ABSTRACT
In the past, African Musical culture has become a subject of international attention which is masterminded by educational bodies and organizations and African Musical Societies. Since it has become a tradition for researchers to document different musical and cultural facts which the society may not regard with the growth of ethnomusicology, as a destitution, African scholars and researchers are sharing in this experience of documentation. It suffixes us to know that this write up is to investigate music in Igwe and Osiezi festival of Ika North-East Local Government Area of Delta State and its potentials for Tourism. The Osiezi festival performance is generated consciously with the community’s lore serving as guiding principles for other researchers. Although, our case study of the Osiezi and Igwe festivals among the Owa people is largely exploratory. Since this research is hinged on indigenous art forms, especially the oral variety. During these festivals, especially the Osiezi, the royalty is seen attempting to attain super-human appearance and image. First, the physical image of the King is elevated as he appears in special costumes, during the festival. Secondly, various acts of submission to the king are enacted by his Chiefs and subjects, this is followed by praise songs or chants which tend to raise the Monarch to the Pedestal of a deity. The festivals are designed not to present royalty as an all rosy affair. Aspects of it portray the King as the Chief risk bearer, who carries the responsibilities for the peoples’ sins and pays for them. The present day study therefore, is an attempt to explore and examine the artistic qualities and possibilities of Osiezi festivals. This we hope to achieve through the analysis of the dynamics in the performance of Igwe and Osiezi festivals, the rituals and dance performances. The study therefore is aimed at documenting and popularizing the unique artistic and literary characteristics of Igwe and Osiezi festival performance of the Owa, which had largely remained ignored and unacknowledged with its musical performance which when viewed critically, could be potentials for tourism. The data for this study was collected through interviews of resource persons orally and through descriptive and historical approaches with a view of authenticating the findings. Only the Igwe festival was observed life for the purpose of present research, however, in considering the shortcomings in recording the Osiezi festival, the colourful reality associated with the festival was not revealed physically because it has moved into extinction. But some of the festival dances were observed and recorded, this enabled the researcher to gather sizeable field data enough to test the research hypothesis, despite the long time lag since the main Osiezi festival was last performed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page
Abstract
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose of Study
1.2 Aims and Objectives
1.3 Significance of Study
1.4 Statement of Problem
1.5 Scope and Limitation of Study
1.6 Methodology
Chapter Two:
2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Definition of Festival
2.2 The Origin and Historical Background of Igwe festival
2.3 The Preparation and organization of Igwe Festival
2.4 Musical Activities of Igwe festival
2.5 History of Osiezi festival and its celebration
2.6 The Role of Music in Osiezi festival
Chapter Three:
3.1 Ethnography of the Ika People
3.2 Historical Background of Ika people
3.3 Geographical setting of Owa Kingdom
3.4 Origin of Owa People
3.5 Socio-Cultural Relations in the land
3.6 Festivals in Ika Local Government Area of Delta State
3.7 Religions
3.8 Historical Background of Delta State
Chapter Four:
4.1 Definition of Tourism
4.2 Delta State Tourism Agenda
4.3 Musical Activities in the Festivals that could serve as Tourism potentials
4.4 Songs and Translations
4.5 Melody and Melodic structure
4.6 Rhythm
4.7 Musical Instruments/Instrumentation
Chapter Five:
5.1 Summary
5.2 Recommendations
5.3 Conclusion
References
Definition of Terms
Appendix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Music is as old as the human race. History, music has always been one of the sources of man expression of his emotions, feelings and sentiments. The Nettle,(1992:6) in Floyd (1998:136) defines music as an aspect of the culture which it is part and understood, it can in turn help us to understand the world’s culture and their diversity.
Music as a collective art in which everybody participates is seen as a motivation in our various cultural settings and helps in conveying and putting of our musical heritage of both the past and the present into proper perspective as it relates to man. In light of this fact therefore, music in Igwe and Osiezi festivals are seen as potentials for tourism because of the role it plays during the performance of these festivals in question. It brings out some aesthetic, cultural, psychological, mystical, religious philosophical and metaphysical values. As the people sings songs, performs their music and the royal head takes his regal dance steps with his titled chiefs, all these put together promotes the cultural value of the people and all these musical expressions serves as potentials for tourism.
Music plays such an important role in our society that it is impossible to imagine a society could exist without it. Infact there has not been any society, ancient or modern, without some form of musical expressions udofia (2009:119), defines music, aesthetically, as ‘‘organized sounds by an individual or a group of individual based on experience and belief’’
It should be recognized that those who have equipped themselves with power to understand and appreciate music literature and art have achieved one of the greatest fundamentals of happy and successful life.
Music is the most widely practiced and accessible of all arts. It is so easily available and associated with entertainment and relaxation that some people hardly pause to ponder its implication in the social and economic development of a country. There are countries, which earn a lot of revenue through culture diversity of Nigeria is a huge potential for the export of music and dance.
According to Nettle (1956:6), Music is seen as a phenomenon, present in all culture, primitive and civilized. This assertion indicates how ancient it must be, only a few other cultural trait share, its worldwide distribution. It also has great prominence within its culture because of its prevailing functionality, this implies that, the various cultural backgrounds have its own form of music and that their functions varies from place to place.
Like in most geographical enclaves and demographic entities in Africa, festivals are seen as cultural trait or a pluralistic composition of the people. Where everybody man, woman or child is involved in a form of acting, dancing which is embedded in the festival. Eventually every individual irrespective of their status, could be seen performing carrying out a function to promote the cultural fiesta.
Furthermore, according to Udoma (2002:3) he highlights that music and dance is an activity carried out by every individual, it surrounds every human activity and all events of his life. He says that the life of the people is punctuated and saturated with religious and secular performances and music is a very prominent and indispensable feature because of the position it occupies and the major role it plays in the people well being. The melodies produced by the songs used and the instrumentation could be described as the virus of contagious conviviality that spread without restriction with the colourful processions associated with these festivals, it could also serve as musical repertoire which other nationalities could build on as it serves as agents of tourists attraction to state.
Therefore as we view the role of music in these festivals it should be internalized in the lives of the people and the already forgotten ones should be recalled back and documented for future purposes.
1.1 Purpose of Study
The present study attempts to re-establish the socio-cultural significance of the Igwe festivals by highlighting the intrinsic values of its great carnivals as a functional indigenous administrative tool and its attributes as a genial oral form of the Owa people in general. The study, most significantly attempts to reveal the stabilizing effects of the festivals on indigenous governance and community administration. In these days of sporadic socio-political turbulence and post-election disputes expressed in ethnic clashes religious intolerance and anarchy, the present day Nigerian Society has a lot to learn from this indigenous festivals.......
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