In most parts of Igbo land, highlife music has always taken the
centre stage. During the later part of the 20th century, the likes of Osita Osadebe, Oriental Brothers, Oliver de Coque and the bongo boys from Owerri made their marks on the platform of this genre of music.
Morocco Maduka, a traditional title-holder from Anambra State, in this interview with reporters,including OKEY MADUFORO,in Awka, talkson his style of music and the music industry in Nigeria.
It is widely believed that music is said to be a spiritual gift. What is your view?
God has different gifts for different people in the
world. What you have as a gift from God may be different from what another has others. Some have the gift of vision (prophecy), while some have the gift of dancing and all
that. When I released ‘Uwa Enwe Mmeta Vision 2000’, I talked about the late Eddy Nawgu. I was foreseeing something happening in Anambra and the year 2000. They killed Eddy Nawgu and the vision came to pass. That is the gift of God.
I must say here that not all musicians see those visions, and this is by the instrumentality of God Almighty. So, some times what I see while playing my music I cannot just see it ordinarily.
Music is spiritual and a gift from God. When I sing, I make some
predictions without knowing it and they would always come to pass. You must, as a musician, sustain and nature the gift given to you by God. If you fail to do so, it will surely depart from you.
How do you react to the rivalry between some musicians and younger ones?
Anybody that sees a young person that is coming up as a musician and is against him or her is a witch. You must encourage that young person because you cannot remain a musician forever. One day, you will die and the younger ones will take over. This is the law of nature. My only worry is the type of music being played these days.
There are some that have no meaning and no message. Some other young musicians are doing well. I do not want to mention names. All of us know those that play something sensible while others just play it for playing sake. It is those who patronise them that can tell us what they mean by their song. When you talk about encouraging musicians, that brings me to the present government in Anambra State. It has no interest in our music. Here the governor has no agenda for the encouragement of the
entertainment industry.
When Peter Obi was here, he would try to reach out to us. He would invite us to functions and contract us to play at the function. Last time I offered to play at a function organised by the (Willie) Obiano government for free, he told me that he had called someone else by the name Samankwe, and I said okay.
People believe that only born-again Christians play gospel music.
It is laughable to say that only born-again Christians play gospel music. Some people play gospel music to make money not because they are born-again. I know too many of them that play gospel music that are not born-again. I also know a good number of them that are not (pure), yetthey sing the best of gospel music.
Yes, I do not play gospel music like others; but most of my songshave gospel messages. I forgot to tell you that I built a church in myvillage. I used attended Rhema (Chapel) for five years before left them to hear the word of God by fire. Later I built my own church because my wife has her own church and I
followed her to worship there. The name of my church is GloriousChapel of Faith International at my village, Ukwulu, Dunukofia LocalGovernment Area (Anambra State). Every weekend, I go home to worship in my church.
Do you think Anambra has enough studios for music production?
As you can see, I have my own studio. I wanted to build a hotel,
but later changed my mind. We have so many studios in the state and itis really helping the music industry. Music production has gonedigital and everyone has to meet up with the trend, so I had to build agood digital studio where I produce my songs and people can also comeover to produce their own songs.
Is this division among members of PMAN fair to the industry?
What is causing the crisis in PMAN is the craving by some hungrymusicians for money. Their interest is to be the head and enjoy thepatronage of government for their own selfish gains. Most of thosewho are creating factions in PMAN try to tailor it along ethnic lines, thereby affecting the fortunes of our association adversely.
We arehappy to announce that come October this year the association will electa new president devoid of any faction or leadership tussle.
How did it all start in your carrier?
I started in 1962 at the age of 15 and my father almost
killed me. They saw musicians as failures; people that do not haveambition. But I told myself that I would not be that type of
musician. I was saving money I made from music with one woman, themother of my friend, Orakwue. Later, I bought a
bicycle in 1964. I saved up to nine pounds and used six pounds to buy the bicycle.
When my father discovered that I was making money from music and I wasnot living irresponsiblylike most musicians, hetold me to continue.
I play the kind of music called Egwu-Elepili. Before, they usedlocal and native instruments. But I am the first to use moderninstrument to play my type of music before others joined, and themusic is still growing.
