Continuity into the Present
How the oral genres feed juju, fuji, ewi and Afrobeats, how film and theatre use them, what is actually being lost, and what archives and projects exist to hear the material.
intermediatemedium·
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How the oral genres feed juju, fuji, ewi and Afrobeats, how film and theatre use them, what is actually being lost, and what archives and projects exist to hear the material.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Yoruba oral literature no stop. E change medium, change audience, and change who dey get paid, and plenty part of am na wetin more people dey hear now pass any time for history. Wetin weak no be di material, but na di settings wey dem take dey pass am down before: di evening storytelling circle, hunter gathering, di years wey bride dey spend dey learn her chant. Dis file follow di genres go front.
Di music history dey somewhere else. yoruba-popular-music-lineage for 07-arts trace sákárà, àpàlà, wéré enter fuji, wàkà, juju, highlife, Fela Afrobeat and contemporary Afrobeats as musical history. yoruba-dance-and-theatre cover di Aláàrìnjò theatre, di twentieth-century travelling theatre and Nollywood. Dis file only dey ask wetin happen to di verbal art inside those forms.
Di continuity no be just vague influence. Na direct use of named oral genres inside commercial recordings, and e get scholarly literature on top am.
Oríkì na di main load-bearing element. Coker study theorise how dem use oríkì as cultural resource for di music of Sunny Adé, Ebenezer Obey, Shina Peters and Kollington Ayinla, dey argue say dis musicians maintain di continuity of di oríkì tradition . Studies of oríkì for juju, highlife and fuji make di same case across genres . Fuji specifically incorporate Yoruba language and long-established verbal genres, with proverbs and oríkì join body .
Di mechanism na di same praise transaction wey dem describe for file 04 and file 13. Fuji or juju bandleader go call name and praise wealthy people wey dey present or wealthy people wey don pay, using oríkì material, and dem go reward am. Wetin change na di scale: record dey reach everybody, and di praise dey last instead of to just stay local.
Ọfọ̀ and ìbà dey appear for recordings. Orimoogunje document Àyìnlá Ọmọwúrà dey use ọfọ̀ for im records, and mention Fatai Olowonyo, Sikiru Ayinde, Haruna Isola, Yusuf Olatunji, Dauda Epo Akara, Odolaye Aremu and Kasumu Adio among musicians wey dey use ìbà (homage), ìwúre (blessing), epè (curse) and oríkì for performance . E give one ìbà text from Fatai Olowonyo record where di performer pay homage to elders so dat younger people go fit pay homage to am too . To open record with ìbà na di same move as to open chant with am.
Ìjálá cross over. Ògúndáre Fóyánmu record around twenty albums of ìjálá and bring contemporary political topic enter di chant, including im ìjálá on top di 1969 tax war . Yoruba Christians and Muslims dey join ìjálá chanting enter dia own worship, where e still dey clearly recognizable as ìjálá because na di vocal style carry di identification . Genre wey dem build on top homage to Ògún na wetin people dey hear for church now.
Ewì turn modern recorded form. Dis na di clearest example of genre wey professionalise instead make e decline. Láńrewájú Adépọ̀jù's own account of im contribution na say e modernise and professionalise ewì, and Okunoye study present am as local intellectual wey im work shape contemporary Yoruba poetry, dey treat ewì as open form for di boundary between wetin dem dey speak and wetin dem write . E pioneer ewì on top disc and later cassette, dey use recording produce long poems, and di Ewi Hit Hot series spread well across di Yoruba-speaking area . Ọlátúbọ̀sún Ọládàpọ̀ na di other main figure, and dia early-1970s collections mark di genre new awakening . Ewì dey draw freely from ìjálá, rárà, ẹsẹ Ifá, oríkì and ẹfẹ̀, wey make am modern container for di older genres instead of to replace dem.
Enter Afrobeats. Contemporary Afrobeats artists dey use Yoruba proverbs and oríkì-derived self-praise well well, and dem don analyse dis practice under di heading of album art and authenticity for fuji and Afrobeats . Di most visible continuity na di hype performance for Nigerian parties and events, wey dem don study as direct commercial descendant of oríkì praise practice, dey mix di traditional aesthetics for economic purpose . MC wey dey chant guest lineage for Lagos wedding dey do wetin onírárà do before.
