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Tear gas and horsewhips at Nigeria's "Battle for Hope" over AIDS


ABUJA (AFP) - Boxer Laila Ali cancelled, teen diva Ashanti cut short her set and rapper DMX had some harsh words for the crowd, but their young fans kept the party going amid teargas and horsewhips at Nigeria's biggest ever AIDS (news - web sites)/HIV (news - web sites) awareness gig.


Crowds thronged Nigeria's National Stadium -- opened last year at a cost roughly equivalent to the country's health budget -- late Saturday in a frenzy undampened, even, by Ali's cancellation.


"Battle for Hope", organised by Titi Abubakar, wife of Nigeria's vice president, was to have featured Africa's first female boxing world title fight, alongside top-flight local and international recording stars.


But even if sports reporters were disappointed, the 10,000 or so youngsters who partied amid police tear gas were there for the music, and were determined to have a good time.


The AIDS virus is a rising scourge in Africa's most populous country, as the speakers and performers repeatedly pointed out, but Nigeria is a nation of optimists and the message of the party was that there was still time to curtail the epidemic before it spiraled out of all control.


Still, the dominant theme of the night was the party, which pushed the concert to the brink of chaos from the moment it began until 3:00 am Sunday, when the floodlights went on and the crowds began to return to their lives in Abuja, a normally staid city built for bureaucrats.


Early on, boxing fans enjoyed two three-round women's bouts -- one for a pair of super-heavyweight brawlers, and one for an energetic and promising couple of welterweights -- but the best of the violence was in the crowd.


The crowd's enthusiasm for local Nigerian acts was muted slightly by the size and open spaces of the ultramodern 60,000-seat arena, but when New York rhythm-and-blues sensation Ashanti took to the stage in a dramatically skimpy outfit, fans poured over the perimeter fence onto the pitch.


On one side of the stage, police initially tried to get the youngsters to sit down neatly. On the other, cops and troops waded into the crowd with whips, clubs and their own belts, sending them scurrying back, only to advance again, dancing and throwing the occasional bottle.


Shoving, cheering and sporadic whipping continued as the sultry young singer changed into a still tighter outfit of hot pants and a bra-top and performed a seductive routine with Abuja's luckiest young pitch-invader.


Everyone, including the star-struck cops, showed their appreciation, until a sprinting Nigerian fan attempted to hug Ashanti (now in a lacy black number) before being upended into the crowd from a great height by security. Ashanti was hustled away by her furious entourage.


The event's headliner, veteran rapper DMX, began his show in typical hip-hop style by trying to work the crowd into frenzy.


But by the end of his set -- which was briefly abandoned during a particularly harsh round of flogging -- he was reduced to calling for order.


"No violence, no violence. If you don't back the ---- up, won't nobody see the show. Back up, back up, back the ---- up, back up, back up. Let's put all the ----ing bullshit aside and see the show," he shouted, as police and fans fought over the tee-shirts he had unwisely thrown into the melee.


Despite the good-natured mayhem, the essential message of AIDS awareness had not been forgotten by the performers or the organisers.


And, while a pre-recorded speech -- presumably on the subject -- by a former member of the Jackson Five was broadcast without any sound, other acts took up the cause.


Nigeria's dreadlocked ragga star, Daddy Showkey, illustrated his safe sex advice by tugging repeatedly at his manhood through his jogging bottoms while a bodybuilder and a midget danced in their underpants.




The Nigerian Television Association cameras cut away, but the crowd went wild.

And hip-hop hero Eedrees Abdukareem put a particularly Nigerian sociological slant on the crisis, with a skit against college lecturers who demand sex from girls for grades, helpfully illustrated by a pair of lithe young dancers simulating a rythmic bout of coupling.

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