Black History and Music: Center for African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians

Episode Transcript

Black History and Music:
Center for African Diaspora and Sacred Music and Musicians

ROSS:   I'm Angela Ross, and this is SoCal Voices. 

The second episode in our series on Black history and music spotlights the Center for African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians at California State University, Dominguez Hills. The center is known as the preeminent site for the study and preservation of music of the African diaspora. In this episode of SoCal Voices, the center's director, ethnomusicologist Oghenevwarho Gabriel Ojakovo, shares what inspired him to study music in its social and cultural context. He also helps us understand the intersection of the African diaspora and sacred music and describes what visitors can learn and experience when visiting the center. 

Professor Ojakovo, welcome to SoCal Voices. So nice to have you here today. 

OJAKOVO: Yeah, so nice to be here and thanks Angela for the invite and for giving me the privilege to talk about what we do here at Cal State Dominguez Hills.

ROSS: Of course, of course. Before we get into the details of the center, I'd like to first talk about your journey, your path educationally, and then professionally, how did you get to Cal State Dominguez Hills. 

OJAKOVO:  Yeah, actually, uh, I'm originally from Nigeria. I have my bachelor’s and master's degrees from Nigeria.

And later life is not static. Life is dynamic and migration, which is one thing we're always talking about. each time, that migration is a beautiful thing when you happen within a beautiful space, because people need to leave their homeland in search for a better opportunity for themselves. So I moved to Canada to study for my PhD and I got my PhD at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada

And from there I started a job hunt and California State University, Dominguez Hills is was really, really important to me because of the Center for African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians. And that kind of make, uh, create a kind of sense of belonging that you are the center that you can't claim to be your own. And this center is meant to document the history of Black experience has been lived in the diaspora. And as somebody who is a Black to also have been part of that history is also very important to me and that kind of one of the catch that drew my attention to this university. 

ROSS:  Do you play any instruments?

OJAKOVO:  I myself, uh, I'm an ethnomusicologist and what I do in ethnomusicology is that I look at music within the cultural context of people lived experience, and as, as an ethnomusicology I'm also a drummer. I also drum and do performances too.

ROSS: Oh wow. I bet that's really great. I'd love to hear you play. Um, so talk a little bit now, take us to class professor, talk to us about the basics, uh, define the African diaspora and talk to us about how it intersects with sacred music.

OJAKOVO:  Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. I think that's a very interesting questions. Um, if you want to talk about the African diaspora, we have to look at it from two different angles. One, the first angle is Africans who were kept captive or who were taken, who were in hostage, who were kidnapped. I love to use the term kidnapped, who were kidnapped from Africa and forced to come into a new world.

And the second African, the second group of Africans are those who voluntarily come to the diaspora based on voluntary and also those who are running from violence in the continent. So if we look at the first group of Africans are people who are in love with nation with nature itself. They live in Africa, they have a communal sense of living, they have a very good music that is tied to their history.

And once of a sudden, against their wish, they have been taken from Africa, forced them into a new world known as the Americas to work as slaves in the plantations. And those Africans have no choice because there is a gate in Africa over in Ghana where they call a gate of no return, which means the moment you are transported from the continent, you have no choice to come back.

So which means you are gone. You are gone forever. You have lost touch with your mom. You have lost touch with your dad, your family, your kings. You're uprooted from that connections and you are moved to the diaspora. So when the African were in the diaspora, they have to communicate because one day they are, they are enslavers after indoctrinate them into Christianity by first of all abolishing every religion that the people come up, that they came up with in Africa. So they try to abolish the traditional African religion from the people by imposing death penalties for practicing African traditional religion. And that in itself was very cruel at that time, but the enslaver find pride in doing that as a means of social control.

And the Africans have to find themselves because one is that they are not allowed to practice their own religion, but at the same time, they were being preached and converted into Christianity. And when they accept Christianity, they find that most of the things in the Bible is that when they find out about when they got converted into Christianity, they discovered that the idea of slavery itself is repugnant in the Bible because the New Testament have come.

And Jesus Christ have tried to abolish that like the issue of David, for example, the issue of Joseph was sold into slavery and I could deliver them. So this, uh, enslaved Africans now find a new pleasure, not really pleasure in the, in the rich sense, but they find hope in the gospel and that gave birth to the spirituals of the African, of the enslaved Africans. So this spiritual draws stories from the Bible, from David stories about Joseph. And also it's also up to signal, uh, uh,  escape routes. And also it becomes a source of inspiration for, uh, the enslaved Africans who were working on the plantations before the emancipation, uh, era.

