DYNAMICS OF MUSICO-CULTURAL ENGAGEMENTS IN SELECTED PRAYER MOUNTAINS IN OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Prayer Mountain (PM), commonly referred to as Orí-Òkè, is a known phenomenon among the Yorùbá Christians in Southwestern Nigeria. Yorùbá Christians consider PM as a site to aid contact with the Divine with a view to attaining victory in spiritual warfare. Existing studies on PM in Nigeria have focused largely on their historical, socio-religious and economic relevance. However, musical engagements on these sacred locations have not received much scholarly attention in spite of the vast musical activities on PMs. This study was, therefore, designed to examine the dynamics of musical and cultural engagements in selected PMs in Osun State, Nigeria. The study was anchored to the Spatial and Ethnomusicological theories and adopted ethnography design. Two famous prayer mountains, namely, Orí-Òkè Ìkòyi in Ìkòyi and Orí-Òkè Bàbá Ábìyè in Ede, Osun State, were purposively selected, given their denominational affiliation, attachment to spiritual personages and time-honoured existence. Key informant interviews were conducted with two founders/presiding pastors, four mountain prophets and two administrative pastors. Indepth interviews were also conducted with 16 musicians and 20 worshippers/participants on the mountains. Participant observation was used, during which audio-visual recording of prayer sessions on the PMs were made. Data were subjected to content and musicological analyses. Ancestral reverence and appropriation of relics, spatial sacredness and religious gender-spatial segregation were strong cultural markers of the Yorùbá on the PMs. Music making, which was initially based on volunteerism by amateur musicians, later witnessed the occasional engagement of professional guest musicians, singers and instrumentalists. Song composition was often spontaneous and hinged largely on divine inspiration and individual creative instinct. Two distinct techniques, namely parodying new texts to existing Yorùbá folk melodies and new texts set to existing popular Christian tunes characterised the style of composition. Hymns, choruses and lyric airs were predominant music typologies on the PMs. Contemporary Western gospel songs were new musical forms used on the PMs. Song texts contained religious narratives laced with various socio-cultural themes, including praise and thanksgiving, prayer, faith and testimonies, and religious satire. The tempi of songs and the performance practice were greatly influenced by the notion of spiritual warfare among participants as evident in rigorous handclapping, intensity of sound production and bodily gestures to highly danceable rhythms accompanied by membranophonic, idiophonic, aerophonic and chordophonic musical instruments. Melodies were largely based on pentatonic scale, with the use of call-and-response form. The Yorùbá w-r= rhythmic pattern was the dominant music performance on the PMs. The state-of-the-art musical facilities, technological innovations as well as diverse ethnic participants on the mountains reflect various socio-dynamic responses which were largely hinged on the academic, social and ministerial exposure of the founders and leaders of the PMs. Musical engagements in Prayer Mountains in Osun State, Nigeria, were largely indigenised in style and content, making them sacred sites for the sustenance of old Yorùbá musical forms while negotiating new musical styles. Prayer mountain songs (orin orí-òkè) are increasingly populating the repertory of Yorùbá Christian music.