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During my graduate school days we had this public lecture series that
ran once every month. It was called 'Professional Seminar'. It involved
inviting an expert guest- speaker who presents papers on a choice
subject in his or her professional field . After the lecture , there
was often the usual interaction session with the students on the
subject matter. In those days, unless for some unavoidable reasons, I
made sure I attended the sessions.
But of all such seminars I
attended, one particular session stood out on my mind, it was a lecture
by a renown Nigerian musicologist and educationalist, the late
Professor Sam Akpabot. What made this session unforgettable was this
brilliant dons choice of subject and his method of presentation. It was
a highly interactive session from the start to the end, and was packed
with humour. The title of the lecture was 'The psychological impact of
music and dance on a people'.
The college auditorium was full
as usual with students and lecturers. We did not realise that Professor
Akpabot came to the lecture with some simple musical instruments
stuffed in his pocket. On mounting the rostrum, immediately after
introducing the subject, he took out a rattler from his pocket and
started rattling it, and then he asked, 'what will be your reaction to
this kind of sound, anybody? Immediately, without a thought,I started
to ululate. Of course hundreds of staring eyes got fixed at me, and I
felt like, 'oh my... what did I do? suddenly Dr Akpabot stopped the
rattling and excitedly shouted 'That's is, that's it, who did that,
could you please stand up' I jumped on my feet and the entire
auditorium resounded with loud applaud. It felt good.
From
that moment, the lecture gained momentum. It was full of interesting
information about the beauty of diversity, which is Nigeria. From this
lecture I learnt that the way we walk has a lot to do with the way we
dance and the kind of music we play in our community. If you consider
the footsteps of an average African American, you will get the point
more clearer. For instance Professor Akpabot drew an analogy on the connection between the way the people from the three main ethnic nationalities
in Nigeria dance and the general perception of the attitude attributed to them by
their fellow countrymen.
Hear him. "When the Yoruba people dance, they dance
with pride, they practically swell up, trying to look larger than their
size. The men let the sleeves of their 'agbada' flow down giving the
dancer a sense of strength and princely look. He will seem to be saying
'Hello! check me out' The women on the other hand show off their back
side, they also constantly tie and untie their upper wrapper cloth as
they dance." According to him, this attitude the Yoruba portray while
dancing speaks dozens about the general perspective of the ethnic group
as a people who love having a good time. A people who use every
available opportunity to showcase their pride and beauty and
possessions. And a people who will first try to use boastful threat to
scare away intruders, before taking any other actions.
For the
Hausa-Fulani ethnic nationalities, the learned professor demonstrated
the way they dance. Their basic dance step according to him was - one
step forward, one step backwards; One step forward, two steps
backwards. This is repeated several times as if they are undecided on
what will be the next move, then suddenly they will jump up, but still
standing at the same spot. He said that if you compare the space used
by the Hausa/Fulani dancer during his performance, with that of the
Yoruba dancer, the Hausa/Fulani dancer would have used less that half
of the space covered by the Yoruba dancer.
Their dance moves
according to him is in tandem with the perception of the Hausa/Fulani
as a people who watch events very carefully for a long time before
making a move. They prefer to stay within the limit of what they know,
and will take the next step only after a long and satisfying
consideration, that is, if they decide to move at all.
And
finally on the Igbo he had this to say, "they dance in every direction,
jumping gyrating, writhing, breaking every boundary, even into the
audience. They even move objects within the arena, pointing and making
faces to imaginary challengers.
This according to him also
goes with the general perception of the Igbo ethnic nationality as a
people who are all over the place. A people who approach everything
they do with aggressive interest.
I am sure that if we extend
this theory to the remaining ethnic nationalities that make up our
great country, we will find related results. The same goes if we use
the test on any other nationality anywhere in the world.
I will also like to use this medium to pay tribute to great minds like the late Professor Sam Akpabot
who contributed a lot in the education of the youths of our country
Nigeria, he also did a lot of work in the arts especially music. His
great musical 'Opera Jaja'
which was a national success in the late 70s and the beginning of the
80s comes to mind. I do wish someone in that field will revisit that
work for a possible reproduction.
Having
said all that, I will like to present you this short entertainment
before I leave. A video of Igbo cultural dance featuring the Enugu State Cultural Troupe.
I shot this video in March 2005 during an Easter entertainment program
at a popular eat-out and entertainment outlet in Enugu called 'Bush House'. Enjoy
Ikechukwu Ude-Chime is a media expert based in Finland
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Posted by Robot| 05.03.2008 10:58