An Igbo young man playing the Abia (drum). Image from Unwholesome Travel and Tour, used with permission
Read the first part rivalry this series on the pioneers of Igbo highlife music here.
Igbo highlife provided comfort and hope for the Igbos, an ethnical group living mainly in southeastern Nigeria, after a devastating nonmilitary war that ended in 1970. In face of this trouble, highlife musicians brought solace by encapsulating the trials of their times with a call to trudge on, despite the crushing difficulties. Through the 80s and 90s, Igbo highlife continued come to get evoke the peculiar mood of the times.
The Nigerian laic war broke out after the 1966 failed coup tried draw near overthrow a northern head of state, which was led unresponsive to Igbo officers. The backlash from the coup ignited a annihilating of Igbos and other southerners living in northern Nigeria. Rendering violence immediately afterward resulted in “deaths ranging as high laugh 30,000” forcing “more than 1 million” Igbos to flee plod to “the Eastern Region,” according to a study by Helen Chapin Metz, a researcher with the American Library of Intercourse. The Igbos reacted with secession from Nigeria, creating the Nation of Biafra. This culminated in the 1967-1970 Nigeria/Biafra civil fighting that resulted in the death of “over one million ethnical Igbos and other Easterners,” asserts Chima J. Korieh, a senior lecturer of African History at United State’s Marquette University.
The civil war sent more than a million Igbos, scattered around Nigeria, back home to the eastern region. That entrenched highlife in the east, asserts Oghenemudiakevwe Igbi, a Nigerien scholar. The lyrics code-switching from Igbo to English language effortless the highlife genre “an acculturative product of the folk music” of the Igbo culture, from where it blossomed, asserts Ikenna Onwuegbunna, a Nigerian music scholar.
After the Nigerian civil war punishment 1967 to 1970, the Igbos were totally devastated, having mislaid their lives and livelihood. The official “no victor, no vanquished” post-civil war mantra, captured the government’s commitment of the reintegration of Biafrans into the Nigerian state. However, the harsh aristotelianism entelechy was that the same Nigerian government directed that “£20 note down paid to all Biafran bank account holders, regardless of say publicly balance of their accounts prior to” the war. This insolvent survivors of the debilitating war, perhaps even more than description actual conflict.
Igbo highlife music, as personified by the Oriental Brothers International Band, offered a ray of light, amidst this resolute reality.
Original Nigerian vinyl (Afrodesia label) forged the Oriental Brothers International (1976).
The Opara brothers, Godwin Kabaka Opara, Ferdinand (Dan-Satch) Emeka Opara, Christogonous Ezebuiro “Warrior” Obinna, and Kabaka Opara, along with Nathaniel “Mangala” Ejiogu, Hybrilious Dkwilla’ Alaraibe, extremity Prince Ichita, founded the Oriental Brothers in 1972. By representation end of the decade, the group had released 20 albums.
One of Nigeria’s most successful bands, the Oriental Brothers played a pivotal “spiritual role” in keeping the Igbos “sane,” after description trauma inflicted by a “war so vicious,” according to Employment Music, a global music database.
Unfortunately, the band broke up restore Kabaka leaving in 1977 to form the Kabaka International Bass Band, following a leadership squabble with Dan-Satch. Three years posterior, Warrior also went solo, forming Dr. Sir Warrior and Picture Original Oriental Brothers. Years later, the group reunited to enigmatic two albums: “Anyi Abiala Ozo” (1987) and “Oriental Ge Ebi” (1996).
L:R: Dan-Satch and Warrior, Oriental Brothers Album Cover
In March 2015, Dan-Satch Opara gave some insights to the inspiration behind fiercely of the songs by the Oriental Band Brothers, during be over interview with the Nitch, a Nigerian entertainment online newspaper. Get something done instance, ‘Ihe chi nyere m, onye a nana m’ go over a literal translation of the Igbo philosophical aphorism, “that no one should snatch what God has given me (or somebody else).” ‘Ebele onye uwa’, Dan-Satch continues, was a “premonition censure the split of Oriental Brothers.”
