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Yale Journal of Music &

Volume 5 Number 2 Music, Sound, and the Aurality of the Environment in the Anthropocene: Spiritual and Article 10 Religious Perspectives

2019

Singing Yoruba : Music, Media, and Morality

Olabode Festus Omojola Mount Holyoke College

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Recommended Citation Omojola, Olabode Festus (2019) "Singing Yoruba Christianity: Music, Media, and Morality," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 5: No. 2, Article 10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1182

This Review is brought to you for free and open access by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Yale Journal of Music & Religion by an authorized editor of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Vicki L. Brennan Singing Yoruba Christianity: Music, Media, and Morality Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018. 210 pp. ISBN 978-0-253-03209-6

The movement, an Africanist were able to simultaneously affirm Christian group that began in western their Christian convictions and Yoruba- in the early twentieth century, grounded practices of . emerged partly in response to what Set against the general history of the Yoruba Christians perceived as cultural Aladura movement, and building on the domination within the Anglican Church of pioneering work of scholars like John the colonial era. Interracial tensions began Peel and Akinyede Omoyajowo,1 Vicky L. to develop within the church because of Brennan’s well-written and well-researched complaints by Yoruba Christians that they ethnographic study focuses on one of the were denied administrative roles, rarely movement’s prominent branches, the appointed as priests, and disallowed from Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) or Ayo ni o using in Christian church, based in . She examines because of its alleged pagan roots. African “how religious music, understood both as church members responded by agitating forms of media and practices of mediation,” for a more equitable distribution of roles produces “a moral community of people and the incorporation of Yoruba songs that are bound to each other through a into the . Consequent upon these set of meaningful and aesthetic practices.” developments, the Christian church would She also discusses how such practices link become the launch pad for a wave of cultural the church “community to a set of ethical nationalism that anticipated Nigeria’s guidelines that are themselves expressed struggle for national political independence and experienced via aesthetic media” (xii). in the mid-twentieth century. While many In the course of her fieldwork in Lagos Yoruba Christians carried out their agitation and , in western Nigeria, Brennan within the imported, British-controlled sang with the choir, conducted interviews, Anglican denomination, others left to form worshipped with congregation members, new Africanist churches, arguing that it participated in night vigils, watched should be possible to be both Christian religious-themed performances, and and African, a theological assertion that solicited testimonial reflections by church was unpacked through a wide range of members. She also visited the Redeemed syncretic practices. Members of the new Christian Church, whose vibrant form churches aspired to a more visible form of of has lured away some spirituality, wore white robes, prayed more members of the Ayo ni o, forcing it to review fervently, believed in spiritual healing, and its own practices in an effort to discourage cultivated Yoruba-derived trance practices. such departures. Brennan explains that In these manifold ways, the new Africanist her ethnographic work carries an inherent denominations, collectively known as political message in the insistence that the Aladura ( band) movement, indigenous knowledge be privileged, and

