Omnibus (1967–2003): Season 6, Episode 25 - Ginger Baker in Africa - full transcript
The former Cream drummer travels to Nigeria to build a recording studio.
(energetic drumming)
(upbeat music)
- [Ginger] This is a completely unrehearsed jam session
with some very good friends of mine in Lagos, Nigeria.
(energetic music)
Algeria, North Africa.
The Atlas Mountains, 40 miles south of Algiers.
Mountain monkeys come down for breakfast,
seven every morning.
We leave the mountains.
Our journey begins.
Through Algeria, Niger,
and Nigeria.
(pensive upbeat music)
South.
Ghardaia and El Golea.
South.
Determined rest at two days' drive.
South towards Sahara.
(pensive upbeat music)
The desert sun waits.
Soon, the mountains disappear.
(pensive upbeat music)
The desert's here.
South.
Drive all day through the sun to the South
at high speed.
(pensive upbeat music)
The road is dead straight ahead.
Speed.
We must get supplies.
We stop.
The road ends here.
Supplies.
2,000 miles of sand.
(pensive upbeat music)
65 gallons, super inflammable.
The skin of an animal
keeps the precious water cold.
An open-air breakfast.
Second day begins.
(pensive upbeat music)
South to the dust.
Very fine, dry dust is everywhere.
Dust.
It's in the camera and the food.
(pensive upbeat music)
Dry powder sand is in taste and smell.
Dust.
Powdered sand is no good for cars.
Dust.
Take cars through the desert.
There's a danger of fire.
A graveyard for cars.
(pensive upbeat music)
This wasn't designed for the desert.
This one was.
150 Fahrenheit.
Down.
Through Tademait Plateau.
Down.
From the sharp stones and rocks,
down to the flat sandy plain below.
Down.
Death's no stranger here.
(pensive upbeat music)
Anyone for tennis?
A camel, what the vultures leave.
Water.
It's there if you know where.
Water.
The clear, sweet well.
Right on through the desert night, drive in shifts.
South across the Tropic of Cancer to Tamanrasset,
where we learn some desert law.
(pensive upbeat music)
On arrival in every town in the Sahara,
you must report to the local gendarmerie.
Unaware of this, we replenished supplies
and booked into the only hotel.
I transferred money and paid the bill in advance,
and we went to bed early, intending to leave at dawn.
At midnight, the gendarmes visit us
and left with our passports.
The next day was Sunday and everything was closed.
We were told to wait for (mumbles).
Another night, another bill.
Monday morning, we're taken
to the Monday morning border police chief.
We are under arrest.
Nigeria suddenly seemed a long, long way away.
(tense upbeat music)
(energetic music)
(lively music)
Some traditional dances in a garden in Ikoyi, Lagos.
(lively music)
(man yelling in foreign language)
(lively drumming)
The Lijadu twins, Taiwo and Kehinde.
(energetic music with muffled singing)
(lively music with muffled singing)
The Sweet Things.
(lively music with muffled singing)
- Clap your hands, everybody.
On your feet and clap your hands.
Clap your hands.
(chanting in foreign language) (lively music)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
(lively music with muffled singing)
- [Ginger] Back to reality.
Two passports have no entry stamps.
We were seen talking to tourists,
we weren't traveling in convoy,
we didn't report to the gendarmerie in Salo or (mumbles).
(speaking in foreign language) Suspicious behavior.
What were we up to?
(lively music)
Back to the hotel, under house arrest, with a guard each.
This involves paying the bill.
Next morning, we were escorted to the fort,
where he combined services, carried out a thorough search.
To their great surprise, they found nothing they shouldn't
and became less hostile.
(lively music)
They told us over lunch at the hotel that we could now go,
after paying for the meal, of course.
Funds were now getting very low indeed.
The Douane returned our passports.
With permission to cross the border
into Niger stamped therein.
If we'd left as intended,
we'd have been sent back from the border,
so they were, in fact, doing us a favor.
