After a successful career as a Corporate Communications strategist of two blue-chip companies, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Breweries Plc, Kufrey
After a successful career as a Corporate Communications strategist of two blue-chip companies, Cadbury Nigeria Plc and Nigerian Breweries Plc, Kufrey Ekanem went solo, along with his wife, to the humanitarian field. One of the highlights of his current activities is the Hymnodia, a spiritual-cum- entertainment project sourced from the Church tradition. Shows and musical competitions are not alien to Nigerians, but this is the first entertainment show of trans-generational spiritual importance, a show that encourages the art of worship and hymns, developing not just the participants but generations to come in their personal relationship with their Creator. In this interview with E-life, the mover of the project, Kufrey Ekanem speaks on Hymnodia.
What led to it the Hymnodia project?
It was driven by a dream to do something new and a wholesome project in the entertainment space. Also, it was driven by the need to reignite the hymn culture. We felt that the hymn culture was going down and people didn’t appreciate hymns for what they were, so we decided to create something. It wasn’t enough to complain about what is not there but to create something entertaining enough to capture both the youth and adults, at the same time be deep enough to edify all those who participated in it and educate people on hymns.
It took us 10 years to plan it. And when we felt it was right, we went ahead to launch Hymnodia. Maybe it was a surprise because it’s never been done before. Somebody said… that people look at things and ask why some people look at things that are not and ask why not. We felt that there should be a programme that creatively reminds people of hymns and get hymns culture reignited in our time.
Hymns have to do with Church music and looking at that where are you coming from faith-wise?
Hymnodia was endorsed by the Royal School of Church music, so, it’s clear it was going to be Church music. I was a chorister when I was younger. So, faith wise, I am fully aligned with my Lord and Saviour. I ask myself, “if I don’t do it, who will do it?”
What drove me was the verse that says we should praise God in hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. We’ve done well in the spiritual songs area. There have been gospel tracks, choruses everywhere. But in the psalms area, we don’t sing it. The hymns, we don’t do as much. Even in the orthodox Churches, the focus on hymns has dropped not to talk of other Churches who don’t do hymns at all. So, it’s a crusade for us for hymns to get back the principal space in worship.
After the programme, have you achieved the expectations you had? Do you see hymns making the impact you thought Hymnodia will get for it?
Yes. First and foremost, in the programme itself, we had 1500 people applied to be part of Hymnodia and that showed that people are there who love hymns and hadn’t found a platform for listening. There were those people who felt let’s be part of it and see whether these people are serious. They’ve discovered that in the course of Hymnodia, we had 14 finalists that went into the hymnstitute for Hymnodia proper. These 14 people came from different denominations like the Pentecostal Churches, Catholics, Anglicans, Baptist, and Adventist. It also served to unify the Church as one body on one side. We also had people from all over the country, Makurdi, Akure, Uyo, Zaria, Lagos, Edo and also from all over the world. The followership of Hymnodia was massive and some people kept saying, well-done, we haven’t seen this before. It had about 30 million engagements through multiple platforms. The number of clergymen or people, who have called to say well-done, thanks for doing this, is enough proof that it’s an idea whose time has come. We are happy with how Hymnodia has gone. We had 14 weeks to put together people in the hymnstitute. We showed on nine TV stations around the country. We also had about 30 people come into that hymnstitute to see the young people. Every week, we had about 100 people, who requested to be part of the Hymnodia show, in the studio for the week. We created 72 brand new hymns in the course of Hymnodia. So we are fulfilled.
The hymn is about Church music. Tell me what support did it elicited or got from the Church in Nigeria?
I think that was the part we found difficult. People were waiting to find out whether we were serious or if we would do it well. We had a lot of prayers, but only about three or four clergymen gave us tangible supports. I must mention here, Dr. Olukoya of Mountain of Fire Ministries. Without knowing us, just heard about Hymnodia, he sent for us. Asked why we were doing this which we explained.
He sent for you or you approached him?
He asked someone, who’s doing this, so he sent for us. I hadn’t met him before. One member of my team, interestingly my P.A. then was a member of his Church but he didn’t know that. It just happened coincidentally that they met. But he took me through an examination to find out whether I was serious about what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. So, he offered to pay for the hall for our grand finale and also asked his Church orchestra to come and be part of that. Another person is Reverend S.T.V. Adegbite of the Methodist Church, Lagos. He was there at the finale and he has been a big support. I could mention people like Archbishop John Praise in Abuja. We had enough people who gave us calls and encouraged us to keep going.
You said you have about 72 hymns written during Hymnodia Season One. Tell me what has happened to these hymns?
The hymns are available for download, but what we are thinking of doing is to compile them and have a body of new hymns. One of the dreams for Hymnodia is that most of the hymns we sing are hymns written by Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts in those days, we don’t have people writing new hymns and we must do that. Some of these hymns are available for download, some of them have been performed live on stage, and some needs to be worked on. Some of them need to be taken to the studio and find the right support and funding to get them done.
What has been the effect of Hymnodia on the contestants? Where has it taken them?