Then we have the second group of African diaspora, are those who voluntarily migrates from Africa in search of academic opportunities, or they have, they have been, uh, or they have been, um, targeted in their homeland and they are escaping as a result of war. So these people came to the diaspora and so the African diaspora means two people coming together:  One, the Africans who were originally uprooted from the homeland against their wish and taken to the new land, and also Africans who voluntarily migrate from Africa into the new land in search of a greener pasture for themselves and family.  

ROSS: Mmm hmm. Talk about the importance of archiving and pulling together sacred music in a place and studying the diaspora and sacred music, that communication. 

OJAKOVO: I think that's a very interesting question because looking at the archive we have, uh, earlier notes from, uh, spirituals were notes written by the colonizers themselves, were those notes written by those who enslaved the Africans, or those of the notes written by people who tried to evangelize Africans to accept Christianity.

Like one thing as an African in the diaspora, the best tools we have is to document our experience, our lived experience from our own perspective. And how can we document it is by understanding the past, knowing what is happening in the present and in order to create a, uh, a better way for me to understand the future.

So what we try to do is to archive. We're archiving, like what we do at the California State University, Dominguez Hills at the Center for Sacred, uh, African Diasporas, Sacred Music and Musicians, is to archive the materials we have in the African diaspora. By archiving the materials, it means that we are archiving it from our own perspective.

We are not being selective. Of the kind of material we archive, but instead we have been open to accepting African lives experience, which is the music itself, because we're archiving the music. Music has to do with the score and also the performances of African musicians within the diaspora space. 

Because if we don't archive these materials, most times we cannot be able to have a purpose for somebody want to study. For example, Jester Hairston, for example, looking to study him. Most people don't really know about him in the present day or Albert McNeil, for example, most people don't really understand.

So we have to create that uh, uh, bulk of research by archiving those materials. And it's not about archiving, we're also trying to bring it known to the public. And how can we bring it known to the public is through like, for example, in 2020, we did an art exhibition, exhibiting most of Albert MacNeil's stuff, and also the Albert MacNeil Jubilee Singers archive, so we exposed members of the society to read. And also, we also try to commission new projects, new spirituals that tells the story of Africans and Africans are being felt and other lead in their struggle and other try to communicate those struggles.

So we try to do interviews that try to shed light on them and also create or commission new compositions that reflects the lived experience of African true spiritual in the present day, and we try to perform it as a concept.  

ROSS:  Mm hmm. I wonder why more schools aren't doing what Cal State Dominguez Hills is doing. I think this is so powerful and it's such a magnificent treasure, a real gift for the community to have this, this archive and this program and these opportunities to study the sacred music of the African diaspora. What was it that was happening at the campus that made Cal State say, Hey, we want to do this. We're going to do this here, that maybe wasn't happening at other colleges or universities?

OJAKOVO: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, that's a very, uh, critical question you just asked because, uh, we cannot really determine why other schools have not done it. Because one is that every, every state in the United States have the Black communities, and they have a very rich tradition, they have a very rich culture. And I think what really make the difference is the passion of the person who set up this center. And we must give it to, uh, Professor Hansonia Caldwell, who put all this together because she herself was also a gospel music performer and a director, and she thinks, she sees this as a need that we have a very big gap in documenting about African labor experience and also performing this concert to tell the story of the past to understand the present, and she tried to start a documentation as early as in the 90s into the 2000s, collecting, uh, collecting stuff that she can read and upon, and she started archiving it, and this center came to be, which is the Center for African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians, came to be because a Black believe that we should document what we do.

We have to give it to the Georgia and (Nolan) Peyton Foundation for donating about 

$1.6 million to archive all the materials we have and also going to performances of this materials and also going to art exhibition of these materials and also making these materials not just not to be a text material, but it's going to be a source of research for Africans and for the generation to come.

Like in the words of Paul Robeson, who said, “What I'm fighting for now is not for me, but it's for what my children, your nephew, your grandchildren, will see after we are gone.” 

ROSS: Talk about the process that you use to commission works and to get the material that you have archived at the center. How do you go about doing that?

