It was about 6:30 am on a Monday of April 2005 while searching for my birth certificate at home to go for JAMB online registration in a cyber cafe that I saw an old brown 3 star 60 leaves exercise book in one of the folders on the shelf, In curiousity, I opened the exercise book and started flipping through.
I first saw scattered written lines mostly in pidgin English and I could dictate that they were song lyrics because most of his songs were written in pidgin
I flipped through to the middle and I saw a headline "NICO MBARGA SWEETMOTHER FOUNDATION", at this point I became more curious, I took the book to my room, sat down and began to peruse. I saw EXECUTIVE SUMMARY in block letters, I read through, I saw VISION, I saw OBJECTIVES, I saw COLLABORATIONS, I saw summary and I saw at the end "SO HELP ME GOD"
I took back the notebook and dropped quietly and proceeded with my initial search.
That year I was barely 19 years old and my Dad was about 8 years gone, as a 19 year old boy, I couldn't really grasp the vision so well so I just took it kindly.
Fast forward to my campus life in the University of Jos Nigeria. I cannot recall the plethora of great recognitions, celebrations and favours I got whenever I was identified as Prince Nico Mbarga's offspring. Although as a little boy I knew that my father was a popular musician who did popular songs that I heard being played around, but I never knew his popularity could reach far Northern Nigeria.
Then occasionally I would hear BBC world service play SweetMother on air in the focus Africa program, because in the North listening to BBC radio was common place, at that point I began to understand that my late father was actually beyond what I thought he was, even though I remember as a little boy he occasionally traveled abroad for music concerts, but I didn't know that after his death his popularity would be sustained in that capacity.
The advent of the internet (Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc) further changed the narrative for me because a search on Google with the query PRINCE NICO MBARGA would bring so much content that you wouldn't have time to exaust, then my respect for my father further grew deeper.
I saw various renditions of his songs especially in YouTube even from far away Europe and South Africa, but one thing became my major concern, the guitar signatures in all their play was not actually interpreting his Panco music properly, I would download some of the videos in cyber cafes, bring them home and play, but my younger brother Philz Mbarga would even get more angry at the way Panco music was played, there was no originality.
Then we began to raise concerns about having musicians who could replicate Panco rhythm, the only guitarist we knew who could play the Panco rhythm was Mr. Alobi in Okuni community of Ikom and he was getting old and dedicating more of his time to farming and rarely had time to play
As a result, i started learning the guitar with one of the very old box guitars I found in the store room.
In my 300 level in Unijos, my passion for guitar became radical when I met this French guitarist, he was very advanced in music and so he could interpret most of the Panco rhythm for me.
But I wasn't satisfied with what I was doing so I began to ask myself this question " how did my father learn this ingenious music to the level he did?, The answer I got was that he did it through self motivation, resilience and hard work, then I decided to follow that part.
Fast forward again to 2014 in my NYSC year in FCT, this year changed the story for me as I locked up myself for a whole year rehearsing just the guitar because I had time and the result was mind blowing.
Before now, my brother had also sacrificed to buy a 7 octave Roland piano while in the University in Calabar and started rehearsal radically too, that again motivated me.
However, my music ambition wasn't without it's challenges, my father's musical instruments had already gone bad after twenty years of being dumped without use, the only instruments I could use was a very old and worn our acoustic. I had to just keep managing the old guitar in my rehearsals because I hadn't money to buy a guitar.
At some point the acoustic suffered total diminish, wear and tear so I was left with no option than to borrow guitars from friends to rehearse. But that didn't go well with me so I promised myself that I was going to buy not just a guitar but a library of guitars when I had money.
It wasn't long I bought my first Stratocaster guitar which was fairly used by one of my friends in Abuja who is probably reading this, I intensified my rehearsals at this point and soon, I could hear people telling me "Nico, music is in your blood ooo, see how you people play just like your father, well... It is true that we're our father's blood, but friends, the place of hard work and grace cannot be underestimated, it pays.
After my POP, I went on a casual outing around the Jabi lake area just to relax and review my career objectives for the next phase of life when a call came in and it was about a proposed visit of a team of BBC journalist from England to do a documentary of my late father (Prince Nico Mbarga) as before now he has been nominated for best African song award.
At that point I decided that even though we will have our individual life career objectives, music must occupy space in the picture.
I started thinking of how to consolidate the legacy when I remembered the draft of the proposed SWEETMOTHER FOUNDATION I saw written in a notebook, but I was scared to embark on that project because I had just finished my NYSC and haven't engaged in any activity of economic value yet, meanwhile the vision and objectives of the foundation entails giving back to society, what was I going to give back to society at that period where myself hadn't got nothing yet.
In June 2017, the team of BBC journalist led by Sammy Kent arrived Nigeria and came to Ikom to run the documentary, they also went round the places where Prince Nico spent his lifetime, including Onitsha and Cameron. The documentary made rounds in the BBC media.
Well, I decided I was going to start from anywhere, in consolidating the legacy,of so I called a few friends and spoke about the vision with and they greatly motivated me.
I approached the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for a formal registration of the SweetMother foundation and after a very rigourous exercise the foundation got registered.
We approached the Cross River State government in 2017 to support us in unveiling the foundation and hosting a music event in honor of Prince Nico Mbarga's 20th anniversary, but after series of fruitless visits to the government house, it was clear the government would not even give us attention because there was no "big Man's face" fronting the matter, we decided to take the bull by the horn and do the best we could do, we started consulting with persons within our reach to organize the event most persons who we won't mention names turned us down with promises but a few good persons motivated us to keep the vision running.
By God's grace we organized the event successfully and tagged it "20TH ANNIVERSARY AND IMMORTALIZATION CONCERT OF THE LEGEND: PRINCE NICO MBARGA.
In the event, we unveiled the foundation and Rocafiljazz rebirth band and today we are here
Although the foundation has not been able to execute it's cardinal objectives of touching lives of women and children by equipping them to live improved lives, but we believe that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, and we're sure that we have made more than a step.
After the anniversary concert I bought another electroacoustic guitar and added to my Stratocaster, not long again I bought a solo electric guitar, they became three. In 2018 out of the anger of how I suffered to get a guitar to learn, I resolved to buy a professional 21 fret jazz guitar in Lagos and it cost me a fortune.
At this point I became a bit fulfilled because I could look at the four corners of by bedroom and see guitars on standby
The journey has not been Rossy all along but so far:
* By the grace of God, the Prince Nico Mbarga's name has been been rebirthed.
* We now have a egistered and unveiled NICO MBARGA SWEETMOTHER FOUNDATION.
* We have the SWEETMOTHER FASHION STUDIOS making wears for women and children
* We have the SWEETMOTHER VIDEO and RECORDING STUDIOS giving out content
* We have the ROCAFILJAZZ REBIRTH BAND keeping Panco music alive.
* There is an academic publication by co-writers drawn from the University of Calabar and beyond about Nico Mbarga's philosophy and motherhood in Africa, and most importantly, there is more coming
This is just the beginning of the journey
My name is NICO MBARGA jnr and I am signing out for the entire SWEETMOTHER brand...
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