Oral performance as siren: The example of Ozoemena Nwa Nsugbe

Abstract

Marxist literature pioneered literature of commitment or what the French call “Literattu Engage”. Committed literature or art, presupposes that a work of art must be devoted to the espousal of a specific ideology; preferably that which furthers the cause of the down-trodden. Marxism influenced and is still influencing the works of the second generation Nigerian playwrights or those whose works gained ascendancy in the 1970s. During the 1970s also, Afro beat maestro, Fela Anikulapo- Kuti was using his music not only to lampoon the ruling oligarchy but also to raise the people’s consciousness.
With the structural adjustment programme of the 1980s, economic considerations forced some performers into peddling their art for the pleasures of the highest bidder. Thus, did another genre or strand of music evolve. This brand of music was peddled and is still being peddled by some performers that we have chosen to call sirens-hence the folk performer, as siren. This work therefore examines the phenomenon of praise-singing in Nigerian folk music industry, with special bias to works of Ozoemena Nwa Nsugbe.