Not speaking French proved to be very expensive.
We paused just outside the town
to say goodbye to one of the few Tauregs left at Hoggar.
These people have helped many travelers
stuck at town so long that their funds have run out.
And fine people, whose ancient way of life is disappearing
as their men from the North civilize.
(warm playful music)
Moving south again at last,
towards Niger and Nigeria.
South Algeria has more in store.
A sudden sand-blowing rain storm hides the sun.
After a storm comes sunshine.
(upbeat music)
Magic marble, light blue shining crystals.
Limestone rock re-crystallized by heat.
Shining pale light sky blue in the evening sun.
Peaceful contrast after the storm.
Next day in Niger.
(upbeat music)
We are lost.
The storms at night have covered the trail.
Looks like sand ahead, but it's mud.
(upbeat music)
We find and follow tire tracks.
They must lead somewhere,
to a weather station miles from anywhere.
(upbeat music)
Here, we change a tire that went last night.
(upbeat music)
This tire won't go any further.
We sawed it off, it was welded to the wheel.
(upbeat music)
Here's dinner.
Hospitality.
The next day, the chief says he'll show us the way.
He's taking his children to Agadez.
The trail was covered for many, many miles,
but the chief knows the way, and he (mumbles).
(upbeat music)
We pass the many herdsman who are really wandering
the brief pastures created by the rain.
The rain season is nearly over now.
(mumbles) Desert experts via the desert express.
Another tire dies in the dust.
The going's rough.
We check the front end, 150 Fahrenheit.
Thanks to the chief, we make Agadez
and spend a fiery night.
(upbeat music)
(mumbles) Start to the roughest part
where green and rain find yellow sand and sun.
(upbeat music)
Grazing camels (mumbles) run,
where green and rain have very briefly won.
Huge cattle graze.
The birds of prey fly lazily
above the brief great green haze.
(upbeat music)
How's the herdsman laughing?
Runs a race.
This place now green, soon to die in the land of the sun.
(warm playful music)
A meal for the birds of prey.
A house and village waits beneath the sun.
The camel man goes to inspect his herds.
(upbeat music)
The land of the birds.
A scavenger's paradise.
Living on death.
(upbeat music)
Low gear crawling through the trees.
Those vehicles sail since the rain.
The end of the desert.
Tenor trumpets our arrival.
The first people from the North for many weeks.
We are welcome.
The Sahara is now behind us.
Nigeria is only 200 miles.
Happy houses wave as we leave.
We'll rest in Kano tonight.
Kano, Northern Nigeria.
West Africa.
Nigeria.
66 million people.
Bridges cross many rivers.
Tributaries of the great river Niger.
(upbeat music)
99, change drivers.
The end of the first morning shift
in the land where the green is green is green.
Green and fertile countryside.
South of Kaduna, huge (mumbles) mountains,
majestic and strange, towering above the trees.
Ant architecture.
Anthills at the roadside.
Ants build for ant houses
on the outskirts of many towns.
Nigeria.
Narrow roads and white trucks.
Trucks bouncing only inches past.
It's dangerous in the daytime.
Nighttime in the rain is something else again.
Desert express route speeds south through the trees.
Turn up, you tone down, flash by the leaves.
The engine is singing, a very fine sound,
make haste while the sun shines, keep the tone down.
Desert express route (mumbles) night,
distant thunder, rain comes tonight.
A shilling between us, just enough gas,
nighttime's a nightmare, we made it all right
to the Afro Spot.
Here, Segun Bucknor's band, with The Sweet Things,
reenact how they were playing that Saturday night.
(lively music with singing in foreign language)
Lagos, the capital of Nigeria.
(energetic drumming)
Fela Ransome-Kuti.
What can you say about Fela?
We went to Calabar to film him,
and it rained.
In Calabar, they have over 200 inches of rain a year.
This night, they proved it.
(upbeat music)
Everybody got soaked.
It's a wonder no one got electrocuted.
