Content and Editorial

Abstract

Editorial
This Issue of Lagos Notes and Records presents a range of scholarly contributions from established and early career researchers and scholars across key disciplines in the humanities. It is worthy of note that a couple of articles received from authors outside the traditional base of the journal confirm the reputation this journal has acquired over the years and its increasing national and international appeal.

In the first article, Decker re-examines the history of some early settlers and key actors in pre-modern Lagos. He specifically analyses Oshodi Tapa’s individuality and presents the factors that shape his role in the evolving colonial Lagos society of his time. The paper concludes that an underdog’s capability to affect society is derived from the opportunities presented by the society involved and those accessed and utilised by the individual.

Boumo and Gimba, in their historical mapping of settlement and intergroup relations among the Hausa and Central Delta region during the precolonial era in Nigeria, observe that the people of both regions lived and traded with one another peacefully from as early as the 16th century. They argue that this mutual and peaceful relationship has now been disrupted as a result of many sociopolitical conflicts and events in the last few years.

Florence Nweke discusses phases of earning in music. The study emphasises the phases that lead to the acquisition of musical skills in children using the principles by Gordon and Gardner. The implication of the findings is that knowledge of students’ musical aptitude would assist in the selection of musical materials, their content and teaching strategies appropriate for each student.

Onipede examines the role of visual art critics in helping to improve the work done within that sub-discipline. Art critics and criticism are said to be crucial to the growth of art practice because they serve as chaperons to art through the feedback they give on the practice, trend and quality of artworks. The paper laments the low number and quality of art critics in Nigeria and their unprofessional practices. It proffers recommendations on how art critics and criticism can be improved.

Ofuafo’s contribution also toes the path of visual art by showing how Bruce Onobrakpeya’s works document and integrate the Urhobo concept of Akpo in contemporary visual arts. Using Umberto Eco’s semiotic theory, the paper shows how pictures possess signs and statements signifying cultural and religious values. She submits that Bruce Onobrakpeya synthesises and extends the Urhobo traditional mythology on Akpo in his artworks to create an interface between the Urhobo people and their belief system.

Jegede (lately of blessed memory), in the article on globalising inequality, contends that connectivity, cooperation and interdependence of the states and peoples of the world cannot be successful where there is a glaring inequality of status. The paper challenges African countries to work hard towards developing their nations before embracing globalisation. It concludes by arguing that globalising at this stage of underdevelopment puts African states at a disadvantage, except the developed world decides to trade its development for underdevelopment.

Paméssou explores the theme of gender, sexual identities and morality in the post-modern world as depicted in Caryl Churchill’s comic play titled Cloud Nine. The paper uses psycholanalytic theory and aspect of feminism to highlight the phenomenon of gender orientation and sexual reassignment in the play. It shows how characters in the play act out the complex nature and characteristics of sex and gender identities in contemporary society.

Oral performance constitutes the focus of Anya Egwu’s paper, ‘Towards a Type Classification of Ẹwa-ọma Festival Performances of Nkporo, South-Eastern Nigeria’. He attempts a pioneering initiative to systematically observe, describe, document and classify individual festival performances in an Igbo community in the South-East of Nigeria. Fifty-two (52) Ẹwa-ọma performances recorded in an audiovisual device during the 2000, 2001 and 2002 editions of the festival are used for type classification. Four types of Ẹwa-ọma performances are identified and described in this study.

Alimi investigates the issues of American multiculturalism. He uses Kushner’s Angels in America (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) to demonstrate how Americans' desires to express multiculturalism is complicated by their participations in the politics of its acceptance and rejection simultaneously. The paper examines the challenges facing Americans' acceptance of multiculturalism and the politics of "group differentiated rights" that problematise the choice or choices individuals and groups make in the process of acquiring the American identity.

Azumuruna discusses the dimensions of the sociopsychological (sociological and psychological) alienation of the African American as portrayed in James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain (Mountain) and Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place (TWBP). The paper demonstrates how the two novelists simultaneously engage as well as reformulate the Marxist concept of alienation/estrangement within the framework of the racial experience of the African American in America.

Sobola and Agboola in their article analyse the syntactic representation of structural patterns in the conceptual metaphors and also the meaning mechanism involved in the interpretation of metaphorical structures found in two Nollywood movies: Aya wa ni (Yoruba) and He Goat (English). Types and categories of metaphors in the two are identified, described and interpreted based on their sociocultural meanings.

In the last paper in this volume, Peter Oni examines the relationship between language and development. He challenges African scholars to address the problems of (under) development by utilising resources in African languages. He submits that lack of writings in African languages is one of the major obstacles to development.

It is my considered opinion that this volume has served the academic and research communities locally and globally with some thoughtprovoking scholalrly debates and findings. Pertinent and contemporary issues within the disciplines in the humanities have been thrown up and addressed, and findings from the studies will definitely provoke further debates and deepen the impact of our works on the larger society.

Muyiwa Falaiye, PhD

Professor of Philosophy

Editor-in-Chief