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 Duel Over Money & Morality - "Satisfied" & Regret
"Satisfied" is Angelica Schuyler's regret song. She chose family duty over love, choosing Hamilton's best friend Burr for financial security. It's about the price of pragmatism.
Substitute Angelica with Nigeria's intellectuals and activists who compromised with colonialism for a seat at independence's table. They got independence, but at what cost? The feudal structures remained. The Northern Emirs kept their power. Women's participation was promised but delayed. Land rights stayed colonial.
"Satisfied" is about looking back and realizing you made the "smart" choice that wasn't actually the right one. How many founding fathers' children looked at independent Nigeria and asked: why does it still look so much like the colonial system we fought?
ifiokambrose
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The Duel Over Money & Morality - "Satisfied" & Regret