Group emerges to boost Yoruba language through Omowura music

Group emerges to boost Yoruba language through Omowura music

A group known as Ayinla Omowura Legacy and Research Centre,AOLERC,has been launched in Abeokuta,the Ogun state capital.

omowura

According to the group mission statement at a press conference,the aim is to boost the study and use of Yoruba language through music as typified by the works of late Apala Icon,Ayinla Omowura.
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See full mission statement below:

AYINLA OMOWURA LEGACY AND RESEARCH CENTER. (AOLERC) is a collective of ardent admirers and promoters of Yoruba tradition, culture, language, arts and values with passion to sustaining and promoting these ideals.

Our aims and objectives are to ensuring better appreciation of Yoruba culture, tradition, language and values.

The Yoruba are a rare gem among races as designed by Olodumare in that, by the usage of language, practice of culture and tradition, a keen observer would not but end up admiring the race the more.

It is the realization of this that prompted some like-minds coming together to ensure a continuous sustenance, promotion and globalization of this species of humans and what they represent as expounded by their SQUARE OF IDENTITY – language, culture, tradition and name.

Upon a thorough assessment, it was generally accepted that of all musicians of Yoruba extraction, not demeaning any, Late Ayinla Omowura, stood and still stands out as the one musician who deployed all the elements of the Square of Identity of Yoruba race in carrying out his chosen trade that inadvertently tallies with The Centre core values. Therefore, we chose to honor him by adopting his name for its identity owning to his dexterity in the deployment of all four elements in its trade that make him and his works relevant after over four decades of his demise among the academia, artisans, policy makers, high flyers, floatsam and jetsam of the society.

For richer and better appreciation of AOLERC and what it stands for, there is the need to define the following:

WHO ARE THE YORUBA?
They are one of the largest African ethnic group south of Sahara. They are a collection of people bounded together by common language, history and culture. They live mainly in the south western part of Nigeria spreading westward to Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone and several in the Americas and diaspora across the globe.

OUR APPROACH.
For this, we choose music to serve as the medium through which we accomplish our aims and objectives by dissecting, analyzing, probing established Yoruba traditional music across all genres to arrive at generally acceptable meaning, inference and usage of words, phrases, idioms and proverbs for better and richer communication in Yoruba language not neglecting inherent values of culture and tradition giving birth to such.

YORUBA MUSIC.
Is one instrument that thoroughly defines the Yoruba Nation encompassing what an individual needs to possess and demonstrate to qualify as of Yoruba extraction.

As the name implies, Yoruba music refers to any kind of music that is produced in unadulterated Yoruba language by a Yoruba person employing indigenous Yoruba musical instruments and intended to serve as a vehicle conveying all that constitute “Yorubaness” in terms of wordings, messages, percussions and murals.

However, music produced by any person bearing Yoruba name does not automatically qualify as Yoruba music. Therefore, Yoruba music is different from Yoruba traditional music. (Tradition being the operative word)

CURRENT STATE OF YORUBA LANGUAGE.
As one of the well spoken traditional languages, Yoruba is facing the threat of extinction, a situation faced by other world languages.

According to Professor David Crystal, a world renowned linguist, the languages of the world are dying out at the rate of more than 25 a year. One of the signs of a fading language is reduction in the numbers of people speaking the language on regular basis, a threat faced by Yoruba language.
Every language is a civilization with all the knowledge garnered over the ages.

LANGUAGE DECLINE AND EFFECTS ON THE SPEAKERS.
If it’s agreed that a language embodies a group’s culture and values, a danger to such language portends danger to the group’s future and heritage.

If language is the vehicle that transports Yoruba traditional values, any decline in the efficiency of the vehicle must affects its conveyance, delivery and survival.

Therefore, a nonchalant attitude to the gradual demise of Yoruba language is an indirect help to its extinction. It is this challenge AOLERC has decided to confront that generations of an otherwise intelligent, wisdom-driven, culturally advanced civilization is not lost to carelessness and therefore decides to awaken the consciousness of all to ensuring the sustenance, promotion and globalization of this rare and irreparable civilization.

SUCCINCTLY.
AOLERC seeks, through its TWO ARMS, to achieve two basic objectives within legally permissible ambits:

1. RESEARCH ARM.
Sustains, promotes and globalize Yoruba language, tradition, culture and attendant values in all spheres of human endeavor via researches.

2. FOUNDATION ARM.
•Care for the direct descendants of Ayinla Ọmọwura and dependents by ensuring that all rights, royalties, derivatives and benefits legally due to them via his legacies and works are secured from known and hidden sources through all legitimate means.
•Discourage, frustrate, prevent and eliminate real and possible pilferage, plagiarism and secure, recover all benefits and credits dues from legal and illegal uses denied and devoid of deserved credits with such benefits remitted to be equitably distributed to the advantage of the legal beneficiaries.
•The Foundation would equally strive to encourage and promote emergence of young, dedicated Yoruba traditional music and artists with genuine thirst for sustenance and advancement of Yoruba tradition, culture, arts and values.

In the light of these, we have invited all considered valuable and relevant here today and therefore covet the co-operation of all today, holding values for Yoruba and everything Yoruba to come along with us in the propagation of this challenge to realize our set target.

Thank you all.