Exploring the Musical Legacy of Benin City

Expectedly, the musical legacy of Benin City (and by extension, Edo) goes beyond these two artists. Benin City is a focal point of European expansionism. As early as the 15th century Portuguese visitors to the historic kingdom were awed by its civilization. They found the streets interlocked and lit, and people who were completely dedicated to their traditional institution, as enshrined in the seat of the Oba (king). A strong sense of self has always been prevalent in Benin City, and that has been a good influence on its musical culture.

The importance of music in traditional Benin society

Mark Ighile, in a paper, accounts for the strong folk traditions of Benin kingdom, which traditionally required songs to be free of sole ownership, as that will drive others to pick it up and remake according to the demands of their times. Furthermore, he extracted a saying which nods to the people’s musical consciousness: “kobe n’bue agbon te agbon, a ke siwuan,” whose literal translation he gives as “since the beginning of man, he has been singing.”

Before popular music began to thrive in the 1950s, music in Benin City, like elsewhere in Nigeria, was used mostly in traditional and social settings. Its requirement to serve an audience removed the glitz pop stars like Rema and Shallipopi now embody, but even then, musicians were recognized for their creative relevance.

Ighile further espouses the role of court musicians, who are divided into five groups: the Ogbelaka, the Igbemagba, the Ikpema, the Ikepeziken, and the Ikpakohen. “They receive financial rewards for their services,” he writes, “and they receive some formal training. In addition, most of them have no other occupation, but as musicians, their means of living is supplied by the king or chief whose court they are connected.”

Modern styles of myth-making

If a random group of people are asked to name the greatest musician from Benin City, their answer would likely tilt towards the same name: Sir Victor Uwaifo. A maestro in every sense of the word, Uwaifo took influences from traditional Benin into a highly modernized style, creating his own guitars and bending genres to his will. He, more than anyone, embodies the high artistic cultures prevalent in the area.

In 1966, just a year after forming his band Melody Maestros, Uwaifo released “Joromi,” which was part of a three-song release that included “Sirri-Sirri” and “Guitar Boy.” Based on the story of a mythical character who wrestled and defeated supernatural forces, “Joromi” was a sterling depiction of Uwaifo’s folk roots. But “Guitar Boy,” which was similarly based on a wonderful tale of an encounter with a mermaid on the beach, proved to be the breakout song, and Uwaifo consequently quit his job at the Nigerian Television Service, which would later become the Nigerian Television Authority.

While Uwaifo made brilliant music, he had contemporaries that were quite noteworthy in their own way. In the early 1970s, a movement called Edo funk rose in Benin City, spurred by its vibrant hotel culture and nightlife. The syncopated rhythms gave sound to the national atmosphere of relief, after coming away from the three years of the Nigeria-Biafra War. Benin City, which belonged in the then Midwest Region, was particularly conflicted during this time, as they had cultural and historic affiliations with the opposing Western and Eastern parts of Nigeria. In the music, such conflicts melted away, leaving only composition.

It speaks to the ingenuity of those musicians that they had very distinct styles. Akaba Man’s philosophic funk, for instance, had little in common with the fiery stances of Osayomore Joseph. Just like Alhaji Waziri Oshomah, who performed a more rootsy and Islam-influenced style, had a different vision from the funksters.

The duo of Sonny Okosun and Majek Fashek represent the reggae side of things, but even they weren’t exempted from the funky history of their city. Okosun created a disco-like form before he switched to reggae, and in 2018 Majek released “Akugbe” in honor of Oba Ewuare II, who had been crowned the new king two years prior. Like Port-Harcourt, another great southern Nigerian city, Benin City’s musicians have always been spread across a wide spectrum of influences.

Benin’s contributions to contemporary African music

The conversation about Lagos’ unrivaled power on the Nigerian music scene has often come up, but even less discussed is the undeniable star power prevalent in Benin. A dreamland for talent seekers, its artists have the important pairing of artistic ambition and communal building. Working concurrently, when a Benin artist blows, it’s almost as if they blow with a full city behind them.

Of course, Shallipopi has been the biggest benefactor of this system, and that’s even more noteworthy due to his style: a type of talk-rapping, it makes a technique out of the club banger, incorporating zesty hypemen language and social media references, which grounds the music in sensibilities that are strongly Nigerian. It’s a prevalent style in the city, and as far as amapiano and certain touches remain a part of Nigerian club culture, such songs tend to become hit songs. “JUJU,” the hottest record in Nigeria right now, features the artist and directly interpolates his catchphrase.

When amapiano started making waves in Nigeria about four years ago, a Benin-bred artist by the name of Goya Menor created one of its most stirring songs on “Ameno Amapiano,” the city’s gritty perspective forming its most memorable part: “You want to bam ba / You want to chill with the big boys / Now you dey run kitikiti, you dey run katakata…”

Not many other artists wear the city’s influence on the sleeves of their sound, but scattered here and there, they corner a strong section of Nigerian pop. And how fitting, how poetic, given its longstanding contributions to our music, that the biggest Afrobeats song of all time (“Calm Down”) was created by the golden child of Benin and produced by Andre Vibez, who’s Uwaifo’s son.

Music, like every artistic tradition, always moves, and moving alongside the peculiar rhythms of Nigerian music, has been the artists of Benin City. That sense of motion has been their greatest strength, and has been the strongest legacy of the historic city on Afropop. While a lot of economic and cultural changes are needed to facilitate a vibrant return to its concert culture, Rema’s recent homecoming might just be the spiritual awakening the city needs.