y^P ^i 
can Quarterly on the AtrsxVQtt
Sprawling
1, Lagos stil 
airections, Lggos is 
populate DODulated cify_ on the West 
African coc sCt'fyEven.thoug ' h r 
ceased to be th<e_Dolitical capita 
ot Nigerig in 
remains Jhe commercial hegrtbeat 
ot the cojuntry with 
mihabitapt l s drawn from vanpus 
parts ofr Nigeri Nigeriaa and other 
nations ot Th Thee world world.. Thi In s 
cosmopolitan crowd.genergt.es 
a rather, yibrarpt^social,activity 
wni clu ing clubssuch as slan ,, g Yoruba Tennis an 
grnong others th A . An aggregati atioon 
like Lsiand Clgb^for insfgncf 
was founded in. October 194 
by g grouo ot patriotic anc 
eminent Nig.enans led by 
Adey.emo AlgKija who becarne 
the first chairman. Two maLor 
reasons were advanced for ine 
founding of the club. The. first 
was a desire to .provide a 
congenial atmosphere wher.e 
Nigerian el tes ot all ethnic 
shades could come t.ogether to 
discuss matters of imerest in 
5ucn areas as commerce, 
industry, trade and. above .all, 
politics—areas that were then 
dominated by Europeans. The 
second was .to provide a 
conducive environment where 
politicians—-Nigerian and 
European.s alike—could relax. 
This was i.n po.in.ted contrast to 
the already existing Ikoy.i Club, 
which was notorious at the timi 
for .its. racially oreiudice* 
admission policy. All the club 
o
hpy av 
bjectives 
e thei .thei 
. 
rr set 
Various night clubs, including 
Chez Peters where Victor Olaiya Enchanting 
GLENDORA REVIEWxAfrican Quarterly on the ArT5><V0I3@No2>
performed in those days, Ambassador Hotel, Yaba, Cool 
Cats Inn, Apapa Road, provided venues for social activity. 
And, of course, there were local ceremonies that ranged 
from child naming, house warming, and birthday 
celebrations, to funeral events and chieftaincy title awards, 
many of which often called for partying. However, these social 
structures and settings have been fueled, sustained and 
activated over the years with juju, a musical genre whose 
sociology is rooted deeply in the culture of Lagosians, as an 
entertainment vehicle. Fuji, a social music type with origin 
from the Muslim culture of South-Western Nigeria, has since 
become popular in Lagos, having acquired a hard electrorock 
edge with its African content being deliberately subjected 
to Western influence. This is only a passing phase as it is a 
far cry from the original concept created in the seventies by 
_i HE origin of juju lies in the 
cosmopolitan economic center 
of Lagos, former nexus of 
British colonial power in 
Nigeria, home to a diverse 
population of indigenous and 
immigrant peoples. And, like 
port towns everywhere, Lagos 
was a fertile ground for the 
germination of hybrid musical 
forms
Singing To The Gods, © Tarn Fiofori (photo on 
opening page) 
Agidigbo Player, 1960 (right). 
Apa/a Music pioneer and exponent, Haruna 
Iskola (Baba Ngani AgbaJ performing with his 
ensemble, ?975 (opposite page). 
two ex-servicemen-turned-musicians: Sikiru Ayinde Barrister 
and Kollington Ayinla. However, modern groups such as 
the Wura Fadakas composed of young Lagosians keep 
reminding Lagosians of the need to identify with the roots of 
juju music as exemplified by the pioneers. And this is why 
the hi-tech juju music of Yoruba superstars, King Sunny Ade 
and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, discovered and 
lauded by the American alternative popular music press in 
the early 1980s, is the product of some fifty years of continuous 
experimentation by African urban musicians. 
