African Musicology

Interest and performance of learners are close correlates to teaching methods of those involved in the education industry. Unfortunately, learners have tagged some subjects or aspects of subjects as difficult and therefore, an impossible area to attempt even where, in further education, it is required. Teachers have also been branded unfriendly and wicked based on unproductive methods of teaching and unimaginably level of failures in assessments. It is on these observations that effective teaching methods in music are recommended to stimulate learners’ interest in the subject and achieve superlative performance in assessments.

Africa has come under foreign domination either from Europe or the Islamic world at one time or the other; and that these influences have made and continue to make significant impact on music of the North Africa and Africa in general. This study therefore, employed bibliographic method in examining briefly into the early history of North African musical practices before colonization and acculturation  and the influence of Arab and other foreign cultures and religions on their music and musical instruments. This study revealed that the early contact of the North Africans  with the Arabic world made a great impart in the wide-spread of Islamic religion and chanting of Quranic verses which in turn influenced the melodic structure of the music of the North African as well as institutionalization of the imported musical instruments from different Arab world depending on the particular one they had contact with. This study therefore affirmed that none of the North African societies has music totally indigenous to them but an African-Arabic music.

In any Yoruba society, music performs numerous functions in entertainment, religious/ritual, festivals, traditional rites, folklore, education, as well as moral function of social criticisms in form of satirical songs, which control excesses in behaviour and mock or condemn non-conformist with the norms and values that depicts the moral standard of that society. The major obsession of this paper is to examine the Children Satirical Songs as a musical phenomenon among the Oyo-Yoruba with the aim of investigating into the musical practice and content in an attempt to collect, analyse and identify the forms and relevance of the musical genre in the Yoruba society. This paper therefore relies on sociological and functionality theories as compass in term of research dimension; and oral interviews of children within the ethnographic scope of this study and also the bibliographic method of data collection which will exploit the use of participant observatory tools for the purpose of musical analysis. The findings shows that children between the ages of 8 and 13 having being implanted by the norms and tradition values of the society through oral tradition and other forms of formal moral instructions, composed these satirical songs and used them as a checks to unruly or immoral behaviours among their peers and some adults regardless of their status, whether an adult is present or not. These satirical songs contain words that lampoon the deviant behaviour among the children. It was also discovered that children also composed and perform satirical songs to just mock others for their own enjoyments' sake or self-entertainment as well as in games and sports. The musical analysis further reveals that most of the satirical songs are spoken verses in call and response form with short poetic structure. This paper concludes that Children satirical songs have been significantly able to correct unruly behaviours especially among the children because children hates being publicly disgraced before their friends and since corporal punishments both at home and schools has been discouraged due to likely accidents and dangers it might afflict upon the children; but the major treat is that this genre of music is gradually fading out as a result of children being discouraged to speak Yoruba at nursery and primary schools and at home by some parents.

Music, being an aesthetic cultural practice found in virtually every culture in Africa, encapsulates the belief, morals, custom, knowledge system and other capabilities and behavioral patterns acquired by members of a particular society. Music has been studied from multi and interdisciplinary perspectives, howbeit; this paper is geared towards investigating music and marriage of the Isoko people. It goes further to examine marriage according to the traditional customs of the Isoko people. Primary data were sourced from oral interviews. Secondary sources include journals, articles, publications and records. The term marriage was elaborately discussed while eleven songs were transcribed and translated for the study. The paper exposes the aesthetic value of music in marriages of the Isoko people. The findings contribute significantly to knowledge by notating various songs used for marriages thereby preserving and promoting the songs used for marriage rites among the Isoko people.

Abstract
Music performs crucial roles and functions in the activities of religious bodies including the Divine Baptist church, Ogiedi. Visible music activities in the Church are apparent, but barely little written documents exist about its practice and key actors at the beginning of the Church. Possible data on the music ministry are, therefore, fading away in alarming tempo. It is therefore imperative to embark on a research into the trend of this ministry in the church through collection and analysis of relevant data in order to produce a document on this ministry, set needed records straight, evaluate prevailing standards and project for the future. This research adopted historical and descriptive designs relying majorly on oral data from purposively sampled subjects using interviews, focused group discussions and participant observation as tools for data collection. It revealed a vibrant music ministry that effectively served and produced capable manpower for the church and the society at large. However, there must be concerted efforts for increased indigenous music compositions, hymn translations and disc recordings for the largely non-literate congregation to find meaningful worship experience from the music ministry.

