Bolanle Austen-Peters, Terra Kulture founder, says Nigeria must package its entertainment industry for its culture to influence the global art world.
Austen-Peters urged Nigerians to support those “promoting our arts and culture”.
“We need to package ours well for it to make impact on people. We have seen how other countries such as Spain and India using their Telemundo and Bollywood respectively to influence us; we should look for ways to use ours’ also to do so,” Austeen Peters told NAN on Sunday.
“Where we were as a group culturally 10 years ago is not where we are today, a lot have evolved, but we need to rebrand and package it well. I think what we need to do is to keep encouraging those promoting our arts and culture to package it in such a way that it would be saleable globally.
“That way, there will be no accusation of cultural imperialism in the future because everyone is doing what he or she needs to do to protect themselves.”
Speaking of the inspiration behind ‘Saro the Musical’, she said the idea was that “we should start doing productions that would rival the things that are imported into Nigeria that we also go and see when we travel abroad”.
“So, I think that was what challenged me and also after seeing ‘Fela on Broadway’ which story was basically a Nigerian story.
“And it was all about music and dance, I figured that it’s something we can do ourselves. So, Saro was created.”
The producer of ‘Wakaa the Musical’ is the daughter of Afe Babalola, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
In 2016, she built the first ever private theater in Nigeria, Terra Kulture Arena with a 450-seater theater.
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