DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF SELECTED FOLK SONGS FROM ANAOCHA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ANAMBRA STATE

3SONGS FROM ANAOCHA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF
ANAMBRA STATE
Music
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC, FACULTY OF ARTS,
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA
DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O= University of Nigeria, Nsukka
OU = Innovation Centre
STATE
BY
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC, UNIVERSITY OF
NIGERIA, NSUKKA, IN PARTIAL
THE AWARD OF THE MASTER OF ARTS
DEGREE IN AFRICAN MUSIC
Signed:………………
my beloved family.
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Acknowledgements
I wish to express my thanks to Almighty God, who made it
possible for this project to be completed.
With great pleasure, I acknowledge the various persons
whose co-operation led to the success of this project. I am
indebted to the various authors mentioned in the reference for
providing such texts.
My sincere gratitude and thanks go to Rev. Dr. Sir A. kanu
Achinivu, my project adviser, whose expert direction,
suggestions, style and unflinching support made the study a
success. My special gratitude also goes to my mother, Mrs.
Grace O. Offor, my brothers, sisters and the entire membership
of the Offor family for their affection and encouragement in this
work. I am especially thankful to Mrs. Grace N. Offor and Dr.
A.O. Adeogun of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for the
immense help I received from them.
Finally, I wish to express my hearty thanks to all my
colleagues in the department for their moral support
NDUBUAKU K.C. OFFOR
of some Igbo folksongs from Anaocha Local Government Area of
Anambra State of Nigeria. In many parts of the world including
Anambra State, there is a neglect of folksongs due to increased
interest in modern music. These folksongs are part and parcel
of Anaocha people‘s cultural activities and should therefore be
preserved. The writer believes that the ultimate goal of this
collection is to promote Anaocha Language and cultural heritage
for the benefit of the present and future generations and the
society at large. The folksongs in this work are categorized as
follows: Dirges, Birth songs, Marriage songs, Satirical songs,
Recreational songs, Cradle songs, War songs, Praise songs,
Reflection songs, Title-Taking songs, Lamentation songs,
Hunting songs and Work songs. Most of the songs are selected
mainly with reference to content of the song text. If properly
utilized, this thesis will achieve its desired aim in the daily life
activities of the people of Anaocha in Anambra State and the
society at large.
Chapter One:
Introduction 1
1.2 Geographical Location of Anaocha Local
Government Area 3
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1.10 Problems Encountered and Resolved 11
1.11 Research Methodology 12
Anaocha Community Area 35
3.7 War Songs 44
3.8 Praise Songs 44
3.9 Reflective Songs 45
3.10 Moonlight Songs 46
3.11 Folktale Songs 47
Chapter Five
Conclusion 140
References 142
INTRODUCTION
Ethnomusicology is the study of music in culture, in relation to
the behavioural processes that are shaped by the values, attitudes
and beliefs of the people who make up the particular culture.
What is culture? Culture is the characteristic way of life of a
people. Culture is a handed-down tradition from one generation to
another. The Igbo are culturally homogeneous. It is therefore
important to preserve and promote people‘s cultural heritage due to
the following reason: contributions to the shared treasure of
mankind. It is a factor in the strengthening of human, cultural,
national as well as progressive identity.
Consciousness of this identity is a prerequisite if human
developmental mood and goals are to be apprehended. Music, valued
for its ethnical and spiritual importance, is an integral part of this
cultural wealth which everyone is adhering to. With regard to this, it
became important that each member of a society should develop an
understanding of folk music—awareness of their potentiality, talents
and limitations. Although a considerable amount research has been
carried out on traditional African music, contemporary musical idioms
in Africa have received limited attention from scholars.
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It is only in recent times that scholars began to accept the fact
that, while the preservation and documentation of traditional forms
are laudable research projects, new, modern musical practices are
also worthy of attention. The emergence of new musical idioms in
Africa should not be seen as a novel phenomenon. Music which is an
important aspect of a people‘s culture is as dynamic as culture itself.
It can therefore be assumed that African traditional music, as we
know it today, is different from what it was several hundred years
ago. It constantly changes and adapts itself to new demands and
circumstances. Warren (1972) states:
If a people‘s culture is its mirror, we must study African
arts (culture) in order to know African peoples. And to
study Africa and neglect its music is like Greece without
its architecture (p. 99).
