




































1 

 

 

 

 

THE NINE LIVES OF MEKI 

 

 Richard C. Okafor 

Bishop Okoye University, Enugu/Ugwuomu-Nike. 

 

 

ABSTRACT 

The life and works of Professor Meki Nzewi pose a challenge to both students and 

musicologists alike. However, I have chosen to x-ray this music icon and giant to portray his 

activities in the music world in order to bring forth those attributes that have been sources of 

inspiration to his students and colleagues alike. Hence, the title, The Nine Lives of Meki was 

born. This has been broken down under the following sub-headings: Meki, the teacher; Meki 

and the African music theory; the Nzewi School; Concertizing Meki; Meki, the Motivator; 

Meki and the African Theatre; Meki and Musicology; Meki: The Africanist and Meki: The 

Person.  

 

 

INTRODUCTION 

There is such diversity in the one man, Professor Meki Emeka Nzewi, that one cannot 

present him in one form and possibly like Pontius Pilate say Ecce homo-Behold the man. The 

plain fact is that Meki, as we like to call him, puts in all that he is to these diversities that we 

can call each province a life of Meki. I have therefore elected to call this short and simple 

article The Nine Lives of Meki because each of the road signs will point the way to one of 

these diversities. A woman I have read about provides me a useful alibi for when she was 

asked to state the age of her son, she said: „physically 10, intellectually 14, emotionally 12.‟ 

It is my opinion that my road signs direct the readers to the different lives of Meki so that by 

focusing attention on them severally we shall together be in a position to compose the whole 

Meki. 

 

Meki: The Teacher 

One of my sign posts points to Meki, The Teacher.  For nearly 40 years (his looks won‟t say 

so). He has engaged himself in musical pedagogy.  Those of us here who have passed under 

his tutelage may have their recollections of him as a task master, guide or model.  This much 

I know – that if Meki had been a mere run-of-the-mill music teacher, this conference would 

never have come to be.  Indeed, many of us here can remember that for years there have been 

aborted plans to hold a Conference or a Memorial Lecture in honour of one of the pioneers of 

Igbo musical scholarship.  But, the powers did not bless us with success, our bold visions and 

good intentions notwithstanding. Nevertheless, our visions came true in 2008 when a national 

conference was organised in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in honour of Professor Meki 

Nzewi.   

 

Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 9 2013 



2 

 

Prof. Meki Nzewi encourages talents to develop and to contribute to musicology and music 

education.  His strategy using master-musicians in the process of forming his students has 

been adopted and formalized into the National Policy in Education, which directs the same 

approach in music education from the primary to the tertiary level.  All his students 

experience him as a powerful theorist who also makes very strong demands on practical 

musicianship.  This has often brought him into conflict with some of his colleagues who 

accuse him of trying to turn Music Departments of Universities into Music Academies.  He 

drives his students to research into African Music and to publish, thereby preparing them for 

later life as music academics. His musical pedagogy has reached from tertiary down to 

primary and secondary levels of education for which he has published some books for use by 

students and teachers alike. In addition to this, he shook up the traditional music education 

curriculum by proposing and insisting that the young pupil should begin by studying what is 

music in his own culture, certain that if he recognizes the intricacies of music in his own 

culture, he would recognize music of other cultures with their intricacies whenever he comes 

in contact with them. 

 

As former Head of the Department of Music, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), Meki 

employed master-musicians, knowledgeable musicians and literate informers to impact on 

the education of his students. It can be said, without any fear of contradiction that the 

graduates of that regime were practical, well-rounded or holistic and very versatile, and 

several of them have made their marks in the Nigerian society-musical academia, the media, 

and cultural activism. 

 

Meki and the African Music Theory 

There is a part of Meki that unsettled some scholars especially those who bask in the safe 

mediocrity of the past.  This is the Meki that subjects the nomenclature and vocabulary of the 

musicology of yesteryear to re-examination, and sometimes to redefinition, based on the 

perspective of giving the African mind a role in composing the international vocabulary of 

the universal phenomenon known as music.  He believes that so many definitions derive 

from the perspective of the Euro-American mind such that the owners of some cultural 

manifestations have been regarded as of no consequence in the formulation of musicological 

taxonomies, in such a way that their original ideas are sacrilegiously distorted.  For example, 

the masquerade is so called because the Europeans liken those figures to shrouded humans, 

singing and dancing just as in their native masques.  On the other hand, to the African mind, 

nothing masquerades but spirits manifest in those forms from the other dimension of life for 

interaction with people in the human order on the earth plane.  So, Meki and some writers 

and scholars believe that based on this African philosophy, the correct terminology should be 

spirit-manifests.  