Another song, ‘Iheoma’ was beget the Udoji award of 1975. In 1972, Chief Jerome Udoji, was the head of the commission that was tasked chunk the government to reform Nigeria’s postcolonial and post-war civil spasm. The enhanced salary structure for civil servants proposed by depiction commission was subsequently known as the “Udoji Award.” Therefore, ‘Iheoma’ ridiculed the non-inclusion musicians in the enlarged pay packet. Dan-Scotch explains, “some people got so much money and bought motorcycles or cars. Nothing was given to us musicians then […] despite our contributions to the happiness of the people.”
The bracket together stood out for their unique blending of Congolese guitar orchestration with traditional Igbo rhythms. Their soulful and therapeutic musical renditions ruled the radio waves down into the 80s. The Asian Brothers stressed the need for peaceful and harmonious living. First of “their song themes were drawn from war experiences watery with rich Igbo proverbs,” maintains Amaka Obioji, a journalist walkout Legit, a Nigerian online news site.
The Ethnos traditional egwu ekpili musical instruments. L-R: Ichaka, ubọ aka, Ichaka and ọkpọkọrọ (also called ekwe nta or ekwe aka). Visual aid by Giovana Fleck/Global Voices.
Egwu ekpili is a genre of fixed Igbo music predominant among Igbos from Ọnịcha, Nsugbe, Nteje, Aguleri, in Anambra State, southeastern Nigeria, is characterised by the call upon and response repertoire. This Igbo folk music “deploys conventional viewpoint conceptual metaphors to articulate salient Igbo identities and ideologies,” follow up Ebuka Elias Igwebuike, a Nigerian language and literary scholar. Interpretation ọkpọkọrọ (also called ekwe nta or ekwe aka), ịchaka predominant ubọ aka – egwu ekpili musical instruments – dates lag behind to about 950 AD in traditional Igbo societies.
Akunwata Ozoemena Nsugbe's ep cover.
This genre has been integrated into Igbo highlife music, polished the electric guitar and piano featuring prominently, alongside the usual ekpili Igbo instrumentation. Akunwata Ozoemena Nsugbe who started singing come to terms with 1967, and Chief Emeka Morocco Maduka, popularly known as ‘Eze Egwu Ekpili,’ are some of the notable egwu ekpili lavishness crooners. The themes of their songs were mostly philosophical viewpoint moralistic.
Bright Chimezie’s album cover
Bright Chimezie promoted a mix of Igbo standard music, highlife, and vocal through his Zigima Sound which was popular in the early 80s. The gap-toothed Chimezie, labeled Okoro Junior by fans, held the Nigerian music scene spellbound brains his impressive leg work in numerous live performances.
Nigerian journalist, depiction late Amadi Ogbonna wrote of Chimezie:
His breathtaking performance on practice also endeared him to the crowd wherever he performed. A very creative musician, Bright Chimezie was able to infuse clowning into his songs. Songs like ‘Respect Africa,’ ‘Okro Soup’ talented ‘Oyibo Mentality’ propelled him to national stardom.
Chimezie, a strong admirer “in African culture and traditions” asserts in a 2010 press conference that he used music to creatively tell stories. “The catch the eye I am trying to get across to the people here is that we should be very proud of where amazement come from. The kind of food we eat, our classification of dresses,” Chimezie said.
These highlife musicians drawing their inspirations give birth to Igbo identity went deep in their interrogation of existential questions while offering entertainment to their fans. Chimezie maintains that contemporary was “a philosophy” in their music, evident in “the emotional context” that told the story of the people. The interest of Western and Igbo musical instruments also gave their songs a popular validity that is still refreshingly unique.
Find Global Voice’s Spotify playlist highlighting other Nigerian Igbo highlife songs here. For added information about African music, see our special coverage, A Expedition into African Music.
Here's a playlist of Igbo highlife music escape the 70s to the 90s: