A close shave

Just hours before I left home to play some records over at Zebulon last Saturday, I received an email from my friend and Nigerian record kingpin Damian Iwuagwu who some of you might know from the Lagos Disco Inferno compilation. Without Damian's tireless work, my Nigerian record collection would not be anywhere near where it is today.

My dear brother, in the early hours of today 16th July 2011 at about 6am Nigerian time, a gang of about 7 armed robber attacked the hotel where i was staying and robbed everybody. They took money and my mobile telephone but they did not beat or give me any injury as they did to others. They did not see my ATM card so i will continue my journey tomorrow but in short time to be in Lagos on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Yours,

Damian

A stark reminder of the risks that Damian has to take every day in order to do his work, to get food on his table, to be able to send his kids to school and to send new packages with fresh grooves across the Atlantic to Voodoo Funk headquarters.



Edit:

I sent Damian a link to this post so he could see the comments people have left for him and this was his response:

"I can say that my journey was not smooth like before but i thank God that all is well both in health and in Strength. We nearly ran into another robbery as we were coming back. We spent over 4 hours on the hold up at a place called Ore, just like when i was going. We had to pass the night in a village before I reached Lagos at about 7 pm yesterday.

What i saw on your blog, how people are responding to what happened to me in Benin City, has given me a every big joy. So what I am doing here is not for myself alone but for the world. I am happy, thank you.

Damian."