Archives, Documentation and Ethnomusicology in Nigeria

Abstract

Most African heritage and national values seem to have lost their originality to modernization, especially in Nigeria. Not only in the field of music, but also in every other arts and humanities. One of the “biggest” problems most Nigerian scholars face today is the problem of archiving and documentation. This has contributed greatly to the poor and watery research output in Nigeria. Historically, from Pre-colonial era to post-colonial era, Nigeria music has suffered from poor archives, documentation due to lack of proper education on archives and documentation. Improper or poor knowledge of archives and documentation thereby, has caused a great loss of some of our musical cultural values during the process of modification. Proper archiving and documentation help to give memory of what has happened in the past for proper and future development / progress. Its knowledge system is inevitable. The ethnomusicologist is known globally for scientific researches on how and why of any musical practices, therefore, will have to play a significant role in putting proper system of archiving and documentation of musical practices in Nigeria. On this note this research helps to expose, with scientific details, the roles of ethnomusicology in improving the knowledge system of archives and documentation of music practices in Nigeria. Keywords— Archive, Documentation, Ethnomusicology and National Values. INTRODUCTION Since the beginning of human race, music, like every other art has begun to experience great modification and poor documentation which has led to extinction of many indigenous music and other arts. Alex (2015), expresses his mind on the state of many Africans towards proper archiving. “Most Africans don’t know their history and have little or nothing to say respect to their place of birth or state of origin”. However, the advent of science and technology in the global village, has contributed to the culture of archiving and documentation in every sphere of arts and sciences, with no limitation of any area of human life. Through this development it was obvious that the archiving / documentation or preservation was not done only by the academics but also by other agencies in the community. In Africa, the music of Africa has gone through processes, development, modification, alteration, etc. This can be traced from the precolonial to colonial and post-colonial where we presently live. Foremost among those who led the race for preserving and studying African music was Devonshire-born Hugh Tracey. Tracey began taking an interest in African music in 1921, during his early days in Zimbabwe, where he had come to farm tobacco with his brother. Living with the Karanga people in Zimbabwe, Tracey was immediately convinced of the importance of music in the lives of the people. This was despite the dismissive attitude of the colonial settler community in the area. He relates his experience as follows: “The history of this collection of authentic African music, songs, legends and stories is in many ways a personal one. It dates back to the early 1920s when I first sang and wrote down the words of African songs. I heard in the tobacco fields of Southern Rhodesia. Several years later (1929), I made a number of discs with a visiting recording company (Columbia, London) when I took 14 young Karanga men with me to record in Johannesburg, 500 miles south. These were the first items of indigenous Rhodesian music to be recorded and published. Shortly afterwards, several of these items were used by John Hammond of CBS at Carnegie Hall in New York as preliminary music to his program on the historic occasion when he presented on the stage, for the first time in that city, the music and the International Journal of English, Literature and Social Science (IJELS) Vol-4, Issue-5, Sep – Oct 2019 https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijels.45.53 ISSN: 2456-7620 www.ijels.com Page | 1607 personnel of a number of southern Negro bands.” From Tracey’s recollection, it becomes clear that the collection and archiving of music in Africa was not only an academic exercise but was strongly linked with commercial interests of recording companies. What then is the state of archives, documentation or preservation in the contemporary Africa, in particular Nigeria? What are the problems and how do we encourage the culture of good archive and documentation for future prosperity? Documentation In the discussion of what documentation is and what it’s not, for the clearer understanding of its knowledge and for proper usage, therefore, it is very necessary to pound on definition of documentation as stated by Oxford Advance learner’s dictionary: According to Oxford Advance Learners dictionary, documentation is stated as “the process of classifying and annotating texts, photographs, etc”. Analyses on the definition gives a basis knowledge of what documentation should be and what it should not be. It is a process, where oral information, writing documents, pictorial document, etc, are received for record purposes. This include the date, day, year of the event or information received. Now there are some technical questions ethnomusicology scholars consistently asked, such as:What event or activities should be documented / What type of documentation should be given scholarly approach? One of the habit or spirit that hinder proper documentation / impact factor documentation is self-bias towards event or activities to be documented. The essence of documentation is to keep history, and therefore every event or activities is required to be given accurate attention for proper documentation. The good thing about what we’ve explored is that scholarly approach towards documentation practices are relatively easy to improve because the report is usually the result of the field. Archive At a completion of a proper documentation is archiving. According to Oxford Advance learner’s dictionary, defined archive as “the place where historical documents or records are kept. A collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people. A well structure archive is where scholars go to access knowledge of the past and present for the progress, continuity, or authenticity of the ongoing research. A well structure archived is sectionalized for easy access with index of the available materials. Chat showing the process towards archive. The process of archiving musical activities / recordings in Africa research has not always been given a necessary attention, especially the traditional music. In spite the efforts of scholars such as J.H.K Nketia, Hugh Tracy, etc, efforts towards standard documentation and archiving are still insignificant most especially in Nigeria, where we have various traditional ethnic group, and which gradually are going on extinction. Nketia (2000), made it known that “there is nevertheless a growing accumulation of field recording in Africa itself that could form the nucleus of archives in individual African countries. They include private collections, recording at broadcasting and television stations, Ministries of Tourism, culture and Information, museums and academic institutions”. He Nketia was able to point it out out on how African itself can form a functioning archiving in individual countries, with every other sector. He furthermore gives three main sections for proper archiving, as the private, institution and public archives. “Private Archives: Archives not normally open to the general public, such as the archives of corporations (broadcasting, televisions and film corporations). Most time such archives can be found in private homes of individuals who can maintain it and for the benefit of the closed family. Institutional Archives: Archives administered as units within research institutions, arts centers and museums and which may grow out of the scholars or a collector associated with the institution and the contributions of other scholars and field collectors who share a collective vision. Most time institutional archive are seen as public archive center or unit but with limitation to specific group