American Don Laments ‘Killing’ Of Nigeria’s Cultural Heritage

An American Professor of Anthropology, Debra Klein, has lamented that “wrong perception” is gradually killing the rich cultural heritage of Nigeria. She made this statement while delivering a Public Lecture on “Culture and Power: A Critical Anthropology for the New Millennium” in the country recently.

Prof. Klein, who is a Research Fellow in the Department of Performing Arts, University of Ilorin, delivered the lecture entitled: “Reclaiming the Orisha in Nigeria: The Intersection of Traditional Indigenous Religion and Islam in Yoruba Popular Culture”, with focus on the Were and Fuji genres of music,   as part of  a project on which she and her team are working.

While delivering the lecture jointly organised by the Centre for International Education (CIE) and the Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Klein lamented that Fuji music, which is a unique genre of African popular music among the Yorùbá people of Nigeria, is being allowed to gradually die because of wrong perception, which made some people to submit that “Fuji is a fusion of nonsense”.

The author of The Yoruba Bata Goes Global (2007) disclosed that a research which she and her team carried out revealed that 40 per cent of respondents listen to hip hop music while 22 per cent listen to Rock & Roll. This, according to her, is an indication that the country’s culture is being eroded.

The scholar stressed that cultural difference is not only “out there” but closer to Nigeria. “Focusing on home allows us to understand how cultural difference works close to home,” she stated, adding; “If we understand how cultural difference works close to home, we can better understand far-away places.”

Klein advised Nigerian institutions to train their own anthropologists, noting that critically documenting Nigerian cultures is important for Nigerian, African, and global scholarship and citizens.  She stated further that Nigerian anthropology students can travel to other places to study other cultures, describing Anthropology as a holistic discipline that intersects with many disciplines in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Earlier in his welcome address, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Prof. Charles Bodunde, described Prof. Klein as a committed anthropologist while the Director, Centre for International Education (CIE), Prof. Olugbenga Mokuolu, said the coming of the lecturer was an indication of the good value of the Nigerian culture. He said it is hoped that the lecture help as an instrument of national unity, adding that contemporary education goes beyond the four walls of the classroom but that it requires going out of the comfort zone as the lecturer has done.