#1 Agidibo Music in Badagry, Nigeria: Performance Practice and Stylistic Features
UDC: 785.6(669.1)
COBISS.SR-ID 163926025
Received: Oct 05, 2024
Reviewed: Dec 29, 2024
Accepted: Jan 25, 2025
#1 Agidigbo Music in Badagry, Nigeria: Performance Practice and Stylistic Features
Citation: Loko, Omolara Olasunbo. 2025. "Agidigbo Music in Badagry, Nigeria: Performance Practice and Stylistic Features." Accelerando: Belgrade Journal of Music and Dance 10:1
Abstract
Lagos is known for the performance of a variety of musical genres such as Highlife, Juju, Afrobeat, Waka, Sakara, Apala, Fuji, Hip Hop, and Agidigbo, to mention a few. In Lagos State, Agidigbo music is widely popular in Lagos Island as a traditional social musical genre that is commonly used for entertainment. This study examines the stylistic features and performance practices of Agidigbo music among the Ogu people of Badagry in Lagos State. Data was collected through personal interviews with some key informants, observation, library search, and the use of the internet. The study also covers the context of performances and the organizational structure of the ensemble. It concludes by highlighting the impacts of Agidigbo music on the growth and development of Badagry.
Agidigbo music, Lagos, Ogu, indigenous ensemble, “cultural diffusion”, interculturalism, Gangbe, Akohun, Akoto music, Mase
Introduction
This essay focuses on Agidigbo music of the Ogu people of Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria. Agidigbo refers to a musical instrument and a type of ensemble music. As an ensemble, it is performed through the medium of voice and instrumental accompaniment featuring agidigbo (metallophone), agogo (metal gong), sekere (gourd rattle), gangan (hourglass drum), and akuba (cylindrical drum). The ensemble may also feature sakara (circular clay-frame drums). As expected Agidigbo music, although an indigenous ensemble dating back to the pre-colonial era, has continued to respond to the dynamics of social and cultural life through innovations in terms of the musical material, performance practices, and instrumentation (Onyeji 2004; Adekola 2016 & 2018). For example, western instruments like the electronic keyboard, trumpet, saxophone, and trombone have found their way into the music, creating an intercultural ensemble that has implications for the music’s aesthetic principles following a similar trend in Yoruba post-colonial music. It is a social and recreational music striking for the use of proverbs, aphorisms, and parables as part of the performance techniques to generate social interaction between musicians and their participatory audiences.
All these musical instruments add value, and also play an important role in the band. This is in agreement with Adekola’s (2018) submission that each of these musical instruments performs certain musical functions in the band.
Picture 1. Àgídìgbo. Source: Wikimedia Commons contributors: "File:Brooklyn Museum 22.889 Plucked Idiophone Sanza.jpg" Wikimedia Commons
Tracing the movement of Agidigbo from Oyo town
As Adekola (2018) has explained, Agidigbo music has its roots in the Yoruba town of Oyo town in Western Nigeria, before moving to Ibadan also in Western Nigeria. The music is now popular in other Yoruba cities like Lagos and Badagry. Focusing on Badagry, the author explains how the geographic movement of the music is accompanied by the expansion of the scope of performance and how the music continuously responds to new social dynamics and the contingency of performance spaces. Furthermore, the author will explain the organizational structure of the ensemble, the context of the performance, stylistic features, and how the music has contributed to the development of the city of Badagry.
Research Methodology
This study adopts a qualitative research method through interviews, focus group discussions and ethnography. A review of relevant literature was carried out to back up the discourse of the study. The internet also provides resources that range from recorded performances of the music, to supplementing the author’s fieldwork. More specifically, the author conducted one-on-one interviews (see Table 1.) with the members of the ensembles that he studied. These included Mr Dagbeyon Samuel (who resides both in Nigeria and Denmark), two members of the band in Badagry, and Mr. Fesobi, popularly known as Mandela, leader of a band based in Lagos Island. Beyond interviews, discussion also derives data from recordings of musical performances of Agidigbo music as well as photographs.
Discussion conducted by the author revolves around the following questions:
- How did Agidigbo music find its way to Badagry?
- Why was it brought to Badagry?
- What was the reaction of the people in Badagry to the new genre?
- In what ways has the music been adapted for the people of Badagry?
