Wunmi Olaiya the London College of Fashion

-with simply a hint of Sade

"I GOT MY things and left" is how the novella, 'House of Hunger', by Zimbabwean novelist, Dambudzo Marechera's, kicks off. That startling opening line might well take come from the lips of British-born 'Naija' vocalizer, dancer and fashion designer, Ibiwunmi Omotayo Olufunke Felicity Olaiya (better known as 'Wunmi').
Well-nigh of her life, Wunmi'due south had to get her things and leave. After her parents divorced, she came to Nigeria on what was supposed to be a visit. She was but four. "I came here thinking I was on holiday, and it wasn't a holiday, it was x years, that's a long vacation, innit?"

She lived for a few years with her grandmother in Lagos. She then moved to Ibadan to live with her begetter's sister, before returning to Lagos (living offset in Ikoyi, and then Surulere).

"A lot of my generation were born in England. Our parents went there to report, and, obviously, things happened," Wunmi explains. "They had kids, and tried to piece of work, study, and information technology's non possible. So, quite a lot of my generation were either sent domicile or were in foster care."

That separation was devastating for the piffling daughter. Not fifty-fifty the occasional parental visits from England made a difference. "I felt abandoned… everyone around you has a mum and a dad; everyone talks about their mum and dad, and you can only just make upwards stories," she recalls.

Finding the other Wunmi
Then, at age fourteen, she visited England. Life was most to repeat itself. "I went back to England, non knowing if I was going back to stay or it was just a visit. And at that place I was, I realised I was staying."

Returning to England after ten lonely years in Nigeria wasn't most to confer a happily-ever-later on ending on the story. Wunmi moved in with her father (by now there were two one-half-sisters from her mum), but "to realise I'm the only i amidst them [the kids] who speaks Yoruba, who understands Yoruba."

And so she stood out… once again. "In Nigeria, I was like the oyinbo one. They'd tease y'all and telephone call you 'oyinbo'. Now you're in the land of the oyinbo, and you lot're African, and you lot're Nigerian, and yous audio funny, and people laugh at you."

The experience forced her to "go into myself" and to "shut everything out." This meant finding inside her imagination the freedom and 'identity' that eluded her external circumstances. And the fashion to accomplish this was to dance and make her ain 'distinctive' clothes and create her own hairstyles. Over this, even her father (who imposed a strict midnight curfew) had no control. "I lived in an imaginary world so to speak," she says.

So that in that location were shortly two Wunmis, the i beset with "nervousness," and the change ego… the crazy girl "who danced and dressed upwardly" and came live at parties. On the encouragement of her teachers, she enrolled at the London Higher of Fashion after high school. In Higher, she "met like-minded people."

Three influences
There were three people who would play of import roles in her transformation into a confident artist. 1 was her uncle, the famous Highlife musician, Victor Olaiya. "I lived with my grandma in the family firm in Tinubu Foursquare, and he [Victor] lived in his store at the bottom.  The music that really rings in my head is [Olaiya's hit dear song from the 50s]Omo Pupa."

Then at that place was Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, arguably the greatest influence on her music. "I had no other hero," Wunmi says. She was also young to attend Fela's jams at the Shrine in those days, but all her older cousins did, and his music was a constant presence around her. Information technology would prove beneficial later. "Moving back to England, that was the but connection I had. I had all the English stuff, but I had Fela, and King Sunny Ade."

"I heard things in mono and stereo. You'd exist playing me a funky Western tune, but I'd be hearing the African percussion playing in it… A lot of that came from listening to Fela stuff, because it was such a magical blend of the traditional with the funk."

And and then, to crown information technology, she says everyone who listened to her music as she blossomed would refer to her as "The female Fela, with Sade."

Last merely not least was the legendary American musician, Roy Ayers who Wunmi finally met in 1987. "He was the biggest American artiste in England at that time, in terms of the rare groove music." In the 1970s, Ayers spent time in Lagos and jammed with Fela, producing a collaboration, 'Music of Many Colours', in 1980.

The commencement time Ayers set eyes on Wunmi, at a concert of his in London, he told her she reminded him of a certain dancer. "It was i of these magical moments, where someone sees you and knows who you are," she says. He promised he was going to invite her up on stage that nighttime. To her shock, he did, introducing her every bit a "special surprise" and a "special guest from Nigeria."

She didn't disappoint him. "I went out there and I danced. I was similar, oh my goodness me, I've danced my whole life in my bedroom, in my living room, at school, but having fun. Hither I am on a stage, a world stage, in London, Hammersmith Odeon."