The origin of juju lies in the cosmopolitan economic center 
GlENDORA 
of Lagos, former nexus of British colonial power in Nigeria, 
home to a diverse population of indigenous and immigrant 
peoples. And, like port towns everywhere, Lagos was a fertile 
ground for the germination of hybrid musical forms. Although 
contemporary juju music is specifically identified with, and 
patronized by, the over fifteen million Yoruba of South-Western 
Nigeria, its complex history reflects the intermixture of various 
African, Afro-American, European and middle Eastern-derived 
materials. The period between World War I and World War 
II saw the parallel development of guitar-based popular 
music forms in Freetown, Monrovia, Accra, Lagos and other 
towns along the coasts of West Africa. This cluster of urban 
traditions can be divided into two broad categories, each 
derived from a traditional type of musical context. The first is 
the guitar-band highlife that involves adding one or more 
guitars to a traditional percussion ensemble. This type is 
social dance music. The second is a more personal "listening" 
tradition, which is centered around a single performer 
accompanied by one or two of his listeners, playing on bottles, 
cigarette tins or palm-wine calabashes struck with a nail or 
knife blade. 
It is from the latter stream, often referred to as "palm-wine 
music" by older urban musicians, that juju emerged as a 
distinctively named style in about 1932. This was when Tunde 
King, widely recognized as the founder of juju music, formed 
his band with the release of his first recorded material, Eko 
Akete, on Parlophone record label in 1936. This first 
Quarterly on the AiS><V0I3@No8>
appearance on disc bore the stylistic designation, juju, and 
introduced several innovations that defined the new genre. 
And from 1 932 onwards, Tunde King's group consisted of 
four musicians. There was the leader on the six-stringed guitar 
banjo and vocals. Then there were a tambourine (juju) player, 
a sekere (traditional gourd rattle) player, and a second vocalist 
who occasionally doubled on western cymbals or triangle — 
a format copied by other groups in Lagos, particularly after 
the release of Tunde's 1 936 record referred to as "faaji" 
which means "pleasure". Tunde's music was usually on the 
medium tempo. And listening to him was like giving attention 
to a preacher because his music had a strong moral content: 
exhortation, advice, and words of wisdom, from which people 
usually drew and learnt beneficial lessons. 
The origin and history of the term juju as a musical style 
* *~ 
iM
•
fL 
Wk i1 
are traceable to the tambourine as an instrument. Tunde 
King himself was quoted as saying that he bought a 
tambourine from the Salvation Army Stores and gave it to 
his "samba" drummer who developed a virtuoso technique 
which involved tossing the tambourine high into the air and 
catching it. Yoruba is rich in sound imagery and the motion 
of the tambourine was described by onlookers as "ju-ju" 
(low tone-high tone), a term subsequently extended to the 
style as a whole. The Yoruba word for "throw" is "ju." 
Duplicated with tonal accent, it became juju. Thus it was the 
•GLENDORA KEVXWNxAfrican Quarterly on the Ans><V0I3@No2> 
onlookers, and not Tunde King himself, who gave the music 
its name, which has stuck till today. Another etymological 
explanation for the application of the term juju is tied to the 
concept of religion. It is suggested by older musicians that 
juju, a word used by disapproving Europeans and 
Westernized Africans to refer to indigenous religion, was 
satirically applied by the Yoruba to predominant Western 
features of the new style, such as the tambourine, cymbals, 
triangle and harmonic patterns derived from Christian hymns. 
However, the first explanation is a more logically acceptable 
probability. The formula for King's success and the ability to 
adapt to the new musical style lay in the diversity of juju's 
audience at the time. Performing at urban bars or hotels 
and new traditional ceremonies —(child naming ceremonies 
and wedding funerals among these)—juju groups had, at 
various times, to satisfy the demands of Yoruba clerical 
workers, librarians, Ghanaians, and West Indian sailors, 
rich Muslim Yoruba traders, and members of the Saro 
Westernized elite. 
King's 1936 recorded works for instance included in their 
instrumentation, violin and dulcitone, strange instruments 
which he never used in live performances. The use of these 
instruments was obviously suggested by the German 
recording technicians who also played the role of producers. 
This clearly demonstrates the heterogeneity of King's audience.
1 However, this is not to say that music began as an 
drummers 
Nigerian nationalists 
, and introduce 
, supporte 
d element 
d th
s
e 
o 
lega 
f Sierr 
l right 
a Leonea 
s of traditiona 
n Creole
l 
entertainment vehicle for Lagosians only in the 1930s with 
the advent of Tunde King's juju. The process of this musical 
culture dates back to the previous century and was influenced 
by the specific cultural backgrounds of the various immigrant 
settlers and their various locations. Indigenous Yoruba 
communities in the crowded Isale Eko area of Lagos Island, 
as well as groups of Yoruba settlers from Ijebu Ode and 
Ibadan patronized a wide range of musical types. These 
included performances by street musicians and the complex 
percussion ensemble music attracted to naming ceremonies, 
weddings, funerals, and religious festivals. Two groups of 
repatriated Yoruba who had settled in Lagos in the nineteenth 
century also contributed to the city's diverse musical culture. 
