Papers by Kayode M . Samuel
The conceptual adoption of a hidden personality by Lagbaja, Nigeria's famous masked popular m... more The conceptual adoption of a hidden personality by Lagbaja, Nigeria's famous masked popular music artiste, to depict the facelessness of the common man represents artful diplomacy within African cultural milieu. Lagbaja relies on various resource materials including Yoruba folklore, oriki (descriptive poetry), owe (proverbs), afojuinuwo (imagination) and ohun to nlo (current affairs) in his satirical compositions. Through these elements, the artiste succeeds in making graphical representations of figures to facilitate transformative visualisation of the various political and socio-economic occurrences in Nigeria without attracting any negative consequences on his person. This paper adopts Louise Meintjes' concept of music figure to analyse how Lagbaja deploys definitive narratives in negotiating his crusade for an egalitarian society. Specific attention is drawn to the nuance with which the artiste critiques the double burden state of Nigeria's polity as represented by her leaders' repressive actions on one hand, and corollary inactions of and consequences on the led on the other. The paper posits that the figuring of the dynamics of events that shape the day-to-day ordinary life of Nigerians facilitates its proper contextualisation in the reading and interpretation of Lagbaja's songs and drum texts.
African Musicology Online, Oct 20, 2021
Beyond the rhetoric and an intentional tribute to a retired teacher (professor), senior colleague... more Beyond the rhetoric and an intentional tribute to a retired teacher (professor), senior colleague and mentor, Claudius Olayemi Olaniyan, this essay reexamines how Yorùbá dùndún drummers across different generations utilize music resource materials for composition and performance. The article is premised on Cultural Dynamism and relies on data generated from Yorùbá dùndún practitioners using the ethnographic techniques. Drawing on Olaniyan's scholarly contributions, the ingenuity of dùndún practitioners in adopting oríkì (praise chant/music), òwe (proverbs), ìtàn ìbílẹ/orin àbáláyé (folk history/folk song), àfojúinúwò (imagination) and ìşẹlẹ ojú eré (contextual occurrence) to craft their musical art and their contextual appropriateness was analyzed. Findings showed that there is a decline in performance dexterity, less opportunities for knowledge and skill acquisition on resource materials, as well as lower required discipline level and diligence for distinctiveness in modern dùndún performance. The argument is that a gradual shift from the normative Yorùbá music aesthetic assessment and the challenge of absolute meanings on and at different levels has implications for the promotion of dùndún music making now and in the future.
Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2013
Some Yorùbá cultural values and expressions embedded in Egbeda-Egga women's folksongs are the foc... more Some Yorùbá cultural values and expressions embedded in Egbeda-Egga women's folksongs are the focus of this paper. With the use of in-depth interview and participant-observer methods, a collection, description and interpretation of some of the songs recorded during a field trip were undertaken. Analyses of the women's repertoire reveal that immediate local environment are overlaid with folksongs which can serve as veritable resource materials useful for effective music teaching as well as tapping and honing learners' artistic potentials to enhance and transform music performance in the classroom setting and beyond. The paper, therefore, submits that it is high time Nigeria embarked on school reforms and policies to make school music reflect the culture of the local communities.
EJOTMAS: Ekpoma Journal of Theatre and Media Arts, 2022
The agency of music to effectively convey ideas in movies and articulate visual-emotional experie... more The agency of music to effectively convey ideas in movies and articulate visual-emotional experience of the audience during mise-en-scene has long been established. Existing studies have focused more on the elements that characterize film as a visual experience, than on the diegetic (foreground) and non-diegetic (background) music, especially along their aural aesthetic lines. This article, therefore, investigated the aesthetic connections between traditional and performative significations of music in selected movies of Túndé Kèlání, one of Nigeria’s foremost cinematographers. Using a qualitative (videographic) research design, three movies, Ti Oluwa N’ile, Saworo Ide and K’oseegbe, were purposively selected, based on their unique aesthetic traits and distinct cultural identity quality, for content analysis. A close reading of the musical and textual data was done. Findings revealed that cultural themes in the movies, bordering on entertainment, rituals, politics, philosophy, ...
