“tia” concert

i went to a concert friday night with some friends. benin’s president sponsored the event and the proceeds from ticket sales went to the president’s anti-corruption efforts. the singer, tiken jah fakoly, is a reggae artist from cote d’ivoire. the concert was supposed to start at 8pm. in typically african fashion, peeps started wondering into the concert hall around 11pm as the opening acts got started a mere 3 hours late. never before has the term “acts” been taken so literally, as each artist lip-synched to his own music. it wasn’t even discreet! but finally, at midnight, the real show began, and tiken jah fakoly was not one to lip-synch. from what i could tell, he was a pretty talented lyricist and musician. the crowd loved him, though i was pretty pooped when he finished at 2am. anyway, it was a good experience, and i’m glad to do my part to fight corruption here in benin… hmm… i wonder how that money will be spent?