Dialogues: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series

Kissi,

Joromi or more correctly pronounced (Igioromi- most Edo people dont have the letter "J" in their alphabet) is another song from Edo folklore about a disobedient champion wrestler child who went to wrestle in the land of spirits used to teach children obedience. Like Do Amẹ do, Araba de and Akhuakhuan are also straight from Edo folklore, to which Uwaifo added instrumentation and some embellishment particularly Joromi. Sweet Banana and Mami Water are his own compositions. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he went back to school in the 80s and 90s and dont know if he eventually completed his Ph.D. He eventually took up a lecturership position in Fine Art and was a Commissioner for Arts and Culture at a time. He was a great influence on many, particularly with his music.

Uyi

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kissi, Edward <ekissi@usf.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 1:17 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

Wofa Akwasi,

I also remember that "Maame Wata" song very well. It scared the cream puff out of us in the village because we got our water from a river deep in the forest. We heard stories about mermaids in river systems that could help us court the girls we craved in the village. But that desire was curbed by the related story that we could go mad and walk the streets disheveled if we saw Maame Water on our way to the stream and run away. Victor Uwaifo's song either created that rural legend or reinforced it. It certainly changed our boyhood water-fetching culture and regulated our amorous impulses. No one went to the riverside alone. Not early in the morning, and not late in the evening.

But as you may remember too, there was another by-product of Nigerian music in Ghana of the late 60s and the 1970s. Some of the Nigerian songs brought a new and distinctive dress code or fashion style in my part of Ghana. Uwaifo's Joromi was associated with a cloth shirt that had a complex embroidery at the chest with two strings hanging out.

I bought my first Joromi shirt from the kolanuts that I collected from the forest, and which I sold to Baba Jesire, a Nigerian kolanut buyer from the nearby town. These are the oral traditions I can tell my kids about Nigerian Music, Rural Myths and Urban Fashion. I need to check when Uwaifo sang Joromi so that I can periodize these profound memories.

Nigeria is a favorite place I have not yet been. I am going there someday with Uyi, Biko, or Moses. 😆

Edward Kissi

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Assensoh, Akwasi B. <aassenso@indiana.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 12:36 PM
To: Uyilawa Usuanlele <biguyi@hotmail.com>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>; Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>
Cc: dejigiri@yahoo.com <dejigiri@yahoo.com>; kesedo@yahoo.com <kesedo@yahoo.com>; afaugustine@yahoo.com <afaugustine@yahoo.com>; rigodan@yahoo.com <rigodan@yahoo.com>; Godwin Ohiwerei <drohiwerei@gmail.com>; doyinck@gmail.com <doyinck@gmail.com>; Onyumbe Lukongo <onyumbe_lukongo@subr.edu>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

This email originated from outside of USF. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender or understand the content is safe.

Brothers Edward and Uyi:

Many thanks for resurrecting the song by one of my favorites, Sir Victor Uwaifo. In fact, two other songs were also memorable in those days:

one had the theme, "Maame Water. oo.."; was that different, and was it, also, by Sir Victor Uwaifo? There was, as well, the 1970s' song, "Sweet

Mother". These were songs -- and others by Ogunde, Sunny Ade and others -- that we often hummed along, even if we did not have good voices

to sing them.

Well, those were the days! The good old days in Lagos and Yaba, when the rich ones-- at nocturnal music and dance halls -- placed wads of Naira on

the foreheads of romantic female dancers, and the crowd screamed along: "Bebedi, owa mbe..."!!

A.B. Assensoh.

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kissi, Edward <ekissi@usf.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 10:52 AM
To: Uyilawa Usuanlele; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

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Uyi,

Exactly!! That is it.!!

I spent much of yesterday on YouTube looking for it by "sound", not by title. Funny, isn't it? But am glad, Uyi, that you have found it, and interpreted it for me and everyone.

Where I grew up we did not associate the song with water at all. Somebody in Ghana must have taken the sound of the music and the guitar work that follows the initial drum beat and created a different rendition of the song for us.

We liked Victor Uwaifo's songs in my village. We heard them on radio, especially Joromi, Arabade, Sweet Banana, and Ankuankuan. Like my brother Biko and his friends did to the City Boys song, we had our own understanding and recomposition of Uwaifo's songs.

Do Amen Do!

Edward Kissi

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Uyilawa Usuanlele <biguyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 10:18 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

This email originated from outside of USF. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender or understand the content is safe.

Hello Kissi,

I am sure you are referring to Victor Uwaifo's Ame do Ame. It is a song in praise of Water.

Amẹ nẹ ovbiye egbe -Water the sibling of the body

Do Amẹ do - Hail Wate hail

Amẹ ne aya khuẹ o -Water that we use for bathing

Do Amẹ do -Hail water water

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jn5HH065gU

It was a folk song to which Uwaifo added his instrumentation.

Uyi

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kissi, Edward <ekissi@usf.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 7:28 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

Oh Biko, my Brother, let me not remember the stale and regular themes of my home Band's songs.

