*Was Area Scatter gay?
*His compound of shrines
*His spiritism and deities
*How he got his name
*His decayed home
* His harem, kids
By Uduma Kalu
Area Scatter's house
A long corridor of concrete cement. Over sixty years old. Round poles of barely a quarter size of about four stand on a half wall between the rooms and the corridor. The poles hold the asbestos ceiling and the ground for strength. Another half wall demarcates the rooms from the other rooms-about four rooms in this one line bungalow. The room doors point outwards. We sat with Ignatius, Area Scatter's cousin who was in his forties sat with us on the bench in front of the first room. It's first room from the back of the compound which we followed. It would be the last if we followed front of the compound. So, for us, the last of the rooms was a drinking place and young men playing drought game were enjoying themselves with beers and games.
Dozie and I sat with Ignatius in the middle. Dozie was in his normal brown T shirt and black trousers. I was in blue dress and jumper while Ignatius was in his house T shirt. He didn't look prepared for a photograph. So we decided to have it next time, to enable him to shape himself up.
The front of the house was an open space. That open place, at the end of it used to be Area Scatter's mother's house. But it's no more. A new house, modern and well designed stood in the middle facing the compound. It's still under construction though roofed already. The open space faced the Area Scatter building. By the fence, at the end of the open space was a bunch of plantain trees. The plantain trees were beside the pools office, a building made of old and torn zincs. Ignatius said it was his. He had now handed it to his unemployed graduate daughter.
An obi, the meeting building, stood in front of the compound, like most Igbo obi, facing outside to the main road.
At the back of the obi, a big tree toward above the roof, the branches and leaves covering the roof to provide a cooling shade on the corrugated iron roof.
In front of the obi was a pool of water and planks to climb over the waterlogged path of the compound. On the left to the compound stood the fenced shrine of trees. It was like a compound waiting for something. It's lost family members, something, someone that will come? Perhaps.
A young lady in jeans shorts carried a little child clutched a little child on her waist stood in the open compound. She was attending to another standing before her. Perhaps, a young wife.
This was Area Scatter's maternal compound where he grew up. We thought it was his paternal home. No, we were told. The father's house was deep in another village and that would take hours to get. We were trying to understand the personality of Area Scatter. Who was he, this man that was neither man nor woman? Then the cousin said something. Perhaps, he didn't even know what he was saying. But to us, it was something. We could piece the pieces together and hit at something. We were able to get something from him on Area Scatter. For Ignatius, his cousin, Area Scatter, was queer.
Indeed, the feminine part of him was very much expressed showing a dual personality. Still, he couldn't really explain the feminine mystique of his uncle. But following some deep and penetrating questions, Ignatius began to recall some incidents.
I asked him about masquerades. Perhaps, the masquerades held a secret to his personality. Was Area Scatter's feminine display a mask? And why?
I had remembered the agboghonmo, maiden spirit masqueraders of the Igbo of Enugu state and parts of Imo state. They were beautiful and dressed like Area Scatter. Beautiful. Was Area Scatter mimicking those masquerades as a person? I asked myself.
Ignatius remembered something. His people called the female masquerades nwanyimarama, beautiful woman. Area Scatter, he told us, was a masquerader, a leader of his own masquerade troupe. He wore the agaba mask, the male masquerade in his teens. His masquerade troupe had both male and female versions, the agaba and the nwanyimarama. And Area Scatter was the head of the troupe. The nwanyimarama wore its costumes like a woman in every shape and size, step and style.
The role of that female masquerades must have had an effect on him. Because beyond the agaba, Area Scatter expressed himself with the nwanyimarama masquerade, though donning the male agaba masquerade as a young lad.
His water spirits religion
As adult, Area Scatter started wearing female dresses. And became a traditional worshipper. Leaving Christianity. He would return to it, leading to his death, Ignatius argued. Area Scatter worshipped water deities represented by the female images, nwa baby. He said Area Scatter had the male and female of the dolls which he tied together in his backyard. His worship of both male and female deities showed a dual personality. Perhaps, at heart, Area Scatter was female.
Ignatius said Area Scatter was into spiritism or something like that. He performed spiritual works for some elites in society. And they paid him. He didn't say the type of work he did for those people. But Ignatius was emphatic that his uncle was not an ordinary person.