 

For the obstinate African or bell pattern, Meki prefers phrase referent since all other 

instrumentalists refer to it in producing their own rhythms.  When he felt dissatisfied with the 

limitations of the old notation in expressing the sounds and languages of the African drum, 

he devised his own notation, which he taught people of the non-African cultures to read and 

use in performing African music so that African drums sound and talk like African drums.  

Simply put, Meki in this way really devised an international notation that could enable 



3 

 

African drums to speak in many tongues. Meki thinks of the song, the instrumental music 

and the dance as so intertwined in African music that it would be better expressed by the 

term musical arts than merely as music since the African conceives song, musical instrument 

playing and kinetic movements or the dance as an integer - a three in one. 

 

Some of his musical concepts include melo-rhythmic essence in Nigerian folk-music (1974) 

and phonic preferences and psychical tolerance (1983a). In phonic preferences, Meki 

identifies that music should have peculiarities which differentiate it from that of other 

cultures while psychical tolerance further models the peculiarities, effect, group and personal 

appreciation and the usage of music types. 

 

The Nzewi School 

Meki‟s idea and perspectives of African musicology are so fundamental and far-reaching that 

some researchers and musicologists admit that the term Nzewi School is not only appropriate 

and deserving but accurate and factual.  In order to propagate his concept of African classical 

music, he has taken African musicians on concert tours to the five Continents (Africa, 

Americas, Europe, Oceania and Asia), wining audiences from many cultures to his 

perspective of the universality of music as one language with many dialects. 

 

The Nzewi School soon began to carry Meki‟s musical philosophies beyond the Nigerian 

national frontiers.  Joshua Uzoigwe took his African pianism and Ukom to the British Isles, 

the Americas, and Oceania. Christian Onyeji, a fine and talented flutist and composer, 

appeared with Meki for several years on the Concert Halls of Europe and Southern Africa.  

His Symphonic Poem, Abigbo, is testimony that African music, on its own validity, can make 

strong statements on Western classicism.  Odyke Nzewi, a virtuoso drummer boy, kept the 

family flag flying in the tertiary institutions and concert stage of Nigeria, South Africa, 

Britain and Germany. 

 

Concertizing Meki 

The picture of one not-heavily-built man hanging his whole orchestra over his back and 

striding across airport terminals must be very familiar to the Immigration Services of many 

nations of Europe, Asia and the Americas.  This is Meki on his concert tours carrying his Ese 

drums by himself as he makes his brand of music serve a two-fold purpose of entertainment 

and African musical evangelism – opening African music to the Euro-American and Asian 

minds.  The wonder of Meki on the concert stage is that he is one man playing many parts 

but all his acts are not nine ages.  One can recognize, looking at Meki that he seems to have 

discovered the elixir of life.  He matures without ageing.  All these notwithstanding, it would 

be wrong to link Meki with African musical insularism.  His training as a musician followed 

the standard Western classical pattern.  It was therefore not a surprise that his early 

performances between 1965 and 1986 were as a concert clarinetist.  He composed and 

performed concerts and broadcasting his Reverie for Clarinet and Piano. 

 

Nevertheless, Meki had a deep burning conviction that since music is a cultural expression, 

Africa must be her own interpreter of African music – an argument that can hardly be 

faulted.  He totally agrees with Herndon (1976) who states: 



4 

 

What I may think does not in any way affect another group of people‟s ideas about 

their music.  What they think of as music, and how they manipulate and develop 

those ideas, however, affects the form and substance of that music. (pp. 222-223) 

 

Holding on to that conviction and burning with that Africanist philosophy, Meki burst on the 

world stage drumming his Africanist philosophy into the audiences and the music curriculum 

of several lands. 

 

In 1989 Meki performed the Ese classical drum solos and Ese/Saxophone duet; Solo concert 

of Ese classical drum and Ese classical drum solos and Ese/Mrin gandam duet in Coburg, 

Herz, Nurnberg, Duisburg, Bonn, and Bayreuth – all in Germany.  In the same year, he held a 

concert-jam session and concert of improvisations with both Charlie Marhiana 

(Saxophone/Flute) and Tunji Beier (Indian drums) at Erlangen and Bayreuth in Germany. It 

was also at this period that he published his Ese Music Notation and Modern Concert 

Presentation (1990) having found out that the old notation to which Western music is so 

much tied is incompetent to handle the sounds and rhythms of the drums of Africa. 