- What is the social impact of the music in Badagry — for example, in what ways has the music contributed to the development of Badagry?
| Names | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Mr Samuel Dagbeyon | Badagry | 06/07/2023 |
| 18/07/2023 | ||
| 12/10/2024 | ||
| Setonji Akinwunmi | LASUED, Oto/Ijanikin | 22/11/2023 |
| LASU, Ojo | 22/11/2023 | |
| Mr Banji | Badagry | 05/06/2023 |
| Mr Fesobi | Lagos Island | 24/11/2023 |
| 26/12/2023 | ||
| 24/06/2024 |
Theoretical Framework
The first part of cultural exchange theory was proposed in 1917 by Alfred Kroeber, referred to as “cultural diffusion” to theorize the spread of cultural material through communication and influence. As he explains, the factors that could contribute to this process include encounters between individuals and group members sharing information, and the transmission of ideas through conversations, writing, and speech based on direct contact with other groups. This implies that people in one region adopt certain practices, beliefs, and behaviors from others around them. The process of diffusion has of course changed significantly since Kroeber first proposed the theory, mediated through informational technology, ranging from electronic media to social media. It is not surprising that the theme of encounters as critical to the diffusion process has continued to attract the interest of scholars. Sarah Weis (2008), for example, discusses the hybrid products that emanate in the context of musical encounters, a phenomenon that Akin Euba and Cynthia Kimberlin (1995) characterize in terms of interculturalism. As expected, the cultural transmission of music has implications for performance practice. As Omojola (2012; 9) explains, the term performance practice “is a multivocal term, which covers the context and ambience of performance, the ways in which an ensemble is organized, the role of the participants, the form and structure of the music, and how the music is communicated and mediated.” The author draws on the key elements of this definition, notably, ensemble organization, performance contexts, and the organizational elements of the music itself in his discussion of Agidigbo music in Badagry.
In the context of this study, the process of cultural exchange and transmission revolves around the efforts of Dagbeyon who embraces Agidigbo music from Lagos Island into the musical activities of the Ogu people in Badagry. The process of transmitting Agidigbo to Badagry draws attention to the role of individual agents as producers of culture. Being a good trumpeter among the Gbokus (bands performing at funerals in all Mission churches in Lagos), Dagbeyon capitalized on his performances and interactions with musicians in Lagos Island and became a force that assisted in the introduction of Agidigbo to Badagry.
Agidigbo Music in Ogu Badagry Culture and Society
Ogu people are settlers in different locations in Lagos and Ogun states, including Agege, Makoko, Yaba, Lagos Island, Ajah, Eti-Osa Local Government Area, and Apapa-Ajegunle. Their primary settlement is, however, in Badagry Local Government Area. As a sub-ethnicity within Yoruba culture, the people are marked by distinct musical genres and ensemble practices. Notable examples of their musical types include gangbe, akohun, akoto, mase, ahilihun, aato and ajogan, amongst others. Loko (2020) revealed that Gangbe as a genre of Ogo-Badagry music is vocally oriented and predominantly associated with use of metallic instruments as the basic form of instrumental accompaniment. John (2021) described Akohun as a secular and socio-cultural music performed at social functions or events such as burials, naming ceremony, housewarming, and enstoolment. According to Olaide-Mesewaku (Olaide-Mesewaku et al., 2000), Akoto music is also a functional and social music, staged for the purpose of fertility, with elaborate socio-cultural and traditional resources. John (op.cit.) opined that Mase is a popular, functional socio-cultural and secular genre of Ogu music.
Music is a pervasive trait and a regular part of people’s daily life activities, as shaped by the socio-cultural, communal, and geographic environment of Badagry, a town “situated on the South-West coast of Nigeria, enjoying a position close to the seashore, about thirty-five miles west of metropolitan Lagos and positioned almost midway between Lagos to the east and Porto-Novo, the capital of the Republic of Benin to the west.” Badagry was, in the 19th century, one of the slave ports for the inhuman slavery perpetuated by Western countries from where Nigerians were forcefully taken to the New World (Sorensen-Gilmore 1995).
Ogu-Badagry music is a unique sonic art form characterized by singing, dancing, and playing Indigenous Ogu musical instruments. It is closely linked to dance, gesture, and dramatization and permeates the people’s way of life, being a functional art and playing a myriad of roles in society, including festivals, funerals, and initiation ceremonies. Music among Ogu-Badagry communities reflects the cultural, social, economic, and religious philosophy of the people and is used for both secular and religious ceremonies, festivals, and rituals, to teach and give moral, communal, and economic instructions and guidance, to tell stories, to educate the populace on the history and historical events of the community, to mark the various life stages and celebrations, to provide political guidance and express discontentment. Example is Akohun music of Ogu is used for naming, marriage, and burial to mention few.
The musical performances for a particular music typology or genre are usually the same across various musical groups. However, there are traces of general differences for contextual, location, genre and innovative reasons. John (op.cit., 20) observed that the duration of musical performances is usually long, involving a chain of songs usually sung in a medley, often involving audience participation due to gestural responses to the performances.
