Performance by Keziah Jones & Qudus Onikeku

"In an interview after his concert in Berlin in 1978, a journalist asked Fela Kuti about his Western-style clothing, asking why he did not wear traditional African clothes. In response, Fela Kuti said, "You can't call it 'Western dress' because it's a subject for discussion at the symposia of the future".

In 1996, it was Keziah Jones' turn to interview Fela Kuti, who by then was no longer talking to Western journalists. Only a fraction of this interview has ever been released. Keziah Jones (Musician) and Qudus Onikeku (contemporary Dancer) have been experimenting with performance as an alternative means to interrogate the concept of identity and exile through Fela Kuti's words. "Symposium Rehearsal" at Dak’Art OFF was based on the unreleased sound archive of the interview conducted with Fela Kuti. The 2 artists rehearsed (live) a first experimental iteration through the ritual use of rhythm, speech, dance and sound power of what might have been said in a Symposia for the future.