In building a society, promoting solidarity, creating meaning, and imagining possibilities, music connects the individual to the society and the personal to the social. It is in this interconnectedness with human endeavours that music finds its societal usefulness and the need to comply with most current developments. Developments and change occure in diverse facets of human endeavour like language, politics, fashion, power, social structure, education, and so on. Music must be seen as modern for it to take up current issues in the society. Take leadership issues for example, in order to achieve a better and modern society, there are the music of resistance and social change throughout history, from the work songs and field hollers of of African slaves on plantation soil to the folk music fuelling anti-war protests, from Bob Marley and Lucky Dube’s cries against oppression to our own Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Sunny Okosuns, and Osayomore Erinmwonoghae’s objection to poor leadership and clamour for social justice.

It is in this regard that this lecture focuses on ethnic music types like Ókpẹ Disco, and the need to transform them to accomplish their relevance in contemporary dispensation.

From the early 1990, Jùjú music has continued to experience tremendous changes in concept, practice and instrumental delivery. This is due to the performance flexibility and artistic creativity of the musicians in meeting the audience's taste and satisfaction. The author traces the history of Jùjú music and examined its developmental changes with regards to hybridisation of some musical instruments and materials both traditional and Western, used in Shina Peters' style of Jùjú music. In this regard, the study employs both the historical and descriptive methods to identify factors that have influenced his style of music. Hence, recorded albums of Shina Peters' Ace (Afro-Jùjú Series 1) and Shinamania (Afro-Jùjú Series 2) are analysed with a view to justifying his contributions to the development of the genre. The results, inter alia, show that the emergence of Shina Peters' style which is the fusion of Afro (Afro-beat) and Jùjú has restructured the performance practice of the genre and also made exploration, specifically, among young Jùjú musicians of today to become inevitable. In spite of the application of some Western musical instruments in the performance of Shina Peters, the study concludes that the originality and characteristic traits of his style of Jùjú music remain essentially a Nigerian popular music genre.

This paper is an attempt to define African musicology as a standalone discipline. The study of indigenous African music is, in the main, assumed to be the competency of ethnomusicology. That ethnomusicologists
are musical anthropologists suggests that they, like anthropologists, labour at presenting the image of the African
to the European as well as the American institutions for a plethora of reasons and purposes. This explains a sense
of reluctance when coming to addressing the need to fashion an alternative discipline designed, to unravel the
intricacies of indigenous African music for the benefit of the African processes of knowledge making. Since the efforts of one Kwabena Nketia fifty years or so ago, African musicology has not succeeded in entrenching itself. By asserting itself, African musicology could stand to benefit the study of African music, let alone its own disciplinary
development into the 21st century.

The index I made from the edition's typographic proofs -- the book was never published: PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF AFRICAN CULTURE, 1-11 August 1962, Held at The National Gallery, Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) on the initiative and under the direction of his former director Frank McEwen.
A copy with 163, [18] leaves, 17 unnumbered leaves of plates : illustrations, portraits, music ; 27 cm. Rhodes National Gallery (Zimbabwe) Place of publication not identified, publisher not identified, 1962-65?
Lectures by Janheinz Jahn, Jean Laude, Pierre Guerre, Hugh Tracey, Amânci/Pancho Guedes, Roland Penrose, Udo Kultermann and others.
Are located 4 copies in North America: MoMA, Metropolitan. Northwestern University, U. Florida, and a photocopy at the Smithsonian (https://www.worldcat.org/title/proceedings-of-the-first-international-congress-of-african-culture-1-11-august-1962-held-at-the-national-gallery-salisbury-rhodesia/oclc/40556304)

One of the most successful dance music of the Yoruba people of the Southwest Nigeria is Jùjú music. This genre has continued to enjoy patronage among the lower and middle classes, as well as the elites. The trend in which Jùjú is performed specifically among young musicians of today, premised on the practice which this study refers to as eclectic Jùjú style. The paper, therefore, examines this practice in Abiodun Awesola (Awesome tones' band)'s live performance and its synchronization within the performance practice in which Jùjú music is known. This is with a view to establishing this practice as a recurrent medium of combining diverse genres in a live performance within the ambience of Jùjú music. The study employs oral interview and participant observation method, while relevant books, journal articles and the Internet were also consulted. Data collected were analysed through descriptive method. Findings show that people (both young and old) tend to enjoy this practice especially during ceremonies, as it serves as a reminder of historical events which took place when such music played was released. The study also shows this practice, as a means for satisfying the audiences with varieties of genres in a live performance within the purview of Jùjú being a panegyric and commemorative music. The study concludes that in spite of the fusion of these diverse genres for the enjoyment of its enthusiasts, the traits with which Jùjú music is known remain a dominant factor in its performance delivery.

