WOMEN IN OGBARULAND USING Conventional Expressions

My intrigued in investigating conventional Nigerian music was propelled by my a long time of ponder and encounter in Rome, Italy. Amid this period, I had the opportunity to visit and consider in eminent libraries, counting Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen (Holy person Irritate), Bibliothèque Civil, Laon (France), Benediktinerabtei (bibliothek) Einsiedeln (Switzerland), Biblioteca Vatican, Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Milan), and Biblioteca Universitario Bologna, holding centuries of Gregorian chant compositions in Europe. I was intrigued by the sum of melodic conventions that had been protected over centuries and started to think around how these encounters in Europe can be connected successfully within the investigate and conservation of conventional Nigerian and African music in general. This journey for the documentation of conventional music was encourage energized by the late Dr. Joshua Uzoigwe, the at that point Chair of the Division of Music, College of Uyo, where I addressed upon my return from Rome. He recommended that

Uzoigwe's encouragement sufficed to turn my attention to women's music outside Uyo, where I resided. In 1999, I started a more in-depth research on Iwali,2 another example of women's music and dance from Ogoja, Cross River State. I am indebted to Dr. Joshua Uzoigwe for reinforcing my desire to document Nigerian traditional music but particularly for imbuing in me the awareness and exigency to research women's music, an area that is understudied by Nigerian scholars.