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Yegede VOL 17 – Yusufu Olatunju (a.k.a. Baba l’Egba) Contemporary Sakara Music
Whenever I listen to Pa Yusuf Olatunji, I remember my late father who was an unrepentant lover of his music. He was once a member of the band. My father was with the band when the record titled “Oluwa lo Ni Deede” was waxed, he told me.
Yusuf Olatunji, popularly known as Baba L’Egba (1905 -1978), was a successful Nigerian Sakara drum player, who popularized the sakara music genre. He was thought to have been born in 1905 or 1906 in a village called Gbegbinlawo in Ogun State, Nigeria, although there are still doubts about the location of his birth. His mid-life conversion to Islam boosted his career in Yoruba music. He was born a Christian and he hailed from Iseyin in Oyo State. He was formerly known as Joseph Olatunji. He started his career in 1937 with his first record and he joined Abibu Oluwa band in 1927.
He died on 15 December 1978 aged 74. He was survived by 10 children and four wives. He was a friend of the late Lamidi Durowoju, late Jimoh Ishola, late Raji Orire, late Badejo Okusanya and other great men they were the men he mostly sang for and they were rich men too. There was a rich woman that goes by the name Alhaja Kuburatu Abike Adebisi known as Cash Madam in Abeokuta who she sent him abroad for surgery but sadly, he died some seven years later.
Video Credit Baba Duro
