Ancient Echoes: A Modulation of Prose Music Culture and Yoruba Traditions

By Edward Wole Oluokun

This book is a multiple resource for beginning students in liberal studies who need hands-on approach in studying African literature, art, religion, percussion, politics, and mythology.

In spite of its diverse scope, the book has highlighted cogent issues, such as marriage, nomenclature, hierarchy, and everyday living, in Africa that are different from Western cultures. Discussing primary motifs in these issues exposes scholars to ancient practices, in relation to realities of the modern times.

Additionally, the author has deployed rhetorical strategies such as narration, examples, compare and contrast, etc., to delineate the intersections between sacredness and profanity in African traditions. Finally, the book parades paintings and illustrations from the authors archive. These pictures are prints from large oil and acrylic paintings on canvas, which makes the book a collectors item.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532028199

Edward Wole Oluokun

Edward Wole Oluokun obtained a Master of Arts in English from the University of Memphis and Master of Divinity from Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, respectively. He is a talented percussionist who also delights in African motif paintings; he has mounted solo art exhibitions, directed African music performances, and taught African percussions in United States.

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Copyright © 2017 Edward Wole Oluokun.

Interior Graphics/Art Credit: Edward Wole Oluokun

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-2820-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-2819-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017911098

iUniverse rev. date: 08/21/2017

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Egungun (The Masquerade)

Chapter 2 The Talking Drum

Chapter 3 The Making of Bata Drum

Chapter 4 What A Conflict?

Chapter 5 The Fiddler

Chapter 6 Tioko

Chapter 7 The Animal Horn

Chapter 8 Of Elephant And The Throne

Chapter 9 Undeterred

Chapter 10 Bundle of Joy

Chapter 11 Team Work

Ancient Echoes:

A Modulation of Prose, Music, Paintings, Poetry, and Yoruba Traditions

To the Only Wise God

PREFACE

This book reveals my obsession for African Art: visual, poetry, performing, and storytelling. And to share this passion with my generation, I have juxtaposed, in this work, historical fiction, fables, and poetry, to sound the bravura echoes of the Yoruba culture and traditions.

Embedded in this rich culture are music, religion, art, politics, and morality, which are passed down, orally, from generation to generation.

I have been able to compile this book, first, because I am born into lineages of Iyalode- the designate head of women in a Yoruba town. Second, because I am Artist; third, because I earned a degree in divinity; and finally, because I am writer.

The primary goal of this book is to situate some African percussion instruments in their original domain; other goals include, celebrating Yoruba culture and deploying African literary elements, such as themes, symbols, and imageries.

While some may represent a broad spectrum of African culture and traditions, elements discussed in this book are predominantly Yoruba culture. And I would rather not impose any of these elements on other cultures. Furthermore, most names and addresses, and in some cases, some stories, in the book are fictitious, for literary expediency.

I also do not intend to get into the mud with groups or individuals who claim to know but are unwilling to share knowledge.

I do acknowledge my limitations on some of the issues raised, especially in the areas of African liturgy, yet I make bold to say that whatever knowledge left undivulged is considered sacred and; thus, I concede it to the realm of the Creator.

INTRODUCTION

The role of music in Yoruba culture cannot be over emphasized. Thus, the book has devoted much space to detailing how music has encapsulate the culture, and how musicians have deployed their beautiful skills and instruments in expressing Yoruba traditions.

Much is said about the use instrument, than the role of musicians, since African percussion instruments have sacred functions, as opposed to frivolous entertaining tools; the book—in some instances— has employed poetry to describe the function and the beauty of such an instrument.

Remarkably, most of these musical instruments have been used to accompany hymns, even in Christian religious worship.

I encourage readers to listen to harmonies and rhythms from these tools that have accentuated Yoruba culture, even more than the written record.

Yoruba culture is endowed with talented craftsmen. Most of their invented musical instruments, such as the Bata drum, have not only become a household percussion in Brazilian and Cuban music culture, but have been incorporated into modern music throughout the world, yet their origin remains unknown.

The first chapter describes the use of Bata and Dundun drums in Egungun Festival.

Egungun (masquerade) festival portrays Yoruba beliefs in afterlife, that ancestral spirits are not only divine but transcendent. Egungun loves to dance to Bata and Dundun rhythms.

Likewise, deities such as Sango, the god of thunder and Oya - the river Niger goddess, love roaring rhythms of Bata.

Chapter two describes the significance of ritual in African art, specifically, drum-making. It narrates the story of a renegade artisan who was punished by the gods.

Chapter three explains the noble and sacred role of musicians in Yoruba community. It tells the story of a fiddler—a custodian of history—who lived in a corrupt and unpatriotic community. Noteworthy is the chapter’s highlights on power of local jury in Yoruba tradition; it further showcases rewards for heroism, all these are layered by poetry.

Chapters four and five situate the sacred functions of horns and Agogo in African liturgy. It also explains how hunters use Tioko, the small wooden whistle, to signal danger.

Agogo, translated the gong, is a piece of metal rolled as a hollow cup to produce a sonorous sound.

The combination of Agogo and Shekere, the rattle rhythms, makes Ogun—the deity of iron gyrate; likewise, Obatala, the white deity, rejects other music but favors the sacred sound from the gong and Shekere.

The remaining chapters espouse royalty, morality, individuality, and communality in Yoruba community.

Readers should try to explore the subtle theme of joy and glamour as expressed through these tools that celebrate the rich Yoruba culture. They are great!

Since we love and adore these essential musical tools, isn’t time we give credit to those cultures that produced them? Or for fear of reproach, should we deny cultural benefits derived Africa?

C.S Lewis noted that it is the forgotten past that enslaves us, and not the past that is remembered; he argued that to study the past does indeed liberate us, so let us tell the new generation of Africans how versatile these instruments are.

And if the modern world fails to appreciate the origin, the sacredness, and the aesthetics as well as the primary functions of these instruments, but continues to appropriate them without giving due credit, I believe their shadows will hunt us, and I believe their echoes will deafen our world.

CHAPTER ONE

EGUNGUN (THE MASQUERADE)

The Envoy from the Heavens

The august Visitor, Welcome

As the fur of a Ram annoys hyena

So is Your candor in the presence of your Enemy

The Emissary from the fathers

May your adversary never see the light of the day

May your brief Visit bring Bundle of Blessings

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During Egungun Festivals, Bata and Dundun Drummers entertain the august visitor. Youths also chase themselves around, wielding tree limbs

The July rains in Aramoko, an ancient town in Old Oyo Empire, usher in the