• Latest
  • Trending

Who is the progenitor of ‘Sakara’ genre of music?

July 20, 2023

NHIA Reaffirms Commitment to Enrollee-Centered Care

October 27, 2025

Why I chose A’Ibom for my music concert — Davido

October 27, 2025

BREAKING: Turaki submits PDP chairmanship nomination form

October 27, 2025

Yoruba Group Condemns Rumoured Coup Plot Against Tinubu

October 27, 2025

Ex-PM jailed one year over social media post

October 27, 2025

Freed Migrant Sex Offender Re-Arrested, to Be Deported

October 27, 2025

England Legend Swaps Football Glory for Life as a Courier

October 27, 2025

Girl, 5, Throws Newborn Sister From Window After Being Left Alone

October 27, 2025

Lagos State Compensates Oworo Residents in Urban Renewal Drive

October 27, 2025

Rice Prices Plunge in Lagos Markets Amid Surge in Supply

October 27, 2025

Sisters Racing Led to Fatal Crash Killing 3 North Carolina High School Football Players

October 27, 2025

Pastor Olorunfemi Deported by Canada over Fraudulent Asylum Claims

October 26, 2025

Lagos Intensifies Fight Against Gender-Based Violence

October 26, 2025

Lagos Commissioner Honoured as REDA 2025 Stakeholders Tackle Real Estate Future

October 26, 2025

Adamawa Deputy Police Commissioner Threatens Southeast Man Over Property Purchase

October 26, 2025

EFCC Arrests School Owner for Alleged Visa and Scholarship Fraud in Uyo

October 26, 2025

SCUML Urges Precious Metal Dealers in Sokoto to Comply with AML Laws

October 26, 2025

Sa’ad Hanafi Sa’ad Assumes Office as Acting Zonal Director of EFCC Benin Directorate

October 26, 2025

EFCC Arraigns Suspects in Separate Multi-Million Naira Fraud Cases in Lagos and Benin-City

October 26, 2025

EFCC Arraigns Lawyer, Company for Alleged N27m Land Fraud in Lagos

October 26, 2025

Lagos Court Jails Train Driver 18 Months for N6.9m Theft

October 26, 2025

Over 100 Arrested in NDLEA Raid on Proxy Nightclub Drug Party in Lagos

October 26, 2025

Woman on U.S. Marshals’ 15 Most Wanted Fugitives List

October 26, 2025

Ogun’s First Lady, Mama Lucia Onabanjo, Turns 100

October 26, 2025

Mass Killings Affect All Faiths, Says PFN President Bishop Wale Oke

October 26, 2025

New Nigerian Service Chiefs: Profiles of Leadership and Strategic Vision

October 26, 2025

Obasanjo, Family Celebrate Stella Obasanjo’s Legacy at 20th Memorial in Abeokuta

October 26, 2025

Justice Omotosho Resigns from Nnamdi Kanu Trial Amid Global Pressure

October 25, 2025

FG Doubles Health Insurance Rates, Launches One-Hour Patient Referral Code

October 25, 2025

FG Doubles Health Insurance Rates, Launches One-Hour Patient Referral Code

October 25, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • BREAKING NEWS
  • Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Education
    • Sports
ValidView Network - Breaking News, Nigerian News, Nigerian newspapers, Entertainment, Videos, Sports, Business and Politics.
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Home
  • BREAKING NEWS
  • Tech
    • All
    • Apps

    A New Era Begins: Traffic Lights to Add Fourth White Signal for Autonomous Vehicles

    Nigerian Girls Triumph at 2025 Technovation Global Summit with AI Safety App

    Trump sees progress on TikTok, says will visit China

    French lawmakers urge socialmedia ban for under-15s

    The Future of Internet Connectivity in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges

    CBN awards OPay for financial inclusion innovation

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • CELEBRATIONS
    • Gaming
    • History and Culture
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports

