VOLUME 29 Nos.l&2 2005 
ISSN 0002-0087
Special Edition
( E T H N O M U S I C O L O G Y )
AFRICAN NOTES
JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES 
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA
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African Notes
Journal of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan 
Vol. 29 nos. 1 & 2 2005
SPECIAL EDITION 
African Ethnomusicology
(In honour of Professor Mosunmola Omibiyi-Obidike)
EDITOR: Olufemi B. Olaoba 
ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Olubayo Adekola 
Nathianiel Danjibo 
Ademola Faleti 
Ayo Adeduntan
PUBLICATIONS MANAGER: Olufemi B. Olaoba
SALES COORDINATOR: Mrs M.O.O. Adeboye
ADVISORY BOARD
Tekena Tamuno: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan 
(History/Administration)
Bolanle Awe: MacArthur Foundation, Ibadan (History) 
Alex Iwara: University of Calabar (Linguistics)
Dele Layiwola: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan 
(Performance and Cultural Studies)
BabatundeAgbaje-Williams: Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan 
(Archaeology/Anthropology)
Tim Cribb: Churchill College, University of Cambridge 
(English)
Olufemi Taiwo: Loyola University, Chicago (Philosophy)
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African Notes is a unique forum for Africanist discourse and construct. The journal remains a platform 
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Contents
Iyere Ifa in Yoruba Culture 1
Abel Ajamu Adeleke, Ph.D
Change and Continuity in Bata Performance 15
Jel eel O. Ojuade, Ph.D
The Origin and Development of the Music Recording Industry in Nigeria 26
Olugbenga Olanrewaju Loko, Ph.D
Music in Idoma Traditional Funeral 46
Godwin Ejembi Ogli, Ph.D
Ijo Iwdsi in Agura Palace, Abeokuta 65
Adeoluwa Ayokunle Okunade, Ph.D
The Art of Female Dimdun Drumming in Yorubaland 77
Kayode Michael Samuel, Ph.D
Apdla, Sakara and Waka as Entertainment Music 98
Olusoji Stephen Olu-Ibukun, Ph.D
Can African Music Enhance Socio-Political and Economic Development in Nigeria? 113
Oluyemi Olaniyan, Ph.D
From the Sacred to the Secular: A Diachronic Examination of Selected
Oguega Terms in Esan Vocabulary 121
C.O. Aluede, Ph.D
The Making of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Afrobeat 129
Albert Oseghaede Oikelome, Ph.D
Historical Development of Nigerian Gospel Music Styles 14 5
Femi Adedeji, Ph.D
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The New Ijala Genre in Christian Worship 153
Atinuke Adenike Idamoyibo, Ph.D
The Origin and Development of Juju and Highlife Music 1900-1990 165
Arugba Aboyowa Ogisi, Ph.D
Review Article
Decolonising the Mind: Issues of Politics, Identity and Self-Expression in
Post-Colonial Societies 188
Professor Dele Layiwola
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Review Article
Decolonising the Mind: Issues of Politics, Identity 
and Self-Expression in Post-Colonial Societies
Dele Layiwola
Professor o f  Performance and Cultural Studies 
Institute o f  African Studies 
University o f  Ibadan, Ibadan
The emergence of Ulli Beier’s book in 2005 re-invent themselves away from extinction.
brought forth another milestone in the evolutionary The fact that these societies have sustained 
history and research of old world cultures and their respective denizens through momentous 
identity indices. The book itself is indicative of a periods in their histories reveals that there is a 
watershed in the foregoing or ‘other’ cultures, less validity clause, some ‘resistant’ fabric in their 
popular windows on the mind of world civilisa­ language, philosophy and creative self-expression 
tions. It is instructive to identify that the book worth investigating, exploring and re-affirming. 
