Ikwunga grew up in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria in a family that emphasized reading Western and African literature. His father was a tribal Chief, a philanthropist, and a renowned poet graduate from the prestigious departments of Literature at the University of Nigeria, and the International Writers Workshop, University of Iowa. In elementary school, Ikwunga was a leader in the "Young Brains" television debate hosted by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Port-Harcourt and was the youngest member of Saint Paul's Anglican Church Choir, Diobu, Port-Harcourt, a religious affiliation he would later renounce.

At this very young age, Ikwunga came to embrace the concept of "Negritude" and pan-Africanism that he read so much about in his father's work, and literary collection. His secondary school years found him writing in school magazines. Subsequently, while undergoing the rigorous training of medical school, he co-formed the musical group called "What?" What? wrote their own songs, toured several Nigerian Universities, and recited beat-poetry in Pidgin English (unconventional innovations in the 80s Nigerian University music scene). What? songs had a socio-cultural message for African leaders and youth alike. The group was unrivalled as the underground leader in the Cultural Revolution that was occurring in Nigerian Universities at the time.

In the early nineties, Ikwunga featured a developing beat-poetry style that was significantly influenced by the traditional poetic styles of Okogbule Wonodi & Christopher Okigbo, by dub-poets like Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mutabaruka, and beat-poets like Gil Scott-Heron, and Allen Ginsburg. In a quest to further translate his influences and to make them even more relevant to the environment and culture in which he was immersed, he drew on another influence, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Afrobeat. Ikwunga did this and subsequently became a regular opening act for Femi Kuti at the Afrika Shrine night club in Lagos when, with the opportunity created by Dele Sosimi and Femi Kuti, he first incorporated Afrobeat into his evolving beat-poetry style.

Calabash Vol.1 CD features 6 Afrobeat poems, and was released on October 14th as part of the 2nd Annual Fela Anikulapo-Kuti Birthday Concert at the London Brixton Fridge. Ikwunga delivered a brilliant performance of two Afrobeat Poems (ABPs) from Calabash Vo1.1 live with Dele Sosimi's Afrobeat Orchestra. The African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALISC Network) sponsored the event. For a new release, Calabash Vol.1 has already made an impressive entry into the Afrobeat enclave, with one track (I don love) featured in the "Essential Afrobeat" compilation by Universal Music Group (release- October 18th), and another track (Di Bombs) featured in the "Endopression Afrobeat" compilation (Modiba Productions/TrueMajority). Endopression Afrobeat will raise money to aid refugees of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

While in London in October, Ikwunga was a Special Guest of BBC Network Africa with anchor Bola Musoru. During the 4 editions that featured tracks from Calabash CD, several listeners sent encouraging text messages welcoming the new poetic style and the socio-political content of the tracks. Go Slow, a poem that bridges mental illness with social commentary on the state of affairs in African Nation States was of particular interest to listeners. Callers were particularly interested in the advocacy of the Afrobeat Poet promising to stimulate a dialogue that would bring challenge the popularly held beliefs about mental illness in traditional African communities. The BBC interview and the mental illness awareness campaign to be launched by the poet have featured as headline news in Port-Harcourt and Lagos Nigeria, and has been received by many as a clarion call for changes that would allow Africans with mental illness ultimately have access to treatment without stigmatization.

Interestingly, the Calabash serves several roles in various cultures. Calabash as food, as gourds for drinking wine and water, as musical instruments, as vessels for African spiritual rituals, as Caucuses in the African Union, as decorative art, and…yes, as a collection of Afrobeat poems that redefine a genre, and extend the legend of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti's socio-cultural activism. In Calabash Vol.1, Ikwunga in collaboration with Dele Sosimi (London-based former Fela Anikulapo-Kuti Egypt 80 keyboardist, and former keyboardist and musical director of Femi Kuti's Positive Force Band), and Justin Thurgur, and Femi Elias have created a unique fusion of Spoken Word, African style call- and- answer recital, with a new contemporary Afrobeat.

Proceeds from Calabash Volume I will partly fund the incorporation of The African Alliance for the Mentally Ill (TAAMI), which will be charged with the task of increasing public awareness of mental disorders, and providing support for Nigerian families that struggle with caring for family members with mental illness in a society where mental illness is highly stigmatized, poorly researched, and its treatment financially constrained. TAAMI will replicate the success of the American National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), which has played a pivotal role in launching mental awareness campaigns, advocating for people with brain disorders and their family members, and providing much needed support and access to resources for them. It is expected that TAAMI's grass roots mental health public awareness campaign and advocacy for the mentally ill in Nigeria will be consequently replicated in the traditional communities in the rest of black Africa. There is a need to reexamine the assumption that the problems in Africa are only physical, or that her physical/medical/economic conditions are without psychological sequelae. Ikwunga lives with his family in the Baltimore area, and is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland.

Management: Nnamdi Moweta, Radio Afrodicia (www.afrodicia.com) Los Angeles (818.752.3678); Ogugua Iwelu, African Shrine Management, New York (917.309.9346). You can tune into