    Why I chose A’Ibom for my music concert — Davido

    England Legend Swaps Football Glory for Life as a Courier

    Ooni of Ife and Alaafin of Oyo Seal Historic Yoruba Unity Pact

    Abiodun Urges Ogun Traditional Rulers to Lead with Humility and Integrity

    FULL LIST: Osimhen, Salah make CAF 2025 African male player nominees list

    Country Banned from World Cup Despite Being Larger Than UK

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Health

    NHIA Reaffirms Commitment to Enrollee-Centered Care

    Lagos Intensifies Fight Against Gender-Based Violence

    FG Doubles Health Insurance Rates, Launches One-Hour Patient Referral Code

    FG Doubles Health Insurance Rates, Launches One-Hour Patient Referral Code

    Ondo State CPS Continues Support for Children of Deceased Journalists

    PCN Seals 498 Illegal Medicine Shops Across Lagos

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • Education
    • Sports
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • BREAKING NEWS
  • Tech
    • All
    • Apps

    A New Era Begins: Traffic Lights to Add Fourth White Signal for Autonomous Vehicles

    Nigerian Girls Triumph at 2025 Technovation Global Summit with AI Safety App

    Trump sees progress on TikTok, says will visit China

    French lawmakers urge socialmedia ban for under-15s

    The Future of Internet Connectivity in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges

    CBN awards OPay for financial inclusion innovation

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • CELEBRATIONS
    • Gaming
    • History and Culture
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports

    Why I chose A’Ibom for my music concert — Davido

    England Legend Swaps Football Glory for Life as a Courier

    Ooni of Ife and Alaafin of Oyo Seal Historic Yoruba Unity Pact

    Abiodun Urges Ogun Traditional Rulers to Lead with Humility and Integrity

    FULL LIST: Osimhen, Salah make CAF 2025 African male player nominees list

    Country Banned from World Cup Despite Being Larger Than UK

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Health

    NHIA Reaffirms Commitment to Enrollee-Centered Care

    Lagos Intensifies Fight Against Gender-Based Violence

    FG Doubles Health Insurance Rates, Launches One-Hour Patient Referral Code

    FG Doubles Health Insurance Rates, Launches One-Hour Patient Referral Code

    Ondo State CPS Continues Support for Children of Deceased Journalists

    PCN Seals 498 Illegal Medicine Shops Across Lagos

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Game of Thrones
    • MotoGP 2017
    • eSports
    • Fashion Week
  • Education
    • Sports
No Result
View All Result
ValidView Network - Breaking News, Nigerian News, Nigerian newspapers, Entertainment, Videos, Sports, Business and Politics.
No Result
View All Result

Who is the progenitor of ‘Sakara’ genre of music?

ValidViewNetwork by ValidViewNetwork
July 20, 2023
in Entertainment
0 0
0
Home Entertainment
ADVERTISEMENT
0
SHARES
52
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
ADVERTISEMENT
Spread the love

Sakara is a genre that is a hybrid of Yoruba traditional praise songs and Islamic music. Sakara was accentuated by Yusufu Olatunji, better known as “Baba Legba.”

Yusufu Olatunji was born in circa 1906 in Gbeginlawo, a village between Ayetoro and Abeokuta in present-day Ogun State to a father whose forebears were originally from Iseyin in present-day Oyo State.

Olatunji’s facial marks had their provenance in Iseyin. Though Olatunji’s parents were traditionalists, he was a cultural Christian and Muslim at different points of his life. In line with the practice of most Yoruba of his generation interested in acquiring western education but whose parents could not afford to send them to school, Olatunji lived and worked for the late Honourable Justice Sowemimo in Abeokuta so that he could go to school. Not only did he get some formal education while living with Justice Sowemimo, he also converted to Christianity and was baptized under the name Joseph at Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, Ake Abeokuta

Meanwhile, young Olatunji’s heart was not in education but in music. His latent musical talent came to the fore when he met an itinerant traditional cum Muslim minstrel named Shaki. Shaki took the young Olatunji under his wings and taught him the basics of goje (a violin-like instrument and Sakara’s chief musical instrument) and also made him his assistant.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Success has its algorithm: perseverance, industry, and serendipity in some unknowable combination. Shaki claimed he experienced an epiphany of sorts while on pilgrimage in Mecca and quit singing secular music on his return to Nigeria. Olatunji then picked up from where his mentor left off and eventually became the most successful Sakara artist. Olatunji converted to Islam following overtures from one of his patrons, Alhaji Ramoni Alao.