The City Boys sang well, and produced some memorable hits such as Ofie Biara Ne Mu Asem [Every Household has its Troubles]; Odo Nnidi Ntwen me [Let My Lover Dine in Expectation of Me]; Ofie nipa [The Devils at Home]; Ankwanoma Dede [My Songbird, Dede!], etc. But give me one hundred of City Boys' songs, and they all deal with three themes: Love, Devils, and Death. They were often caricatured as singers imprisoned in superstition and the lyrics of sex and cemeteries.

In "Ankwanona Dede" (love-bird, or songbird), the lead singer J.A. Adofo sings about her lover who travelled far and left him behind. He bewails the long absence of his woman, and laments that if she does not return soon enough, he might sleep and never wake up (die) because since she left, he has been ill and close to death.

That is what the song is about, Biko. It is one of the City Boys' amorous anthems. But I, and many Ghanaians, would like to know how you and the Igbo heard the song and how you interpreted it.

I ask this because we too in Ghana sang along one of Victor Uwaifo's songs, in Twi. I don't know the title of the song, but the guitar work was popular and familiar to many in Ghana in the 1980s. We did not have a clue what Uwaifo was saying, but we made up the message from his lead guitar. I will find the song and post it at some point, or send it to the Chief to do so in his own time. We in Akanland interpreted Uwaifo's lead guitar in that song as saying the following (translated here into English):

Some woman has stolen a crab. She has stuck it close to her loins. The crab has bitten her…..

Then we sang in unison as we thought the guitarist sounded: "Twoo Amen, Amen Twoo."

Then we added a terse verse:

My in-law has eaten and farted, Twoo Amen, Amen Twoo!

Certainly, what is produced somewhere gets (mis)interpreted somewhere.

Edward Kissi

From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 5:28 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

This email originated from outside of USF. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender or understand the content is safe.

Great to know that the City Boys are your Homeys. Maybe you can explain what they are singing to us. As you can see, the video was produced by Nigerians who also are huge fans. We used to sing along by making nup Igbo words but without knowing the Twi meanings. Walk good. Blessings.

Biko

On Wednesday, 29 April 2020, 16:53:59 GMT-4, Kissi, Edward <ekissi@usf.edu> wrote:

My Brother MC Biko,

Your choice here for me is apt. Obuoba J.A. Adofo and his City Boys Band come from my hometown, so I have a taste for their dishes. My favorite, though, is their "Ofie Biara Ne Mu Asem." But, I will stay patiently in my hideout and clear my ears for the sounds of the Chief.

Be safe, Biko!

DJ Kissi

From: 'Biko Agozino' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 1:38 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

This email originated from outside of USF. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender or understand the content is safe.

DJ Kissi,

Feel free to share your won vibes. I na anwukwa Igbo o?

City Boys Band of Ghana - Ankwanoma Dede (Official Video)

City Boys Band of Ghana - Ankwanoma Dede (Official Video)

Subscribe to Wyld Pytch / 51 Lex: http://bit.ly/WyldSubs Wyld Pytch / 51 Lex Records Web - http://wyldpytch.com/...

On Wednesday, 29 April 2020, 13:29:31 GMT-4, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

Brother:

You are in a hurry!

From: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of "Kissi, Edward" <ekissi@usf.edu>
Reply-To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 12:13 PM
To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

Dear Chief Falola,

From my hideout in Florida, I have been observing with admiration, and curiosity, your new and impressive COVID-19 pastime: threading our needles of despair with songs that soothed us in the Rainforest.

You have gone to the land of Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff, passed through that of Sonny Okosun, gotten yourself into a little trouble with a "Negro Spiritual," and now heading to the land of Dingiswayo to give thanks to some unknown DJ who played Yvonne Chaka Chaka her song.

I have wondered why in your journey through West Africa, you did not stop over in Ghana to pay homage to Nana Kwame Ampadu and his African Brothers Band, or King Pratt and his African Revolution Band and their rendition of one of Nkrumah's fiery speeches in the song "Ka Na Wu" (Say it and Die). Or the 1950s song by E.K. Nyame's Band entitled "Influenza"---a lamentation over a pandemic of unknown origin but with a paralyzing impact.

And while I am it, saying it like Kwame did, I know you can't pay homage to every songster, from the Diaspora to the Desert. And you don't need to. Your prerogatives have so far been priceless.

But if you should head East in your glide through the landscapes of music, like Homer's gods on Mount Olympus, fly to Ethiopia and have some nectar with the late Tilahun Gesese. In his song "Ethiopia" lives some of Africa's finely-spun musical lyrics. It is the Ethiopian version of Eric Donaldson's "Land of My Birth."

While we await the verdict of the virus, keep playing us some music. We hope the people in the lands of our birth too are seeking solace in the songs that once warmed troubled hearts.

Gratitude is yours, Chief, as my people say!

Edward Kissi

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Dialogues

Thursday, April 30, 2020

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - DEAR CHIEF FALOLA

City Boys Band of Ghana - Ankwanoma Dede (Official Video)

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