Efe Oraka dissects Nigerian hypocrisy

It will get many visits, she said. “You know Nigerians are hypocrites.”

There is nothing so prurient in Efe Oraka’s ‘Nigerian Dream’. Her single discusses the displays of hypocrisy outside of the bedroom. “We look so happy,” she sings. “Or so it seems.” The question is not “Who’s your daddy” but “Do you know who I am?”. 

The Nigerian brand of hypocrisy comes up often on social media, where posturing is indistinguishable from reality. But because calling out hypocrisy leads easily to charges of jealousy, it is not quite fashionable.

In this regard, the Nigeria Oraka sings about is no different from social media. Her “Don’t we look so happy with our fake smiles” is the real-life equivalent of the airbrushed happiness that obtains online. Appropriately, ‘Nigerian Dream’ is elegiac, with its stripped production and background funereal atmosphere. Oraka doesn’t sing as much as lament the loss of reality and the celebration of luxury palliatives like “A house in Maitama and…three more in Banana Island.”

Other things worthy of Oraka’s lamentation are the cheating husband and the bruised wife—viewed from the point of view of a child. The unsaid bit is how much is imbibed by this child who will go up to believe in the behavior of her parents as normal. As Philip Larkin wrote, “They fuck you up, your mum and dad.”

Oraka is one of a growing number of artists who have found SoundCloud a useful platform for finding and retaining fans. It is a popular idea to think of these acts as vastly different from the Nigerian acts dominating mainstream radio. But spend some time listening and their themes are similar to their more popular counterparts: love and sex and money sell on SoundCloud and elsewhere. The primary difference is in the diversity of sounds.

By skewering the idea of the Nigerian Dream and highlighting Nigerian Hypocrisy, Oraka also takes on uncharted ground lyrically. You could think of the song as a kind of love song to her compatriots, but it is one with a rather sobering bite.

“From this Nigerian Dream, I hope we wake up”, the song’s last line, is the only line that betrays Oraka’s naiveté: No one really wants to wake up from a dream everyone else is dreaming. The Nigerian dream is the destination. Nigerians don’t want to wake up; we just want to dream better than our neighbours. Maybe even with Oraka's remarkable song as the soundtrack. 

Artist: Efe Oraka
Song: Nigerian Dream
Label, Year: Independent, 2018