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 - "We Know" & "The World Was Wide Enough" - Death of a Founding Father
Hamilton and Burr duel. Hamilton dies. It's the moment we realize: these men would literally kill each other over ego and honor.
Nigeria never had that final duel play out the same way, but it had assassination attempts, coups, civil war. In 1966, Major Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed in a counter-coup. In 1975, General Murtala Muhammed was assassinated. The founding generation's violence didn't stop at independence, it got worse.
"The World Was Wide Enough" is Hamilton's final moment of grace, of realizing Burr isn't his “enemy” they're just two ambitious men in a broken system. But it's too late. The system has already claimed him.
Nigeria's tragedy is that it never got that moment of clarity. Instead of realizing the system was broken, leaders kept trying to win WITHIN it. Military coup after military coup, from 1966-1999, because founding fathers had built a system that rewarded power-taking over compromise.
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The Duel - "We Know" & "The World Was Wide Enough" - Death of a Founding Father
Hamilton and Burr duel. Hamilton dies. It's the moment we realize: these men would literally kill each other over ego and honor.
Nigeria never had that final duel play out the same way, but it had assassination attempts, coups, civil war. In 1966, Major Aguiyi-Ironsi was killed in a counter-coup. In 1975, General Murtala Muhammed was assassinated. The founding generation's violence didn't stop at independence, it got worse.
"The World Was Wide Enough" is Hamilton's final moment of grace, of realizing Burr isn't his “enemy” they're just two ambitious men in a broken system. But it's too late. The system has already claimed him.
Nigeria's tragedy is that it never got that moment of clarity. Instead of realizing the system was broken, leaders kept trying to win WITHIN it. Military coup after military coup, from 1966-1999, because founding fathers had built a system that rewarded power-taking over compromise.