Documentation and archiving of Urhobo children’s folk-songs in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper empirically investigated Urhobo folk-songs. Like many traditional societies, folksongs have existed orally in Urhobo. This situation imposes threat of extinction to some of the valuable folk-songs of Urhobo. It is in the light of this observation that the importance of archiving and documentation is conversed in this paper. The historical research design was employed to process the investigation which involved children ensembles from five communities in Delta Central Senatorial District in Delta State, Nigeria. The interview and observation methods were utilized for the purpose of collection of the songs in the field. The songs collected were categorized into five areas of folk-song. Findings indicate that Urhobo in contemporary times, still maintain their cultural values inherent in the folk-songs. Also, findings show that archiving and documentation of these songs would result in the presentation of the Urhobo folk-songs that are in circulation orally for many decades. The paper, thus, suggests that ethnomusicologists should engage in the activity of archiving and documentation of more folk-songs in addition to the five documented in this paper.