Suchergebnisse

This thesis examines the musical practices of Badagry Ogu people from both historical and contemporary perspectives and provides strategies for their further integration into the changing social and economic landscape characteristic of 21st-century Lagos. Badagry emerged as a Nigerian town bordering the Republic of Benin in the 19th-century colonial delineation processes, which neglected ethnic frontiers. Consequently, Badagry Ogu people, being a minority ethnic group and geographically peripheral in Nigeria, have been politically, economically and socially marginalized for generations. Using ethnographic methods in studying selected indigenous musical bands (Gogoke, Gigoyoyo, Kristitin and Akran Ajogan), a biographical sketch of master drummer Hunpe Hunga, and an applied ethnomusicology method of collaborative music composition and arrangement, I chronicle the musical heritage of Badagry Ogu people. In addition, I suggest an approach for its recontextualisation into different creative economies. I engage Thomas Turino's framework for identity and social analysis, including the concepts of cultural cohorts and cultural formations, in exploring the different attitudes, among Badagry Ogu people, towards indigenous music. I advocate for and outline a contemporary approach for musical recontextualisation as a means of inclusivity and economically empowering performers of indigenous Ogu music in Badagry. This thesis includes my additional arrangements to the studio recordings of Gogoke. The recontextualisation process, which commenced with Gogoke's recording of indigenous instruments and vocals in Badagry Lagos Nigeria, reached its full fruition in the overdubs of Western musical instruments in Cape Town, South Africa. To further explore the theme of inclusivity, I examine current gender practices in Ogu communities evident in the gendered musical practices of contemporary Badagry. With its indepth analysis of Ogu genres, musical instruments, gender issues and a framework for recontextualising African indigenous musics, this thesis, while filling the gap in the study of ethnic minorities in Nigeria, is a significant contribution of the nuanced artistic practices of Badagry Ogu people to African music scholarship.

At the Congress of Berlin (1884–85), the colonial governments created and imposed boundaries on the people of the continent, thereby fragmenting, for example, Gbe ethnolinguistic groups into different west-African countries, under the administrations of Britain, France and Germany. The Badagry-Ogu ethnic group, being the only Gbe ethnolinguistic group in Nigeria, which was colonised by the British government, was marginalized due to its positionality. Badagry-Ogu musical practices experienced the same situation and they have consistently waned over the years. These days, due to the effects of a postcolonial modernity in Lagos the indigenous is perceived as inferior, resulting in the condescending attitude of Badagry-Ogu youth towards their heritage. This paper describes the process of creating an experimental musical style, which syncretises Badagry-Ogu music and American jazz. This process involves the collection of music, engagement with performers, analysis and arranging of music and music making, with the thought of revitalising the interest of the youth trained in western music to engage more with their heritage, while making Ogu music more widely accessible in the global context. Supporting the argument for composition as a living archive, this paper features a new approach to musical conservation in Badagry Lagos.