OJAKOVO: Yeah, I think that's a very, uh, an interesting question because what we do here is about archiving.  And, uh, what's the first stage that Hanonia did was most of the people she  built a connection. Because one thing is that without a connection, you can't know who owns this and who owns that. So the first thing we do is to get in touch with the musicians, because the musicians are the living archive.

Because they have the score, they have the performance, and they have the copyright to this performance. So we try to create that relationship with, uh, the, uh, with, uh, the musicians and let them know that the material is ready for the purpose of archiving. I want to document them. So we'll create that relationship.

And also we also have the issue of trust. So once relationships were created and trust is established, the musicians and people who have collections are willing to give them out for documentation purpose, not for the present, but for future research and also for the present and also for future research for people to understand African musicians in Southern California and also in the wider California region have been able to transform their music and their music has progressed into what it is today.

ROSS: I know it's hard to isolate a favorite thing when you have so much richness and so much beauty in, in this project, but I wonder if there is a particular work that you have archived at the center, or a program that you have shared with your students that really speaks to you and uh, really tells the story of what you want people to really get about the African diaspora and sacred music. Is, is there something that comes to mind? 

OJAKOVO: Yeah, I think, uh, one thing that comes to mind is, uh, from the archive we have, like, for example, the Abbott McNeil. Uh. And also the Albert McNeil and the Abbott McNeil Jubilee Singers. We saw a very good transformation of how he was able to tour the world.  Touring the world, not for himself, but also to educate the masses of African music, gospel music in itself.

And that is a very great privilege. Like, each time we go through the archive and my students see this, my students are always amazed that, okay. Because one thing we're talking about in the present day is decolonization. They told me, oh, which means Albert McNeil was able to decolonize the space by traveling to different continents to give different tours.

And the audience were very, very receptive. And that kind of, uh, created a sense of belonging that we can use music, which we inherited from our forefathers, and we can transform it and try to create a unique sound that is modern, that is modern to us, and how we can make it to be part and parcel of our own history.

ROSS: You know, your role is to impart your knowledge to the students you, you work with at the university,  but I bet they teach you some things, too. What do you get from them through this program, through the center? 

OJAKOVO: Yeah, I, I have a lot of experience, uh, from my students, like I'm teaching, uh, the current course I'm teaching is African American Music. My students tell excellent stories about stories that were told to them by their grandfather. You know, stories that have translate different generation and have been told to them about spiritual as in itself. And they're giving you an authentic experiences about that experience. And those who try to share stories about going to church about the music and our music was very powerful too in entering into trance and our music creates that experience, that spiritual experience, which to me coming from Nigeria looks similar because the Pentecostal, uh, uh, Pentecostalism was very core in Nigeria.

And one of the highlights of Pentecostalism is that feeling of Christ, that feeling of the gospel. And that translates that the human body is being transposed into a spiritual state that speaking in tongues is very visible. And each time my students tell me about these experiences in their church, in their community, and also within their band, which most of them are performing at, I kind of love these experiences because one is that it's not just a teacher. I also learn from my students and listening to my students shape my understanding of their own musical experience. And it also make me to see the space they are coming from and how to make that space very safe for them and try to create a unique experience that all of us in the class is going to share together. And we will be happy at the end of the day.

ROSS:  I wonder what books you recommend to your students to get more information, to increase their appreciation and perspective about sacred music and about the African diaspora's role in this. What are some, some books that you recommend people read? 

OJAKOVO: Yeah, I think one of the books we are using now is, uh, African American Music: An Introduction by Burnim and Maultsby. It's a very good book that it just gives like a segue, like an introduction to African American music from spiritual, secular music, gospel, hip hop, R & B. So the book kind of exposes my students to a different areas. But there are lots of books that if they want to read, there are lots of books. And also, like I always tell my students, it's not only about reading. It's about listening. Go to your father's archive, go to the archive, understand what Pattin’Juba is, listen to Pattin’ Jubas, go understand spiritual, go to so and so site, also link them to the university site, and also our archive where we have most of this material, spiritual materials. So by listening to understand the beat, they understand where the music was coming from.

And they also understand the experience of the singers. Because each time we talk about spiritual as we always talk about spiritual from the angle of looking at it, talking about the  sacredness of the song or as part of accompanying a work song. But most times we don't talk about what are the singer internalizing when they were communicating those songs?

What were they thinking? What kind of pain they were, what kind of pain was within their body? What kind of mental health? They were suffering at that time. So by listening to those voice, by listening to the sound that comes from those voice, student will have a better appreciation of the music off Africans in the diaspora, and I am part of that lived experience.