Ensemble Organization and Style elements
The Agidigbo music started in Badagry and initially employed traditional musical instruments such as agidigbo (lamellophone), sekere (rattles/shakers), agogo (bell), sakara (frame drum), gangan (talking drum), and bembe (cylindrical drum). Recently, however, it has become solely Western instrumental music comprising the following instruments.
Regular Ensemble
Drums:
- One (1) bass drum
- One (1) snare drum
- One (1) tenor drum
Special Performance:
- Two (2) snare drums
- Two (2) tenor drums
- Two (2) bass drums
Brass:
- Ten (10) trumpets
- Two (2) Trombones
- One (1) Tuba
- Three (3) saxophones
The regular ensemble of the Agidigbo band is reserved for performances that take place almost on a more regular basis, including naming ceremonies, weddings, burials, and birthdays, to mention a few. Only one each of the three drums (bass, snare and tenor) are employed. According to Setonji Akinwunmi, a member of the band:
there are weddings and burials when the band makes use of a large number of musical instruments that were meant for special performance. It is usually on request by the celebrants and also on bargaining power, because it involves more performers.
At inception, Agidigbo was both vocal and instrumental. However, it is presently a purely instrumental ensemble in which the wind instruments play the melody and also provide spontaneous harmonic accompaniments in a style known as Gbokus (The snare drum serves as a metronome that keeps the time steady. The tenor drum plays the solo part in a proverbial style, occasionally complemented by the bass drum. Usually, there is a lead trumpet supported by a “chorus” of other horns.)
Contexts of Performance
The performance contexts of Agidigbo in Badagry have evolved in ways that reflect the changing dynamics of the community. The overarching theme of the transformation is the increasing commercialization of musical engagement. While Agidigbo was initially performed at informal settings as entertainment for a gathering of both the elderly and young boys in beer parlors, it is now performed at bigger and more formal social gatherings based on a special demand by the celebrants. Such formal gatherings range from the coronation of kings, graduation ceremonies for university graduates, and burials of prominent citizens. The cost of hiring the band is negotiated between the bandleader and the celebrants or organizers of the event, and after which a contract is agreed upon.
In addition to these events, Dagbeyon has also been organizing an annual event bringing together lovers of Agidigbo from within and outside Nigeria, including those in Europe and the United States. Tagged “Agidigbo music festival,” the musical event features his own band (Agidigbo Bond Band) as well as Agidigbo musicians from Lagos Island. This event has helped promote tourism in Badagry, a former slave port that attracts visitors from within and outside the country. Dagbeyon’s “Agidigbo music festival” has for over ten years represented an important event, complementing the government's efforts to promote tourism in the town.
Picture 2. Agidigbo Bond Band during '2022 Agidigbo Festival' in Badagry. Source: author.
Performance Practice of Agidigbo Music among the Ogu people of Badagry
The Yoruba people of the southwestern states of Nigeria are the custodians of Agidigbo music. In traditional Yoruba societies, music plays important roles in everyday life activities serving recreational purposes as an integral part of ceremonial occasions including rites of passage. Such have continued in contemporary life, despite the expansion of social spaces and the influence of Western culture and technology. As it has been established in this study that Agidigbo, although it now employs Western instruments, is grounded in the Yoruba recreational music genre.
Agidigbo began as an informal entertainment, for example, as an unrehearsed spontaneous performance at social gatherings. As a young lady growing up in the 90s at Festac Town in Lagos, the author witnessed many social occasions when young boys would sing and improvise on musical instruments at social gatherings to fill in the gap when the invited musicians were on break. Such spontaneous musical responses typified the origins of Agidigbo in Lagos. Today, Agidigbo has developed into a genre that is performed by professional musicians.
The Agidigbo Bond started its performance as entertainment for personal enjoyment among the youths (boys) and adults in a place called “Small London”. The music is performed while seated in a circle in a hut (constructed with bamboo and palm leaves) created by Dagbeyon. At inception, the performance of the band was voluntary, and no financial obligation was attached, but in recent times, it has been commercialized. The performance was later taken to beer parlors. Dagbeyon’s mother’s beer parlor was the first place in which it was performed before moving to other ones in Badagry. The performance also moved to other social functions like naming, weddings, burials, birthdays, and coronation ceremonies. As Dagbeyon explained:
several times when celebrants had invited some other music bands to their social functions such as weddings, burials, and housewarming, to mention a few, my guys (Agidigbo Band) would start their ‘accidental’ performances while seated, relaxing. This act is called "playing toy.
