La moral y los valores vistos por los niños y adolescentes

has been abandoned as a result of globalization. As it is in the Western world, there is courtship which gives room for immorality. Many young women now get pregnant for their would-be husbands before they wed. Church or Christian marriage is fast taking over from traditional marriage. Couples are issued with marriage certificates after wedding. Monogamy is fast substituting polygamy and virtually all the aspects of Igbo traditional marriage is caving in to the western system of marriage.

3.1.6 Igbo Traditional Music

Traditional music in Igboland served various purposes ranging from social criticism, entertainment, education, military, exercise and ceremonial purposes. They have meaning in the way they are expressed in songs and dances. Dance was used during important ceremonies and rituals as well as for recreation. Each clan in Igboland developed their own special style of traditional music and dance. Music was often provided through drums, flutes, gongs and singers.

Different rhythms in the music signal different movements to the dancers. There are specific dances for men and women for special occasions such as wars or weddings. According to Mokwunye (1979), African children became aware of, understood, appreciated and promoted their cultural heritage through songs and dances. In the villages, cultural songs and dances were taught to children with the aid of musical instruments. Most of these instruments were made by the village people, using very simple, inexpensive materials. They used local or traditional musical instruments made from local materials while the western world used modern musical instruments such as guitar, piano, clarinet, flute, trumpet, bassoon, saxophone, harp, brass, violin and xylophone and so on. They used microphone to sing and amplify the sound.

Some of the materials used in making music in Igboland are awja (flute), ubow (local guitar), opu or opi (whistle), ogene (metal gong), nkwa (drum), ekwe (tom tom), igba or ikpa (talking drum) and so on. Igbo traditional music often has an upbeat rhythm which is accompanied with lyrics of a moral or story. They create this by using an array of different drums and percussion instruments. The audience is often involved by singing and dancing to the song. Lively music is often played at traditional weddings to celebrate the courtship. Even though the British colonized Nigeria and developed their own church, many western churches introduced African music and tradition to their worship. The Igbo believe that during funeral ceremonies, the more music is played along with dancing, the better the chances of the deceased to have a successful afterlife. Basden (1982) noted that:

The more one listens to the native music, the more one is conscious of its vital power. It touches the chords of man‟s innermost being and stirs his primal instincts.

It demands the performer‟s whole attention and so sways the individual as almost to divide asunder, for the time being mind and body. It is intensely passionate and no great effort of the imagination is required to realize that such music could only have originated with the son of Cain. Under its influence and that of the accompanying dance, one has seen men and women pass into a completely dazed condition, oblivious and apparently unconscious of the world around them. (p.

192).

Furthermore, they used music to enhance celebrations, bringing out the spiritual aspect during religious ceremonies and pleasure. Highlife music which was popular in the early 80s was heavily influenced by western culture. Dance is one of the best art forms for expression. People gyrate in order to celebrate, commemorate or even to prepare for some rituals. Historic and traditional dance goes back to hundreds and even thousands of years ago. There is a treasure of a variety of folk and tribal dances in communities across Igbo land. A lecture delivered by Mazi Mbonu Ojike at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos on the 31^st day of March, 1948, the topic “Let us Revive African Music” gives insight into the general attitude of this great Igbo man to things African. He asserted that “the human motive for music is one throughout the world. But just as no two human personalities are identical in all respects, so music of nations must be dissimilar one to another”

(p.2). He further recounted his experience saying:

Twenty active years at home, plus eight inquisitive years abroad have collectively convinced me that our music is a legacy to love, a tradition to uphold, a heritage to preserve, it needs no reform, it calls for no apology, it wants no distortion. What our music culture wants is a new zest, a new devotion, a new patronage. It must be

strengthened in order to be consolidated and promoted in order to be patronized. (p.

2).

Ojike (cited by Sofola, 1978) concluded in a language so challenging as it is repudiating that:

He had never in his entire safari seen a country like his where people despise their songs, their dance; a nation that patronizes foreign dances to the utter neglect of its own. It is a nation of people who think of progress and civilization in terms of imbibing whatever is foreign. It is a people that have rejected its fashion, its food, its drinks, its ideals of marriage and its music. (p. 28).

The eastern region of Nigeria which consists mainly of the Igbo tribe has a list of traditional dances performed as a form of emotional expression, social interaction or exercise in a spiritual or performance setting and these dances are sometimes used to express ideas or to tell a story.

Basden (1982) once again reminds us of the value attached to native music by the Igbo when he stated that:

What the bagpipes are to the typical Highlander and the drums to an Ulster Orange man, that and more is native music to the Igbo. In each case, the emotions are aroused and the pulses quickened but the native yields himself to its influence with absolute abandon. (p. 193).

To buttress this point, Achebe (1958) described Unoka saying that he was very good at his flute and his happiest moments were the two moons after harvest when the village musicians brought down their instruments hung above the fireplace. Unoka would play with them, his face beaming with blessedness and peace. Sometimes another village would ask Unoka’s band and their dancing egwugwu to come and stay with them and teach them their tunes. They would go to such hosts for as long as three or four markets, making music and feasting. Some of the dancing groups in Igbo society play various roles.

For instance, Abigbo and Ekere-Avu dances which stand for social critics are from Mbaise community in Igboland and were used for social criticisms against governments and powerful people in the community, which a single person could not do without being victimized. The Mmanwu which stands for masquerade dance groups were widely used to protect deities and to deliver judgements or administer punishments on otherwise powerful people because masquerades were untouchable and feared to be spirits. Young men were enlisted into the group to effectively act or serve as local police.