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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Rethinking militancy and environmental justice: the politics of oil and violence in Nigerian popular musice
Author:Okuyade, OgagaISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:Africa Today (ISSN 1527-1978)
Volume:58
Issue:1
Pages:79-101
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:popular music
political songs
Niger Delta conflict
External link:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_today/v058/58.1.okuyade.pdf
Abstract:The Niger Delta question is not just the most controversial issue in postcolonial Nigeria: it has launched Nigeria into global news circuits. The delta itself, the most marginalized geopolitical zone in Nigeria, gives vibrant expression to the paradox of wealth and poverty tied to a single space. With the establishment of the amnesty policy, most mainstream media seem to have forgotten that the cardinal aim of the policy is to create a platform to ease infrastructural development in the Niger Delta and thereby to articulate the importance of ecological and human justice. What fascinates the media is the idea of militancy itself, not the postamnesty assurance of a new world for the doubly marginalized delta people. This essay examines how popular music has become the new site for political activism, especially in engaging the society and government on pressing postcolonial issues in Nigeria, specifically the Niger Delta question and the functionality of the amnesty package. The essay examines how these popular artists articulate the predicament of the delta in their songs, considering that popular music is hardly discussed among cultural art forms that give expression to the Niger Delta question. Popular music offers the Nigerian public an alternative to the hegemonic position. Bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]
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