Yoruba Studies Review, 2022
In response to the question of the relevance of ‘classical’ African Studies to the contemporary n... more In response to the question of the relevance of ‘classical’ African Studies to the contemporary need of the continent, this article explores the dynamics of leadership challenge as portrayed in Yorùbá music drama genre, using Duro Ladipo’s most popular folk opera: Ọba Kòso (The king did not hang) as a case study. Thematic exploration of the opera was carried out to establish the linkages between leaders’ (characters’) traits and styles as portrayed in the play, and Nigeria’s political leaders’ engagement and responses to social contracts with their citizens. By comparing the outcomes of the actions, inactions and (in) decisions of Nigeria’s political leaders and the attendant consequences on their subjects with those found in the opera. I argue that the African political leadership challenge is shaped by a combination of complex factors, including the leaders’ charisma and the quality of citizens’ engagements in the affairs of governance. These are largely occasioned by multiple eff...
African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music, 2018
The contemporary Nigerian musical landscape occasionally becomes a site for contesting and negoti... more The contemporary Nigerian musical landscape occasionally becomes a site for contesting and negotiating the established ideology of Yorùbá patriarchy. These movements are evident in many women’s decisions to venture into drumming, an age-old male dominated musical profession. Informed by the theory of spatial trialectics, this article investigates gendered space in relation to dùndún drumming with a view to understanding the changing nuances of gender relations among the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria. Ethnographic techniques were used to generate data on Àrà and Àyánbìnrin, two well-known urban popular female dùndún performers whose aspirations and career trajectories reside outside the Àyàn lineage and spiritual tradition. Biographical accounts and lived experiences of both artists suggest that women’s agency in Yorùbá drumming is hedged by different, prevailing socioeconomic contexts, including a determination to challenge limitations to a career path and economic progress. By des...
Table of contents Foreword v Contributors viii Acknowledgements xvi Reflections on African theory... more Table of contents Foreword v Contributors viii Acknowledgements xvi Reflections on African theory and educational implementation 1. Aesthetics and practices in indigenous choral styles of the Yoruba of Africa Olufemi Adedeji 3 2. The philosophy of art reflected in African ...
This work suggests that there is a decline in the moral values and cultural ethos among the Afric... more This work suggests that there is a decline in the moral values and cultural ethos among the African populace, largely attributed to a combination of leadership capital deficit and decadence in the school system. Hence, there is a need to dig into Africa’s enduring indigenous knowledge system, including philosophical-based traditional music genres, was recommended as part of sustainable home-grown solutions. Àgídìgbo music among the Yorùbá of Nigeria is one of such vocal-based traditional forms, and in this context, this exercise explores Yorùbá philosophical nuances embedded in àgídìgbo music with a view to understanding their educational values. Qualitative research methodology was adopted, acknowledging that Àgídìgbo compositions are rooted in proverbs, aphorisms and parables; presented in symbols of skilled language using figures of speech, imagery and other poetic elements with moral values projected in the music based upon the Yorùbá philosophy of ọmọlúàbí, whose attributes inc...
Yoruba Studies Review, 2021
In response to the question of the relevance of 'classical' African Studies to the contemporary n... more In response to the question of the relevance of 'classical' African Studies to the contemporary need of the continent, this article explores the dynamics of leadership challenge as portrayed in Yorùbá music drama genre, using Duro Ladipo's most popular folk opera: Ọba Kòso (The king did not hang) as a case study. Thematic exploration of the opera was carried out to establish the linkages between leaders' (characters') traits and styles as portrayed in the play, and Nigeria's political leaders' engagement and responses to social contracts with their citizens. By comparing the outcomes of the actions, inactions and (in)decisions of Nigeria's political leaders and the attendant consequences on their subjects with those found in the opera. I argue that the African political leadership challenge is shaped by a combination of complex factors, including the leaders' charisma and the quality of citizens' engagements in the affairs of governance. These are largely occasioned by multiple effects of torrential and irresistible mob pressures on leaders. At the fringes of the debacle is a convergence of human fate and other coincidental elements within the various sites of the divide in the contestation for and utilisation of power as a whole.
In response to the question of the relevance of 'classical' African Studies to the contemporary n... more In response to the question of the relevance of 'classical' African Studies to the contemporary need of the continent, this article explores the dynamics of leadership challenge as portrayed in Yorùbá music drama genre, using Duro Ladipo's most popular folk opera: Ọba Kòso (The king did not hang) as a case study. Thematic exploration of the opera was carried out to establish the linkages between leaders' (characters') traits and styles as portrayed in the play, and Nigeria's political leaders' engagement and responses to social contracts with their citizens. By comparing the outcomes of the actions, inactions and (in)decisions of Nigeria's political leaders and the attendant consequences on their subjects with those found in the opera. I argue that the African political leadership challenge is shaped by a combination of complex factors, including the leaders' charisma and the quality of citizens' engagements in the affairs of governance. These are largely occasioned by multiple effects of torrential and irresistible mob pressures on leaders. At the fringes of the debacle is a convergence of human fate and other coincidental elements within the various sites of the divide in the contestation for and utilisation of power as a whole.
