Songs of the King’s Wives: Women, Power and Performance in the Yoruba Public Sphere

Abstract

Indigenous festivals, which rely significantly on music and dance, often
constitute the village public sphere and the social arena within
which the structures of power are performed and negotiated in traditional
African communities. This article discusses two unique musical
traditions which feature prominently at annual traditional festivals in
Emure-Ekiti, a Yoruba town in Western Nigeria. The musical traditions
are orin olori (songs of the king’s wives) and a related ensemble, orin
airegbe, a musical tradition associated with female chiefs. Exploring an
ethnomusicological approach, this article argues that the complementary
relationship between these two all-female musical traditions and
the scope of their performance practices draw attention to the ways in
which public performance speaks to the status and agency of women in
traditional Yoruba societies.