The exhibition in honour of the late broadcaster and showbiz impresario, Steven Bankole Omodele Rhodes, known simply as Steve Rhodes, titled ‘Steve Rhodes: Six Years After’, has continued to inspire at the Freedom Park Museum in Lagos.
Declared open by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, it features memorabilia from Steve Rhodes’ collection.
Soyinka described the late Rhodes, who died on May 29, 2008, at the age of 82, as a brilliant musician worthy of emulation.
The exhibition, which ended on June 5, opened on May 29, purposely to mark Democracy Day in Nigeria.
At the opening event, Soyinka called attention to the contributions Rhodes made in the music industry, particularly recalling the 2003 All African Games hosted by COJA in Abuja, Nigeria, where Rhodes dazzled. He directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, which Soyinka scripted.
Rhodes also composed the syncopated closing ceremonies song of the Games, ‘We Are One’, performed by the 260-man Laz Ekwueme-conducted choir and orchestra.
“We know his productivity and contributions to the society in general, which is what we exactly celebrated on Democracy Day,” he said, while commending the Steve Rhodes Foundation (SRF) for organising the exhibition.
Chairman of the SRF, Prof. Johnson Ekpere, said the exhibition was aimed at keeping the works of the musician alive.
“I enjoin everybody to learn from the legacy that he left behind, and key into it,” he added.
For the icon’s second daughter, Gloria Rhodes, the huge turnout of people at the exhibition was delightful. She explained that the aim of SRF is to preserve the musical culture.
“The plan is for the exhibition to go on every year, and for it to travel around the country and from university to university to promote music,” she said.
Indeed, Rhodes’ personal effects at the exhibition teach lessons not just for musicians but also to everyone. For one, it shows a man who kept records for posterity to the very end. From the newspaper clippings to a gramophone and sound equipment on display, everyone can see a meticulous man.
There is also a brown leather jacket, a favourite of the late Rhodes while in the cold climate, as well as the first uniform for the Steve Rhodes Voices and an academic gown for a posthumous award by the Lagos State University (LASU).
There are also personal papers including: certificate of awards from different organisations, home and abroad; programme of events; and an old travel passport.
The exhibition is a testimony that, truly, Rhodes bestrode the arts community for over six decades, producing, managing and creating arts and culture.
He attended CMS Grammar School, Lagos; and Dennis Memorial School, Onitsha, Anambra; for his secondary education, and spent 11 years in England and Germany for further education.
In Germany, he played with some bands and followed them on concert tours of Switzerland, Italy and Germany and, while in England, he met fellow Nigerians and Africans with whom he shared the passion to return home to contribute their quota to nation-building in the post-Independence era.
He joined the Federal Ministry of Information and became the first Nigerian Controller of Programmes of the Western Nigerian Television (WNT).
Trained as a musicologist in Germany, Rhodes also worked in the defunct Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), which later became the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN).
He was instrumental in the setting up of the West African Dance Orchestra at the radio station.
Rhodes founded the famous Steve Rhodes Voices, which later metamorphosed into the Steve Rhodes Orchestra (SRO). It was a group of young choristers, who won laurels in various music festivals at home and abroad, particularly in the 1970s.