Some Yorùbá cultural values and expressions embedded in Egbeda-Egga women’s folksongs are the foc... more Some Yorùbá cultural values and expressions embedded in Egbeda-Egga women’s folksongs are the focus of this paper. With the use of in-depth interview and participant-observer methods, a collection, description and interpretation of some of the songs recorded during a field trip were undertaken. Analyses of the women’s repertoire reveal that immediate local environment are overlaid with folksongs which can serve as veritable resource materials useful for effective music teaching as well as tapping and honing learners ’ artistic potentials to enhance and transform music performance in the classroom setting and beyond. The paper, therefore, submits that it is high time Nigeria embarked on school reforms and policies to make school music reflect the culture of the local communities.
African Musicology Online, 2020
Beyond the rhetoric and an intentional tribute to a retired teacher (professor), senior colleague... more Beyond the rhetoric and an intentional tribute to a retired teacher (professor), senior colleague and mentor, Claudius Olayemi Olaniyan, this essay reexamines how Yorùbá dùndún drummers across different generations utilize music resource materials for composition and performance. The article is premised on Cultural Dynamism and relies on data generated from Yorùbá dùndún practitioners using the ethnographic techniques. Drawing on Olaniyan's scholarly contributions, the ingenuity of dùndún practitioners in adopting oríkì (praise chant/music), òwe (proverbs), ìtàn ìbílẹ/orin àbáláyé (folk history/folk song), àfojúinúwò (imagination) and ìşẹlẹ ojú eré (contextual occurrence) to craft their musical art and their contextual appropriateness was analyzed. Findings showed that there is a decline in performance dexterity, less opportunities for knowledge and skill acquisition on resource materials, as well as lower required discipline level and diligence for distinctiveness in modern dùndún performance. The argument is that a gradual shift from the normative Yorùbá music aesthetic assessment and the challenge of absolute meanings on and at different levels has implications for the promotion of dùndún music making now and in the future.
Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 13, 2019
From euphemism to dysphemism, the Nigerian popular music industry has enjoyed the patronage of th... more From euphemism to dysphemism, the Nigerian popular music industry has enjoyed the patronage of the masses aided by the various virtual communities in the propagation of its message of eroticism. Unlike many Nigerian popular music artistes who are aggressive in their erotica performances, Saint Janet is a creative music artiste whose adoption of insidious eroticism knows no bound. With the use of ethnographic techniques (key-informant interview and participant-observation), this article discusses the insidious eroticism used in Saint Janet's music. The paper argues that the Christian religious background of the artiste and the need to fulfil her daily needs have been the factors responsible for her insidious creativity. Socio-cultural themes such as didactic, religious, therapeutic, entertainment are part of her techniques in entrapping her audience in her web of eroticism. Subtly, both the young and old are lured into her erotica performances. The paper also argues that parody has been her major compositional technique with emphasis on the reconstruction of several Juju-gospel music.
Journal of Peace Studies and Development, 2015
The conceptual adoption of a hidden personality by Lagbaja, Nigeria's famous masked popular music... more The conceptual adoption of a hidden personality by Lagbaja, Nigeria's famous masked popular music artiste, to depict the facelessness of the common man represents artful diplomacy within African cultural milieu. Lagbaja relies on various resource materials including Yoruba folklore, oriki (descriptive poetry), owe (proverbs), afojuinuwo (imagination) and ohun to nlo (current affairs) in his satirical compositions. Through these elements, the artiste succeeds in making graphical representations of figures to facilitate transformative visualisation of the various political and socioeconomic occurrences in Nigeria without attracting any negative consequences on his person. This paper adopts Louise Meintjes' concept of music figure to analyse how Lagbaja deploys definitive narratives in negotiating his crusade for an egalitarian society. Specific attention is drawn to the nuance with which the artiste critiques the double burden state of Nigeria's polity as represented by her leaders' repressive actions on one hand, and corollary inactions of and consequences on the led on the other. The paper posits that the figuring of the dynamics of events that shape the day-today ordinary life of Nigerians facilitates its proper contextualisation in the reading and interpretation of Lagbaja's songs and drum texts.