How Area Scatter got his name
Nobody gave Festus Amadi the stage name, Area Scatter. He gave it to himself. And within seconds, it gained popularity, his cousin, Ignatius told us.
Area Scatter did not only dress up as a woman to perform and entertain people. No. Sometimes, he dressed in broad daylight, Area Scatter would kit cutely as a woman and go out, causing commotion. In fact, that was how he got his nick name, Area Scatter.
Because such was rare in those climes, that a man would, on his own, buy female dresses, jewelry, cosmetics and plait his hair, then dress himself beautifully as a woman, catwalk, zigzagging his waist like a woman into the streets and markets. Of course, he caused not just a stir but outright commotion. Everywhere, people scattered to view the strange person in the streets and markets. Festus had scattered the area. Area Scatter gained popularity. And stuck with him. Drowning his original name, Festus.
Was Area Scatter Gay?
But Area Scatter also wore male clothes. He loved suits and dressed up as a man.
Such a dual personality. Like somebody with a suppressed sense of sex for the other, hiding it by having multiple partners of the opposite sex. Area Scatter had multiple lovers. But Ignatius said that was because he was beautiful and women loved him. Area Scatter could therefore express himself as female. From his cousin, Ignatius, who said he was always with his uncle, even sleeping together on the same bed, Area Scatter wasn't gay. One could only say that Area Scatter was a conflicted character jumping from one personality to another to advance his music. More details are below.
The agaba mask
At the mention of masquerades, Ignatius went into one of the rooms and brought a fiercely looking mask. The agaba mask. Agaba is a fiercely looking and aggressive male masquerade among the Igbo.
"This is his agaba mask," Ignatius said. "He used to wear it." Imagine. That mask must be over sixty years. It held the mysterious life of our subject, from childhood to adulthood. It was a treasure.
The agaba head was made of three decks or sections. All of it was painted black. The first row from up was the forehead. The forehead protruded down to the eyelids. The eyelids were huge and drooping, giving the mask a sleepy look.The eyes were inset with dots of white paint, making it look fearful and terrible. The cheekbones buldged out down to the thick lips in a sneering and mocking laughter. The nose was big, African, high, and ran like a ridge but flattened at the nostrils to the mouth, which was elongated to the chins, the white teeth, big and uneven, frightful. The rows on the forehead to the head were miniature replicas of the agaba mask itself. Everything about the mask was thick and frightful. It surely would scare anyone, including the children it was actually meant to frighten- to keep them quiet in its display of ugliness and fear.
The performance picture
The colour picture had seven people in a studio. It was the Ukonu's Club Show of the NTA Aba fame. The left section of the row had the main artistes standing and performing. The rest sat doing their own music things. From the right stood tall and slim Area Scatter in his feminine attire. His hair was permed straight. Not plaited as he sometimes did. Plaited hairs were the fashion then. He wore a white blouse with his foam breasts conspicuous. His two wrapper George cloths tied down his waist like a typical Igbo woman. He had wrist beads and a handbag. His eyebrows were painted black. On his neck were beads of various types and colours as women wore, resting on his white blouse as he played his ubo , calabash guitar, before him. His fingers tickling the wires on the ubo. His mouth was open in a song joined by the rest of the group , which included ace musician Paulson Kalu, the host Ukonu. Kalu was in a red robe over a black shirt and black trousers, while Ukonu was in a-three piece- suit, opened in some places to show his cream tie on his suit. He was dressed like a Hollywood actor which he was before returning to Nigeria.
Indeed, Ukonu was one of the first Hollywood actors in the United States where he ventured into acting after his studies there. Ukonu was a showman. His attire and attitude displayed his incredible talent. Other Nigerian TV shows took from him. His programme was hugely popular all over the country as the station was a national TV and the programme a national network reaching the homes of its advertised thirty million viewers nationwide. He had a microphone as Kalu. The other section was made of the rest of the band doing their own music things, all smiling and singing away.
We thought we had got enough on the legendary musician, Festus Amadi, popularly called Area Scatter. But his cousin, Ignatius, had tons of tales for us.
We had been meandering the inner streets of Umuagwo in Ohaji local government of Imo state, trying to find the families and homes of Area Scatter.
