Music legend Oliver de Coque’s honoured by Google for 74th posthumous birthday
On the 74th birthday of Nigerian music legend and highlife maestro Oliver de Coque, one of Africa’s most influential recording artists of all time, Google released a Doodle on Wednesday.
The Doodle, made by Ohab TBJ, a Lagos-based graphic artist and illustrator, pays tribute to the singer, who died in June 2008 at the age of 61 after suffering a heart attack.
De Coque’s love of the guitar, his aggressive performance style, his distinctive music brand, and his love of tradition and culture served as artistic inspiration.
“Oliver de Coque was a well-known musician from Nigeria’s Igbo region. I remember my late father performing his songs when I was a kid in the 1990s. “I’ll never forget seeing my uncles and aunts dancing to his music; their joy was infectious,” Ohab TBJ says.
De Coque (born Oliver Sunday Akanite on this day in 1947 in the small town of Ezinifite in southern Nigeria) began playing the guitar at a young age.
He learned traditional Igbo music in the area as a youth, as well as Congolese soukous.
Akanite persuaded Sunny Agaga and his Lucky Star Band to let him stand in as their guitarist during a show in 1970, and was hired on the spot.
This gave his fledgling musical career a huge boost. Oliver de ka Okwe, a guitar genius who was also a talented player of the Nigerian board game okwe, became known as Oliver de ka Okwe, which he later adapted to become his stage name, Oliver de Coque.
De Coque created his own unique music style, Ogene, by mixing modern West African highlife with Congolese-influenced guitar style and the energetic dance elements of Igbo music with which he grew up.
De Coque received an honorary doctorate of music from the University of New Orleans in 1994 for his outstanding musical achievements.
“I believe that Oliver de Coque paved the way for so many African artists of this generation, and that there’s still much more we have to learn about this highlife artist. History has not done enough to honour his memory, so I hope this Doodle will help highlight his incredible story,” Ohab TBJ concludes.