The Aguda or Amaro community—emancipated slaves of 
Yoruba descent from Brazil and Cuba—introduced traditions 
A dealer in 'old' vintage music , Mushin, Lagos. © Jide Bello 
developed in the New World including the "careta" or "fancy" 
dance, carnival masquerades which made use of the square 
"samba" frame drum in their musical and instrumental setting. 
The Saro community of Olowogbowo quarter consisted of 
Yoruba repatriates rescued from the slave trade by the British 
squadron and dropped off in Sierra Leone, from where they 
migrated to Lagos and became a sort of social buffer between 
the indigenes and the colonial government. 
Referred to derisively by indigenous Lagosians in those 
days as "Oyinbo dudu" (black Europeans), their cultural 
ambivalence had musical correlation, the Sierra Leonian 
repatriates emulated British values and behavior, including 
popular ballroom dances such as waltz, fox trot and swing. 
On the other hand, the Saro community produced the first 
GLENDORA REVIEW></l/rt
'can Quarter/yon theArts><Vo\i@Uoi> 
<20>
syncretic music to the Lagos scene. A more amorphous group 
that was crucial in the process of cultural cross-fertilization 
between Lagos and other port towns in Africa, Europe and 
the Americas, was the transient population of African and 
West Indian wage laborers employed by shipping lines and 
the rail road system. These cosmopolitan individuals were 
frequent patrons of the night spots along the Lagos Marina. 
There, they introduced variety and expanded the scope of 
the music. Songs in various languages such as Kru, Akan, 
Fanti, Ga, Igbo, Efik and Ijaw were added, just as were such 
Afro-American popular musical styles: ragtime, calypso and 
rumba. European-derived sea shanties and drinking songs, 
as well as guitar techniques were also added to the repertoire. 
The proselytizing efforts of two world religions, Islam and 
_HE arrival of Bobby 
Benson and the introduction 
of modern highlife 
to Lagos by Ghana's 
Emmanuel Tetteh Mensah 
changed the direction of 
music on the Lagos scene 
when highlife began to 
dominate with such names 
as Victor Olaiya, Bobby 
Benson, Eddy Okonta, and 
Chief Chi Bill Friday among 
others. 
Christianity, also had an effect on Yoruba music in general 
and, in particular, the music of Lagos. From Islam came the 
nasalized style employed in Koranic recitation and the 
instruments introduced from northern Nigeria. Christianity, 
including both the institutionalized Anglican Church and 
the syncrectic Aladura churches which began to spring up in 
the inter-war period, incorporated Yoruba instruments, 
rhythms, texts and melodies into their services. This is one 
aspect of the influence. The other influence, strong but often 
ignored, is the secularised ritual music of the traveling 
masquerade performers, the Egungun. 
Nigeria, with Lagos as its capital city, was dependent on 
Western economy, a situation that brought about two 
technological factors that were crucial in the emergence and 
promotion of juju music. There was the importation of
relatively cheap Western instruments and facilities for the 
reproduction of sound. By the 1920s, guitar and other string 
instruments were kept in stock by the large trading firms 
like UTC (United Trading Company) and shops run by local 
Saro merchants. Innovative Lagos musicians were quick to 
take advantage of this development. 
One such musician who was very popular was Irewole 
Denge, a palm-wine guitarist who had migrated from Ijebu 
Ode to settle in Lagos. Up till the fifties, Denge was seen 
walking the streets of Lagos, especially at night, playing his 
guitar and singing in an idiosyncratic vocal style that ranged 
from the conventional vocalization of melodies and 
acclamation to the spontaneous creation of onomatopoeia. 