The Igbo-speaking people are situated at the Eastern part of
Nigeria. Political developments since independence have split them
into various states, namely: Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi.
This study will focus on Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra
State. Anaocha is one of the Local Government Areas in Anambra
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State. Anaocha Local Government is known for its rich tradition of
numerous folksongs.
documented in research. This study is an attempt to document,
translate, transcribe and analyze them. It will articulate some of the
functions of folksongs which will serve as a frame-work for further
specialized studies on folksongs and examine the contextual
perspective performance of the folksongs in Anaocha community.
Besides, it will help to supplement, as well as introduce the
new but growing tradition of folk music in Anaocha community. It will
further help all those who are interested or engaged in a serious
study of African music, composers and performers who may be
interested in studying or performing in Anaocha Local Government
Area.
Anaocha Local Government Area is one of the twenty-one Local
Government Areas that make up the present Anambra State.
Geographically, it is bounded in the North by Awka South Local
Government Area, in the East by Aguata Local Government Area, in
the West by Njikoka Local Government Area, and in the South by
Umuawulu Local Government Area. It has a landmass of about
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171.62 square kilometers with a population of about 199, 093
according to the 1991 census. And it falls within the tropical climate
and vegetation.
parcel of the Njikoka Administrative Area whose existence dated as
far back as 1957 and was then known as and called County Council‘.
This later changed name in 1960 and became known as Njikoka
County Council.
However, during the Local Government reforms of 1976 it
became known as and called Njikoka Local Government Council. It is
germane to point out that with the Local Government reforms of
1976 many groups of people who share the same homogenous socio-
cultural affinity desired and indeed determined to be identified and
given the Local Government Areas of their own.
Amongst of the groups were the people of Anaocha Local
Government Area. In 1983 Chief (Dr) Jim Nwobodo, the erstwhile
Executive Governor of the then Anambra State, created Anoacha
Local Government Area comprising ten communities of Agulu, Agulu-
Uzoigbo, Adazi-Ani, Adazi-Enu, Adazi-Nnukwu, Akwaeze, Ichida,
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clans known as Agulu and Aguinyi clans.
Under the governorship of Colonel Robert Akonobi of Anambra
State, the Anaocha Local Government Area was created out of
Njikoka Local Government Area in May 1989 with the headquarter at
Neni.
businessmen and peasant farmers who engage in subsistence
farming. The type of red laterite of its landmass is the cause of its
poor fertility. Its people are itinerant traders.
There is no part of the Nigerian Federation where indigenes of
Anaocha cannot be found pursuing their commercial interests. Many
have made great strides in big-time motor transportation,
industrialization, etc. Many who went into academics have
distinguished themselves in different fields of the academia.
1.5 Religion
The people of Anaocha are predominantly Christians. They
believe in the Supreme Being—Chineke or Chukwu. However, a few
are pagans and these believe in lesser gods such as Habaa, Ngene,
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Afo, Udo, Ududonka, etc. They believe in appeasing their gods
through libation. Their chief priests play the intermediary role of
consulting the gods, especially in times of trouble.
Religion plays a prominent role in the social structure of
Anaocha.
1.6 Socio-Cultural/Political Context
Since culture is a people‘s total way of life transmitted from
one generation to another and it is not static, this is to say that the
culture of the people of Anaocha is not original. It has an element of
acculturation. Akpabot (1986) stresses:
tradition handed down from generation to generation and
jealousy preserved by those who have come to be known
as master musicians. The purest form of this music is
found in ritualistic ceremonies where a strict format in
instrumentation and ancestral worship patterns is
maintained. This is opposed to music for social occasions,
where there is flexibility in instrumentation and
performance practices. African music at one time or the
other suffers from acculturation (p. 62).
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trading with neighbours and the advent of European cultures.
Socially, culture made it possible to believe that traditional music is
directly associated with traditional religion and political systems, and
preserved by tradition. It generates social experiences which go deep
and serve as a link that brings the ethnic groups together, giving
individuals a sense of belonging as members of the culture.
Culturally, the community has much respect for the marriage
institution, death/funeral ceremonies, festivals/feasts and kingship/
title-taking.
Christian systems of marriage. A pagan could marry as
many wives as possible, but for a Christian, it is one man
one wife.
