“Governor Ibikunle Amosun is a dutiful, resilient, dedicated, peace loving, and highly intelligent person whose commitment to the transformation of the state in terms of infrastructural and human developments should serve as beacon of good governance in the country’’ said the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi.
Africans in general, and especially the people of Yoruba land, propitiate and worship the talking drum, through the mysterious divinity they thought, has brought the art of beating it to the world. Of recent, the Ogun State Government organised third in the series of AFRICAN DRUM FESTIVAL, which was held at Asero Stadium, Abeokuta, the state capital. BODE DUROJAIYE was there.
Across the span of Nigeria’s South-West, where the Yoruba people are largely found, and in distant places where they hold sway, one of the most privileged aspects of the varied layers of their tradition is the unique platform upon which the talking drum sits.
While drums in other human settlements are employed for their rhythmic pleasures, the drum music of the Yoruba people is both tone-based and extends its functionalities to accommodate other uses.
The drums have grown through the years of Yoruba civilisation to including their entertaining and social functions with the power to hold conversation.
The celebration was simply electrifying, as people danced with dexterity to delightful music rendered by various traditional drummers from within and outside Nigeria.
To many, the talking drum is a percussion to which people can rhythmically dance, but His Imperial Majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo,, Oba [Dr.] Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111, who spoke at the colourful occasion said that the cultural significance of the Yoruba talking drums goes beyond mere entertainment value.
According to him, ‘’as the custodian of Yoruba heritage, the talking drum is an important cultural evaluation of the Yoruba people and it was given leap and pioneered by the Oyo . When people hear of the talking drum, they believe it is just an instrument to be drummed for people to dance but it is not so, we can use it as a means of conveying message’’.
‘’One can convey messages in diverse forms one can convey messages in a long or short distance, depending upon the situation. As an Oba, the palace would not be complete without the talking drum. The talking drum wakes up the Alaafin early in the morning from 5.00 am and starts with the reciting of the Oriki [panegyrics] of the past rulers, telling the incumbent Alaafin the challenges they faced, how they overcome the challenges and problems as well as the methods they used. So the talking drum serves as an important instrument of history. The drum goes on to talk about particular songs, and dance steps or mannerisms of past Alaafins. This is to enable the incumbent ruler knows the history of his predecessors’’.
‘’That is why in Yoruba land, especially in Oyo, every Alaafin is the representative of all his ancestors. And it is important that he knows all their history. “Our history and oral traditions were handed down to us by purely non-literate people. So, the talking drum is an important source of history. Other sources aside the talking drums are poetry or what we call chants. Almost all the established Oyo families, compounds, lineages, can recite their Orikis, and these are done with the talking drum. The Oriki cannot be complete without the Sekere and talking drums’’.
The vintage monarch whose extempore speech was interjected with rounds of applause from invited dignatories, including Nigeria’s Nobel Laurette, Professor Wole Soyinka, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Layi Mohammed, and even the host, Governor Ibikunle Amosun, pointed out that the talking drum of the Yoruba originated from Oyo, adding that it was first assembled for the Alaafin as his musical outfit whenever he goes to war.
‘’He used it to motivate his army. Today, we celebrate it because it is one of the things the Africans, the Oyo people and Yoruba gave to the world and which cannot be done by any other. What is more, before you are crowned as the Alaafin, you are taken to the shrines of your forebears and you are made to learn as you are made to learn the intricacies of the dance steps of your ancestors. And all the dance steps you see me displaying are mostly the dance steps of my predecessors, and the Alaafin would not be complete if he cannot display rich culture of his Yoruba people through dance, music, oriki and so on’’.
While appreciating the festival and lauded the Ogun State Government for its foresight and pro activeness in celebrating the ingenuity of an important cultural device of the Yoruba people. Alaafin noted that ‘’ the truth is that we have drums all over the world, if not why do they celebrate classical music in Togo? Why do they celebrate blues, soul music? But these white men are now learning how to beat our own traditional drums. It would be a disaster if we will have to be taught how to drum later by strangers’’.
The Titan of Yorubaland however expressed dismay over how politicians are noted for vengeance and abandoning projects hitherto initiated by their predecessors and starting new ones.
Said he, ‘’history has shown that in Nigeria, when a new government from a different political party replaces an incumbent, on-going projects, programmes and policies are ridiculed and terminated. It is common to see public policies regardless of their merits and positive impacts on society, needlessly reversed. This approach is because the newcomers also want to have their own ideas implemented, regardless of credentials past policies may have. Hence, there is absence of continuity in governance in Nigeria which imperils rapid development’’.
Oba Adeyemi who described Governor Amosun as ‘’a dutiful, resilient, dedicated, peace loving, highly intelligent and people-friendly whose commitment to the transformation of the state in terms of infrastructural and developments should serve as beacon of good governance in the country’’.
He therefore stressed the need for continuity of the African Drum Festival by successor of the present administration in the state.