His recorded career spanned a period of nearly forty years, 
beginning with the first series of commercial recordings of 
Yoruba urban popular music recorded by Odeon Records in 
1929. Some of his early recordings included such hits as 
Orin Asape Eko, F/'/'a f'Olorun Ja and Otutu Ki Meja: songs of 
exhortation and wisdom. [Some of these songs are currently 
being packaged in compact discs, notably the anthology 
titled "Juju Roots" introduced by Christopher Waterman. 
Denge was an itinerant musician like Pa Aderohunmu 
(Kokoro) the blind minstrel who is still around. But in the 
case of Denge, he regularly traversed Bamgbose, Kakawa 
and Campbell Streets in the heart of Lagos Island where he 
made money by singing the praise of rich elites and esteemed 
personalities like Candido Da Rocha, SakaTinubu, Ladipo 
Anjou, Joseph Saveyan Branco among others. The concept 
of Denge's music was that of 'palm-wine' in a solo setting. 
Perhaps the pioneering ensemble sound of palm-wine began 
with the Jolly Boys Orchestra, which was led by Habour 
Grant but included Ambrose Campbell who later led the 
West African Rhythm Brothers in London at the end of the 
second World War in 1945. 
The Jolly Brothers' greatest hit at the time was called Atari 
Ajanaku, a praise song. The music was labeled "palm-wine" 
because its type was largely played in palm-wine bars along 
Marina area where it was enjoyed by sailors and crew men. 
Instrumentation took on three guitars, one mandoline, one 
samba drum, one triangle and a penny whistle. The early 
recordings of Ayinde Bakare, born of Yoruba parents in the 
Lagos neighborhood of Lafiaji, is perhaps a better reflector 
of the spirit of juju. Bakare's band was unique and typical, 
consisting of such instruments as ukelele, banjo, juju, sekere, 
and supporting vocalists among other rhythm instruments. 
"Ojo Davies", a praise song, was one of his early hits in the 
1930s. But he later became famous for such hits as "Adura 
Fun Awon Aboyun" where he prayed for pregnant women; 
"Iwa Lewa" in which he admired the beauty of the women, 
and "Ojowu Obirin", an excoriation against jealous wives. 
A highly original musician, he was well respected in Lagos 
and was nicknamed "Mr. Juju" because of his great talent 
and commitment to the music. Bakare ruled the Juju music 
scene until the fifties, providing entertainment at most parties. 
Juju style remained relatively stable until the late 1 940s, 
when the convergence of a number of social and 
GLENDOHA REVIEW><African Quarterly on 
technological factors created the conditions for a major 
transformation. Interestingly, the specific catalyst for what 
might be called the indigenization of juju was the arrival in 
West Africa of an element of Western technology: electronic 
amplification. Portable public address systems and the electric 
guitar allowed juju musicians to use a wider range of 
traditional Yoruba drums, drumming techniques, and 
rhythmic patterns without hampering the musical progression 
of the ensemble sound now established by the combination 
of guitar, vocal and percussion. This proved a revolutionary 
change: it led to the incorporation of the "gangan" or 
"adamo" talking drum, a powerful, rhythmic symbol of 
Yoruba identity and a medium for the communication of 
verbal lores. Tempos were now more on the slow side and 
the percussion section of the standard juju group was enlarged 
to accommodate a variety of Afro-Cuban-derived instruments, 
including conga drums, bongos and claves, all of which 
were later adopted for highlife music in the fifties. The vocal 
component of the juju band became expanded from just the 
leader to a group vocal format that established a call-andresponse 
pattern. These changes revolutionized the form, 
making it at once modern and African. 
At this period, Tunde Nightingale and Julius Araba, two 
highly outstanding musicians, emerged on the scene. With 
a popularity that began in the early fifties, Tunde Nightingale 
whose real name was Ernest Olatunde Thomas created a 
brand of juju music called "Owambe." (It's there). He had a 
versatile repertoire in which he employed rhythm borrowed 
from calypso, rumba, swing and the various types of music 
that people were now exposed to through radio (which 
broadcast the Latin beat from Congo Brazaville) and other 
foreign stations. Besides, he had a good mastery of the 
guitar with an accompaniment that was amplified by modern 
electronic devices. It was the long-winding palm wine-oriented 
guitar solos, a style that kept the dance floor busy for hours 
on end, earning his brand of juju the alias, "Owambe." 
