Reinterpretation and Re-Contextualisation of Badagry's Ogu Music in Avale: Ethnomusicological and Artistic Convergence in a Trans-Local and Trans-Genre Collaborative Music Production

The main aim of applied ethnomusicology is to solve concrete social problems through musical advocacy and intervention. However, a few scholars, including Hofman (2010), have contested the essence of applied ethnomusicology, arguing that the production of knowledge in the field of ethnomusicology has always inspired solutions to societal problems. In other words, ethnomusicology has always been applied. Based on the learnings from the production of Avale, a collaborative album involving the author and Gogoke, a musical ensemble from Badagry (Lagos State, Nigeria), this paper argues that applied works are essential in underserved areas and marginalized communities. Furthermore, the article highlights the structural exclusion of the individuals and communities that produce research data from epistemic communities nested within the academy, which privileges Western ideation and end reporting over indigenous knowledge. More so, this paper addresses the exclusivity of epistemic communities using the study’s model of interventionist collaboration, which is beneficial to researchers and their community partners. The paper concludes that applied ethnomusicology could better fulfil its aim of solving social problems with negotiated acts of reciprocity. The collaboration between indigenous Ogu musicians and the author in this study is cited as an inclusive knowledge creation method. The study results validate and expand Harrison’s (2012; 2014) and Summit’s (2015) groundwork on applied ethnomusicology and suggest new frames for the academic study of indigenous musics.