We call them hymntestants. Since then Christians are beginning to say, “I didn’t take my hymns seriously” and are beginning have hymns in their programmes. The hymntestants have become stars in their different locales. We have someone like Mobolanle who was second runner-up and had been made a music evangelist in her diocese in Zaria. Olumide Baritone who was the 1st runner up is being invited to many places to sing hymns. Kenneth, the winner is doing a whole lot of things hymn-wise at the same time. They have become stars and examples in their communities. Who would have thought that from singing hymns you would become stars or well-known and respected? Beyond being there, they learnt, they grow and became examples to other young people like them. Remember that most of them have not been on a platform like this before. So, it made them confident, trained, it deepened them musically, as persons. They abstained from family, friends, and phones for 14 weeks.
It also deepened them from a societal point of view. One of the contestants said to me that “You are the one I saw on Hymnodia”. They’ve got an invite to headline the Ovation carol for 2019, the choir and the hymntestants and a couple of other ones that they are to perform this December and we plan to push it further to make people know that without hymns, worship is incomplete.
Tell me about your next edition, how often is this coming up?
I am going to speak in faith to say that Hymnodia is going to happen every year. For me, that’s the commitment I have, the prayer I have. It’s not a cheap project and we had to drive it by ourselves as a small organisation. But we are committed to doing this. My family, my wife and myself to drive it as successful as we could. Having done that, the next thing is to do is Season 2 and from there, move on to the seasons afterward. Hymnodia by design is a program that lasts from the Christmas period up to the Easter period. We move from the birth of Christ to the death and resurrection of Christ, covering the lent period for Christianity.
What do you think is responsible for the slump of hymns in so Churches?
For me, I think sometimes it is laziness, ignorance or people don’t want to drive the essence. If we regard hymns as compulsory, then we do them differently. In Hymnodia, choruses are nice and good. It is easier to write a chorus, but the hymn, on the other hand, comes with rules and regulations, guidelines and standards. You could finish writing a chorus and everyone is celebrating it but by the time you put it to the measurement yardstick of a hymn, it won’t fall because you have to think about poetic metres, syllabic structure, and rhyming scheme. Those things are important in writing hymns.
What we did during Hymnodia season one, was to take popular choruses and each hymntestants will write a hymn based on the popular chorus and then you write stanza one, two, three and put the chorus as in frame and then write a hymn that people can connect to. That way, the chorus will now develop a life. We won’t throw away the baby with the bathwater. Choruses that are popular become input into hymn writing and so, they live longer because the words are put into the right use and it can live longer. It’s just that people have become quiet, tired and look warm about it. Of course, if I am doing a spiritual song, I know it’s a spiritual song but the Bible says three things – psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. It didn’t say choose one side.
What areas of partnership are available for people who love what you are doing and want to come in?
There are very many areas. Hymnodia is not something we are doing for our aggrandisement or pleasure. We are just forerunners. Hymnodia belongs to the society, Church and the generation. So, there are different ways people can be part of it to support and partner. One of it is donations and just says “take this and continue with what you’re doing.” But for those who think to partner corporately with us or from a product point of view – their product partnerships, sponsors who would have pre-eminence or privacy with advertising.
Also, the opportunity for products within the institute. There is opportunity for those who want to also say “I will like to take segments of Hymnodia and come with” where we have candid camera version of Hymnodia – when we go to the streets to talk to people and get them to sing their favourite hymns. There is hymnos story, there’s the Hymns Master class who’s out to train people on what a hymn is, how to go about hymns. There’s Hymnodia on Radio, which is Sunday programme that educates people on what the writers of the great hymns that we love, were thinking when they wrote it. And why those hymns have lasted as long as they have.
We also have Hymnotrivia, which is a program done on social media, where we get people to answer questions on the hymns that they know and then they win prizes. Anybody can enter any of those things and we are willing to think activation with any person who says to us “I want to be part of Hymnodia.” We’re willing to discuss this.
There is the ASAPH end of Hymnodia. Tell me about it…
The prize for the Hymnodia was N5, 000,000 plus a brand-new car funded by us. But the main prize for us is ASAPH. So, you have the ASAPH plus cash, plus a brand-new car. The ASAPH is named after David’s chief choirmaster. ASAPH is in the scripture. He was the one who composed half of the sound with David. What that showed us is that there’s a lot more in the scripture that we don’t see, so we need to find people like that and talk about them and showcase.
We created the ASAPH locally in Nigeria, designed it in Nigeria, we finished it in Spain and made it in China. The idea of the ASAPH is to have something priceless, that people can look at and say “Wow! I just love it.” It’s symbolic of someone who is a true Hymnodia and someone who knows hymns beyond singing and somebody who can write and create hymns and that both the judges and the public agree that this person is worthwhile to carry the banner of hymns. So, very soon we will unveil the ASAPH for next season and then show more people about the ASAPH because for me it’s a magnificent thought by the team.
DETAILS OF HYMNODIA SEASON ONE
PICTURES FROM HYMNODIA SEASON ONE
[mediablender id=”17932″ name=”hymnodia” type=”lightbox” data=”sidebar” navigation=”none” title=”false” description=”false” att_titles=”false” att_descriptions=”false” att_comments=”false” columns=”6″ thumb_width=”120″ thumb_height=”120″ spacing=”10″]
COMMENTS