Sonny Okosun’s Papa’s Land album cover captures the Nigerian musician at the height of his Pan-African protest era, when music became a weapon against apartheid and a call for African solidarity
Sonny Okosun’s Papa’s Land is not merely an album. It is a political document, a freedom song, a Pan-African sermon and, in retrospect, one of the most haunting musical reminders of what Nigeria once stood for in Africa’s liberation struggles.
Released in 1977 by Sonny Okosun and his Ozziddi band, Papa’s Land stands as one of the important Nigerian musical statements against apartheid South Africa. The album brought together reggae, highlife, Afrobeat, funk and soul into a sound that was both danceable and defiant. Eddy Grant, the Guyanese-British musician whose own work also carried a strong anti-apartheid consciousness, mixed the LP, giving the record a broader Black Atlantic resonance.
At its centre was the title track, a protest against
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