By Prisca Sam-Duru

As part of their own contributions, a team of artistes and art entrepreneurs comprising; Italian born Ilaria Chessa, Dagga Tola, Ade Bantu, Ropo Ewenla and Segun Adefila,penultimate week at the Bola Ige Millenium School, Tolu Complex, Ajegunle held the final presentation of ‘Born tro way’, a creative arts project, which marked the end of a workshop that started on Monday 16th May,2011.

The creative arts project which is a pot pouri of different genres of art such as music, dance, drama and mime featured students, school leavers and few undergraduates who displayed extraordinary talents to the admiration of the audience who severally protested with shouts of ‘rewind’ each time a scene ended.

Aside holding the audience spellbound through very captivating body movements which are in tune with the pop world, classy choreography and songs brilliantly delivered, the smiles on the faces of these hopefuls as they entertained the people, speak eloquently of how prepared they are to make the most of their opportunities.

The first part of the show which was divided into two parts saw the group of 41 namely, David George, Victor Ayodele, Papa Essien, Francisca Agbanso, Faith Halilu, Thessy Ese, Michael Ugochukwu Ibe, 2Tek Odey, Judith Nwabia, Jemila Aliu, Henry Eguje, Kings Brown, Paul James, and others, who scaled through an audition of a total of 120 individuals in a unique and metaphorical performance that combined English language, Pidgin and Yoruba language express to the admiration of the audience their own hidden and untapped creative potentials.

Through such rhythmical compositions like; , ‘I no be born tro way, they call me born tro way, no matter what dem say, I no be born tro way…’ the young artists rejected their rejections by society. Through their performances, they also condemned all forms of environmental pollution and called for serious cleansing of the environment in order to prevent health hazards .

In the second part, some of the performers treated the audience to some of their individual songs in which they merely mimed, while others, acted as back-up dancers in an all free style session.

The use of waste which were cleared during dramatisation , the sandy stage and even the costumes, all told stories thus, adding radiance to the melodious voices of the singers.

In general, it was an impressive ensemble born out of a meticulous preparation even at an early stage and also for the fact that the whole exercise was packaged without any outside help, which is a testimony that the group would go beyond the shores of Nigeria in a short time, if adequately funded.

Speaking shortly after the show, Dagga Tola stated that the philosophy of ‘Born tro way’ is to bring young people together, offer them opportunity to understand the tasks that will enable them confront the challenges of life. “We want to first of all, showcase, through the medium of art, the underdogs, the rejected and those youths who have been termed irrelevant by society with a view to giving them a voice and make them realise their potentials” He said.

Opportunity to discover talents

Ade Bantu on his own part, expressed gratitude to Ajegunle community which inspired the project, and observed that the project has afforded many hidden talents a chance to showcase their creativity. He also noted that the project would effectively eliminate some of the stigma labeled on people living in Ajegunle.

Also speaking, Ilaria Chessa the producer of the project, who has been in Nigeria for over 7 years, said the whole idea of ‘Born tro way’ is to inspire the many untapped talents scattered all over Nigeria who lack the confidence and platform to showcase themselves.

On why the use of wastes, she explained that the group thought of “how much we can do for the land that hosts us so that it does not go against us, we decided to think of waste in a holistic perspective both in terms of human waste because the talents are not harnessed, recognised or nourished and then, in terms of physical waste”.

The vision for the project according to Chessa, is to take it to other cities of the country including; Abuja Port Harcourt, Maiduguri, Kaduna and then draw from the results of each workshop a musical show that can promote peace and unity from the perspective of these young ones.