Nigeria

C

Music and Dance

Virtually all Nigerian cultures have their own traditions of music and dance, which are central to the way Nigerians remember their past and celebrate their present. Songs and dances are played on drums, flutes, trumpets, stringed instruments, xylophones, and thumb pianos, and are often linked to specific places and events, such as the harvest. Although traditional song and dance continue in modern Nigeria—especially in rural areas and on ceremonial occasions—their central place in Nigerian life is threatened by the spread of radios, tape recorders, video cassette recorders (VCRs), and other mass-culture media, especially among youth. Sometimes, however, modern media allow musicians using traditional instruments and forms to reach a mass audience.

Popular music in Nigeria began in the late 1940s with the arrival of highlife music from Ghana. Highlife blended Western sounds ranging from big bands and guitars with African beats and instruments. Among the leading early bands were those of Rex Jim Lawson and Victor Olaiya. During the 1960s and 1970s, King Sunny Ade and I. K. Dairo, among others, established a new style of music known as juju. A rhythmic dance music style, juju blends Western instruments with elements of traditional African music. In the 1980s and 1990s Fela Anikulapo Kuti commanded a large following, both in Nigeria and internationally, with a form of Afro-Beat inspired by funk, jazz, and highlife and accompanied by provocative lyrics in Yoruba and pidgin.

D

Theater and Film

Contemporary theater in Nigeria grows out of a long tradition of masquerades, festivals, and storytelling. Masquerades, which emphasized costume and dance rather than dialogue, were a key instrument of social control and political commentary, especially in traditional southeastern Nigerian cultures. In the southwest, Alarinjo, a court masquerade and professional popular theater, was common, especially in the 14th-century Oyo kingdom. The traditional Ozidi dramas of the southern Ijo took three days and nights to perform, after several years of rehearsal. The theatrical traditions of the northern Hausa, still practiced today, include the performances of traveling minstrels known as ‘yan kama and public ceremonies of the bori spirit possession cult. Kwagh-hir, an amalgamation of traditional masquerades, puppet theater, acrobatics, dancing, and music, is a modern adaptation of traditional Tiv theater arts.

Modern theater is especially well developed among the Yoruba. Hubert Ogunde, considered the father of modern Yoruba folk opera, created the genre by combining music, dance, and mime. In 1945 he founded a professional theatrical group to perform his own plays, including Tiger’s Empire (1946), an attack on colonialism. Other notable Yoruba theater troupes were founded by Duro Ladipo, whose work explored aspects of Yoruba myth and history, and Moses Olaiya Ademujo, known for comedies that parody social pretensions. Today several professional theater companies thrive in Lagos, Ibadan, and other major cities. Additionally, many performances reach audiences via television, in English as well as in the leading Nigerian languages.

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Filmmaking is less developed in Nigeria than in other African countries such as Senegal, and motion pictures are generally less vibrant than Nigeria’s other arts. This is due to poor funding and distribution, the popularity and availability of television, and state censorship. Nigeria’s leading filmmakers include Francis Oladele, Eddie Ugbomah, Sanya Dosunmu, Ola Balogun, Sadiq Balewa, and Bankole Bello. One of the best-known Nigerian films is Oladele’s Kongi’s Harvest (1971), a political drama about an African dictator’s abuse of power, based on a Wole Soyinka play by the same name. The Rise and Fall of Dr. Oyemusi (1977), which tells the story of an armed robber in Lagos, and The Mask (1979), which is about a plot to rescue African artifacts from the British Museum, are the best-known films by Ugbomah, Nigeria’s most prolific filmmaker. Since the mid-1990s Lagos has become the center of a thriving industry producing low-budget dramas for video, aimed at the home VCR market.

E

Museums and Libraries

The government maintains several major museums, most notably the National Museum, which operates in Lagos, Kaduna, Jos, and Benin. Although museum collections are drawn from a range of cultures, most have a regional emphasis. The National Museum in Jos, for example, is known for its Nok terra-cottas. The government also maintains the National Library of Nigeria, one of the country’s largest, in Lagos. Large holdings are also found at the older universities such as University of Ibadan and University of Nigeria at Nsukka. The National Archives of Nigeria, located in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, and Enugu, hold important historical documents.

V

Economy

Nigeria’s economy, traditionally based on agriculture and trade, changed profoundly under colonial rule, beginning in the late 19th century. The need to pay taxes to the colonial government forced Nigerian farmers to replace food-producing crops with cash-producing crops, which the government bought at low prices and resold at a profit. In the 1960s and 1970s the petroleum industry developed, prompting greatly increased export earnings and allowing massive investments in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, and social services. Many of these large investments, often joint ventures with private corporations, failed.

In 2007 Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) was $165 billion. The GDP has varied widely, depending on the oil market: $81 billion in 1985, $33.2 billion in 1994, $40.5 billion in 1995. In 2007 Nigeria’s GDP per capita was only $1,118.20, among the lowest in the world and well below the average for sub-Saharan Africa. The poor have been especially hard hit by Nigeria’s economic problems, notably by devaluations of the currency, which make basic imported goods, such as food, more expensive; cutbacks in services and increases in fees for services; and a 5 percent average annual rate of inflation from 2007 to 2007.

A

Labor

In 2007 the labor force totaled 45.3 million, up from 30 million in 1980. Women made up 36 percent of the force, men 64 percent. An estimated 3 percent of all workers worked in agriculture, down from 54 percent in 1980; 75 percent worked in the service sector; and 22 percent worked in industry, including mining, manufacturing, and construction. Data on Nigeria’s labor force, however, have limited value because most Nigerians earn their living in more than one field. Urban workers “moonlight” to make ends meet and rural dwellers have second jobs to supplement farming. Accurate unemployment rates are difficult to obtain and generally mean little in a society where many who work are marginally employed and where begging is a socially accepted occupation.

Nigeria’s central labor union is the Nigerian Labor Congress (NLC), which comprises numerous specialized industrial and professional unions. Union activities have increased with the economic downturn of the 1980s and 1990s and the government’s efforts to strictly limit wage increases. Among the most active unions are those representing petroleum workers and university teachers, which have challenged the government not just on salary and economic issues but also on abuses of human rights and autocratic rule. Strikes called for by the NLC have periodically disrupted the Nigerian economy since the early 1990s.

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