Two older musicians, close friends, and both of whom 
worked for the Nigerian Railways, were responsible for the 
1950s revival of elements of juju music. Julius Araba who 
was based in Lagos, and the Ibadan-based J. O. Oyesiku, 
developed a style called "toy motion juju." Characterized by 
a return to, the small g*oup ensemble, Toy motion juju 
adopted the use of European parade drum rather than the 
Yoruba talking dru,m, in addition to thought-provoking lyrics 
in Yoruba and Pidgin, and sophisticated Latin-influenced 
guitar and mandoline patterns. Julius Araba's Afro Skiffle 
Group included Fatai Rolling Dollar, an individualist who 
struck out on his own in 1959 to form a band that nurtured, 
as a sideman, Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey who would 
later become one of the juju giants of post-independence 
Nigeria. One of the Araba's greatest hits, lyawo ma Pami, 
(Wife, Don't Kill Me), was recorded in 1957 while hits such 
as Mo Kago and Otilekun Momo Onile (S/he Shut the Door 
in the Face of the Landlord's Child) were recorded much 
earlier. As with Nightingale, it was the era of great exposure 
to foreign musical styles which naturally influenced musicians 
•<V0I3@No2;
Remains of Bobby Benson's Caban Bamboo on Ikorodu road, Lagos invoke memories of the halcyon days of 
highlife.© Glendora Review, 2001. 
of this period. Little wonder that a song like lyawo ma Pami 
was based on the melodic structure of "Constable Joe," a 
calypso made popular at the time by calypso exponent, Hord 
Kitcheners. Like Araba who worked with Nigeria Railway 
Corporation, Fatai Rolling Dollar and the other members 
of Araba Skiffle group worked in various establishments. 
And according to Fatai Rolling Dollar, they did not accept 
money for playing at parties in the early fifties. They relied 
on being compensated with drinks and food. 
Another juju music exponent who made considerable 
impact on Lagosians in the forties was Theophilus Iwalokun 
who was noted for being the first exponent to sing juju in his 
native dialect of Ibereke, Okitipupa, in Ondo State of Nigeria. 
He died early in 2000 and was given a befitting burial by 
Lagosians who still remembered the musician's high sense 
of lyricism and his variant of Lagosian juju, with roots in 
Isale Eko. Alongside juju music in the early fifties was a 
musical genre called Agidigbo, which was named after the 
major instrument of the music. Popular in Lagos, especially 
at grassroots level, agidigbo was played by Adeolu Akinsanya 
from Abeokuta. He was popular for his voice, his critical 
social commentaries that were directed at contemporary Lagos 
women. The agidigbo is a rectangular box with a round, 
guitar-like hole that is located on its top, flat face. Over the 
hole lies a band of five or six flat, steel pegs, their free ends 
plucked with the thumb and other fingers to create musical 
notes. The first group broke up and later came up with the 
Rio Orchestra which also featured Akinsanya on agidigbo 
<GtENDORA 
Quarter* on tne ^><Vol3@No2> 
<22>
and vocals, with other sidemen playing a wide range of 
percussion instruments that included bongos, maracas, claves 
and conga drums. A chorus of singers completed the 
ensemble. 
The arrival of Bobby Benson and the introduction of modern 
highlife to Lagos by Ghana's Emmanuel Tetteh Mensah 
changed the direction of music on the Lagos scene when 
highlife began to dominate with such names as Victor Olaiya, 
Bobby Benson, Eddy Okonta, and Chief Bill Friday among 
others. Night spots such as Caban Bamboo, Liddo Bar, 
Empire Hotel, Club Arcade and many others emerged as a 
result of highlife which was a nightclub genre. However, juju 
music bounced back in 1960 when, apparently influenced 
by the highlife of that period, I.K. Dairo (deceased) brought 
back the dominant large ensemble juju style that was 
gradually on its way out by even increasing personnel and 
extending the instrumental configuration. As an innovation, 
Dairo introduced the accordion to the juju style of hislOman 
Blue Spots Band. However, juju experienced further 
development from the 60s through the 80s as it was 
transformed from a neo-traditional form to urban music. 
And those who effected this transformation included 
Commander Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, and Dele 
Abiodun. The whole throng.GR