before we used to go all the way to Cardiff, but things are getting better now, yeah.
ENDS