BANTU drops Wayo And Division

In the aftermath of a highly contested and extremely divisive electoral season in Nigeria, BANTU returns back to form with their trademark wittiness and candour steeped in crisply arranged horns and densely orchestrated grooves to remind their listeners, and Nigerians in particular, of the pitfalls of partisan and ethnicity politics.

Wayo And Division, the first single off their forthcoming album, reflects on how for decades poverty and fear have been weaponised by Nigeria’s ruling elites, military dictators and politicians to distract and stop the oppressed from uniting and resisting the oppression. 

Refusing to hold back in their critique of the existing status quo, BANTU prompt their listeners to take the scales off their eyes and see the recurring patterns of deception. 

The accompanying single cover, by award-winning Ghanaian satirical artist, Bright Tetteh Ackwerh, depicting the main presidential candidates (of the recently concluded presidential elections) wining and dining together, while the struggling masses gather around them begging for alms underscores the band’s musical tour de force driving home the songs bittersweet chorus: 

“All na smokescreen to cause hate and confusion/When dem share big money/ And big big contract/Nothing like tribe, nothing like religion /Don’t let them scam you/With their wayo and division.”

BANTU’s album is slated for release on September 6, 2023.

BANTU is a 13-piece band based in Lagos, Nigeria. Their music is a fusion of Afrofunk, Afrobeat, Highlife and Yoruba music. The group features multi-instrumentalists and singers who perform as a collective. Nigerian-German brothers Ade Bantu and Abiodun, Sierra Leonean-German-singer Patrice and Nigerian singer Amaechi Okerenkwo founded BANTU in 1996, in Cologne, Germany.

The band’s first recording was No Vernacular, which they released on the Cologne Carnival compilation Humba 2-Fastlovend Roots in 1996. Their debut album Fufu was released in 2000 and it became an instant success in Nigeria.