William Onyeabor - Who Is William Onyeabor?
2025-02-02
Indeed. Who is William Onyeabor? The man is an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in an enigma. There are lots of theories out there and some pretty elaborate attempts to find out, but the man ultimately did not want to talk about himself or his music, which is fair enough, I guess. But that does not mean that we cannot talk about his music, so I will.
What William Onyeabor was producing in his studio back in the ’70s-’80s in Enugu, Nigeria was nothing short of phenomenal. He was importing and using synths long before it was even remotely common in the otherwise sprawling music scene of West Africa in the ’70s. So while the high-life/afro-beat craze was sweeping Nigeria, William Onyeabor was making banging, haunting grooves with—among other things—his synths. The tracks are usually on the longer side, rarely shorter than 6 minutes, which leaves him plenty of room to explore a variety of sound options on aforementioned synths, sometimes veering into borderline psychedelic territory, but never forgetting to groove. His lyrics are honest, straight-forward and often with anti-war sentiments, calls for compassion and/or declarations of love.
His son, Charles Onyeabor, pointed us to one answer to the titular question:
He wasn’t doing his music for the money. He was trying to tell the world how he felt and what he thinks.
Listen
- Fantastic Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cUrmOekeY
- Body and Soul: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YDnhxwNX5A