No archive can restore this chorus of (diasporic) shame by Onyeka Igwe
A song cycle for 12 singers reimagining protest songs from the Egba Market Women’s Revolt, as part of a sound installation by Onyeka Igwe, commissioned for Nigeria Imaginary, Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia 2024
Installation view, Nigeria Imaginary, Nigeria Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, IT (2024)
Portrait of Onyeka Igwe. Photo by Yasmin Akim
The song cycle
Abeokuta Women’s Union. [Women in African History: an E-Learning Tool; CC-BY-SA UNESCO.]
For one of the sonic elements of her film and sound installation, NO ARCHIVE CAN RESTORE THIS CHORUS OF (DIASPORIC) SHAME, Onyeka Igwe asked me to reimagine protest songs from the Egba Market Women’s Revolt in 1947. Working with lyrics from Dr Funmilayo Ransome Kuti’s archive at the University of Ibadan, translated from Yoruba to English, I gave the texts new voicings. We worked with an ensemble of 12 singers to bring the songs to life and to record the song cycle.
The Chorus!
About No archive can restore this chorus of (diasporic) shame
Onyeka Igwe's installation explores degradation and deterioration through a two-part exploration of archiving and record-keeping. Filming and sonically representing celluloid film cans found in the Colonial Nigerian Film Building, Igwe traces their journey to Jos, housing the Nigerian Film Corporation and National Film Institute. Using the locality as an interpolation point, Igwe immerses the audience in Nigeria's history through collected sounds and film clips. The installation prompts reflection on the role of archives, the selection of histories, and the potential for restoration once lost.
Reworking a personal archive of sounds collected over the last five years in Jos, Ibadan, Lagos, Badagry, Ndejezie, Arochukwu, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford and London, taking inspiration from the utopian inaugural address of Nnamdi Azikiwe as well as the history of protest, conflict and rebellion in Nigeria from colonial times to present day independence and experimenting with the sonic registers of a variety of collective singing practices, to produce a cacophonous chorus of sound that offers a redress from the dominance of Western imaging of Nigeria. More info here: https://www.nigeriaimaginary.com/
Credits
Egba Market Protest Songs composed and arranged by Auclair
Performed by: Blue, Miryam Solomon, Bianca Stephens, Hannah Catherine Jones, Samra Manjaya, Nouria Bah, Buki Bayode, Jenny Moore, Mimi Koku, Ayumi Konno, Chinedu Igwe-Walker, Beatrice Loft Schulz, Munesu Mukumbe and Auclair.
Recorded at The Room Studios, London, engineered by Kwake Bass
Mixed by Richy Carey and Onyeka Igwe