The Setup - "Alexander Hamilton" & The Question of Narrative Power
Hamilton opens with a question that haunts all national origin stories: "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished get up and climb?"
This is Lin-Manuel Miranda asking: WHO GETS TO BE REMEMBERED? Who gets their story told? Whose narrative survives?
Nigeria's founding story has the same problem. We celebrate Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Kwame Nkrumah (the "Big Four"), but how many know about Herbert Macaulay? Samuel Ajayi Crowther? Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti fighting for women's rights while the "official" founding fathers got the credit?
In "Alexander Hamilton," we meet a young immigrant with ambition. In Nigeria's founding, we meet men shaped by colonialism, educated abroad, returning to fight for independence. But like Hamilton, the question persists: who decided these men were the heroes?
The Room Where It Happens - "The Room Where It Happens" & Power Behind Closed Doors
"The Room Where It Happens" is Aaron Burr's lament: decisions are made in private by men, and the public only finds out afterward. The people who actually did the work? Excluded.
Nigeria's 1954 Lyttleton Constitution and 1957 independence negotiations happened in rooms. Colonial Office in London. Conferences in Lagos. Azikiwe, Awolowo, Bello made deals. They compromised. They negotiated Nigeria's federalism into existence in closed rooms while millions had no idea independence was being bargained away.
"The Room Where It Happens" is also about how power consolidates. Three men from different regions (North, Southwest, Southeast) essentially decided Nigeria's shape. Bello got the North, Awolowo the West, Azikiwe initially the East. Democracy? Sometimes. But mostly, it was: we divide the spoils, we maintain power, we stay relevant.
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The Room Where It Happens - "The Room Where It Happens" & Power Behind Closed Doors