Journal of Research on Humanities and Social Sciences, 2013
Some Yorùbá cultural values and expressions embedded in Egbeda-Egga women's folksongs are the foc... more Some Yorùbá cultural values and expressions embedded in Egbeda-Egga women's folksongs are the focus of this paper. With the use of in-depth interview and participant-observer methods, a collection, description and interpretation of some of the songs recorded during a field trip were undertaken. Analyses of the women's repertoire reveal that immediate local environment are overlaid with folksongs which can serve as veritable resource materials useful for effective music teaching as well as tapping and honing learners' artistic potentials to enhance and transform music performance in the classroom setting and beyond. The paper, therefore, submits that it is high time Nigeria embarked on school reforms and policies to make school music reflect the culture of the local communities.
Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, 2018
This work suggests that there is a decline in the moral values and cultural ethos among the Afric... more This work suggests that there is a decline in the moral values and cultural ethos among the African populace, largely attributed to a combination of leadership capital deficit and decadence in the school system. Hence, there is a need to dig into Africa's enduring indigenous knowledge system, including philosophical-based traditional music genres, was recommended as part of sustainable home-grown solutions. Àgídìgbo music among the Yorùbá of Nigeria is one of such vocal-based traditional forms, and in this context, this exercise explores Yorùbá philosophical nuances embedded in àgídìgbo music with a view to understanding their educational values. Qualitative research methodology was adopted, acknowledging that Àgídìgbo compositions are rooted in proverbs, aphorisms and parables; presented in symbols of skilled language using figures of speech, imagery and other poetic elements with moral values projected in the music based upon the Yorùbá philosophy of ọmọlúàbí, whose attributes include ìjúbà (paying of homage), ìwà pe ̣̀le ̣́ (gentleness), ìtẹpámọ́ṣe ̣́ (hard work), àforítì (endurance) among others. Thus, as an enculturative traditional African music, àgídìgbo music is a valuable genre for correcting social ills and reinforcing cultural values, as its musical excerpts are also veritable didactic repertories for promoting cognitive and affective development.
African Music, 2018
The contemporary Nigerian musical landscape occasionally becomes a site for contesting and negoti... more The contemporary Nigerian musical landscape occasionally becomes a site for contesting and negotiating the established ideology of Yorùbá patriarchy. These movements are evident in many women's decisions to venture into drumming, an age-old male dominated musical profession. Informed by the theory of spatial trialectics, this article investigates gendered space in relation to dùndún drumming with a view to understanding the changing nuances of gender relations among the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria. Ethnographic techniques were used to generate data on Àrà and Àyánbìnrin, two well-known urban popular female dùndún performers whose aspirations and career trajectories reside outside the Àyàn lineage and spiritual tradition. Biographical accounts and lived experiences of both artists suggest that women's agency in Yorùbá drumming is hedged by different, prevailing socioeconomic contexts, including a determination to challenge limitations to a career path and economic progress. By describing how female dùndún drumming may be regarded as a response to social and musical change, and discussing how issues of masculinity and femininity are constructed, negotiated and contested, I argue that the belief forbidding women from playing Yorùbá drums is not strictly applicable to the dùndún because the dùndún ensemble is more connected to social than religious performances.
Ruwaza Afrika: Journal of Contemporary Research in Humanities & Social Sciences, 2017
Samuel, K. “GENDERED SPACE TRANSGRESSORS: STUDY OF TWO YORÙBÁ FEMALE DÙNDÚN DRUMMERS”. African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music, Vol. 10, no. 4, Nov. 2018, pp. 160-176., 2018
The contemporary Nigerian musical landscape occasionally becomes a site for contesting and negoti... more The contemporary Nigerian musical landscape occasionally becomes a site for contesting and negotiating the established ideology of Yorùbá patriarchy. These movements are evident in many women’s decisions to venture into drumming, an age-old male dominated musical profession. Informed by the theory of spatial trialectics, this article investigates gendered space in relation to dùndún drumming with a view to understanding the changing nuances of gender relations among the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria. Ethnographic techniques were used to generate data on Àrà and Àyánbìnrin, two well-known urban popular female dùndún performers whose aspirations and career trajectories reside outside the Àyàn lineage and spiritual tradition. Biographical accounts and lived experiences of both artists suggest that women’s agency in Yorùbá drumming is hedged by different, prevailing socioeconomic contexts, including a determination to challenge limitations to a career path and economic progress. By describing how female dùndún drumming may be regarded as a response to social and musical change, and discussing how issues of masculinity and femininity are constructed, negotiated and contested, I argue that the belief forbidding women from playing Yorùbá drums is not strictly applicable to the dùndún because the dùndún ensemble is more connected to social than religious performances.
Uploads
Papers by Kayode M . Samuel