We recently connected with Sunny Dada and have shared our conversation below.

Sunny, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

The day I started playing with a family band at the age of 4, I felt so good that day when I got paid and seeing how the crowds cheering for me…

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Nigerian multi-instrumentalist Sunny Ebenezer Dada has been performing since the age of 4. He studied Music Business at the Bohai Univesity in Jingzhou, China. Dada was the first African to bring Afrobeat to China, and has worked with the Chinese Government to teach African culture and music to students in its Government schools. He has performed China’s biggest festivals and events including Midi Music Festival, Strawberry Music Festival and the 2008 Beijing Olympics (opening through to closing ceremonies). He is the only African to have performed with the Chinese National Symphony Orchestra. It is no surprise that in China he is being referred to as the ‘Godfather of Afrobeat.’
His unique percussive and vocal performance has seen him feature on line-ups of major festivals all over the world including WOMADelaide (AUS), Homegrown (NZ), Teuila Festival (Samoa), Rio Music Carnival (Brazil), Soul Music Beach Festival (Aruba), Oppikoppi-Limpopo (SA), Field Day (Eng), Montreux Oniria Festival (Switzerland), Sunsplash Reggae Festival (Israel), Montreal Jazz Festival (CAN), Seoul Jazz festival (South Korea), Itadaki Music festival (JAP), and Mother Of All Hangs (US), amongst others. Internationally he has worked with Stevie Wonder, Jackie Chan, Jiangkemei, Cui Jian, Orlando Julius Ekemode, Osibisa Mac Tontoh, just to name a few.
Sunny Dada has traveled to over 70 countries throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Caribbean and the South Pacific as a performer (percussion/vocals/band leader/dancer), teacher, songwriter/composer, producer, and arranger. He has worked with many charity and non-profit organizations including UN Refugee, Unicef, Red Cross, NGO; as well as having organized his own charity concerts where the proceeds were donated to various charity organizations.
Now based in Nashville, TN, Sunny’s new group AFROKOKOROOT is set to take the world by storm. With an all-star lineup of premiere Nashville musicians, this 12-piece powerhouse is sure to get you moving, singing, and smiling…

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My Name Is Sunny Ebenezer Dada, born in Lagos-Nigeria on the 16th of April 1976, I was born into a music and a Christian family, my father who was a Pastor in his church he founded; was my inspiration and my mentor in music, I started playing music from my mother’s womb, (so my mom said) but started playing professionally at the age of 4 years old. My life shattered in 1993 when my father went to be with the Lord, I left Nigeria that same year to go on a journey to Europe by road, but I faced so many difficulties on the way at the desert where many people lost their lives, because of that I couldn’t continue on my journey, so I went back home to Nigeria. In 1995 I tried again by sea, board a cargo ship to Liberia, on our way going; the ship got wrecked on Togo sea, we got rescued team that helped us to the seashore, we were at the Togo sea port for about 2 weeks while they were fixing the ship, we continued on the journey after fixing the ship, on Ivoire Coast sea the ship was sinking and many people were thrown into the sea, long story short, we got a rescued team that came to tow our ship to Liberian sea, when we got to Monrovia-Liberia it was another hard lesson of my life, war was going on then, I escaped death many times, MUSIC saved my life in one of the occasions when I was caught by some rebel fighters, I was thrown into jail, I was in the jail with dead bodies with maggots coming out of their bodies, no food and water for about 2 weeks, shooting the prisoners everyday and threatening to kill me, but God had mercy on me the day their commander came to check on them, he ask them to bring out the remaining prisoners in the jail, he saw me and recognize me, he said; Hey! show boy and ask if I was the boy who plays music at the African Palace hotel in Monrovia, I replied with my head by nodding, because I couldn’t talk, I was half dead, tired and tortured everyday, the commander told one of his boys to take me back to Monrovia where I reside, he gave me money and new clothes. I can keep going on and on how music has saved my lives or how I’ve saved people’s lives through music, I remembered how I saved a guy who was about to commit suicide in his apartment, I was playing my drum on that faithful day, all of a sudden I heard a knock on my door, in my mind I thought I was disturbing someone, but to my surprised he told me to keep playing, after I finished playing the Djembe drum, he asked me to follow him to his apartment, getting there I saw a rope tied up, he said he was about to commit suicide when he heard me playing the drum. So many life experiences to share but no time to listen or read to everything I’ve gone through in life, but I thank God Almighty for saving my life through MUSIC.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Relocating to China was a pivotal time in my career. I was contracted with the Chinese Government to teach African Music and Culture in theirs schools. I was recognized as the first African to bring Afrobeat to China. Afrokokoroot was birthed in Beijing 2008. We had regular appearances on national television shows. We were contracted by African Embassies for diplomatic events.The 2008 Olympics in Beijing is an highlight of my career as well as The 2010 Combat Olympics, where I shared the stage with Jackie Chan…

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.afrokokoroot.com
• Instagram: @afrokokoroot
• Facebook: @afrokokorootafrobeat
• Twitter: @afrokokoroot
• Youtube: @afrokokoroot

Image Credits

Chujuana Harris