Make person dey careful make e no over-claim. No be every Yoruba phrase for pop song be oral genre wey dey operate. Di claim wey stand well na di one wey scholarship make: specific named genres, oríkì and ọwe pass all, na wetin identified artists dey use deliberately and visibly, and di praise-for-payment economy dey continue. Any claim wey pass dat one no get support here.
Di line of descent run from Egúngún masquerade pass through Aláàrìnjò to twentieth-century travelling theatre go reach film, and na wetin dem document, no be just ordinary talk. Adedeji trace di masque theatre development from ritual pass through festival enter theatre, with Ẹ̀sà Ògbìn wey take di Egúngún troupe pass di palace court reach general audience . File 03 explain dis one and yoruba-dance-and-theatre carry di theatre history.
For contemporary film, di most studied case na Túndé Kèlání, wey im Sàwòrò Ìdẹ̀ (1999) and Agogo Èèwọ̀ (2002) draw from Yoruba oral literature directly. Di scholarship on top Agogo Èèwọ̀ identify folktale songs, children game songs, protest songs, Ifá festive songs, tongue twisters and material from di Ifá corpus inside di film, wey dem use carry di themes of corruption and governance . How Kèlání use Ifá narrative as cultural archetype na wetin dem study separately . Di pattern be say di film dey use di genres di way tradition dey use dem, to comment on behavior, instead of to just use dem as decoration for old-time setting.
Two things follow from here. Film na now major carrier of oral genre material to mass audience, including people wey no go ever attend festival. And film no be documentation: Yoruba-language feature film na evidence of contemporary Yoruba culture and language, no be record of traditional practice, and people dey often mix di two together .
To dey accurate matter well well for here, because di people wey dey panic and di ones wey dey unconcerned, both of dem dey wrong.
Where e weak pass: di transmission settings. Àlọ́ depend on evening time wey light no dey, big extended family house, and elders wey get people wey dey listen to dem. Dat kind arrangement don almost vanish finish for urban Yorubaland. Ẹkún ìyàwó depend on di many years wey small girl dey single take learn am, and on marriage system wey make di farewell visit compulsory. Ìrèmọ̀jé depend on hunters guild wey still dey work.
Where e weak pass: di closed genres. Di genres wey membership dey control na dem face di biggest risk, because just general interest no fit keep dem alive. Na hunters dey perform Ìrèmọ̀jé only for hunters. Ẹ̀sà need di Egúngún society. Anywhere wey di institution take weak, di genre no get any other way to survive.
Where e strong pass: di praise economy. Praise wey dey based on Oríkì dey bring commercial money, so e no dey any danger at all. E don move enter fuji, enter hype performance, wedding MC work and social media, and di money even better pass before.
Where e strong pass: wetin recording dey preserve. Fóyánmu record ìjálá; Adépọ̀jù record ewì. Genre wey get record album dey survive pass di performers in a way wey genre wey nobody record no fit survive.
Wetin really dey at risk: di vocal manners. Dis one follow di argument for yoruba-oral-genre-system. If na vocal expression majorly dey make di genres different from each other, wetin person come need transfer na di way to use voice, and person no fit learn dat one from printed text. Ìjálá chanters don open mouth complain say people neglect dem and say e hard to transfer di form . Di vibrato and di long [ooo] na di things wey dey die first and dem hard pass to recover.
Wetin also dey at risk: di participatory frame. Recording no fit hear audience answer Ààlọ̀. To change àlọ́ enter animation, podcast or book dey keep di story but e dey remove di call and response, wey be say na di genre way of teaching, no be just ordinary packaging.
Di honest summary: di texts dey for better shape pass any time before, di performance practice dey under real pressure, and di occasions don almost vanish finish or dem don change.
Di corpus keep di verified audiovisual and archive listings for inside sources-audio-visual, sources-archives-museums and sources-digital-projects, wey get detail and verification well well pass wetin summary fit give here. Di main essentials specifically for oral literature:
Field recordings. Drums of the Yoruba of Nigeria, Smithsonian Folkways FE 4441, wey dem record for Ọ̀yọ́ for 1951 during di Ọrìṣànlá festival with notes from William Bascom, e cover ìgbìn, dùndún and bàtá with material for Ṣàngó, Ọya, Egúngún, Ṣọ̀pọ̀ná, Ọrìṣànlá and Èṣù. Di liner notes dey free for https://folkways-media.si.edu/docs/folkways/artwork/FW04441.pdf and di LP dey on top Internet Archive . Also verified: Yoruba Bata Drums: Elewe Music and Dance, FE 4294 (1980), wey dem record for Ila Ọ̀rangún during di Odún Egúngún festival, and Yoruba Drums from Benin, West Africa, SFW40440 (1996) .
