We had nothing but our passion and guts. We wanted to start a performing arts company and that was what we did. Granted, we were young, but we were also determined. We did not have sufficient resources, but we had courage. The world did not see us those days, but the universe did… We were so driven that, initially, we barely thought about how to acquire the necessary items we needed. There were no drums, no costumes, no props and not a single thought for food on the table, but we pressed on
Over the years, Crown Troupe has metamorphosed into a breeding ground for talent and has produced artists and companies who are also creating great works and nurturing other young artists… The recognitions and laurels and awards have also followed and now we are in our 30th year of an eclectic artistic adventure!
2026 is about the expression of profound and deep appreciation to all those who started, have passed through and are still in Crown Troupe for their commitment, dedication and contribution to the growth of the company. Immense gratitude also goes to all those who have stood by us through it all, the godsend and you all for the show of love, good wishes, prayers, words and acts of encouragement, and solidarity bestowed on us over the years and till date
CROWN Troupe lands on Thirty!
The Juju music maestro, King Sunny Ade, is known globally for many things that have secured his legacy in world music, but not many people know that he was instrumental to the beginning of The Crown Troupe of Africa. As we celebrate this milestone, I am thankful to him because it was in one of his living rooms in Bariga that we took the first dance steps of Crown Troupe.
Huddled in that living room that day, June 1, 1996, were myself and a couple of friends, including Sele, Cynthia, Kunle, Loice, Ada, Femi, Bola- The Founding 8, and a few others.
We had nothing but our passion and guts. We wanted to start a performing arts company and that was what we did. Granted, we were young, but we were also determined. We did not have sufficient resources, but we had courage. The world did not see us those days, but the universe did.
We were so driven that, initially, we barely thought about how to acquire the necessary items we needed. There were no drums, no costumes, no props and not a single thought for food on the table, but we pressed on.
For us, our talents and our dreams were just enough! They were all we needed. All we wanted to do was to sing, dance and go the full length of the acting stage; we were boiling. The world was waiting.
Living in Bariga back then, the options out there were no options for dreamers like us. Some of us were in the thick of things as well. Turf battles were rife. The streets were not smiling. You either, as they say, went hard or went home. To be a young person in Bariga meant you had to be as tough and rough as they come because ‘àwon ti Bariga kálá’ meaning ‘Barigarians are mean’. I personally was getting deep into the rough side before God saved my life through the arts.
And when we started, the neighborhood thought it was another dangerous gang rising. Some feared us, many ignored us and some came to fight us but somehow, we managed to hold our ground without buckling. We fought the ones that came to test us, wooed the ones that feared us and ignored the ones that ignored us. It was a battle on all fronts.
Even our families didn’t believe in us; they were worried about our future. They couldn’t deal with the fact that any bright and serious person would want to waste the morning of their lives ‘dancing and singing around town’. We, however, remained undaunted and fully committed, knowing that if we failed, that was it. No soft landing.
We would meet in the mornings and sing and dance till evening. When it rained, we were there. The scorching sun was no deterrent either.
Three months into the journey, Kunle, King Sunny Ade’s son, a founding member through whom we got our first rehearsal ground (his mom’s sitting room), left for the US. He was our first choreographer. After his departure, we moved from the sitting room to Sunny Ade’s compound and that was where we marked our first anniversary in 1997.
Our first instrument, a gong, was given to us by a barber whose shop was opposite where we rehearsed. Our first set of costumes were ‘stolen’ from the basement of KSA’s house. You probably recall that King Sunny Ade, who used to be a great theatre artist himself, a seasoned actor to the core, had much tucked away in his house. Our first drum was given to us by a friend and fellow artist who started out before us, Art Osagie. It was Osagie who took us to the National Theatre, encouraged us to join the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) and the Guild of Nigerian Dancers (GOND) and generally opened our eyes to see what the field was all about.
It was a real struggle keeping things together back then. I remember how we, myself and Sele, one of the founding members, would trek from Bariga to Adeniyi Jones in Ikeja to beg companies for patronage and then we would walk back to rehearsals on empty stomachs, thirsty and dusty but always ready to engage our dancing and acting skills.
