Upsetting the gender imbalance in African popular music: The example of Diepreye Osi of the Ịjọ (Ijaw) of Nigeria

Abstract

For sometime now, there has been a conversation among scholars about male hegemony in African popular music and how some women performers resist the established status quo. In joining the discourse in this article, I focus on the owigiri music of Diepreye Osi, a female bandleader among the Ịjọ of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. With particular attention to the departments in the bands of that premier neo-traditional music in the Ịjọ community, including instrumentation, dancing and singing, I argue that Diepreye contests patriarchy in her musical ensemble. Data for the study was gathered from unstructured interviews of artists and ­non-artists, and observation of live performances.