Author: Iyabo Omolara Owolabi, PhD
Journal of Music Composition
Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 61-79, Oct. 2026
Received: 12 August 2026 |
Accepted: 15 Sept. 2026 |
Published: 24 Oct. 2026
Abstract
This study examines how Bolojo, an indigenous Yewa musical genre, functions as a vehicle for cultural identity, social meaning, and musical creativity within secondary schools in Ogun West, Nigeria. Although Bolojo is historically rooted in Gelede performance traditions, its
contemporary school-based practice remains under-documented. Using observation schedules, structured interviews, and archival sources, the study analyses how students engage Bolojo during key social events, highlighting performance organisation, instrumental practice, dance vocabulary, and dialectal expression. Merriam’s ethnomusicology theory guides the structural and textual analysis of selected songs, revealing the genre’s pentatonic and mixolydian scalar tendencies, call-and-response forms, and culturally coded themes of thanksgiving, communal ethics, and identity affirmation. Findings show that school performances sustain indigenous knowledge, reinforce dialect competence, and cultivate social cohesion, while enabling students to embody cultural values through music. The study contributes empirical insight into how traditional genres can be meaningfully integrated into music education and cultural transmission in contemporary Nigerian schools.
Keywords: Bolojo Songs, Performance, Social Events, Textual Analysis, Yewa
Secondary Schools
Copyright © 2026. The author retains the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.
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Author
Iyabo Omolara Owolabi, PhD