It goes without saying that hunger was a permanent feature too. Not many were willing to help a bunch of ‘lazy youths’ who preferred to waste their time dancing and singing instead of finding gainful employment.
There were days when we would carry our sparse musical instruments on our heads and move from street to street, looking for wherever we would find people partying and begging them to let us perform for them at no cost. We didn’t think we were rendering a service that needed to be paid for. For us, we felt some sense of rare acceptance and self-worth whenever and wherever we were obliged to perform. Just seeing people watching our performance was enough for us.
There was a time we had no place to rehearse, and our only option was to go to an island with one of our members, a fisherman, an Egun chap named Paul. This was the phase in the history of Crown Troupe when dreaming and dancing with nature was an embodied reality. Paul would take us in his boat to a dry place in the middle of the river, where we danced, mud clinging to our feet, making it difficult to lift our legs while dancing, but the legs had to be lifted. That island became our natural gym, where we built our muscles. We would rehearse till late in the evening after which Paul would bring us back to the shore after a day’s rehearsal.
Those were tough days, but we didn’t bend.
Then we broke up after a while. When I say we broke up, I mean the founding members of the group, although that initial bond remains. There is a Yòrùbá saying that twenty children cannot play together for twenty years. This happened to us because we split up and went our different ways about two years into the journey, but like I said, the bond remains intact as evidenced when we all came together to celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2021.
Personally, that period of splitting up was a defining moment for me. I had to determine whether to hang up the boots or carry on and forge ahead. I surrendered to the latter impulse, since I had heard it said that whatever was worth doing was worth doing well. I decided to go back to school after five years on the streets, to hone my skills by seeking an intellectual basis for our creative outbursts.
The natural place for this was the Department of Creative Arts, University of Lagos, under the tutelage of teachers who were also mentors that helped me and by extension, Crown Troupe find its voice. This was the period when we also met an organization called the Committee for Relevant Arts (CORA). It was CORA that gave us the courage to use our voice and the platform for the voice to be heard.
New members, mainly my course mates from the University of Lagos, joined the group from 1998 and the fire of passion intensified. We were creating new works on a yearly basis. We would create a new work, take it to FESTAC town, where CORA had its secretariat and show the work to the members comprising Toyin Akinosho, Jahman Anikulapo, Ropo Ewenla, Chris Ihindero, Ayo Arigbabu, Deji Toye, who would sit and watch these works and through their guidance and criticism, we created works that were responsive and meaningful. Works like like Fellow Countrymen, Aluta, Exodus, Monkey Post, Dreams and Voice and others went through this process before getting to the general public.
Over the years, Crown Troupe has metamorphosed into a breeding ground for talent and has produced artists and companies who are also creating great works and nurturing other young artists.
The recognitions and laurels and awards have also followed and now we are in our 30th year of an eclectic artistic adventure!
Just like that!
Today, our hearts are filled with gratitude for the journey and everything in between.
2026 is about the expression of profound and deep appreciation to all those who started, have passed through and are still in Crown Troupe for their commitment, dedication and contribution to the growth of the company. Immense gratitude also goes to all those who have stood by us through it all, the godsend and you all for the show of love, good wishes, prayers, words and acts of encouragement, and solidarity bestowed on us over the years and till date.
We are grateful to those who spoke for us, those who paved the path for us, those giants on whose solid shoulders we stand to reach the sky of our dreams—the names are numerous, but the cosmos knows you.
May your lives be filled with fulfilment and gratitude.
What else can we do but say ‘THANK YOU’ for reminding us to keep aspiring to be who we are meant to be.
Let the celebration begin.
Adupe o.
Ire Gbogbo.
ORIADE.
Furter Readings:
- https://thenationonlineng.net/crown-troupe-tool-for-social-engineering/
- https://thenationonlineng.net/crown-troupe-three-decades-of-transformative-performance-art/
- https://thenationonlineng.net/crown-troupe-marks-20-years-stage/
- https://punchng.com/art-influences-every-culture-civilisation-segun-adefila/
- https://olaijoartsworld.wordpress.com/2017/08/05/545/