Entertainers should do more advocacy on rape — Balogun, Performance Poet

Nigerian entertainers have been urged to massively increase advocacy on rape, to stem the menace in the society. Yusuf Balogun, a 17 year-old Performance Poet, gave the charge in an exclusive chat with YouthVille in Lagos. Balogun, who founded the “Kengbe Oro” band – a group of youth who specialises in Yoruba traditional poetry performance […]

Nigerian entertainers have been urged to massively increase advocacy on rape, to stem the menace in the society.

Yusuf Balogun, a 17 year-old Performance Poet, gave the charge in an exclusive chat with YouthVille in Lagos.

Balogun, who founded the “Kengbe Oro” band – a group of youth who specialises in Yoruba traditional poetry performance and music, said  “Over time, I have met like two people who were raped and they put out the story online and the reactions that followed it even from people who were supposed to be their best of confidants were stigmas”, he explains.

“We have infused silence into the culture of our people and generally silence is a bigger problem for us. I have come to realize that our problem tend to eat deeper into us because we don’t want to talk about it, we always want to think and make people believe that we are strong, even when we are the weakest of men that ever lived,” he told YouthVille.

He said he’s optimistic that with time, performance poetry will become Nigeria’s export to the world just like Nollywood.