instantly compels an identification with another The human agencies and animators in the nook 
book or the same title published two decades under consideration are Ulli and, his wife, 
earlier by the Kenyan Novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Georgina Beier. Their occasion for serendipity in 
The first was specifically concerned with Ngugi’s Papua New Guinea is worth noting for two reasons: 
concerns over the politics of language in African that Ulli and Georgina Beier re-discovered their 
literature whilst this latter publication is concerned mission and themselves in Nigeria, reminded that 
with the politics of creativity and self-expression they have used that self-knowledge to de-colonise 
in Papua and New Guinean Art. The two books, or liberate citizens on two post-colonial continents. 
two decades apart, represent both sides of the same Ulli’s enlightenment mission has always Ulli’s 
coin. They both underscore the process of self- enlightenment mission has always engendered a 
expression, artistic creativity and the politics of tripodal outlook built around ideas people and 
day-to-day living and existence in post-colonial society.
societies; societies that were locked into an old We must bear in mind that in this part of 
world order and who are now labouring to Australasia, unlike in Western Nigeria, there exist
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Decolonising the Mind: Issues of Politics, Identity and Self-Expression in Post-Colonial Societies 189
two levels of colonisation in regard to the language article on the University of Papua New Guinea 
and culture. That of the Mother-country was reveals a deep understanding of the psychology 
completed especially by the British but that of of racism and colonialism. It grants an open 
Papua New Guinea is beign actively accomplished window on Port Moresby and the plight of her 
by Australia itself. This informs the extent of the workers, similar to what might be found in 
challenge of cultural conscientisation that is apartheid Johannesburg, Pretoria or Cape Town 
available to missioners like Ulli and Georgina where indigenous men are just ‘boys’. But it also 
Beier. Peter Trist re-affirms this phenomenon in grants us the privilege of seeing John Gunther, the 
his foreword to the book: Vice-Chancellor, whose mind and personality had 
surpassed the limitations of racism and discrimina­
As I had been a resident o f  ‘that distant part o f  tion.
the world’ since 1 9 5 7 ,1 could advise Mr. Willet 
that the Beiers would find little, i f  any, artistic We move to the second leg of that tripod- 
energy surviving in Port Moresby. The Moresby people. His lifework has always inspried personali­
Arts Council, established since the 1920s and only ties as well as personages and, in this regard, all 
interrupted by the war, gave performances o f  who truly enocuntered the real Ulli Beier came 
musicals and plays for, and by the expatriate off inspired and transfomred by his disarming 
minority . .  . Within weeks o f  the Beiers’ arrival humility and his charming personality. He was 
on the Campus they joined me in founding the unobtrusive. His leadership style was participatory 
student’s Drama and Arts Society. Over the next and he was a lateral thinker. His activities and 
few years, I worked with them on many drama career as recounted in the book makes it partly 
projects (p. xv). autobiographical. His encounter with Albert Maori 
In Nigeria, Ulli had always argued the fact that Kiki before the latter became Papua New Guinea’s 
a people must be able to relate themselves to their first Minister of Foreign Affairs was noteworthy. 
own literature and culture and that the opposite Much as the whole village of Orokolo thought of 
can only serve to alienate them as colonial subjects. him, he always has an ancestral presence with him 
He felt the same in New Guinea and had proposed -  ever encouraging, ever soothing. He is a great, 
to his Head of Department, Frank Johnson, that spontaneous learner and equally a great teacher 
literature courses ought to relate to the culture of much at home with mental patients at Laloki as 
the people. That would enable them see their with university undergraduates of creative writing. 
attainments and their problems rather than strain This is a repeat of his experiments with mental 
to relate to a foreign culture they might never patients at Aro Psychatric Hospital, Nigeria. In 
experience. In other words, Beier had always been either terrain, he succeeds in kindling self- 
an advocate for the indigenisation of scholarship confidence in his students, colleagues and friends. 
as an ideological policy. His students would later He inspired and exhibited such international artists 
react to the fecundation by their prodigious like Tiabe, Hape, Ruki Fame, Kauage and Akis of 
creativity in written literature and representational Tsembaga. He also helped to make such prose 
art. writers and a dramatist as John Saunana, Leo 
In the second of the eighteen chapters in this Hannet. Kumalau Tawali, Apisai Enos and Arthur 
book, titled “In The Boys University”, there Jawodimbari.