It had taken months to get this far. Finally, we got the place. We were not satisfied with what we saw. It was, as Chinua Achebe would say, a house where things fell apart.
The family
The Area Scatter family is basically fair skinned. At the pools office were Igbo people from other local government areas, especially, Mbaino. And they were commercial bike riders, farmers, local drink sellers, pool stakers, farmers and such like.
The pools clerk asked who we were. Dozie had spoken Igbo to them and explained our mission. We were researchers on their family member, Area Scatter. We explained our problems in getting information on the legend. In Umuagwo, everyone had said that the cousin would give us details on the iconic cousin, Area Scatter, he called my cousin.
'Area Scatter!", they exclaimed.
Yes, " Dozie answered. "When you type that name on the internet, you don't see much. Not even the NTA" he added.
We told them we needed information from them on Area Scatter.
"Area Scatter? What do you want from me?' asked the lady clerk. Her mother was leaning on the table nearby, watching us, we would find out later. She was young, meaning that she had the lady at a young age. And that was common there. Many young girls were married in their teens there. A man in his fifties sat facing me. He was topless, drinking his local gin. He was from Mbaino, he said. He knew Area Scatter. But the young lady didn't know him, though he was her uncle.
We told her we wanted to know everything about the musician. I added that preponderance of interest on Area Scatter indicates a grand plan, to rebuild Area Scatter to become a world figure.
"From what I’m seeing on the net, but then they don't know how to go about it." We were there to to see how it can be possible.
Much of what Area Scatter was known online was that he was a cross over dresser.
"Some people say there is a hidden thing behind it. So with this, we can now build a story of a man who naturally became the first person in Africa, who did what he did, around the person he was. So that is where you come in."
We told them of the need to have an Area Scatter gallery showcasing his videos, printed materials, pictures, instruments, costumes, albums, all in a building.
The lady said her father, who turned out to be Ignatius, would answer us. The same thing the man in the modern house told us.
What Ignatius said
Ignatius began the interview with invocation of Area Scatter as the famous and beautiful one.
"Area Scatter, onye marama. Onye amama! ( The beautiful one. The famous one). Then he began.
This is the Aguocha Family, Area Scatter's maternal family compound. He died September 30, 1983.
But to give you a story, I was with him everywhere he went. From Port Harcourt to Aba, Owerri street, Aba-Owerri road. First of all in Benjamin street. Then from Port Harcourt to Obigbo, to Aba-Owerri street. From Aba-Owerri street to Benjamin street, Benjamin street to Ogbor Hill where he lived and died."
Ignatius then delved into the biography of his cousin, perhaps the first of such first hand information. Again, he invoked his cousin.
"Onye amama. (The one who is known). Area Scatter Onye amama. (The one who is known).
"Who was he? What was his name? His mother? What do you call this place? The name of this building and compound?" we asked him.
Ignatius responded,"This is the house of Ignatius Aguocha. I am Ignatius Aguocha. I am from Aguocha’s family in Umuagwo. This is Area Scatter's maternal home. He was brought up here. He was schooled here. Every of his life was here. He started his music life here." He explained how Area Scatter died.
"He had an accident with a woman when coming back from Owerri.
"He had the accident after police station,.. a car accident, some years ago. I remember. I am aware. O kụrụ motor (He hit a car) first because a woman was coming out, a little woman, who saw Area Scatter. She stopped, then she called Area Scater. It happened that the woman that called him and the driver somersaulted. He was taken to the hospital... where he then gave up."
Ignatius didn't know when his cousin was born. We had asked him if there was any sign of greatness about Area Scatter before he was born.
" A mụrụ m na 1978. (I was born in 1978). I didn't meet his father. Ana m anụ maka ya. (I was hearing about him). Agụọcha na-alụ (Aguocha is fighting)... before Area Scatter was born), ndị mmadụ na-ekwu maka ya. (people were talking about him).
He was born here?, I asked him again. " I am telling you that. He was born at Umuoburugo. Ebe ahụ amụrụ ya (That is where he was born). Then the father had a problem with the mother. My father went and took them back here.
"Your father? What was the age?" Ignatius looked up and down before he replied. "At the age of... when they came back, he was about the age of not up to 6 or 7 years. Because I was told by the mother of Area Scatter."
