Goge Africa: Connecting Africa To The World Through Culture And Tourism
On this edition of CREED APPLAUSE we have Africa’s most celebrated culture and tourism ambassadors Nneka & Isaac Moses. They share their 2 decades of culture and tourism travel and lots more with Itunuoluwa Ajayi.
Enjoy!
It is so nice to finally meet you guys personally growing up I used to watch Goge Africa
Nneka: Are you all grown now?
Yes, I am to a certain extent. Wow look at you you’ve not even change a bit, you sit look the same except for a little wrinkle here and there.
Nneka: where are the wrinkles, I thought they were all gone
So please tell us what your “ageless” secret is?
Isaac: well if you I am ageless I will take it from you but I believe everyone of us we age but we have to keep it at… at least we shouldn’t age so fast, try to give ourselves enough exercise, feel good, feel happy, you know the usual secret to longevity, love what you do and above all love your God. Hmm love your God.
Nneka: well for me, for me, for me, your own is what I am particularly interested in, I know you would be, I want to have to shape when I am like you age, Oh! I wonder what that my age is, listen ehn the point is age they say is a Number, I believe that age is in the mind because I think I stopped growing, I stopped growing when I became a teenager because in my mind I still see the world as beautiful, I still have reason to laugh all the time, I still have reason to celebrate, I am one of those people that if time is not taken, like they say if you don’t take time, hmm ‘laughs’ I will still believe in Santa, are you for real? I’m for real so I think some of those things are the things that kind of keep me looking younger because sometimes when you take life to serious life begins to take you seriously, yeah that’s right, and like I always say life is a book if you don’t travel you are stuck on one page, life is a book if you don’t travel you are stuck on one page, so go and dust where you wrote all those countries you have to visit and start making preparation.
Okay so, you guys are obviously the most celebrated couple how did you meet?
Isaac: yeah that was years back when I was into acting and there was this movie that we were supposed to shoot we were using her place as part of the location, so we met on the set of the movie, the owner of the movie said to her please why don’t you just block this role for me be this guy’s girlfriend, that me, be my girlfriend in the movie, so oh well you know then I was this guy, hot, lots of raps, checked her out and said will do so yeah and then one thing led to another and today, today we are still acting, we are still on sat, the set of life. That your version of the story what is your version of the story?
Nneka: its similar except that he came to conquer and I conquered, well its all good in the hood. Whats the name of that movie? Its Love in Vendetta, wow who would have thought.
So if you get a movie role today would you take it?
Isaac: oh yes sure it depends on the role and what it is paying, is it worth my time, is it worth my while, is it going to make me look good, yeah.
What about you?
Nneka: I think I will do it for fun, yeah I will do it for fun I just want to see me acting a role being who I am not, I will see if they can get me to be serious or have a poker face or something, let me tell you what actually there is a lot of stress so if you are not getting paid oh well, you know I don’t like stress well if it is a movie that kind of like catches my fantasy, maybe we would be on a boat, a big boat like a ship or a cruise something sha.
I think you should reach out to RMD cause he just told us that Otedola offered him is boat for his next movie
I am just saying oh you know I am just trying to help, trying to help my future career, If I was to act I have to get paid, yeah I will be paid but I just want that thing, whatever I do I have to enjoy it, if I don’t enjoy it then the money wouldn’t attract me.
The Goge Africa Brand how did it all start?
Nneka: it started on the set of the movie love in Vendetta, that is when I met my boss, he is my boss from 9am to 6pm then it’s over.