(upbeat music)
(singing in foreign language)
(singing in foreign language)
- I say if I sing in (mumbles) after dark,
I can open my mouth like a basket.
You know basket?
(mumbles) That big mouth, uh-huh.
(upbeat music)
(singing in foreign language)
- [Ginger] Calabar's very far to the east
in what was Biafra.
(lively music)
Shows peaceful relationships as they are now.
(lively music)
We go from Calabar to the west,
north of Ibadan to Oshogbo,
where we were met by some very fine musicians.
(energetic drumming) (singing in foreign language)
(drum warbling)
Yes, a talking drum
from Western Africa, from Western Nigeria
in Western Africa.
(drum warbling)
Works upon the principle of you pull a string thus,
which ties into the head, of course, there,
making from that...
(drum warbling)
And then from it, you get different notes out of it.
And this bit round here,
right here,
can tie it on to a higher note
and play with both hands.
I'll pull the end down (mumbles).
It's all leather.
It's just leather, twisted.
It's a thin strip of hide
rolled up, all twisted.
They tie it like that.
This can be dangerous, isn't it?
I cleared my fingers a couple times doing this.
(energetic drumming)
They don't talk with their mouths,
they talk with their drum.
They make people laugh (mumbles).
It's very, very interesting.
(energetic drumming)
And they sort of run around and they come up to you and go.
(energetic drumming)
(laughs) You know?
(energetic drumming)
This is Oshogbo,
where, towards the end of the afternoon,
all the drummers and the band of Twins 77
got together and we had a play.
(energetic drumming) (singing in foreign language)
(lively drumming)
(man singing in foreign language)
(upbeat music)
Whoops.
(upbeat music)
(energetic music)
The return journey from Lagos to Marrakech
took just six days,
an average of 700 miles per day.
(energetic music)
(lively music)
I'll pull the end down (mumbles).
It's all leather.
It's just leather, twisted.
It's a thin strip of hide
rolled up, all twisted.
And they tie it like that.
This can be dangerous, isn't it?
I cleared my fingers a couple times doing this.
(upbeat music)
- [Ginger] This is a completely unrehearsed jam session
with some very good friends of mine in Lagos, Nigeria.
(energetic music)
Algeria, North Africa.
The Atlas Mountains, 40 miles south of Algiers.
Mountain monkeys come down for breakfast,
seven every morning.
We leave the mountains.
Our journey begins.
Through Algeria, Niger,
and Nigeria.
(pensive upbeat music)
South.
Ghardaia and El Golea.
South.
Determined rest at two days' drive.
South towards Sahara.
(pensive upbeat music)
The desert sun waits.
Soon, the mountains disappear.
(pensive upbeat music)
The desert's here.
South.
Drive all day through the sun to the South
at high speed.
(pensive upbeat music)
The road is dead straight ahead.
Speed.
We must get supplies.
We stop.
The road ends here.
Supplies.
2,000 miles of sand.
(pensive upbeat music)
65 gallons, super inflammable.
The skin of an animal
keeps the precious water cold.
An open-air breakfast.
Second day begins.
(pensive upbeat music)
South to the dust.
Very fine, dry dust is everywhere.
Dust.
It's in the camera and the food.
(pensive upbeat music)
Dry powder sand is in taste and smell.
Dust.
Powdered sand is no good for cars.
Dust.
Take cars through the desert.
There's a danger of fire.
A graveyard for cars.
(pensive upbeat music)
This wasn't designed for the desert.
This one was.
150 Fahrenheit.
Down.
Through Tademait Plateau.
Down.
From the sharp stones and rocks,
down to the flat sandy plain below.
Down.
Death's no stranger here.
(pensive upbeat music)
Anyone for tennis?
A camel, what the vultures leave.
Water.
It's there if you know where.
Water.
The clear, sweet well.
Right on through the desert night, drive in shifts.
South across the Tropic of Cancer to Tamanrasset,
where we learn some desert law.
