Dolly Parton | Unproblematic White Queen | Feat. Kelechi Okafor |2

What were the taxi drivers of 1990s Accra playing on repeat?

How does a woman who swore she was "not a bit political" write a hit about being used up and spat out by the system?

And, what does it take for the most unmistakably white icon in American country music to become the unproblematic queen of a Nigerian girl growing up in Peckham?

Afua Hirsch hands the Dolly Parton question to her friend Kelechi Okafor — author, podcaster, voice artist and pole studio owner — and Peter Frankopan discovers he is the last to know that West Africa loves country music.

Part two of two. Missionaries, a banjo with West African roots and a grandfather in cowboy boots in Lagos; the royalties, the military and the art of choosing your hypocrisies; and the day Dolly Parton's Imagination Library asked for Kelechi's own picture book, then came back for it a second year. Underneath it all, the question part one left hanging: did everyone give Dolly a pass that Beyoncé never gets?

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[0:00] The tribute that travelled furthest didn't come from Nashville

[2:40] Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and a cassette player in the headboard

[4:20] Accra taxis, the banjo, and a secret hundreds of millions already knew

[8:41] Unpicking "unproblematic white queen", and choosing what you're a hypocrite for

[11:37] The Imagination Library comes calling for Kelechi's picture book