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I love it. You know I love that I get I don't I don't you know I don't you know like that. Music from Nigeria recorded by Robert De Armstrong professor of linguistics and director of the Institute of African studies at the University of Ibadan. Professor Armstrong introduces today's program. When we think of African music we think first of all of drums and percussion orchestras and percussion accompaniments to sing. Now it is certainly true that percussion percussion instruments are of fundamental importance in African music but it must be realized that there are very important African musical styles which are song unaccompanied acapella as it were. And in this program we're going to listen
to two different styles of this kind of unaccompanied vocal music. The first two will be from the music of the people of benami Plateau state of Nigeria the Douma live about a hundred and fifty miles east of the Niger River and perhaps right up through the river and for a hundred miles south of it. And they are remotely related to the end of the peoples of Nigeria. We're going to listen to chants by Douma ancestral masks. These masks chant in fact a great variety of poetry and traditional stories in genealogies. The first of these stories is a story of two brothers who go hunting and in the hunt they quarrel. The first brother
Oko is a very great hunter and is referred to traditionally as one who killed fourteen lions and 15 leopards. He kills a great many animals and his younger brother ONU BOA is perhaps a little jealous. They find a pond of water in the forest Oku drinks of it and then calls his brother. But while the brother is coming. An evil spirit in the form of a white horse comes and messes up the water. This makes ownable angry and he accuses his brother Oku of messing up the water for him. Oko denies this but at the same time continues his hunt. Finally the quote gets so bad that only a girl shoots and kills his brother Oko he goes back home. The elders seem to accept this as a normal hunting accident but who knew growing up is not the man his brother was and he is unable to take his brother's social place and in the end he is so discouraged that he turns
himself into a bird flies away in the bush and constantly calls for his brother who go away go away. And this is from one point of view of the legend of how the only bird calls for coup and. I give them will do you good I don't do we'll. OK I did I do what you did on one of them will cook I did Google you know I'm going to know you only or do you that I don't wish to comment. And in a way to whom by a local owner will pack your car if they buy you BECERRA I will tell you no no no to top them in government you've been in a command I gave no power up I will be I believe go up and long a calling out on a ma Nuku Nuku book when you know turbo boom.
I'm not come a time when Germany Okolona one NATO put him on Turkey. Oh you Coca-Cola. We t he come in who you know is going to move you know to talk you know Yahoo. Ya gotta lot going nowhere who. And then it is going on at any OT you know I won't going our book I got you a calling you got to go home who could look into your own and buying ammo nobody local to the man of God I know you would have one and we got we don't got to know the will gone in you you don't mind and it will be really going on an idea you've got in your blue jacket too. I know you who are new but woke up i don't we. How do you go not being you move forward or you were not going
to move to going anywhere I me being a being you know going to move. Who will you know who and you know who I meet them again would be a bad boy who I go to or to leeward who boy you know where to Oak Oh yeah hoo hoo hoo hoo. When one of them who they were not their dog you cannot know what I will call you to your how do you want to go nowhere to run and will be again who do I know who you're going to Abu gone oh no to go again only you know who you're going out to buy them I will be too. On vocal I me being you know Coco I me being ya know. Well you know I'm well you know. Who were you know going where don't know on local your local
who could be. Well he would do it again move man. I kind of made you got there there ya bed. Again we're going to on about The Who were no good who could get a legit locally who book you go to. Oh no no. Oke oke I may be the only code only people who call up to do when we're going to move to a hilly new and I've got it on when you don't know they're not on da move. I know my along on am I paying you my baby. OK I won't move in
the New Year my worry is you know what I know you are You did a body guard on the look out there but on the move. Down with you in your new book. Oh you doubt it did it but will he knew it up on down one who who believe God around whom I gave out on him would do but it did Yvonne who got out who are the new new world John Woo woo. Ok I am down I don't want a new new book I'm the EBU God gave all again OK I did it when you go commonly would teach you kind of it began a patty. I got hooked I didn't do good and oh my gawd don't you in a word OK we're going and we and no Babatunde only thought they knew who knew who they were about to whom were you don't. Who were your book. I guess going to moon woo woo hoo cook new book I don't know it I don't know but hope my own womb the second of these chants
by the same ancestral mask is the story of a traveler who wishes to cross the great river and visit the country of the enigma and north of the bend of a river of Nigeria. He goes to the river but the boat will not go he talks to the boatman and the boat BN gets in and the boat refuses to move. The boatman suggests certain sacrifices and the traveller sacrifices first a cock and then it sheep and a goat and various other things money. None of these move the boat the boat suggests sacrificing it his best friend. He sacrifices his best friend still the boat does not go Goatman suggest well why not try a very pretty girl. He gets very pretty girl sings her praises sacrifices her this does not move the boat either. They try a hawse they try various other things and finally they find yams and salt in oil. And this moves the boat and they go across
the boat and there's a very very pretty little song about light as a leaf they all sing the river. They come to the other side. They shout across to him. What is the trouble. Why are you coming. And the traveler says it is death. And then the story ends with a long string of Proverbs. I find this a very curious story. It's rather like a dream. More like a dream than a real history or a story to be taken literally and in its own way it's a very powerful dream and the regard this is an extremely important chant for the ancestral mask series. The fact is we still don't wholly understand the story. And there are whole sections of it in languages that have not been identified. And what I have given you is those parts that are in the Dhamma that we have in fact been able to translate. Them. Out of a book you've found I think you would
not I do you go out on you know get out it had an idea. People going out on their luck and value but I don't even know who going on you know devouring out their gun not doing it again in going had a guy who got blood on him you're not doing it again then you're going to I don't know any energy of a gun and ammo you wanna bet that the money when they move out of my blanket in any given enough book and what you get when out on the moon.