(pensive upbeat music)
On arrival in every town in the Sahara,
you must report to the local gendarmerie.
Unaware of this, we replenished supplies
and booked into the only hotel.
I transferred money and paid the bill in advance,
and we went to bed early, intending to leave at dawn.
At midnight, the gendarmes visit us
and left with our passports.
The next day was Sunday and everything was closed.
We were told to wait for (mumbles).
Another night, another bill.
Monday morning, we're taken
to the Monday morning border police chief.
We are under arrest.
Nigeria suddenly seemed a long, long way away.
(tense upbeat music)
(energetic music)
(lively music)
Some traditional dances in a garden in Ikoyi, Lagos.
(lively music)
(man yelling in foreign language)
(lively drumming)
The Lijadu twins, Taiwo and Kehinde.
(energetic music with muffled singing)
(lively music with muffled singing)
The Sweet Things.
(lively music with muffled singing)
- Clap your hands, everybody.
On your feet and clap your hands.
Clap your hands.
(chanting in foreign language) (lively music)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
(lively music with muffled singing)
- [Ginger] Back to reality.
Two passports have no entry stamps.
We were seen talking to tourists,
we weren't traveling in convoy,
we didn't report to the gendarmerie in Salo or (mumbles).
(speaking in foreign language) Suspicious behavior.
What were we up to?
(lively music)
Back to the hotel, under house arrest, with a guard each.
This involves paying the bill.
Next morning, we were escorted to the fort,
where he combined services, carried out a thorough search.
To their great surprise, they found nothing they shouldn't
and became less hostile.
(lively music)
They told us over lunch at the hotel that we could now go,
after paying for the meal, of course.
Funds were now getting very low indeed.
The Douane returned our passports.
With permission to cross the border
into Niger stamped therein.
If we'd left as intended,
we'd have been sent back from the border,
so they were, in fact, doing us a favor.
Not speaking French proved to be very expensive.
We paused just outside the town
to say goodbye to one of the few Tauregs left at Hoggar.
These people have helped many travelers
stuck at town so long that their funds have run out.
And fine people, whose ancient way of life is disappearing
as their men from the North civilize.
(warm playful music)
Moving south again at last,
towards Niger and Nigeria.
South Algeria has more in store.
A sudden sand-blowing rain storm hides the sun.
After a storm comes sunshine.
(upbeat music)
Magic marble, light blue shining crystals.
Limestone rock re-crystallized by heat.
Shining pale light sky blue in the evening sun.
Peaceful contrast after the storm.
Next day in Niger.
(upbeat music)
We are lost.
The storms at night have covered the trail.
Looks like sand ahead, but it's mud.
(upbeat music)
We find and follow tire tracks.
They must lead somewhere,
to a weather station miles from anywhere.
(upbeat music)
Here, we change a tire that went last night.
(upbeat music)
This tire won't go any further.
We sawed it off, it was welded to the wheel.
(upbeat music)
Here's dinner.
Hospitality.
The next day, the chief says he'll show us the way.
He's taking his children to Agadez.
The trail was covered for many, many miles,
but the chief knows the way, and he (mumbles).
(upbeat music)
We pass the many herdsman who are really wandering
the brief pastures created by the rain.
The rain season is nearly over now.
(mumbles) Desert experts via the desert express.
Another tire dies in the dust.
The going's rough.
We check the front end, 150 Fahrenheit.
Thanks to the chief, we make Agadez
and spend a fiery night.
(upbeat music)
(mumbles) Start to the roughest part
where green and rain find yellow sand and sun.
(upbeat music)
Grazing camels (mumbles) run,
where green and rain have very briefly won.
Huge cattle graze.
The birds of prey fly lazily
above the brief great green haze.
(upbeat music)
How's the herdsman laughing?
Runs a race.
This place now green, soon to die in the land of the sun.
(warm playful music)
A meal for the birds of prey.
A house and village waits beneath the sun.
