On stage, he wears a mask of textile strips and rubber that hides his whole face. He speaks about himself in the third person. And for years, many of his fans had no idea what he looked like.
Lagbaja is the stage identity of Bisade Ologunde, a Nigerian musician, singer, songwriter and percussionist born in Lagos in 1960. In Yoruba, “lagbaja” means “somebody” or “anonymous”, a name for any person whose name does not matter.
Why the mask
Lagbaja has explained that the mask represents the common man: the faceless and voiceless people in society who are ignored by those in power. By hiding his own face, he became anyone. The idea also draws on Yoruba masquerade traditions, in which masked figures stand for spirits and ancestors rather than individuals.
The mask was also a statement about fame. Lagbaja wanted listeners to focus on the music and the message, not on the man.
The music
Lagbaja’s music belongs to the Afrobeat tradition, but it mixes in Yoruba percussion, jazz and highlife. He is a skilled saxophonist and percussionist, and his band plays with heavy use of traditional drums, including the talking drum.
Where Fela was confrontational, Lagbaja often used humour and satire to criticise politics and society.
Konko Below
His best-known song, “Konko Below”, became a huge hit in Lagos and across south-western Nigeria. For a time, it was the song to play at weddings and parties. Its groove, horns and call-and-response chorus made it a dance-floor fixture long after its release.
Motherlan’
Lagbaja ran his own venue in Lagos, Motherlan’, where he performed regularly. Like Fela’s Shrine, it gave his audience a home and made his shows part of Lagos nightlife.
Politics
His songs addressed corruption, military rule and the struggles of ordinary Nigerians. In the late 1990s and 2000s, he was one of the few popular musicians in Nigeria willing to put political criticism into dance music.
The mask comes off?
Ologunde has been photographed and interviewed without the mask, and his identity is no secret. But on stage, Lagbaja remains faceless, which is the point.
Somebody
Nigeria has produced musicians with enormous egos and bigger billboards. Lagbaja built a career by hiding his face, and the mask made him one of the most recognisable figures in Nigerian music.
