Guardian

THERE will be no speeches, singing, drumming and dancing to commemorate the passing away of the legendary arts impresario Steve Bankole Omodele Rhodes this May. The composer, broadcaster, arranger of music and arts manager whose industrious and enterprising abilities helped in shaping the career of so many great Nigerian artistes including the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti and Fatai Rolling Dollar passed on five years ago in London, precisely on May 29 at age 82.

The family says it will be a ‘quiet time’ for them this year but that plans are underway to put together a befitting event for the master artiste and a frontliner in the highlife revival project who would have been 87 last April having been born on April 8, 1926.

At his death in 2008, the musicologist and leading arts and culture advocate had requested for a ‘quiet funeral’, which was respected by his family, associates and the arts community. So, except for an opportunity provided by the culturally-articulate and persistent Committee For Relevant Arts (CORA) through its quarterly Arts Stampede for members of the artiste community to pay tributes, the artiste community would have had no opportunity to pay their last respect to the elder artiste who they consider a colossus.

That year too, CORA went beyond providing a platform for artistes and associates of the music icon to pay tributes. The art and culture advocacy group also set up a process of immortalising ‘Steve Rhodes’ when it christened their yearly December stampede ‘The Steve Rhodes Carnival’, as a way of keeping his legacy alive. That has held annually since then. In fact, in 2008, the Steve Rhodes Carnival, organised by CORA, helped in no small measure in putting his many unfinished projects on the frontburner of art discourse. The carnival featured various musical and dance performances, screening of a documentary produced by Femi Odugbemi who clocked 50 recently and a reflection on the life and works of Steve Rhodes by such eminent culture artistes like Professor Duro Oni, Ahmed Yerima and Nigeria’s biggest dance export, Sir Peter Badejo (OBE).

At that event too, the artiste community was informed of the setting up of a Steve Rhodes Foundation. Nothing though has been heard from or about the foundation since then. But Gloria Rhodes, daughter of the elder artiste, recently confirmed that there were efforts to get the foundation off the ground. “The foundation is an ongoing work process,” she said. “It is slowly coming together. It is, indeed, five years today (May 29) that our father passed on, but it will be a quiet time for the family. There are plans underway to put together a befitting event in 2014.’’

However, in a statement released by the foundation and authorised by Gloria Rhodes, it is noted that in these past five years, “The memory of Steve Rhodes (SR) has remained evergreen in the minds of his family, his associates and those who were privileged to have encountered him in the course of his very creatively active and productive life, which he spent largely in broadcasting, music and art management”.

Accordingly, the Steve Rhodes Foundation, which was established at about the first anniversary of SR’s exit – in spite of lack of adequate resources and tough operational environment, had worked hard in the past years to keep up to its mandate of preserving and promoting the legacy of the founder of the legendary Steve Rhodes Voices. Members of the Foundation are Prof. Johnson Ekpere, Mr. Funmi Onabolu, Monsieur Pascal Ott, Mr. Femi Odugbemi, Mrs. Elsie Payne-Hamman, Ms. Jeannette Rhodes and Gloria Rhodes-Nash. The foundation said it recently inaugurated a committee to set up a series of programmes towards the sixth anniversary of the exit of the man widely regarded as a colossus of the performance art in Nigeria and Africa.

The committee is chaired by Mrs. Francesca Emanuel and has as members Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, Ayo Bankole Jnr., Benneth Ogbeiwie, Funke Agbor, Jahman Anikulapo, Jeanette Rhodes and Ada Rhodes.

The Executive Director of Steve Rhodes Foundation, Gloria Rhodes-Nash will serve as its secretary. Scheduled for May 27-29, 2014, the proposed three-day programme would feature a colloquium, an interactive music presentation, an exhibition of photos, records and memorabilia of the SR Voices, and a Variety Concert that would be headlined by the famous Steve Rhodes Voices and featuring past members of the Voices, many of whom are today leaders in corporate and high net-worth social circuits of the country. In addition, a select number of young musicians in pop genre would feature in the concert as a mark of tribute to Steve Rhodes who was an astute hunter for young talents, many of whom he helped to develop their skills.

In a tribute to mark this year’s 5th anniversary of the passage, Gloria Rhodes restated that the family would “spend the day - May 29 - quietly remembering him and drawing strength from the legacy he has left behind. It has been a journey in “self-discovery for me and I’m honestly sure I have done a good job of it so far! It is a work in progress”.

She also said: “Our father was a larger-than-life figure in our lives, strong, purposeful, sure, generous, and above all, wise. He had a way with young people and lived his life believing that it is important to share what knowledge you have. He often mediated amongst people and groups when there were issues that seem ‘unresolvable’ and I was always in awe as to how he sorted things out.

“As the executive director of the Steve Rhodes Foundation, this too has been a work in progress. Steve Rhodes’ vision and purpose are quite clear and as such the workings of the foundation must reflect these. It is slowly coming together. Next year, there will be events to mark his passing that will include a symposium, workshop and concert.”

In the meantime, CORA says it has plans to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of Elder Rhodes, who is better known for founding and directing the Steve Rhodes Voices and who many young artistes are lavish with gratitude to for guiding and inspiring them. The commemorative event, according to the Secretary General of CORA, Toyin Akinoso, will hold as part of the annual Steve Rhodes Carnival and stampede organised by CORA.