Omolaye, B. V. (2021). The emergence of female Juju artistes in Southwestern Nigeria: An appraisal

It is observed that gender imbalance in Nigerian popular music studies, especially Juju music, over the years, was as a result of male chauvinism which is prevalent in popular music scene. This has contributed to the little scholarly attention paid on the female Juju artistes. Therefore, this paper assesses the emergence of female Juju artistes in Southwestern Nigeria. This is with a view to providing information on the involvement of female Juju artistes which has been largely neglected in research based on liberal feminist theory of Hook (1984). Both primary and secondary sources of data were employed for the study. The primary data includes unstructured oral interview with two purposively selected females and a male Juju artiste; Ayotunde Balogun, Titilayo Oguntoyinbo and Admiral Dele Abiodun. Interview conducted with the male Juju artiste, being one of the living legends of the genre, is to further unearth the period of emergence of the first female Juju artiste. The study also examines one song each of the two purposively selected female artistes. The secondary source in form of books, journal articles, magazine and the internet were also consulted. Findings show that the appearance of Queen Oladunni Oduguwa (popularly called Mummy Juju) and her Decency Unity Orchestra Juju band in the early 1970s, marked the period of emergence of female artistes in the Juju music performance. The study concludes that the presence of female Juju artistes in musicological studies had reflected gender equity in the Juju music scene, thereby increasing women’s opportunity for liberation in the African society.