ROSS: Where can people go to learn more about you and learn more about this, this wonderful treasure at Cal State Dominguez Hills? 

OJAKOVO: Yeah, thank you very much. Like, uh, if you want to learn more about me, my name is on the university website. And, um, also I've also written some publications, which you can find on Google Scholar.

And also for the Center for African Diaspora, Sacred Music and Musician, it is domiciled at Cal State University, Dominguez Hills, and it's open to visitors to come and see what we have. And from time to time we do performances. So it's not only about having the materials there, we also bring the materials into live performances.

So you are invited to come to the library. From the library, we are the fifth floor, so you can have access to our materials. And also, if you want to listen, like I said, listening is part of understanding these materials, we do organize concerts. So we organize a concert in Juneteenth, and also we are planning a music festival and also a concert by next year  February, to mark Black History Month, where we are going to perform music of the lived experience of Blacks of Southern California and how it connects to their spirituality and how they define their religious faith. 

ROSS: That’s excellent. I know a lot of people will look forward to being at that event next year. That's going to be some beautiful stuff to hear. I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about your own approach to music. You know, you, you, what, what you studied,  how did you get interested in that and what keeps you interested? 

OJAKOVO: Yeah. uh, thank you very much. Uh, like, uh, originally, like I said, I'm from Nigeria  and, uh, growing up, music was part of the everyday life, you know, coming on the radio, turning on this TV, you find music as being part of the system.

And that kind of drew me to the choir, where I belong to the choir. And from there, I learned, began to learn hymns and also perform. And that kind of, uh, connects and that kind of, uh, led to the development of my appreciation for African sacred music.  And unfortunately, this one segue, which most people don't talk about, which my PhD focus on is on Islamic religious music, because that kind of drew me to a different segue entirely, and I tried to look at how music can form part of the Muslim life and identity. 

But at the same time, so coming to Canada and way before I was done with my PhD. I began to look at within the Canadian landscape and something was missing because, (inaudible), move more than 300 persons to Canada and most of them settled said to the different parts of Canada and some, some of them came to Edmonton, for example.

And when I came to Edmonton, the white folks did not allow them to worship in the same church.  So the Blacks have to find their own church, which they call the First Baptist Church, located in downtown area. And that kind of strike me, that why, what happened at that time? What is going on within this community that, you know, Canada said, we welcome every Black slave running from persecution, once they come to Canada, they have freedom. But they came to Canada, we should have to give them the freedom. But within the, what, the freedom to worship in the same church with the whites, was being deprived and that kind of pushed Blacks to form their own church. And that is not what the Canadian dream really portend at that time.

And that kind of drew my attention to, okay, something is really going on here. And I went around the city and I found a different African church has sprung up. And I asked, the story is still the same. We don't feel welcome in this church because we have a different culture. That does not tally with what they believe in, or we dance in certain ways, which is repugnant to the established institution.

So we have to find our own church. And that kind of drew me to a new area that, okay, I need to research what is going on within the African diaspora, what is going on, and how we can make meaning of our Canada at that time, that creates, that says, “We welcome everybody. Come to Canada, you get freedom.” I'm coming to Canada but they don't have freedom of worshiping in the same church. 

ROSS:  Right.

OJAKOVO: And that kind of creates a kind of picture that I'm trying to unravel in my research, which I'm trying to look at, you know, African music in Canada in itself. But you can't talk about Canada, African music in Canada, without looking at the United States.

ROSS: Of course.

OJAKOVO: Canada promise that safe haven. I'm going to the safe haven. There’s also the deprivation. You can't worship with us. You need to worship on your own because our cultures aren’t on par with each other.

ROSS: Hmm. Very interesting. What an interesting journey you've had. What an interesting path. And you've put all of that lived experience, uh, to work in this wonderful center at Cal State, Dominguez Hill. So thank you for the work that you're doing there and for all of the folks who have a part in maintaining this treasure and making it available to the public. And I would just encourage people to go and check it out as part of your Black history education.

There is a lot of richness to glean from learning about Black history. And this is part of it. And music is such a major, major part of our culture. So I want to thank you for, uh, educating us today and for this session. And I wish you all the best as you continue in your work, professor. Thank you very much.

OJAKOVO: Thank you very much, Angela. And thanks for all you do at SoCal Voices.

ROSS: Oh, thank you. 

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