"SLC-S25/W5 | Community World Tour: Traditional Music and Dances"

Greetings and welcome to my blog. Today I am glad to participate in this weeks challenge of traditional music, dances and rhythms that echo sounds of joy and excitement to our living experiences.

For this particular week, I would be carrying out one of the tasks assigned to us in order to do Justice to this challenge. The task I would be writing on is story behind the sound.

"Story Behind the Sound"
Choose a traditional instrument, rhythm, or dance move and tell its origin story. Was it linked to rituals, seasons, work, or celebration? Interview an elder if possible. Pin its geographic origin on SteemAtlas.

For this task, I am choosing a traditional song and the dance move associated with it and I would be telling the story behind it and this beautiful piece I am sharing with us is rooted in a seasonal celebration that I have watched in enthusiasm as a kid growing up and it has brought so much pleasure to me that years after, it still brings smiles to my face thinking the beautiful memories this sound and dance moves always brings to my face.

Growing up I had always admired mum greatly as she’s a great dancer. Even now in her early fifties, she still hasn’t lost her charm when it comes to dancing and she also has a beautiful voice that goes hand in hand with her dance skills. I have a beautiful voice too and do not do badly when it comes to dancing and singing. I guess I took after her.

Every year, as kids we await the end of the year women celebration in the city. All our village women who live in the city come together seasonally mostly at the end of the year to celebrate their village meeting group closing get together for the year and most of the times, they use our compound for that. We live in a spacious place and my mum is one of the women leaders hence the constant use of our place for their seasonal gatherings.

These gatherings are always followed through with so much preparations of cooking, shopping and other forms of fun. The women would come earlier to go to the markets and get the things needed for the occasion and they would cook different forms of food from the popular jollof rice to the famous bitterleaf and cocoyam soup for which Anambra women are known for. Any gathering without bitterleaf and cocoyam soup for our village women, is not complete.

As children we would peep from the corners of the house as we relish the good smell coming from the kitchen as the women feverishly prepare for their meeting which usually hold in the late evenings. Towards afternoon time, the women begins to come in trickles until the compound is filled with women.

The attire

Each of them gorgeously dressed in their blouses and double wrappers and their head gears. In the video I made, I had tried to dipict the women dressing with my dressing and explained how they tie their wrappers. They all tie double wrappers. The first one long up to the ankle and the second one on top of the first. I had remixed the dressing to give a modern and a native touch with the head gear being more modern and the blouse too but the two wrappers retains the traditional touch.

The all sit down and do their normal deliberations and then comes the interesting part where we all love as kids. They would begin to sing their native songs and they would begin to call themselves with their nick names and when you are called, you would come and showcase your unique dancing steps and sing.
I had sang the song in the video and also explained the meaning.

When it gets to my mum’s turn, they call her video woman. As someone who knows how to put up a great performance. So the song says

“video woman, the musicians are calling you, come and showcase your Dancing steps.”

Dancing to the beautiful native song

She would stand up and dance and dance to the tunes of the music as they hail her and spray money on her. It was such a beautiful sight to behold. The song is a native song that’s home to the village women and only used for their meetings in a unique way that it’s unique to each of them. When they hail you and call you forth to come out and show your style. The hailing and beautiful tune of the song simply had a way of drawing deep into one’s soul and calling out that best part of you. It’s not just a song. It’s a connection to the personality. They would dance and eat late into the night before everyone goes home. It’s a beautiful occasion that unites the women in a very special and traditional way.

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This native song rooted in seasons of love is not just a song, it’s a call to the soul and a show of dancing prowess and skill mingled in tradition.

Location on steem atlas map

Ilaje-Bariga, Ilaje Road, Bariga, Shomolu, Lagos State, 102216, Nigeria

Note:

I tried uploading this video through Speem but the site wasn’t working. Seemed there’s issues with it or maybe network problem hence I had to post normally.

Video