Olusegun Titus
- Paper
- Bio
Popular music scholarship has tended towards wealth accumulation. Little studies have been done on the musical narrative of the coastal dwellers in the City. These areas popularly known as Waterfront are coastal areas within the Portharcourt City in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria that is daily confronted with the effects of climate change. This paper, therefore, examines popular music produced by young artists that also live in this waterfront’s coastal areas of the city. Some of the artists that live within the coastal areas whose music resonates with the daily lived lives of the threat of floods and displacement and the resiliencies employed by the community members are Adre, Comfort Morris, St Marry, and others. This music explains the daily horror faced with floods, the herculean experiences of coastal chandleries. The paper employs ethnographic interviews with the musicians and community members in the communities. Based on Ecomusicology and Ecoresilence theories I argue that musical activities and experiences could help coastal dwellers in African cities to be resilient to climatic changes that negatively affect their day-to-day living and could help navigates the cultural and indigenous knowledge with the use of music for resilience and coping mechanism. I conclude that music can chronicle global coastal community members' experiences to help them to live better lives despite the climatic challenges.
Olusegun Stephen Titus is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. He obtained M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Musicology from the University of Nigeria Nsukka and the University of Ibadan, Nigeria respectively. His work focuses on Musical Narratives on Climate Change, Space and Place, Urban Spaces, Ecomusicology, Migration, Trafficking, Cross-border, Internally Displaced Persons, Medical Musicology and Landscape Some of the past and ongoing research includes the musical analysis and narratives on flood in Southwestern Nigeria, oil spillage and gas flaring and the effects on Atlantic Ocean, land and air in Niger Delta area. Musical narratives on the landscape and built environment in Lagos city. Apart from these, he is also examining the musical narratives on plastic waste. He is a Fellow, IFRA-Nigeria, Fellow, A. G. Leventis Program and visiting scholar, SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom, Fellow, AfOx-TORCH, and visiting scholar Oxford University. And Fellow of the American Council of Learned Society under the African Humanities Program of the Carnegie Corporation New York.
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