To: Professor Wole Soyinka

With a great pleasure we seek your open arms approach to this message, An urgent need for change in the African art-face has dawn on a group of the next generation of Nigerian Artistes, teamed up to form a collective of Artistes from the performing to the visuals and letters art. Young Kings Project (YK Project) operating between Nigeria and France shall be visiting Nigeria between 21st and 26th of July 2007 for the purpose of realising a research project organised by the YK Project. The team, consisting three Nigerian artists and two French artists shall be on an African tour, visiting 6 countries (Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Cameroon) between 21st July and 20th August 2007 with "DO WE NEED COCA-COLA TO DANCE", a research project exploring the engagement of the 21st century African artistes in the global discussion and in the development of the continent's art-face mostly in terms of quality audience and a better working art market structure and network. The Project rallies around the performance arts, which are mostly performed in unusual public spaces with a ready-made audience. A documentary film and photographic Book will review our expedition. The curiosity of the Documentary film and Documentary/Critical photographic book on their own delves more into the millions of questions troubling our existence these days as African Artists, This questions about who we are. Who an artiste is? Who and where our audience is? What perception we want to affect as an Artiste? What identity is in the artistic sense? What our stance is in the global discussion? Why we are studying abroad when our audience is in Africa? European values and reality doesn't complement ours so how do we integrate back into our maternal society after studying abroad? Do we have a stage to perform back home to make us return? How do we create our stage now so that we shall not lack when we are ready to perform back home? What are the necessary solutions? Where are the producers? What is it about this bottle neck situation we continue to roll in? What is the structure in place to develop a local market? Where is the government in the socio-political engagement of Africa? Why are artistes poor? When shall we stop running to the west for the survival of our rare talent? What will be the pace of African art in the next 50 years? What shall be done today to avoid a disastrous future for us and our children's children? We have seen how the Felas, the Mahfouz, the Soyinkas, the Fanons, the Senghors etc, went about their argument, what should be our own follow up instead of a copycat situation? This project opens a new vista and triggers an awareness of our Africanism in this 21st century African youths which has been deeply wiped off due to the powers that has been and with the support of The almighty American capitalist world power, where all that bling bling is all that matters, leaving us with illusions, thinking that its greener on the other side of the island and pay better attention to the un-necessary while the essential passes us by, this influence is an unconscious day after day realities we live as young Africans growing under tension of the stronger dogs eating up the weaker ones. We have a point of view to this situation, which accuses the generation before ours of our misfortunes, a view which presently disagree to some of our past messiahs due to a change in time, a view that actually reviews the past in order to make a bearable future for us as Africans but first as Humans. This is a generation of the contemporary Africans, and this is actually what this project is all about, making a new testament out of what the African big masquerades of the 20th century has written in the past. We think Maybe the tonality is different now, the rule of the game is changing and even affects nature's master-plan, the youth no longer listen to disco, they now do Hip-Hop, they no longer post letters, now is the e-mail era, so our interest is to get their attention to the essentials, regardless the doors that leads us there, we have decided to speak their language using the arts as a tool, initiating projects that has a high resolution powers to known problems, through the media, going to the streets, publish books, make documentary films, television shows, bring them back to the theatre (either by first making commercial shows until we are sure of our grip on them). Sir, you are actually one of the very few remaining, the few that has the key to our doors and has been chosen to have a filmed conversation with, one who can give us a strong back up as we go on our battle against ourselves, who had actually lived this past, understands the point at which the Diaspora needs those at homeland and vice versa, have a knowledge of the interest of the west in organising the south and cognisant of the key the arts possesses and the doors it can kick opens. The summary of this long song of ours is just to ask for possibility of granting us an interview which will go a very long way in the realisation of this documentary film/research project, and not just that, as we rightly said, our expenditure around Africa takes us from Nigeria to Egypt, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Cameroon, all for this same business of ours, we shall be glad if you can give us references/contacts of some important people who we can possibly meet to get some very useful info from as well in all these countries. The documentary and the publishing of the book will be realised/translated/subtitled in French and in English, I have attached a copy of the project presentation in English to this email to make it clearer, hope you will find it interesting enough for you to let us get a reply from you soon and also know when and how we can possibly have an interview with you in Lagos between 21st and 26 July which marks our passage in Nigeria. We are strongly counting on you, as the future of this generation still lies in your fingers. Thanks for your interest and hope to read from you.