(ii) Funeral ceremonies – if a man or a woman dies
outside the locality, the corpse must be brought home.
When a woman dies the corpse must be sent back to the
woman‘s family, but the advent of Christianity has
stopped the practice—unless the woman expressed such
a wish while alive.
different kinds of title-taking for both men and women
such as Ozo, Ozalla, Ekwe and Ifejioku for men; and
Isoebe and Ekwe for women.
(iv) Political Context: No political office is mandatory in
Anaocha community and nobody also has any extra
vantage over his mate because of father‘s position.
Socially everybody is equal.
Area, as presently constituted, consists of three clans with eleven
communities as follows.
(3) Aguinyi clan – (i) Ezennebo, Neni and Akwaeze
communities (ii) Okotu communities (iii) Adazi-
Nnukwu, Adazi-Ani, Adazi-Enu, Ichida and Obeledu.
However, Enugwu-Ukwu was later removed from Anaocha
Local Government Area to Njikoka Local Government Area.
Therefore, the present Anaocha community maintains the three-clan
composition with ten communities.
1.7 Objectives of the Study
Igbo society, like every other society in Africa, is rich in folk
music and dance. Music is an integral part of the process of living in
Anaocha. This supports Akin Euba‘s (1977) argument that much of
the traditional music of Nigeria is realized within the context of social
ceremonies.
A reflection of Anaocha‘s cultural and musical consciousness is
always made manifest during any festive celebrations in the
community. Both the youth and the elders of Anoacha community
are very conscious of their cultural heritage and music, and they are
guided by both. Among the spectacular aspects of her culture is their
folk song.
The focus of study is therefore to find out the origin, uses and
functions of folk songs in Anaocha people‘s culture. If possible, to
find out why or what brought about the songs and how far the songs
have been of importance to the people. This research serves as a
stepping-stone to any researcher intending to carry out research
work on a similar subject or related courses. This study will help to
provide a better understanding of folk music in social, political,
religious and economic contexts.
The people of Anaocha community are great makers of music.
They make much use of music in all activities, from birth to death. As
a result of this tradition, Anaocha people create and perform different
types of music to serve various purposes as the need arises. The
need for this research is to study the contexts of folk music in
Anaocha community as it applies to folk-tale songs, dirges, birth
songs, moonlight songs, marriage songs, lamentation songs, cradle
songs, war songs, praise songs, puberty songs, and title-taking
songs.
It is anticipated that this study will generate the required
interest and will also be beneficial to the musicologist and
ethnomusicologist. It will also be helpful to the general music lovers
who will desire to write and notate folk music. The researcher will
also discuss the types of folk songs.
1.9 Scope and Delimitations of the Study
This present research is limited to eight towns in Anoacha Local
Government Area of Anambra State. The towns covered are Agulu,
Agulu-Uzoigbo, Obeledu, Adazi-Ani Adazi-Enu, Adazi-Nnukwu, Akwa-
Eze and Nri. This work cannot claim to have covered all the areas of
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folk music-making in Anaocha community. It would rather serve as a
stepping-stone and add more insight to future researchers.
1.10 Problems Encountered and Solved
The researcher encountered several hindrances. Her major
problem was urbanization—people who are knowledgeable of the
folksongs migrated from village to the city. This made it difficult to
get in touch with some villagers. The other problem was request for
compensation: Some of her respondents, especially those whom she
met in their houses, were paid some money and given some wine at
their request before they agreed to respond.
Some elderly men and women who were deeply involved in the
folksongs had died. A titled man who was interviewed by the
researcher was a source of much help to her. He saw the research
trips as something that will help to project the image of the
community within the Local Government Area. At the research
therefore, he assisted a lot by convincing some of the respondents,
who had earlier refused to give her the information she needed, to
co-operate with her. The respondents, mainly elders, did not
understand English Language; therefore, the researcher interviewed
them in vernacular and translated their responses into English. She
also observed that majority of the young men and women in the
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community were unable to sing folksongs, instead they had more
interest in singing Christian religious songs.
The researcher also encountered the problem of finance and
unwillingness of some respondents to co-operate with her.
