The Performance Context and Function of Occupation Music in Selected Nigerian Riverine Settings in African Music

Abstract

Indigenous poetic genres is well established and has been sustained up till date in the Nupe community of Nigeria through the context of annual festival ceremonies. The study of the fisherman chants (Eniyawo) among the Nupe Nigeria is aimed at reproducing the aesthetic structure and thematic echoes that are relevant to the ritual cultural identity and values. the aesthetic features extend to chants which are of high poetic qualities and aesthetic deposits such as ideophone symbols, allusive images, iconic materials and other performances such as music, gesture, mime, ritual rhyme used to accentuate the function of this social medium for peace progress and stability the major aim of the study is therefore to examine Nupe world view philosophy aspiration and vision which are signified in the people folklore. the research methodology employed here is the archetypal theory which best explains the socio-ritual composition as transmitted symbolically from the people historical and mythical basis. the article concludes that from the Nupe oral theatric tradition one can reproduce the people`s traditional way of life their existence and allusion. meaning that the reconstruction of people`s ways of life is possible from their physical performances.