I'm going to let you go up there guy and when you get there guya Kinney they're going out there you need to go get there gotta keep time I had a guy I'm going out you know I know you had a guy our peony going to do they're going to go in and in a dead guy and we get a guy going and they're going to do what you get up or go down with them. Oh yeah I know. Now I do want to be going on going on.
I don't look you go oh I get it. No they don't want yeah they're going to end in a. Dumb young guy and we yak you know I had a guy our Kinney illin it coming out. You don't want to hear their god go to that you've got to keep going and I'm going yeah I took my hand and any come a moment up that I don't want you and they're going and they're gonna look you've got to keep their time their god.
I know you did. Moment and moment of time I had a gun with him and I don't know what you've done and I don't know a moment in a moment. You know. On on it when I die we're not going to live on
them come out though and you know I am on book one whose job. Yeah I got a bamboo gun Omega on general he he got done you know on end and Mama going to electing you know I'ma Johnny funny mode I'm going to have a whole new game. Oh I tagged along a moment ago who bonobo Jane O'Donnell. I will move it will move people out on a lot luckier by only being on L.A. and I thought OK we'll go there no mom I will boon and I will meet you too he and I know when I don't want to get out we're going to go there. I've gone to mediocre. Oh good I've got to live in it you know I get who clearly I'm going to eat a woman I don't know who to know you that but I will beg you were all there then and when I'm going I'm gon come. OK at Boeing I did have we got to know where the two live oak of their good blood. Oh don't joke about
Big Blue. Knockdown I found I don't know we were all going to be like you Maggie. I get called out of you but I don't. I go out on a good week people who are not on the road I don't want out OK go a bit I got to they were damn lucky I don't know you but I don't get a giggle they don't like you. Oh you must even if Why don't I know my what you were going to go what would it look at it. I go along ploy and I do love it when I guy I get I get I'm out of it must be realized that these chants are part of the sacred methodology and sacred liturgy of the Dhamma people and this particular chant was presented once about five years ago before over a thousand people at old Turk bowing and he Douma. And I'm told the elders were in ts at the end of the
chant. I wish to turn now to a different musical tradition also in Nigeria. Eastern Europe a country the funeral dirge add to a kitty and a city in Eastern Europe a country. Now here we're going to hear women's voices and in a special style of music that is not yet really well known. There is a leading voice and then above that in what I call for want of a better name dissonant or Ghanim we have a second voice which follows the first line of melody but at a dissonant interval one step or one half step producing it seems to me a very powerful effect. This particular chant was sung and broadcast over the Nigerian radio for the late Colonel fi Juhi who was a victim of the second military coup three years ago in Nigeria and it
was done the morning of the state funeral. The point itself is at once very serious and it is also a bit earthy. They they call the colonel the late Colonel an airplane thing he's flying away in the sky. They say he was a fat man pleasantly fat. His body jiggled a bit underneath his clothes as he walked he was the son of a rich man and so on. It's in fact a very fine poem. Oh my God I love that movie if you do go out there. I'm only
a model of the make up on our property I'm on the road. I'm a liberal. Welcome to The Globe. Oh oh. Oh oh oh oh oh thank god it will deal
with a little more of a model of the old oh yeah oh yeah. Settled
on it got the money got to my room got her. There. I've run into anything will go down road I have no
idea who that would be very. But one thing on the ballot. 1. 0 0 0 0 0 that they get. It will be in your room. Well you know me.
Oh um um um um um um um um um um oh my god i think god I like the figure he'll be on the last guy ya damn I got a bag oh my god. He'll value what the love I got a D Well you know of the meal. Well people will
give you about it I want that. Why. Oh oh oh oh my god. Get a book deal. Well your did a lot of them ARE YOU MY GOD. I thought about them don't you. Oh oh oh
oh oh. Oh oh goody Well one thing when when when you boa. Will you. Oh. Oh oh oh oh.
Oh oh geez. I doubt. You know you know. Oh my. God. This program in the series music from Nigeria has presented unaccompanied vocal music of the people of the Bentley Plateau state of Nigeria
included were ancestral masks and chants. Part of the sacred mythology and liturgy of the people. The final selection was a funeral dirge chanted by two female voices. Music from Nigeria was recorded by Robert G Armstrong professor of linguistics and director of the Institute of African studies at the University of Ibadan. The commentary was also by Professor Armstrong. These programs were produced by Linda clustered at a University of Wisconsin station in Madison. Most speaking this is the national educational radio network.
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Program
Music From Nigeria #3
Contributing Organization
University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/500-q23r0k9w
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Description
Description
No description available
Date
1970-00-00
Topics
Music
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:29:13
Credits
AAPB Contributor Holdings
University of Maryland
Identifier: 70-SUPPL (unknown)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Duration: 00:30:00?
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Citations
Chicago: “Music From Nigeria #3,” 1970-00-00, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 29, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-q23r0k9w.
MLA: “Music From Nigeria #3.” 1970-00-00. University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 29, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-q23r0k9w>.
APA: Music From Nigeria #3. Boston, MA: University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-500-q23r0k9w