Olatunji’s early recordings were with Phillips in Ghana and marketed in Nigeria. His popularity among socialites in Lagos and Western Region increased when he signed for Zareco Records, owned by Saka Lasimbo, a cousin and former business partner of Emmanuel Badejo Okusanya. He recorded many singles and thirty-seven LPs with Zareco Records. Yusufu Olatunji was the superstar of Sakara. Sakara, like other Yoruba genres, was arranged in pairs along the lines of seniority and territoriality. Apala had Haruna Ishola and Kasumu Adio (until Ayinla Omoruwa emerged as a force), Owambe brand of Juju had Ayinde Bakare and Tunde Nightingale, drama had Hubert Ogunde and Duro Ladipo, and Sakara had Yusufu Olatunji and Salami “Lefty” Balogun/Sanusi Aka.

Olatunji’s music captures the defining spirit or mood of certain social circles in western Nigeria in the 1960s and 1970s. So profound was his influence that he initiated the idea of a forum for Yoruba musicians in the late 1970s, Egbe Amuludun (Association of Music Makers). Egbe Amuludun sought to fix fractious relationships, engender friendliness, and promote peace and understanding among Yoruba artists. Egbe Amuludun held a meeting in Ibadan on Thursday, December 14, 1978, to deliberate on what punitive action to take against Sikiru Ayinde Barrister for his refusal to attend the association’s meetings.

Barrister’s refusal to attend the association’s meetings was perceived—rightly or wrongly—as culturally disrespectful. While the majority of the attendees were for Barrister’s suspension and/or expulsion from the association, Yusufu Olatunji in his capacity as a patron, was for inviting Barrister to appear in person and explaining why he refused to attend their meetings. The deliberations of this particular meeting were still on when Yusufu Olatunji slumped. He was taken to UCH in Ibadan, but he insisted that he should be taken to his doctor at Lantoro, Abeokuta. Urban legend has it that Olatunji tried to get up from his hospital bed in Abeokuta in the middle of the night, but he was too weak to do that. The eyes that Yusufu Olatunji closed after he slumped in his chair in Ibadan were not opened until he died the following day in Abeokuta on Friday, December 15, 1978. His eldest child Tajudeen (born Joseph Segun Olatunji) now the traditional ruler of Gbeginlawo, said his father’s death sent him into an emotional tailspin because he believed his father would not have died when he died if he had not talked him into attending the Ibadan meeting. “I feel so bad about how he died that I tend to think that I contributed to my father’s death, ” Tajudeen once told a Nigerian newspaper.

Olatunji’s household, it should be noted, was polarized on the eve of the Ibadan meeting. While his most senior wife Sabitiyu Abake was not amenable to him attending the meeting, his oldest son thought he would be letting Egbe Amuludun down if he did not attend the meeting. Tajudeen believes his father was killed by a rival musician (perhaps one of the attendees of the Ibadan meeting) through some magic. “My father died because he was a victim of envy, which is the curse of every famous artiste,” he further told the same paper. Yes, it is within the realms of possibility that a rival artist killed Olatunji. It is also possible that he died of natural causes, considering the fact that he was a diabetic heavy gin drinker whose leg was on the cusp of amputation in 1973. Regardless of what killed him, Olatunji’s name is etched in Yoruba social history, and his body of work remains evergreen. Continue to rest in peace, Yusufu Ajao Ojuroungbe Olatunji.

Share and comment

Do you want to share a story with us?
Do you want to advertise with us?
Do you need publicity for a product, service, or event?
Contact us on WhatsApp +2348033617468, +234 816 612 1513, +234 703 010 7174
or Email: validviewnetwork@gmail.com
CLICK TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

THE ALAGADA-OBA ROAD: Is the road deplorable or a deathtrap?

Next Post

NEC Decides On Palliative Measures For Nigerians, dumps FG’s social investment register

ValidViewNetwork

ValidViewNetwork

Next Post

NEC Decides On Palliative Measures For Nigerians, dumps FG’s social investment register

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the latest news from ValidViewNetwork
Loading

SPONSORED ADVERT

SPONSORED ADVERT

As the Lord liveth, you are feeling bushing this 6th month better and stronger than the way you started it in Jesus Mighty Name. Our angels of good news shall locate us this month. Shalom!

  • Home
  • BREAKING NEWS
  • Tech
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Education

© 2022 ValidViewNetwork - Website Developed by HaybeeMultimedia.

No Result
View All Result

© 2022 ValidViewNetwork - Website Developed by HaybeeMultimedia.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist