Breaking News

Brian: An innocent young girl decided to have sex at the matured age of thirteen with her nineteen year old boyfriend.

Dare is here with me in the studio today, and I believe he would like to give us a detailed information about this incident.

Dare: Certainly, just as you said, an innocent young thirteen year old got pregnant for her nineteen year old boyfriend. This thirteen year old wanted to abort her child because she felt the pressure will be too much.

Brian: PRESSURE!!!??.. I am stupefied, because the last time I checked, statistics showed that teen pregnancy is on the rise, and most of the teenagers that get pregnant nowadays feel very comfortable. In fact teenagers also get child support and child support means more money, and more money means less stress. So Dare I don’t get your point when you say “pressure”.

Dare: I certainly agree with you….but let me go on with my story. The thirteen year old girl finally got her abortion and died in the process.

Brian: That is such a sad story. Did you interview anyone close to her?

Dare: Yes I did. I interviewed the boyfriend.

Brian: So what did the boyfriend say about this tragic incident?

Dare: The boyfriend said that the intercourse they had together was mutually agreed upon, “She knew quite well what she was doing”.  He said that her mum influenced her by always bringing men to the house. Not only did the mother do that, she also insulted her daughter and told her that she wasn’t woman enough because she did not have a man.

Brian: How did the boyfriend feel about his girlfriend’s death?

Dare: The boyfriend said that he feels very sorry for his girl’s death, but at the same time “I still have to move on with life, I can’t let a thing of the past ruin my future”. “Her death was so unfortunate, I am really sorry but that isn’t going to stop me from doing what I do best.”

Brian: I totally agree with the girl’s boyfriend, he definitely has to move on with life no matter what. And maybe he should get more girls pregnant. And please let us not “crucify” the innocent boy, for he is only making efficient use of his nature given talent.

Brian: Thanks for joining us here at the studio Dare.

Dare: You are most welcome.

Brian: Listen up young teenagers, if you are contemplating on having sex with your boyfriend, contemplate no more and just do it, have a baby, get child support and if you feel the pressure will be too much abort your child. Getting rid of a baby is just as easy getting rid of waste products from your body, so why not get pregnant??!!!  By doing this you are not helping yourself, you are also helping the nation by increasing the labor force,

This is Brian Deck and I thank you all for watch the CNN news. Stay tuned for some more stories.

Juju Music

Nigeria has a population of 152,217,341, which makes it the most populous country in Africa (Department of State). Nigeria consists of 250 ethnic groups, and the three major ethnic groups are the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo ethnic group (CIA). The most populous ethnic group is the Hausa-Fulani. Most of the Nigerian ethnic groups have contributed to the “World of Music”. For example, the Efik and the Ibibio people contributed to the Calypso music of Trinidad and Tobago (Alfred). The Yoruba people contributed to a lot of the Southern American music, some of the instruments played culturally in Brazil, Haiti and many other southern American countries originated from the Yoruba land. Examples of such instruments are the “Shekere” and the “Agogo”.
 There are many genres of music in Nigeria, but I will be talking about one, the Juju music, which is from the Yoruba land. The Juju music is a Nigerian genre. The word “Juju” means two things, in Yoruba (Nigerian Language) the word “Juju” means witchcraft and it also means to throw. There is no history about how this name was coined. This genre is popular amongst Nigerians and is also popular in the “World of Music” (Music culture). There is also no definite history of how the Juju music came to be. The first Juju music was recording in the 1920’s by one of its pioneers name Tunde King (Tosin Aribisala).
Juju music originated from the Western part of Nigeria (Yoruba land) which includes these states, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos and Osun. The Juju music is prominently percussion music, and the instruments used are, the talking drum, shekere, woodblocks and the agogo. The instrument that is mostly used in this music is the talking drum. The instrument that is rarely used is the electric guitar. The electric guitar was introduced to this genre of music after the Second World.
 The talking drum is made up of different components namely, the rim, the drum head, the tension strings, the drum shell and the beater. The talking drum is a membranophone and the drum head is made from goat skin. There are different types of talking drums namely, Iya-ilu (the mother drum), Omele (baby of the house) and Adamo (lead drum) (Ayanlenre Adamu Alajede). The Iya-ilu is “the mother drum” and produces the deepest sound compared to the talking drums. The iya-ilu is used to hold the rhythmic structure of the groove and it is sometimes used for soloing. The omele is the “baby of the house” because it has a very high pitched sound. It is also the smallest in size. The other talking is the Adamo, the Adamo has the same function has the iya-ilu, but it does not produce a very deep sound (Ayanlenre Adamu Alajede).
The talking drummers are griots. And they make their money off of their patrons. The “wealthiness” of talking drummer depends on the “wealthiness” of his patron or employer. Most talking drummers are male this is because the talking drum is seen as a masculine instrument.
The Juju music is played at wedding ceremonies, naming ceremonies, birthdays, temples (churches) and social gatherings.  The context of Juju music has to do with life, wealth, enjoyment, “feferiti”.
Some of the well-known artists of Juju music are Tunde King, King Sunny Ade, Admiral Dele Abiodun, Prince Segun Adewale, Sir Shina Adewale, General Prince Adekunle and Prince Emmanuel Abiodun. The titles attached to their names are their nicknames and it shows that they are masters of their work (Tosin Aribisala).

Because I spent most of my childhood years in Nigeria, I knew most of the juju artist. The artist that continues to ring in my ear drum is King Sunny Ade. King Sunny Ade was the most famous Juju artist. He refers to himself as the king of music. King Sunny Ade is an amazing guitar player. As a matter of fact when I interviewed my parents about the King Sunny Ade, they told me he was a fantastic player and that he would always dance while playing the electric guitar.

Juju artists such as King Sunny Ade, Shina Peters and Chief Ebenezar Obey and many more modernized juju and even gave their styles different names. For Example Chief Ebenezar calls his style of juju “the miliki system” (Ebenezar).

Just like any other music the Juju music has its own aesthetics. Juju music is played in fast tempo. Good juju music makes its audience dance. When dancing to the music, money is usually sprayed on the either the performing artist or dancers.   

                                                     Work Cited

Hill, Donald R. Calypso Calaloo: Early Carnival Music in Trinidad. 2nd. Florida: University Press of Florida, 1993. Print.

How to Play a Simple Rhythm on the Talking Drum. Alajede Ayanlenre. 6:24, Youtube, 2010.

Juju Music – Performance Documentary Trailer. Jhfiic. 4:16, Youtube, 2010.

Tosin, Aribisala. Personal Interview. 30 November, 2010.

Yemi, Ademola. Personal Interview. 29 November, 2010.

        

                                               

                                              

The fall of Man

Today we are going to talk about the fall of man.
According to the book of Genesis chapter 1, God had a marvelous plan for man and blessed man. "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28). This literally means that God gave us the power to rule the earth. If you look further in that same book of genesis, you see that God even gave Adam the job of naming the animals on the earth, that is an awesome priviledge. God gave man (Adam) lots of priviledges in the Garden, He allowed Adam to eat any fruit he wanted to, but God commanded to not eat a specific one. But know Adam did not listen, he ate the fruit that God forbade after been persuaded by Eve (Eve was persuaded by a serpent to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden). When Adam ate the fruit he saw that he was naked and when God came, Adam and Eve ran behind a tree to cover their nakedness. To cut the long story short, because of the sin Adam and Eve committed God cursed man and that is why you see that man is suffering today, but God as we know God is a merciful God. We will look into the mercy of God later, in one of my other blogs. But here are some of the curses God placed upon Adam.

(Note: I am not doing the curses in order)
Curse 1: (Gen 3:17) "And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Now let me break this curse down.
This curse represent femine, harvest, hunger and thirst.
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake"- when God created the land (3day of creation) God blessed; God blessed everything he created. But because of Adam's disobedience he cursed the land. This means that there are times that the land will be fallow and the soil will not be fertile. That is what is known as femine in our society today. God intention was that lands (soil for crops) will be rich and fertile. If you look further in chapter 18 which says "Thorns also and thistle shall it bring forth to thee". This part means that as plants grow, weeds (thorns and thistle). And as we all weeds are pest to plants they compete for nutritional vaules with plants, and because of that it can indirectly stunt the growth of plants.
Hunger and Thirst: "In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life"- from inspiration, this means that man will always feel hungry and to satisfy that hunger man must eat, this cycle will continue till a man dies.

Curse 2: this is for ladies! "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee". (Gen 3:17)
In this quote God cursed the women saying that they will have labor (modern society) before conception. And because of the disobedience of Eve, (according to the quote) a man shall rule over his wife.

Curse 3: I would like to this the "Hustlers Curse"; " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground". (Gen 3:19)
This curse simply means that man will continue to hustle to make ends meet till man dies. And do not get me wrong when I say man, I mean both men and women.