appears an instant parallel with his 1993 article Ulli attempted to make Vincent Eri into 
on the beginnings of University, “In a Colonial Papua’s first novelist but Eri, in addition to that, 
University”, where he relived the mindset of discovered his other talents as a diplomat and later 
colonialists and colonials alike. Incidentally, this as Governor General of Papua New Guinea. There
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
190 Dele Layiwola
is a sense in which the process of decolonisation the journal KOVAVE -  A Journal of New Guinea 
espouses both the benevolence of a missioner and Literature which promotes indigenous Literatures 
the traumatic regurgitation o f a deep-seated in the English Language in Papua New Guinea. It 
mindset; as well as the need for ideological emerged as the first literary magazine, which 
somersaults, even a revolutionary reorientation. encourages young Papuans to creatively interact 
For instance, the book, in the seventh chapter titled in their own idiom. The journal has since -spurred 
“Finding Their Own Voice”recaptures the worst other name titles like New Guinea Writing, 
infliction of colonialism and de-humanisation: Bikmans, and Ondobondo. This, reveals that it is 
Ever since the Germans, the British and later the a vision rightly propagated hence, the flourish of  
Australians had ruled the country, they were successors.
expected to take orders and obey them, they had In concluding this short review, I shall like to 
never been credited with the intelligence to form briefly refer to two outstanding artists who became 
an opinion o f  their own. They were considered famous through the work of the Beiers in Port 
uneducable by m ost early administrators and Moresby: The first is Mathias Kauage, male and 
missionaries, and it needed a courageous man o f  the other is Marie Taita Aihi, female. I am focusing 
strong convictions like Rev. Charles Abel even to on these two because they emphasised certain 
insist that Papuans could be trained as carpenters! theoretical instances in the post-colonial project. 
(56). Kauage, incidentally, shares the dedication of the 
The book eminently makes it clear, like the book book with John Gunther, the first Vice-Chancellor 
by Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin (1989), them­ of the Papuan New Guinea. The author of the book 
selves Australians that the right kind of education discussed the two artists with great sensitivity and 
empowers the ‘natives’ to write or talk back at their one of them managed to reach his peak while the 
erstwhile masters or oppressors. other retracted from what might have been a 
Ulli and Georgina Beier have been able to use glorious career. In some respect, they both 
literature, creative writing and art as mediums of represent the antipodal twilight of the post-colonial 
mental and ideological liberation for these subject world.
persons under the yoke of colonialism. Education Kauage, a huge statuesque figure had grown 
thereby becomes a therapy to cure mental and up in the Chimbu Mountains where he left school 
material subjugation. Where potentials and very early when a teacher beat him up for helping 
energies are liberated, humanity is the better for it a younger pupil with her work. When he attempted 
since the sum total of our human experience will to return to school as an adult, his childhood 
be enriched immeasurably. This helps to illustrate memories of school depressed him. Thus, he 
the fact that the whole project of re-educating distrusted formal colonial education. He also felt 
Papuans in their own literature, art, language and humiliated and fought shy or an education which 
other resources of their mind is a systematical allows one to be denigrated, or beaten, irrespective 
process of post colonial disengagement which not of one’s status in his own culture. Georgina Beier 
only helps to discover a voice in addition to puts her finger on it:
regaining a tongue. But beyond these templates, it 
will also help to establish an unshakeable identity Every human being goes through the traumatic 
experience o f  growing up, but in a recently 
(Layiwola 2001:xi). colonised country like Papua New Guinea, a man 
The mission of Decolonising the Mind has goes through this agony twice: he may be a man in 
complemented the practice of post-colonial studies his own culture, but he is a child in the superimposed 
with publishing and book making. There emerged foreign culture and he finds the prospect o f another
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Decolonising the Mind: Issues of Politics, Identity and Self-Expression in Post-Colonial Societies 191
“initiation” worrying and alarming (85). Beier. She became the first Roro woman to drive 
The overarching power of the colonialist and his a car and produced exquisite prints and dresses. 