The camel man goes to inspect his herds.
(upbeat music)
The land of the birds.
A scavenger's paradise.
Living on death.
(upbeat music)
Low gear crawling through the trees.
Those vehicles sail since the rain.
The end of the desert.
Tenor trumpets our arrival.
The first people from the North for many weeks.
We are welcome.
The Sahara is now behind us.
Nigeria is only 200 miles.
Happy houses wave as we leave.
We'll rest in Kano tonight.
Kano, Northern Nigeria.
West Africa.
Nigeria.
66 million people.
Bridges cross many rivers.
Tributaries of the great river Niger.
(upbeat music)
99, change drivers.
The end of the first morning shift
in the land where the green is green is green.
Green and fertile countryside.
South of Kaduna, huge (mumbles) mountains,
majestic and strange, towering above the trees.
Ant architecture.
Anthills at the roadside.
Ants build for ant houses
on the outskirts of many towns.
Nigeria.
Narrow roads and white trucks.
Trucks bouncing only inches past.
It's dangerous in the daytime.
Nighttime in the rain is something else again.
Desert express route speeds south through the trees.
Turn up, you tone down, flash by the leaves.
The engine is singing, a very fine sound,
make haste while the sun shines, keep the tone down.
Desert express route (mumbles) night,
distant thunder, rain comes tonight.
A shilling between us, just enough gas,
nighttime's a nightmare, we made it all right
to the Afro Spot.
Here, Segun Bucknor's band, with The Sweet Things,
reenact how they were playing that Saturday night.
(lively music with singing in foreign language)
Lagos, the capital of Nigeria.
(energetic drumming)
Fela Ransome-Kuti.
What can you say about Fela?
We went to Calabar to film him,
and it rained.
In Calabar, they have over 200 inches of rain a year.
This night, they proved it.
(upbeat music)
Everybody got soaked.
It's a wonder no one got electrocuted.
(upbeat music)
(singing in foreign language)
(singing in foreign language)
- I say if I sing in (mumbles) after dark,
I can open my mouth like a basket.
You know basket?
(mumbles) That big mouth, uh-huh.
(upbeat music)
(singing in foreign language)
- [Ginger] Calabar's very far to the east
in what was Biafra.
(lively music)
Shows peaceful relationships as they are now.
(lively music)
We go from Calabar to the west,
north of Ibadan to Oshogbo,
where we were met by some very fine musicians.
(energetic drumming) (singing in foreign language)
(drum warbling)
Yes, a talking drum
from Western Africa, from Western Nigeria
in Western Africa.
(drum warbling)
Works upon the principle of you pull a string thus,
which ties into the head, of course, there,
making from that...
(drum warbling)
And then from it, you get different notes out of it.
And this bit round here,
right here,
can tie it on to a higher note
and play with both hands.
I'll pull the end down (mumbles).
It's all leather.
It's just leather, twisted.
It's a thin strip of hide
rolled up, all twisted.
They tie it like that.
This can be dangerous, isn't it?
I cleared my fingers a couple times doing this.
(energetic drumming)
They don't talk with their mouths,
they talk with their drum.
They make people laugh (mumbles).
It's very, very interesting.
(energetic drumming)
And they sort of run around and they come up to you and go.
(energetic drumming)
(laughs) You know?
(energetic drumming)
This is Oshogbo,
where, towards the end of the afternoon,
all the drummers and the band of Twins 77
got together and we had a play.
(energetic drumming) (singing in foreign language)
(lively drumming)
(man singing in foreign language)
(upbeat music)
Whoops.
(upbeat music)
(energetic music)
The return journey from Lagos to Marrakech
took just six days,
an average of 700 miles per day.
(energetic music)
(lively music)
I'll pull the end down (mumbles).
It's all leather.
It's just leather, twisted.
It's a thin strip of hide
rolled up, all twisted.
And they tie it like that.
This can be dangerous, isn't it?
I cleared my fingers a couple times doing this.