Orality and Cultural Knowledge: The Case of Saheed Osupa’s Fuji Music
Document Type
Presentation
Location
434 Hodges / Zoom Room A
Start Date
28-3-2025 12:00 PM
End Date
28-3-2025 12:20 PM
Description
It is no longer open for scholarly discourse that most postcolonial societies are challenged with several social and political vices. One of the disconcerting vices is the erosion of story-telling and other indigenous cultural traditions. In addition to this, the verbal and written proficiency in indigenous languages and a deep-seated understanding of cultural nuances have continued to decline in a geometric progression. The underlying cause for this is not far-fetched: most colonized people have adopted Western languages and cultural norms at the detriment of their own indigenous linguistic and cultural practices. In this essay, therefore, I aim to examine how Saheed Osupa’s artistic craftmanship preserves and revitalizes Yoruba cultural heritage amidst globalization and modernization. I will explore how his music is a compendium of riddles, proverbs, myths, and moonlight tales in demonstrating the richness of Yoruba cultural traditions, as seen, for example, in Olaju De, Mo Safejo, and Kokoro Alate, to mention but three. I argue that Osupa’s artistic efforts in upholding Yoruba cultural heritage in a hybrid society of both indigenous and Western values have earned him recognition as a cultural nationalist.
Orality and Cultural Knowledge: The Case of Saheed Osupa’s Fuji Music
434 Hodges / Zoom Room A
It is no longer open for scholarly discourse that most postcolonial societies are challenged with several social and political vices. One of the disconcerting vices is the erosion of story-telling and other indigenous cultural traditions. In addition to this, the verbal and written proficiency in indigenous languages and a deep-seated understanding of cultural nuances have continued to decline in a geometric progression. The underlying cause for this is not far-fetched: most colonized people have adopted Western languages and cultural norms at the detriment of their own indigenous linguistic and cultural practices. In this essay, therefore, I aim to examine how Saheed Osupa’s artistic craftmanship preserves and revitalizes Yoruba cultural heritage amidst globalization and modernization. I will explore how his music is a compendium of riddles, proverbs, myths, and moonlight tales in demonstrating the richness of Yoruba cultural traditions, as seen, for example, in Olaju De, Mo Safejo, and Kokoro Alate, to mention but three. I argue that Osupa’s artistic efforts in upholding Yoruba cultural heritage in a hybrid society of both indigenous and Western values have earned him recognition as a cultural nationalist.