Looking back, she'due south nevertheless blown away by the coming together. "What was the chance of me meeting Roy Ayers, and the chance that Roy Ayers met Fela and worked with Fela? What was the chance of that? That of all the people I could have connected with, to inspire me, to encourage me, to mentor me, would be someone who met someone who inspired me before I left Nigeria [Fela]."

After the evidence, she asked Roy why he gave her chance. "It was written all over you," he told her, then added: "Listen, you've got the presence of life that no coin can buy. And as long as yous don't prostitute your soul, you'll do fine."

Soul Two Soul
Not long afterward the Ayers moment, she met Soul II Soul, long before they became a Grammy winning band. They wanted her to dance for them.

With Soul II Soul, she saw the globe. "I saw New York for the first time, went to Los Angeles, went for the NAACP awards. Everything was pouring in; it was ridiculous. I was just this Naija English girl who loved to dance and dress and be herself…"

Simply soon, she had to get her things and leave… over again. What she was doing no longer brought her happiness. "As long as I'm happy, I tin can trip the light fantastic. If I'thousand non happy, I can't trip the light fantastic toe." Ayer'due south words came dorsum to her. "Do not prostitute your soul." She left, to get a ane-woman trip the light fantastic bear witness, travelling around the globe.

Ayers was a constant presence in her life; a surrogate father of sorts. Whenever he was performing in London, he'd invite her up on stage to dance. And 1 day, he asked her when she'd start singing. "What I couldn't explain to him was that when I opened my oral cavity to sing, it didn't come out sounding like an American person; information technology wasn't no R'nB; it was this African girl vocalisation," she says. "Literally, the music you heard on the radio was all American-sounding. Even in England, our music was American; you sang with an American tone."

Ne
w York
All the while, the fashion role of her life was thriving. She was stylist for Caron Wheeler, and lead singer with Soul II Soul. And in 1992, she travelled to New York to work with the American hip-hop / R'nB group, PM Dawn, equally stylist and choreographer. In New York, she got a demo deal with Island Records, owned by Chris Blackwell. Island records flew Nigerian-born producer, Tony Nwachukwu from England to produce the demos. Wunmi recorded three songs. "That was one of the scariest moments of my life. I'd been in the studio as a dancer, merely I had never been in the studio [to tape]."

Blackwell especially loved one of the songs, 'Ayo for Joy', but he idea it would be a hard sell, sending Wunmi into a spiral of low that lasted months. She thought of going back home, a prodigal daughter contrite earlier her father.

Ayers appeared on the scene again. He had just signed a deal with BMG in America, and he wanted her to sing on the anthology (Nasty). That, she says, was the official opener to her music career. She featured on two tracks in the album, which entitled her to get a member of The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). And she toured America with Ayers.

Fela, as well, showed up not long after, in the class of one of his songs. She overcame her diffidence and sang from the Fela album, 'Upside Downwards', one night at one of the jam-sessions springing up in New York, and brought the firm down. "I never looked dorsum," she says.

And then the demos began to multiply. Her kickoff comprehend of Fela (a fusion of 'Upside Downward' and 'Expensive Shit'), produced by Masters At Work (the duo of 'Petty' Louie Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales) was chosen 'MAW Expensive (A Tribute To Fela)' and released in 1999. "Dreams still come up truthful. I went from not knowing what would happen with the music I was doing, to finally finding a dwelling where I tin exercise me."

Making waves everywhere
In 2007, "later doing almost thirty collaborations all over the world," her debut anthology, 'ALA (Africans Living Abroad)' was released. A remix EP titled, 'ALA Revisited' shortly followed.

Wunmi tours extensively; and when she'southward not travelling, splits her time between New York and London. She has presented or hosted a number of music shows for the BBC World Service Radio, i of which was a 3-role Fela documentary in 2003.

And she's simply just started. Her sophomore anthology is due out afterwards this year.

Yesterday's girl has become today's confident woman, leaving her marking everywhere her remarkable journeying takes her. "I have a ring in America, and I have a ring in England, and I now take a ring in Republic of ghana," she said. "My program for 2010 is, wherever I go, to have a band."

She has a lot to count on. There's the irrepressible spirit of Fela, and the fatherly guidance of Roy Ayers. Non to talk of her astonishing talent that has showed up in trip the light fantastic toe, fashion, teaching, and now, music. Ane thing is certain; The 'African Living Abroad' is set to make waves Everywhere.

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