Aramanda lights up Landmark with praise

After three years hiatus, Afro-Urban Christian Festival, Aramanda, has returned to stage one of the best musical festivals in the country. It will charge the Landmark Event Centre with soul lifting performance on Easter Monday.

This is the first time, since its inception, Aramanda, literally translated as Exceptional Wonder, is moving from being a church-touring music show to a city festival.

Convened by Nigerian Afro-fusion artiste, Akinade Ibuoye, known popularly known as Gaise Baba, the one-day festival has 25 acts, that’s 20 singers, two spoken word artistes, one skit maker and two hosts. The artistes include, Ore Macaulay, Greatman Takit, Gil Joe, IBQuake, Sha De, DJ Horphuray, Protek, Angeloh, Izee Smith, Philipiano, Peace Oni, Obareengy and others.

Speaking on the festival, Baba, who is the creative lead at 464 Projects, said: “Aramanda is a Christian festival, but not conventional, it’s not what we are used to seeing in this part of the world; for us, we are persuaded that God has commissioned us for the mission and we understand that even though our expression are different, we are members of the body of Christ and members of the creative army the Lord is using in this end time, our differences is our power.

“We launched it in 2019 and had the debut edition in conjunction with the Covenant Christian Centre (CCC), now known as The Covenant Nation, on July 7, 2019, we had the second edition the following year in partnership with the Elevation Church on March 8, 2020; we took a break owing to COVID-19, so, it’s been three years since we had Aramanda, this time, we have decided to go to the city instead of having it in the church; we are going to the city and we are going to be loud with our light.”

Asked if the festival is a competition with that of non-gospel artists, he said: “We are not in competition with any Christian artiste, because we are in the same body, in the same army, brothers and sisters, we are only in different platoons in the army with different assignments, but for guys who are not in the body, we are in competition for mind space, soul control; I don’t want my children dancing to Soapy so, part of the reasons we are doing this is for our children to have righteous alternatives, the kind of vibe they want, and we are giving them that vehicle and putting the gospel of Christ inside it so, we are not shy to say we are in competition for mind space, we want our young people minds to be filled with healthy content and not drug promoting content, content that objectifies female body.

“Entertainment is not bad, it’s a vehicle to pass messages and we will use it to pass the message of the cross, the culture and values.

“As we grow, we will expand and bring more of the kingdom expression; we will have artists from around the world and they will be proud to include it in their CV that they have performed in Africa, just the same way we are happy to perform in the UK, other parts.”