Regarding the incorporation of Western instruments, Mr. Dagbeyon stated that he wanted:
something unique and different from what has been in existence, so I decided to deviate totally from the traditions of performing Agidigbo music.
The performance of this genre in Badagry is now done standing. The audience in this case performs the role of singers. They sing along to the instrumental performance.
Picture 3. Mr. Samuel Dagbeyon (The Band Leader). Source: author.
According to Samuel Dagbeyon, before any musical performance, the band usually creates time for rehearsals, there is no fixed time for the rehearsals, but the band always rehearses before any performance. According to Setonji, a member of the band:
We can be called upon for rehearsals, especially when our band would have been booked for performance, we always get ready for band performances.
He further explained that if there would be a need to learn songs, rehearsals are always called for by the band leader.
The repertoires for the band despite the fact it is now instrumental, are retrieved from the old Agidigbo songs. These songs are reflections on Yoruba ethics with different themes as stated by Adekola (2018). The themes (see Example 1.) are based on communal and solidarity, greeting and courtesy, chastity and fidelity, good character, good manners in speaking, bravery and collectivism that promote unity and progress.
To ba ni mama toju mama re
Nitori eyin ola o
Bi wo ko ba toju mama re
Bo mo ba se ru e fun e
Ki lo ma fi s’a dabi f’omo
Adabi f’omo oo
Mama too wo mi dagba o
Mama too wo mi dagba
Ki ni ma ri se fun mama o
To gbe mi sinu l’a tosu kesan
To bi mi saaye me.
Iya to bi mi, Iya to bi mi
Waa jere lori mi o eeee
[Do take care of your mother if you have one
Because of tomorrow
If you don’t take care of your
And your child acts the same manner
What would you do to curse the
Curse on the child I say
The mother who nurtured me to adulthood
The mother who nurtured me to adulthood
What can I do for her in return
Mother who carried my pregnancy
And gave birth to
The mother that gave birth to me
You will reap your labour over me]
Example 1. T'o ba ni Mama toju Mama re. [If you have a mother, take care of her] Source: author.
The band also gets repertoire from popular musicians. One genre that was noticed among the band’s repertoires is hip pop music such as Buga by Kizz Daniel. The band also performs indigenous Ogu songs. One example is Meh de he yin baba lo di e [This is who we call the father].
The costume for each performance is determined by the context in which the band would be performing. Often, band members wear jeans and shirts, except in some cases when they are either asked by the host or band leader to wear Yoruba traditional dress. However, there are occasions that members dress informally. This is always agreed upon before the performance.
Contributions of Agidigbo Music in the growth and development of Badagry
The Agidigbo music has come to stay in Ogu-Badagry through its various performances in Badagry and her environs. Its practice has, as explained above, changed significantly from what it used to be at its inception in places like Oyo, Ibadan, and Lagos Island, acquiring a life of its own in Badagry. In addition to its regular uses at social occasions, Agidigbo has also transformed into an annual festival at which indigenes and non-indigenes of Badagry from the diaspora participate. As explained by Mr Samuel Dagbeyon:
The rate at which people travel to attend the Agidigbo music is quite encouraging, I also come from Europe every year to attend the Festival.
Even from outside Lagos, many do attend the festival annually. The visit of guests to Badagry during the festival has made Badagry a huge tourist center and the festival a big tourist event. The Agidigbo festival has a great positive impact on the economic growth of Badagry. Either the day before or after the festival, many guests used the opportunity of the event to visit all the tourist and historic centers in Badagry, for example, the Badagry Heritage Museum, Point of no Return, and other tourist places. This has also created a space of attraction to corporate companies, for example, distillers and brewery companies, to partner with the organizers of the festival in creating a forum for marketing their products Also, the indigenes of Badagry make good sales during the festival. According to Setonji, the materials used for the festival such as the production of T-shirts, rented chairs and tables, and electrical wiring of the venue, to mention a few, are contracted out to members of the community. In addition, traders from Badagry and its environs sell products such as coconut, fish, coconut oil, and drinks, usually at high prices. Hoteliers are not left behind as they make good money during the festival.
Conclusion
The emergence of Agidigbo music in Badagry has added to the good number of existing musical genres domicile in Badagry, functioning differently from what was obtained at its inception. As detailed above, the music has witnessed significant changes, for example in terms of instrumentation and ensemble organization, and has transformed into a professional vocation. It has also responded to the needs of its immediate environment, boosting social and cultural life and boosting economic activities as an important agent of tourism. The festival has also created a space for family reunions. Indigenes of Badagry from different compounds and quarters come together to strengthen family bonds and always look forward to another festival year.
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