TAWA Chillout: agbaya fun for a worthy cause!

By Rachel | 4th August 2016

Gather round, I have a story to tell. I once went to a nightclub in Lagos o. That’s how one smallie walked up to me and said “Hey, sexy. You look so familiar. Lag, Econs, right?” Kai, e pain me. Me? Unilag student? How? Why?

Other than the fact that I am a product of the best school in Nigeria, OAU (argue amongst yourselves, facts remain facts 😝), I haven’t seen inside of a citadel of learning for almost two decades!

Rather than taking it as a compliment, I just felt like telling him to kneel down and face the wall for trying to toast his aunty. And I felt like an agbaya at a nightclub where my children’s mates should be.

If you’ve ever felt this way, you’ll understand the need for an age-relevant hangout event. Add that to the pressures of everyday living in the UK – work, bills and the travails of the Circle Line – it is no wonder that the TAWA Chillout event is sold out every time the host, Ayo Sonoiki, holds one.

What is the TAWA Chillout?

The TAWA Chillout is an event where grown folk, like-minded people meet to let off steam. The name comes from the host’s popular radio show, Thinking Aloud With Ayo. The steam comes from the stresses and rigours of everyday life.  We shriek in laughter, we applaud silliness, and we have a good time. And because there are no kids there, we revert to feeling as young as we like and have a good time.

You have not seen mad, raucous fun till you have attended a TAWA Chillout event and seen fathers, mothers, CEOS, managers, and even grandparents cheat at charades or bust a move during the karaoke session!

To discover that a good cause then benefits from all this fun makes it even more enjoyable.

Friends that have become family; fun for a good cause

This event on Sunday, 31st July, was no different. But perhaps due to the summertime sunshine, the crowd was more animated than usual. People paid scant attention to civilities as the dance floor filled up even before the event started. Platters of fish, suya, barbecued chicken, dun dun and dodo rolled out of the kitchen as Laredo’s Suya And Grill worked their magic.

Hugging of old friends and creating new networks took place at a fevered pace, but we had to start at some point, so start, we eventually did.

Domestic Violence UK

Ms Sonoiki introduced the event for the newcomers and quickly discussed the charity, Domestic Violence UK.

While being emphatic that this casual event is not about domestic violence,  Ms Sonoiki has never shied away from the seriousness of this scourge within our community or the fact that she is on the advisory board for this impressive charity.

The proceeds from the raffle draw that happened on the night all go to this charity.

I really must touch on this briefly. Ayo read out a heart breaking account from an individual being abused. Abuse is always shocking, but to hear that this testimony was from a grown man, ex-military made it all the harder to hear. That his abuser was his partner, a woman who was herself ill, just finally puts paid to any belief that only women suffer abuse.

Poetry titled ‘Walking On Egg Shells’ was peformed by Debo Oluwatiminu and Tosin Oloyede. Speaking about the hostilities that happen within a home when it is fragmented by fear and abuse, the room fell silent as we listened in sadness to what the lives of many people who live like this must seem like.

Abuse and violence flies in the face of stereotype. It is no respecter of age, gender, income, religion or status. And people out there need help. So a charity that bridges the gap is to be applauded and praised.

It’s all fun and games!

But on to the agbaya behaviour of the night! First up was Chinese Whispers. The men were up first. A sentence that started out very innocently bore no resemblance to the final version that was heard and even bore sexual connotations! Hian, these men of nowadays!

I had hope for the womenfolk though. Are we not meant to be the gossips? I was confident that even if the message were passed telepathically, we would still get the exact same message at the end of the line. Alas! Woe! The women failed miserably too! This life sef!

The Superwoman of the Karaoke World!

The karaoke led to the highlight of the night where one of the ladies chose to sing Superwoman by Karyn White, always a karaoke classic. The spirit moved her to pick a gentleman from the audience as the object of her heartbreak and boy, did she let it all out! The session became a full-on dramatisation of Woman Scorned and this poor fellow had to stand there and take it all! Other ladies came to “corroborate her story”, pointing accusing fingers at this virtual stranger. The men came out en masse to lend their baritone voices in support of their frankly bewildered brother. It was all very West Side Story; all very epic.

The night was far spent and there was still the issue of the raffle draws. This is a regular feature of the event that has brought shenanigans and hilarity in the past. People have altered their raffle tickets with pens in the past. People have even prayed to a myriad of gods to win these gifts. I can neither confirm nor deny that I am involved in any of these malpractices, I’m just an impartial journalist. And who could blame us, I mean, them? The delightful hampers up for grabs are from the creative hands of Julie Odushile at House of Hampers, and they are filled with treasures!

The winners won, the cheats cried, and then the serious business of dancing commenced. We had a blast!

The next TAWA Chillout? Be there!

So, if you would love to have fun at a casual event where grown folk can act like kiddies, then you need to come along to the next TAWA event! It is on the 25th September, 2016, and will have the same template: same venue, same DJ, same glorious food, same worthy cause, same agbaya shenanigans. And we’re rightly proud of it too!

ALL PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY MISSIS ROBINSON PHOTOGRAPHY.