“Nneka’s a strong woman and she’s talking about government and society,” said Tricky of songwriter Nneka Egbuna, who sang on his last album, False Idols. “We need more women like that around.” He wasn’t wrong. Born in Nigeria and based in Hamburg, Nneka is a caustic critic of oil profiteering and society’s moral stumbles. The reggae-influenced Book of Job is filled with biblical allusions and affirmations of faith in the face of tribulation – and that’s just the first song of the night.
A queue that stretches down the street attests to the fact that she rarely visits Britain; this sole UK date is a promo stop to support her first album in three years, My Fairy Tales. She’s applauded like a pop idol as she arrives, carrying her guitar and wrapped in a headscarf-cum-shawl that’s thrown off at moments of frazzled excitement, then redraped. She has a speech prepared, informing fans that she’s here “to edify you, to raise you higher”, and is as good as her word. Nneka dips into multiple genres – reggae, Afrobeat, hip-hop, Erykah Badu-influenced neo-soul – but stays steadily on course, loading songs with calls for unity in English and Igbo, and reviling Nigeria’s oppressors.
Despite her charisma and striking, reedy voice, things can be heavy and a bit woolly. Her vision of justice for Nigeria is perfectly lucid, but there’s an accompanying one-love fuzziness, and a tendency to elongate songs beyond their natural boundaries. It’s fabulous when In Me turns into a thrilling dub excursion, but when she stops the music for a dramatic moment during My Home, it’s evident from the hum of chatter that some people have stopped listening. Undeterred, Nneka swoops into Soul Is Heavy’s conscious rap: “I am the voice of Isaac Boro, I speak Ken Saro-Wiwa.” She finishes the main set with the 2008 UK top 20 hit Heartbeat, having encouraged us to think and, perhaps, think further.
