Award winning singer, and Afrofusion poster-boy, Burna Boy has released a documentary, of one of the singles from his sixth studio album “Love, Damini” — ‘Whiskey’.
Burna Boy whose musical versatility is uncommon and his best songs flesh out both cultures and key moments in his life, speak to themes of spirituality and reality depicted in this gripping documentary, laced with sadness, sorrow, suffering, pain, death, resilience and hope.
The documentary opens with flashbacks of happier scenes in 2021 where the Grammy award winner visits his home city of Port Harcourt after adding the Grammy to his plankton of awards and in the euphoria of joy and celebration, little did they know what was to come the following year, 2022, where the beautiful oil city which suffers from heavy black soot pollution due to illegal refinery deficit in the air and on the land, would be witness to cases, more dire and other ills that would follow.
While the ‘Whiskey’ documentary does justice to the depth of the deep-rooted menace, it appears to be just the beginning of more to come. With the nostalgic sound of the Afrofusion pioneer’s track playing in the background, the images and visuals captured in these frames are gripping.
An environment affected by the flood due to the release of water from the Cameroon dams, a young man lamenting about the suffering and death of his newborn baby, the doctor reiterating the maximum effects of the damage to the oil city — with water in the surroundings polluted by crude waste, thereby making it undrinkable — to an old truck driver complaining about the bad roads, which claimed the lives of people who have no choice but to use boats to be able to cross to the other side.
In conversations that begin and end with challenges, the ‘Whiskey’ documentary is heart-wrenching, with indigenes of the community telling their own story, giving form to the realities they face. Mirrored by different tragedies, including a bereft, inconsolable mother who tearfully recounts her loss when her son died due to sickness and unavailability of drugs, a young man who laments and complains about the bridge that was washed away by the flood which has slowed down businesses making them unprofitable, to the woman, whose entire poultry was wiped out by the flood.
