Acculturation, Enculturation and Inculturation in the Liturgical Music of Igboland: The Composer’s Challenge (original) (raw)
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African Musicology Online
One of the distinguishing identities of any Church movement is music. Christ Apostolic Church (C.A.C) in Nigeria and the Diasporas at her inception came with her peculiar music firmly rooted in the Pentecostal theology of the church and in indigenous African musical culture. It became a great tool in the spirituality, evangelisation and proselytisation processes in the Church. Today, not only has C.A.C. influenced Nigerian Christian music greatly, but also dominated the gospel music, one of the most popular music genres in Nigeria. This paper, hinged on transformative and functionalism theories, aims at exhuming the philosophical theology, performance practices and the evolution of this Pentecostal brand of music, both at home and abroad. Employing theological, musicological and historical approaches, the paper as a sacred musicological study, discovers that C.A.C. music is highly functional with deep metaphysical connotations. From indigenous native airs, anthems, hymnody, art musi...
Yale Journal of Music & Religion, 2019
Every two years since 1995, the Forum for the Inculturation of Liturgical Music (FILM) has given a platform for many of Nigeria’s cultures to contribute to the future direction of the Roman Catholic liturgy in Nigeria. This case study focuses on the 2013 Biennial Choral Competition, specifically 13 settings of the Ave Maria text in seven of Nigeria’s hundreds of languages. Prior to that year, FILM had already introduced music with lyrics in minority languages including Bini, “Osolobruvwe Do”, and Efik, “Yak Ikom Abasi”, into the Nigerian canon of choral music, including both concert and church performance. In 2013, the majority of participants knew these polyphonic compositions from memory and sang them in an impromptu mass choir. Also in 2013, the year we observed the competition, the Motet I award (for a setting of the “Ave Maria” in an indigenous language) went to a composition in Igala by Abel Obaje of Kogi State University. The setting competed against four Yoruba-language settings and three Igbo-language. The consistent success of music in minority languages at FILM is a hopeful indicator of the future direction of Nigerian society. In a nation marred by ethnic conflict soon after independence (the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-70), with complex ethnic and religious tensions to this day, FILM offers an opportunity for Nigeria’s many cultures to be celebrated on a level playing field, distinct from most environments where one ethnicity or language is favored over another, or alternatively, uniformly displaced by English. The conflict between cultural continuity and preservation of Nigeria’s many ethnolinguistic cultures and national identity formation is persistent and hard to reconcile, both theoretically and practically. The ideal of unity in diversity is much emphasized (and the concept paraded around by the federal government), but it is rarely realized. Many choral competitions hosted by church bodies in Nigeria (Anglican, Catholic or Pentecostal organizations) often center around one ethnolinguistic culture. Thus, FILM seems to be a unique multi-ethnic contribution to sacred music in Nigeria. Although Catholic in practice and the direct influence is limited to Christian practice, because of cross-fertilization of Muslim and Christian practices, the model will hopefully impact other sectors of Nigerian society.
IKENGA International Journal of Institute of African Studies
Liturgical art music in Nigeria has been beleaguered by the confusion about what is truly African or traditional and what is foreign. This confusion is exacerbated by the Western traditional notion of the solemnity of the liturgy as opposed to the African notion of the concept. This paper investigates the theoretical constructs for authentic indigenization of liturgical music compositions in Nigeria many years after the colonialists have left and addresses issues pertaining to the unicity of style and peculiarity of form in African music. It problematizes the concept of solemnity in the liturgical music of Igbo land, arguing against the colonial concept of ‘sanctity of immobility’ insisting on the reflection of the African rhythmic and tonal sensibilities in the church’s notion of authentic worship. The paper relies on ethnographic data for its findings, using the research composition method to arrive at its major contentions and recommendations. It also provides a unique compositio...
Music traditions of the African Indigenous Churches
African independent churches (AICs), given their political independence, are emerging as reservoirs for some of the indigenous musical practices that would have otherwise faced extinction. The ability of the AICs to fuse indigenous African culture and Christianity in a give and take fashion has been sustained over the years. During this period, African indigenous music, including acculturated hymns, informed the musical practices and traditions of the AICs. This paper critically analyses the emergent musical traditions within the AICs specifically with the view of tracing the African music connection.
Sacrosanctum Concilium: Music in Liturgical Celebrations in an African Context
Akwaba, Revue semestrielle de théologie et de culture, 2015
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My Music, My Language, My Identity; Traditional and Contemporary Music of the Dagbamba
Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 2014
The paper seeks to examine traditional and contemporary Dagbamba music in Dagbamba personal and public identity. It is my goal to also analyze the various ingredients that go into the music played in this setting, and look at the social functions they play. I will argue that the two forms contrast only in style, but they do complement, rather than compete against or even conflict with each other. This paper further juxtaposes the two broad genres (old and new 1) by doing diachronic and synchronic analysis of with the This then, is a diachronic and synchronic analysis of Dabamba music aim to arrive at common threads that connect these forms. The two broad categories of music from Dagbaŋ shall be considered in this paper: traditional "drum" 2 (and fiddle), and pop music sung on the local scene in the Dagbanli language.