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 2 (2019) 133 in debunking the notion that European to the growing tradition of Yoruba secular academia-based theories are more important popular music, notably juju—a major than emic perspectives cultural icon of Nigeria’s emerging capitalist Two themes are particularly resonant economy. In Chapter 4, Brennan turns throughout Singing Yoruba Christianity. The to live performances: the “discipline and first is the discussion of how the history of disciplining work” of musical rehearsals, the church has been shaped by developments the “practical techniques through which within the larger Nigerian society. Second, religious sound-artifacts are performed Brennan continuously demonstrates how the in new contexts,” and the “perceived history of the church functions as a guide for spontaneity of musical performance” its leaders in responding to new challenges together constitute what she calls a “labor and developments within and beyond the of immediacy” (76). Musical rehearsals and church. As she portrays it, history becomes performances provide the means by which more than a passive catalogue of activities. church members master the skills needed to Rather, it functions like a theological treatise, embody and express their religious beliefs. a code of religious and cultural thought that Chapter 5 focuses on the architectural space provides the framework for how the church of the church building and the significance copes with the existential reality of religious of the white robe that members must wear life in a postcolonial African environment. to church. Brennan describes how spaces Each of the book’s eight chapters are delineated within the sanctuary and develops these central ideas by discussing explains the spiritual symbolism of the worship services and the role of music, white garment. Her ultimate objective including music recordings, material is to explain how spatial demarcation culture, special annual events, and church and religious dress code symbolize the bands (societies). Chapter 2, for example, relationship between earth and heaven, the discusses the church hymnal, which is two complementary domains of existence considered to be a powerful item of material within which Christians contemplate their culture and imbued with strong spiritual relationship with . The connection authority. The hymnal is believed to contain between heaven and earth as understood the prophetic utterances of the founders of by the Ayo ni o church is also embedded in the church. According to church members the traditional Yoruba philosophical saying interviewed by the author, the “hymnal that earth is the marketplace, while heaven contains the wisdom of our daddies, who is home (Ayé lo᷂jà, ò᷂run nile). Chapter 6 started this church” (29). Chapter 3 describes a major annual event, Choir discusses the role of the media, with a Day, which features music renditions focus on the music recordings produced and dramatic plays depicting diverse life by the church choir, which provide the experiences as reinterpreted and explained means for reaching out to a wider audience through biblical perspectives. Chapter 7 through radio and television broadcasts and discusses Yoruba Christians’ in the commercially produced cassettes. Brennan authority and power of the Holy Spirit, and analyzes the creative strategies and choices how trance represents the medium through made by church musicians, and how their which worshippers are transformed into productions provide a sacred alternative e᷂lé᷂mĭ, or spirit-mediums. In Chapter 8,

134 Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 2 (2019) Brennan discusses the power of elderly Although Singing Yoruba Christianity is male members of the church who belong to successful overall, I would have liked to have Egbe Fogo Folorun (Show the Glory of God a greater sense of the music of the church, the Band), one of the church’s many societies. power of which accrues from its unique vocal This band is regarded as the major custodian and harmonic practices, and how musical of the history of the church; its members instruments like guitars and keyboards are mentor younger worshippers and provide used to create atmosphere and generate a help for the less privileged. variety of worship moods. While Brennan As expected, music is a significant focus describes some musical performances, of Singing Yoruba Christianity. Brennan’s focusing on a few more examples and discussion revolves around the idea that providing a more detailed discussion of musical performance and participation how music functions in specific worship provide the experience through which situations would have highlighted the role church members express and embody the of music more effectively. Fortunately, the ethical fabric of a good Christian life. Her reader can go on the Internet to personally account of the life of a major founder of the experience the music of the Ayo ni o church. church, Moses Orimolade, draws attention In conclusion, I commend Brennan for to the power of music, while laying the the rigor of her scholarship, the clarity of groundwork for understanding how her writing, and her ability to effectively spirituality, music, and politics intersect to position her discussion within the larger shape the identity of the church. Born in the discourse about the multiple cultural and late 1870s, Orimolade created music that is religious subjectivities that give the C&S both spiritually powerful and reflective of church its unique identity. . For example, his songs do not employ the strophic form of European Bode Omojola hymnody and are accompanied by bell Mount Holyoke College/Five College rather than organ. Interweaving Christian Consortium, Massachusetts themes and elements of Yoruba music, Orimolade’s music echoes the theme of cultural nationalism that was foundational to the emergence of the Aladura movement. NOTES Furthermore, Orimolade is presented as 1 J. D. Y. Peel, Aladura: A Religious Movement both insider and outsider, one who, although among the Yoruba (London: Published for the a Christian, did not belong to the Western- International African Institute by Oxford University educated Yoruba elite that formed the bulk Press, 1968); J. Akindele Omoyajowo, Cherubim and of the first generation of Nigerian Christians Seraphim: The History of an African Independent Church (New York: NOK, 1982). of the colonial era. This complementary subjectivity—being part Christian and part Yoruba—has been crucial to the ability of the Ayo ni o church to claim its agency, resist the imposition of European culture, and remain visible and viable as a since the colonial era.

Yale Journal of Music & Religion Vol. 5, No. 2 (2019) 135