In a typical African village musical genres abound; there is music for healing purposes, music for the church, music for rites of passage, music for entertainment, and so forth. Notwithstanding subtleties only discernible from within, villagers involve themselves in overlapping music-making contexts and experiences. It is common to find an individual subscribing to more than one musical tradition with ease. The fluidity that enables African villagers to move across musical genres suggests a presence of a musico-psycho-motive―perhaps a musical genome awoken by common socialisation processes―thread running across the genres. Observing African responsive behaviour towards rhythm, or even soliciting philosophical vocalisation illuminates this thread. Delving deeper along this line of enquiry, one begins to unravel the incentive(s) that seems to compel the body, and indeed sends the soul into one obit; and back. This paper discusses preliminary findings about this phenomenon, taking into account the philosophical explanations of music participants. Perhaps by following this line of inquiry one will come closer to some understanding, as to why African music has affected, and continues to affect humanity the way it does.

This paper employed a bibliographic method in peeping into the history of the early history of North African music and the influence of the Islamic religion and Arab culture over the folk and other indigenous music of the North Africans before contact with the Arab world. This study found out that the North Africans could not totally lay claim to any form of music indigenous to them as a result of their early contact and invasion by different Arab cultures which brought about deep acculturation by the  Arabs including the importation of various musical instruments originally belonging to the Arab world. However some traits of Africanism could still be found in the melodies of most of the vocal  (including the religious) music of North Africans as a result of the tonal language effect over the music.

Derived from a widely used African poetic form, praise songs find in “Valódia” a container for the characteristic laudatory epithets applied to heroes. “Valódia” captures the essence of the fallen subject who, in favor of socialism, fought against neocolonialism, capitalism and imperialism. Ancient bards, who used to be both praise singers to a chief and court historians to a tribe, eventually became “leaders of political songs.” Santocas chants a praise song that rather than being handed down by word of mouth, as part of his own cultural legacy, has been written by himself. Both Santocas and Marquez, in their respective countries, became advocates of a socio-political and economic change framed by communist doctrine. This chapter argues how, more than a song of praise, as part of the popular music genre, “Valódia” contributed to propel the political ambitions of two governments separated by the Atlantic Ocean, but united by the same ideology. Thus, this praise song simultaneously advanced in Angola and Cuba a larger agenda of decolonization and Marxist socialization that still lingers over their destinies. Its effective musical and poetic message, which I still remember, proves the timeless quality of African praise songs, as it turns a young soldier into a socialist hero.

Despite the enduring international popularity of the Zulu Christian chorus “Siyahamba” as a song of protest and praise, South African ethnomusicologists have not yet investigated its origins as well as its cultural and political significance. This article reports the results of an historical study which indicated that the earliest documented performance of the chorus took place in Dundee in the current uMzinyathi district of the former Natal province (now KwaZulu-Natal or KZN), South Africa, in 1952. No earlier publications or handwritten records of its score or lyrics have been found. However, it appears that this musical work has a longer undocumented history, connected to rural Methodist or Pentecostalist communities of the province. It originated in a church environment as a devotional chorus and grew to be closely associated with the anti-apartheid movement after it was adopted by the international campaign against the racist regime from the mid-1980s. “Siyahamba” has been perceived both locally and internationally as a popular song of praise with a strong political significance thanks to the popular songbook Freedom Is Coming by Anders Nyberg, the Swedish-South African composer and choral conductor, who made the earliest known field recording of the chorus, and dozens of influential hymnals that include “Siyahamba”. Chanted at rallies and public events, the historic South African tune continues to encourage campaigners for change worldwide.

Abstract
Nigeria as a nation has an Anthem, likewise the Delta State University. In 2016, during an interview, a nominee for an Ambassadorial office, could not sing the Nigeria national anthem; another still could not recite the pledge – a disgrace you may say! Most students and indeed the work-force of the University do not know if a University anthem exists how much more to sing and internalise the message. Based on this understanding, the Management of the Delta State University mandated the Directorate of General Studies to ensure strict compliance with the anthems through its regular lectures with newly admitted students. This write-up presents the content and significance of the anthems (Nigeria and DELSU), introduces all students to the art of singing it and encourages fluent recitation of the pledge. It is hoped, this approach, will guarantee a good percentage of graduates who can sing the anthems with mastery and full understanding of the content.

Due to the call for sekoele (African renaissance), Lesotho, like most African countries, is in the process of resuscitating practices deemed traditional, and many traditional music practices are still commonplace today, albeit in new contexts. This entry discusses two categories of performance practice in Lesotho: mmino wa bacha (music for the youth) and adult music. Mmino wa bacha refers to music associated with youth. Bacha (youth) are found in schools, which is a site where the idea of sekoele or cultural renaissance is energized. Lesotho embarked on a program that sought to resuscitate cultural practices by hosting countrywide campaigns and celebrating cultural days.

This is a little known "festejo" (music genre symbol of the Afro-Peruvian reinassance that started in the 50s). It was recorded in San Luis de Cañete, as sung by master José Eduardo "Lalo" Izquierdo, one of the co-founders of Peru Negro (arguably the most influencial dance theatre group in Peruvian history).