Ethnographic film. Henry John Drewal films na di main academic collection, listed for https://www.henrydrewal.com/photos-films.html, including Ẹfẹ̀/Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ Ceremonies Among the Western Yoruba (dem film am 1971, produce am 1973, 25 minutes, Ẹgbádò and Kétu) and Yoruba Ritual: A Companion Video, wey Margaret Thompson Drewal compile as companion video to her 1992 book . Dis na di closest thing to video documentation of Ẹfẹ̀ night performance.
Sound archives. Di Archives of Traditional Music for Indiana University hold pass 120,000 recordings including pass 4,000 field collections, and inside dem na di Lorenzo Dow Turner collection of 279 discs wey dem record for Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo between 1952 and 1960, wey get stories, speeches and songs including Yoruba material . Most of dem no dey streamable; na di catalogue dey tell you wetin dey ground.
Warning wey di corpus give two times. Outside di verified releases, most Yoruba performance audio online no get documentation about who perform am, di place, date, and occasion, and dat one make am unusable as evidence no matter how sweet e dey to listen to . And British Library audio access no dey reliable since di October 2023 ransomware attack, so make person no cite sounds.bl.uk as live link without checking .
Di most solid current documentation effort na di Yoruba Oral Tradition Project of di Yoruba Wikimedians User Group, and wetin dem produce specific enough to state.
Di scope wey di project state cover folktales, proverbs, chants and rituals, and historical narratives, wey dem document through field visits and interviews with elders and storytellers, record with audio and video, transcribe for Yoruba with English translations, and arrange to meet metadata standards .
Documented outputs for 2024 and 2025 :
Two observations. Di bilingual transcription standard na di correct one and e match wetin dis corpus require. And recording session wey majority of contributors na women match with wetin Barber find out about who dey hold dis kind material .
Other things wey dey happen now: dem dey turn Yoruba proverbs into memes, skits and digital archives, wey dey make dem reach more people , and di Yorùbá Name Project plus di language-technology work wey Masakhane dey do dey build di datasets wey dey make Yoruba speech technology possible, as dem document di two for sources-digital-projects.
Three things follow from everything wey dey above.
Go to di recordings, no be only di texts. If na by voice dem take classify di genres, reader wey only read dem never really encounter dem. Di Folkways material and di Drewal films na di verified starting points.
Ask for di artist name. Di constant wahala wey dey this corpus section na say di texts wey dem publish dey call di name of di person wey collect am, no be di chanter. Any new documentation suppose record who perform am, where, when and for which occasion, and reader wey dey assess recording suppose ask di same thing .
Recover di family oríkì. Most Yoruba people wey dey alive today get oríkì orílẹ̀ wey dem never hear dem perform before, and di practical way to get am na to ask di oldest women for di family, wey be di direct result of wetin Barber find out about who hold this knowledge . Na this single part of di tradition be wetin reader fit retrieve without archive.
How Yoruba verbal art is classified into named genres by vocal manner rather than subject, who performs each and on what occasion, and why the European category "oral literature" fits the material imperfectly.
How Yoruba oral artists are trained, which genres are open to whom, how gender divides the field, how performers are paid, and the named artists the scholarship documents.
How Yoruba traditional music fed sakara, apala, waka, juju, fuji, highlife, Afrobeat and contemporary Afrobeats, traced through named musicians and specific musical mechanisms rather than gestures at influence.
Why a Yoruba dancer has to understand drum language, the aesthetic of dancing hot with a cool face, and the line from the Alarinjo masque theatre through Ogunde, Ladipo and Ogunmola to Nollywood.
Túndé King and the invention of jùjú, Ayìndé Bákàrè, I. K. Dàiró, Harúnà Iṣọ̀lá and àpàlà, Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Adé, and the fújì line from Ṣikirú Ayìndé Barrister to K1.
The hunters' chant associated with Ògún, its vocal manner, the ìjálá artist and how he is judged, the contest setting, and what the chant does as self-portrait and as praise of animals.