institutions were suspect. In the words of J.F. Ade She became a near-celebrity and stood out from 
Ajayt (1982:12): the rest of the Roro community in Port Moresby. However, a short visit home to participate in a 
They were impressed by the technology o f  the festival became her undoing. That was the first 
white man and regarded him with a w e . . .  but the visit home after a long interval. The book 
people could hardly trust or confide in what they graphically described how she sustained a minor 
could not understand. They viewed the white man accident. Though no apparent damage was 
from a safe distance as an incumprehensible, diagnosed, Marie became a victim of fear and 
irrational and uncontrollable force. depression. She was convinced that her minor 
The circumstances described here have been accident resulted from witchcraft and that some 
excellently played out between two characters in old persons in the village had tried to harm her. 
the South African Play by Athol Fugard -  The She became paranoid and found a superstitious 
Island. In that play, the white jailer keeps referring explanation thus:
to the black inmates as ‘boys’. The character In her perception, she had been called to order 
named Winston is quite mindful of this when he, and punished for attempting to elevate herself 
although a fully grown man, has to play the beyond the other members o f  her community 
improvised role of a girl. This colonial situation (113).
looks down on the colonised as a nobody; a citizen 
without rights! She sank deeper and deeper into depression 
The heartening fact is that without western- and returned to her village. The next time she was 
style education, Kauage worked hard and became seen, she was hawking coconuts in the market. She 
an accomplished artist who exhibited his works abandoned her students and training and returned 
around the world and was honoured by the Queen to the ordinary life of a village girl.
of England with an OBE in 1995. This, for Ulli and Georgina, was a truly 
The second example, Marie Aihi represents devastating experience at the sheer waste of talent 
that in which the colonial person regards his or and potentials. For how can a citizen with such 
her social condition as always subject to a status urbane talents and uperb training throw them away 
quo ante. A state of ‘primitive’ paranoia, which with such ease? But a partial and well-meaning 
reminds him/her of an original foundation, illo explanation can be found again in Ajayi’s paper:
tempore, where there is a presumed balance with As western education, science and technology 
a pre-existent reality. Beier himself has theorised spreads, the insecurity o f  life has bred superstition 
this at the beginning of the twelfth chapter where and the search for faith healers and prophets have 
he relates the murder of a ‘native’ by his kinsmen sim ilarly spread throughout every strand o f  
as all attempt to restore the social balance that once society (1982:21).
was. This social balance is the restoration of a The example of the Beiers is uncommon as 
social order with which the postcolonial finds has been replicated in two differing but similar 
familiar or ‘ guaranteed’ peace in his or her psyche. locations across the globe; circumstances of post- 
This young, talented artist was bom in Waima, coloniality. The pioneering efforts at Migila House 
a Roro village in the central district. She was lucky 
to have been spotted as a talent with great and the personalities involved are infectious. The story is of empowerment and mutual, reassuring
potentials. She then came to work with Georgina
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192 DeleLayiwola
trust in people and that of unparalleled optimism Works Cited
in the capacities of humans for creative expression. Ajayi, J.F. Ade. “Expectations o f  Independence”. 
It is also the spiritual capacity of man to overcome Conference on Africa. American Academy of Arts 
his/her own limitations and obstructions. If there and Sciences, Cambridgem Massachusetts, June 
is anything, the lives o f al those artists and 28-31, 1981.
personalities who have now become historical Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Grifliths and Helen Tiffin. The 
personages lend the truth to their illusionary Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post- 
country and art. It is left for us to congratulate Colonial Literatures. London: Routledge, 1989.
Pandanus Books and the Australian National Layiwola, D ele (ed.) Understanding Post-Colonial 
University for the courage to champion the cause Identities: Ireland, Africa and the Pacific. Ibadan: 
of the post-colonial project. Sefer Books, 2001.
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