Ignatius father and Area Scatter's mother had the same father and mother. "But due to the way she was being cheated, my father went and brought his sister back. That was why he was brought up here."
"That means you and Area Scatter are first cousins." "Area Scatter was my uncle. Ọ nwa nwanne m (He is my brother's child/relation). I used to share... yeah, first cousins. But I know him very well. I was with my brother Area Scatter through and through."
Area died when Ignatius was in elementary school. 'I was in Class 1 then, when he died. I passed out in 1985 when Area Scatter died and was buried at Ọvurugo. You understand? So it’s a long story."
These people believed in reincarnation. And they believe the musician was back in the compound. Everyone there looked and spoke like Area Scatter.
"Do you think his spirit has come back to life? I mean reincarnated?," we asked him.
"Yes. Sure?" He responded, "Okay, don't worry. Before you go now, I will show you a replica of Area Scatter. In fact, my family background are very beautiful. You see my daughter that appeared?"
Her daughter was the pools clerk. Fair and beautiful. You could see Area Scatter in her.
"That other one is my wife. You see my second daughter? She is married now, she is a mother. So when you see what I’m telling you... I am showing you pictures as well. They don't have any beauty care?"
"Why are they so beautiful?", we asked.
"It is nature. It is nature. My grandfather was a handsome man. Very tall, yellow, looked like a white person. We are Aguocha family. Fair leopard family."
"Okay, that name... Aguocha means what?" Ignatius was not fair.
"Aguocha means "White Leopard". We are called that after the ancestors. It goes down to ancestors. I don’t know how it came from, but it is leopard."
"What was his mother's name?" we wanted to know.
"Igidi Aguocha", came the response.
"Okay, when she came back, did she remarry?'
"No, she didn't remarry at all. It was only Area Scatter's' father she married He was their only child."
Perhaps, Igidi lost interest in men because she didn't remarry. "She just stayed like that, " Ignatius said.
"Maybe she lost interest. I never asked her such a question. After I lived with her in Port Harcourt, I was with her while Area Scatter would go and come back, go and come back as a musician. He would go to Port Harcourt, go to Obigbo, go to Umuahia at that time. And from there, he moved to Aba-Owerri street, where we stayed until he got another woman"
Area Scatter had several women. He even got married to some of them, he said. But Ignatius would detour here, saying Area Scatter didn't marry those women.
"Yes, he was married. He was married to different ladies, " he said.
Area Scatter also had children. By the time he died, Ignatius said he had about two or three children. "It’s a long story. He had some women, and I know one of them who later remarried to another person at home."
Area Scatter loved women and so become polygamous.
People saw Area Scatter as woman
To Ignatius, people saw Area Scatter as a woman, especially when he went to perform his duties. "He dressed in a dance cloth—mini-skirt, brassiere, beads... those beads... ihe eji agba na ukwu (things won on the waist) that he used for... and his hair was permed. He had breasts made out of foam. All those things he would wear and then compose music as a woman.'
The reason for Area Scatter to dress like a woman, he noted, was, "To make people laugh and be happy. He’s the only man I think in Africa, the only man that performed such a thing."
As recorded, Area Scatter was the first cross over dresser professional musician or entertainerr in Africa that dressed as a woman, on or off stage. And that was in the 1970s and the 80s when people didn't how he came about that, so some people alleged that he was was an "Illuminati".
Ignatius responded to this thus, "You know, somebody can draw inspirations from things. Something is in control of him."
"Are you trying to say that he was being controlled?" I asked him.
Hear him: "I am of that opinion because he doesn't listen to people. He doesn't listen to people on his own..."
His gay life
Then I asked him the much awaited question. He wasn't gay, right?
"No!", he responded vehemently. "Ọ bụ nwa nwoke sirike. (He was a man through and through/a strong man). As I told you from the beginning, he had children. He had three children by the time he died."
On some people liking Area Scatter for his feminine looks, his cousin said, "When he dressed like a woman, he was very fine and pretty. Many people liked him. But he was a man. I told you I am his brother, I was there when he was dressing." And he wouldn't even allow Ignatius to help him dress.
"How can I help him? O mụru m amụ. (I was just a child/younger). The only thing I could do was to ask him questions. I wouldn't help
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