Isaac: we started Goge Africa with Passion and love to give Africa a pride of place, you know I was formerly running a radio show and they wont let us play African music, the producer won’t let us play African music because he felt African music will bring down the ratings of the show and I know a lot of African acts I was Segun Arinze Manager and these guys had very good albums then Zaki Azeez my good friend, there were good guys whose music would make beautiful listenership, I don’t normally play there music and I felt like look I think I am going to stop this show do something that I can control what goes on and so I came up with the idea of Goge Africa, ran it by her she like it, but she said but why don’t you do it on TV, TV, TV is expensive I don’t have kind of expenses for TV, she said look lets try for TV and then she was into costume, she said if we put this for TV she could costume me and then I am going to look really nice and then she gets sale, and I said that would be nice how about a duo presentation, lets present the program together she said no she hasn’t done this before why would she start now, I said don’t worry its not a live show if we don’t get it right we can do it again and again until we get it right, so finally I persuaded her and she agreed and we are still doing it again and again until we get it right, we started doing it and just telling the beautiful African stories our own way, you know not really following the conventional norms, just doing our thing generally, you know I was a voice artiste, you were? You are, I am a voice artiste, I was making money doing voice overs for radio commercials, TV commercial, writing documentaries, so whatever comes in there we now put into the show, we got us a camera, a small Panasonic camera, which she was handling then, I said wow lets hit the road we were having fun it wasn’t about the money then, we were just telling the beautiful African stories, during a burial ceremony seeing how African Celebrate the dead, I said this people are happy that somebody died look at all the music, everybody is dancing and happy, dressed gorgeously, music, masquerade and I said look this is going to make an interesting viewership if we package this narrate it with my sweet voice, you know people are going to listen to it and are going to be interested in it, that’s how we started looking deeper, exploring different African cultural activities, festivals and today Goge Africa has helped to grow the brand equity of many festivals in Nigeria and Africa and Big brands now consider African festivals as a part of growing their brand they actually reach out through those festivals.
When you guys started along the way was there anytime you thought of quitting?
Nneka: honestly we never came to that point we just felt that if this is not working then it is us, we always felt it is about us, no we are not doing it well okay lets do it this way, oh no no lets try it this way, we just felt that this something that needs to be done there has to be a way, because where there is the will to do something there is a way of doing it.
Isaac: you at a point the early years of Goge African, the first two, three years ther was no sponsorship nothing, we were even thrown out of our flat where we used to live because there was no income, nobody was advertising on the show , no sponsorship but people love this show so why isn’t there any adverts,
Nneka: you see people saying oh you came to my village, oh you interviewed my grandma, so I see the enthusiasm, the love people show for their culture not necessarily for me but everybody you showcase their culture kind of feel elated.
Isaac: Look at when we went to visited Ethiopia, Timkat and then we saw one woman and she said your program is the best program and I said why she said because I saw Timkat, I said oh Timkat yes yes you are from Ethiopia so its like we love what we do but we were not making any money from it and then one day we were going to go to Carnival de in Berlin and the woman in the airport said are you not the woman in the culture show, she said yes, where are you going, we want to go to Germany for the Carnival and you want to fly Lufthansa we said yes, oh okay just come upstairs, you know and she went upstairs she brought out the ticket, then asked how many of us and just like that,
So the First sponsorship came from in…. an international brand wow!
Isaac: from there I knew it that we were gonna go places, so we now save the tickets money, so she was asking how do we pay it, she said just let them know you’ve flown Lufthansa on the show
Nneka: So that was the first sponsorship we got without writing a proposal, or anything, just like that
The motivation for you guys was love and passion, wow. I love you neck piece by the way.
Nneka: I know you do!! Most Beautiful African women love beautiful African ornaments and this one is from Kenya, Masai, hm-mm, yeah I just love me you know I am African. You know what I do When I go to Kenya I come out all Nigerian, they are like oh I love this, what I have notice among Africans is that a lot of us tend to appreciate more what other people have, do you understand? If I wear this in Kenya I will pass like any other Kenyan girl but in Nigeria you stand out and in Kenya you come out with your Gele and Agbada you stand out, wow! Do you remember when we went for… and I came out with my Gele and all of that and I came in and it was a big deal,
Isaac: but this is different in SA the lady saw you in all Nigerian and brought out some South African costume and said because you are also gonna look great in this and she gave you, she said if you are going on TV in South Africa you need to dress like a South African. she gave me some thing from Kosa and it was all good
So out of all the countries you’ve visited which is your Favourite?
well in what area, its not tricky for me, its very straight forward which one is my favourite in food, or in dressing, or generally my most favourite country is the one i am yet to visit, so which one? tell me, where do you want to take me. Tell us now which country? I don’t know, to everybody out there watching if I have not been to your country and i visit it or i am about to visit it that would be my favourite country, I am always looking forward to the future you see i have been to all of those that I have been too, i have seen them and done that my is focused on, for me certain things happened that kind of makes me want to visit again, for different reasons, we have different reasons to visit a country again, they are hospitable, charitable, they are friendly they are warm and alot of them are beautiful but some of them standout, for different things
Credits
Host: Itunuoluwa Ajayi
Cover: Tolu Olufemi
Makeup : @tams_beautyhub
Studio : @hitlab_academy
Outfit: @casual_queen_ltd & @smartlooks
Stylist: @d_s.a.c
