| Abstract
|
:
|
A major aspect of African music which has often been underscored in Musicological studies and which undoubtedly is the most important to Africans, is the textual content. Its significance in African musicology is based on the fact that African music itself; whether traditional ethnic, folk, art or contemporary, is text-bound and besides, the issue of meaning 'what is a song saying?' is paramount to Africans, whereas to Westerners the musical elements are more important. This is why the textual content should be given more priority. In terms of the textual content, Nigerian gospel music, an African contemporary musical genre which concerns itself with evangelizing lost souls, is also used as an instrument of socio-political and economic struggle. One of the issues that have been prominent in the song-texts is the suffering of the masses in Africa. This essay aims at taking a closer look at the selected relevant texts in order to interpret them, determine their message, and evaluate their claims and veracity. Using ethnomusicological, theological, and literary-analytical approaches, the essay classifies the texts into categories, finding most of the claims in the texts to be true assessments of the suffering conditions of the Nigerian masses. The essay concludes by stressing the need to pay more attention to the voice of the masses through gospel artists and for people in the humanities to work energetically towards fostering permanent solutions to the problem of suffering in Africa in general.
|