1.11 Research Methodology
The researcher paid attention particularly to the eight of the
towns in Anaocha community. The eight towns are Agulu, Agulu-
Uzoigbo, Adazi-Enu, Adazi-Ani, Adazi-Nnukwu, Obeledu, Akwaeze
and Nri. In these eight towns, men and women elders of between 50
and 65 years of age were interviewed.
The researcher collected a total of sixty (60) different folk
songs of the people. This exercise helped her to find out different
kinds of folk songs performed by the people of Anaocha community
and their roles. The researcher also notated, analyzed and translated
into English the words of the folksongs collected. From this research
she also observed that there were no differences in the folk songs
performed by other Igbo people/ societies either in kind or values of
folk songs, except the differences in the names, singing intonation of
the folk songs due to the tonal inflection.
The author observed that apart from these mentioned above,
folk songs are the same everywhere in terms of content, context,
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approach, functions, etc. regardless of where they exist in Igbo
society and African country at large.
The writer used two principal methods: fieldwork and library
research to collect all the materials used in this work.
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Music is a performing art and part of our cultural
heritage. Folk music as a basic concept entails folk songs, folk tales,
folk dance, drama and language. One of the negative influences of
Western civilization on Africa is its erosion of culture and tradition of
various ethnic groups in the continent. According to Nzewi (1980),
Folk music is an ubiquitous social organizer. It supervises
the operation of established government, assists in the
maintenance of the laws of the land; safeguards and
perpetuates traditions, discourages the degeneration of
personal or corporate morals, promotes programmes,
generally organizes and enlivens all purposes of
communal get-together (p. 15).
This is true because people live in harmony when they come
together to perform folk songs. And also the social evils committed
by any or some of the members of the community are always
revealed through folk songs. Folk songs bring unity among the
people of a particular society. Agu (1989) also defines folk music as:
…traditional music of a people, race, region or nation. It
is more directly associated with traditional, religious and
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it is a spontaneous creation, folk music naturally reflects
the musical idiom of its people (p. 115).
It is believed that every African has some elements of rhythm
in him or her. The African child starts to hear the sounds of music
right from the time of conception / birth, because African mothers
accompany their daily activities with songs. Nketia (1975), therefore,
states that
The African mother sings to her child and introduces him
to many aspects of his music right from the cradle. She
trains the child to become aware of rhythm and
movement by singing to him a nonsense syllable
imitative of the drum rhythms (p. 60).
Songs play important roles in the education of children and also
serve some academic purposes. Nettl (1973) defines folk music as
…a universal phenomenon but each culture has its own
learning to understand another. Music is, in many ways,
like learning a foreign language (p. 7).
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What makes the elements of music does not differ among the
cultural areas, but what differs is the language in which a particular
culture uses to pass on their music. It is also said that language is
not a barrier to music. Echezona (1966) defines folk songs as:
A native product, springing almost unconsciously from
the hearts of simple people, and not intended to convey
any such definite expression of the meaning of the words
as is conveyed in modern songs (p. 23).
He further informs that folk song composition does not
require the technicalities involved in the composition of modern
songs by modern trained composers. Most of the stories told in
various communities are suddenly converted into music as the people
gather together from time to time.
Nigerians are great lovers and makers of music. Therefore they
cannot gather without making music. Every of their activities goes
with music. Agu (1993), in this statement, says:
The musical culture of the Nigerian tribes is quite rich
and varied. It is directly associated with the socio-
cultural, religious and political systems and preserved by
tradition (p. 8).
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As a result of tradition many types of music are created and
performed by numerous Nigerian communities to serve various
purposes as the need arises. In support of the above statement,
Merriam (1960:113) says, The primary understanding of music
depends on the understanding of the people‘s culture.
Culture, in its most widely used sense, refers to something
that a group shares and something that integrates the group‘s total
way of life (Spradely & Mccurdy, 1972:23). The culture of a people
is mostly expressed in the kind of music they play. For one to
understand and value music of a particular culture, it is necessary to
understand the culture in order to know the context in which their
music is used. Music plays a vital role in culture. Lomax (1973)
contends:
Music is man‘s vehicle for expressing what is most basic
in his relationship with others. A culture‘s favourite music
reflects and reinforces the kinds of behaviour essential to
its main subsistence effort and to its central and
controlling social institutions (p. 133).
Many other writers, scholars and researchers also share the
same notion that the character of a…