I'm Clyde Macfarlane, an NCTJ qualified journalist and illustrator.

Interview with The Lijadu Sisters

Most women in afrobeat fit into two well established roles: erotic dancers or backing singers. In the former they are sex objects, in the latter they are background figures by definition. Fela Kuti, the man with 27 wives, would parade his “queens” around on stage like a farmer showing off his cattle. This is exactly why the Lijadu Sisters, second cousins to the legendary Fela, were such an anomaly for Nigerian music.

The twins grew up in Jos, a volatile region between Nigeria’s Islamic north and Christian south. From a young age they were song writing- Kehinde when she was 10, Taiwo when she was 17- and, like many Nigerians with a passion for afrobeat, they started their musical careers as backing singers. Their subsequent path to fame was reliant on industry superiors who “didn’t think women had brains”. This, the twins believed…