Donald
Duke talks to us about
the past,
the present,
Where did you grow up Sir? I grew up primarily in Lagos, but I went to school primarily in the North (Sokoto, Zaria and Ilorin) for secondary and university education. My primary school (where you get your foundation) was Corona and St. Mary’s school here in Lagos. We grew up with a lot of optimism and that kindred spirit. Maybe we were going to be that generation of Nigerians that would turn the country 28
around, make things happen, be greater than America, greater in some respects. We were all bubbling, education was good, if you had a grade you knew that it was your grade, you earned that grade if it was awarded to you. Social life was good. We did a lot of partying in secondary school in Sokoto (where I was from 73 to 75); it was fun social life wise, lots of music. Actually those days before an album was released
in the United States, we got it in Nigeria. How it happened, I don’t know, but we will get a record out here and it will take another 2 to 3 weeks before it hit the stores in America. We thought we were socially more advanced in the scene of R&B. The groups then were the OJ’s, the Temptations, the Commodores, it was fun. We had lots of parties. We used to go to the shrine in Lagos (laughs).