 

On January 10 and 12, 1990, he performed his Drum Trio Concert – Ese Classical drum solo 

and drum improvisations at the German school and the Goethe Institute, Lagos.  In the same 

year, he organized a concert of traditional drums pop music with drum singing with his 

Trado-Sound Ensemble on 1 January at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In 1991, he 

performed his Ese concert flute duets, Solo concert of Ese classical drum music and Ese 

classical drum solos at various countries including Germany, Belgium and the USA. 

 

On 23 March, 1992, Meki performed in Munich and in April in London and Germany.  Later 

that year, he also performed at the British Council, Enugu, on 25 June. And, under the 

auspices of the Nigerian Society for Music Education (NISMER), he performed the same Ese 

classical drum solo and drum poems with ululation at the Enugu State Broadcasting Service 

(ESBS), Enugu, on September 25. In 1993, Meki was more home-based with performances 

of his Ese drum solo and Ese/Voice duo at the Goethe Institute, Lagos, on 2 February and at 

the Hotel Presidential, Enugu, on 5 May. 

 

His performances in 1994 could be likened to those of 1989 when in the months of January, 

September, November and December he organized many concerts on the Ese drums in 

Holland and Germany. Between 1995 and 2002, the story was the same.  Meki continued his 

performances in Nigeria, Austria, South Africa and Germany.  What a world man? 

 

Meki: The Motivator 

One of Meki‟s lives has been to motivate and spur others towards self discovery, self 

development, self realization, self actualization, and certain degrees of venture and 

entrepreneurship. When I was a Junior Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), 

in 1977, I applied and secured admissions to the British Columbia University, Vancouver, 

Canada, and Queen‟s University of Belfast for my Ph.D. Opinions were diverse, but when I 

contacted Meki, who was already at Queen‟s, with my plans, he replied in his typical 

unambiguous manner, virtually insisting that I come to Belfast: “Professor John Blacking 



5 

 

knows the music of your grandmother.” I went to Belfast, studied under Professor John 

Blacking and discovered that even Meki had understated the immense values that one 

derived from meeting the great John Blacking, as we used to call him. 

 

Some of us in the Association of Nigerian Musicologists (ANIM) had the same experience as 

Meki spurred them to go to the University of Pretoria, South Africa, for their terminal 

degrees.  Such persons include Dr. Christian Onyeji, Dr. (Mrs) Young-Sook Onyiuke, Dr. 

Adebowale Adeogun, and Dr. Ovaborhene Idamoyibo. 

 

Prof. Meki Nzewi is one of the most widely published and travelled of Nigerian academic 

musicians. And, no one who has studied under him or been influenced by him has escaped 

being bitten by the Meki Nzewi bug.  In the academic life of scholars, where the golden 

dictum is “publish or perish,” many of them have chalked up long and still lengthening lists 

of publications in national and international journals, as well as books on musicology and 

ethnomusicology. 

 

Equally important, several of them stage musical concerts in other lands to broaden their 

experiences and expose their maturity in practical musicianship.  In addition, Meki has 

produced lecturers, associate professors and professors, all of whom can credit their 

advancement to suggestions made by him in his usual brash manner that miraculously leaves 

no after taste. 

 

Professor Nzewi‟s mission of bringing the authentic African art to the world led him to found 

the AMA DIALOG FOUNDATION at Nsugbe in Anambra State, in 1993.  The Institution, 

which has accommodation built in the traditional Igbo African architecture, has been listed as 

a destination for people who engage in art and cultural tourism.  Every year, more than a 

score of tourists from Germany, the Netherlands, and other Western European countries 

spend their summer holidays in the huts of the Ama Dialog Foundation mixing with the rural 

population as they go to the farms, sing and dance for entertainment or as part of ceremonies.  

Indeed, some of the tourists have ordered the Construction of some African huts for 

themselves and their families. 

 

In an age when most developing countries have charged globalization with the offence of 

using their enormously powerful technologies to crush their own cultures, Meki used the 

Ama Dialog Foundation to return the Euro-American cultural offensive, measure for 

measure.  The Centre taught the local women to transfer their mud wall art to canvass art in 

the style which Meki named UPAISM (from upa or the red laterite).  The paintings are then 

sent to Europe where they are sold and the money remitted to the village folk who find that 

what they do as part-time has economic value elsewhere.  The money they made from each 

transaction keeps their families going for about a year during which they supplement their 

newly acquired higher standard of living from proceeds from peasant farming.  An important 

by-product of the Ama Dialogy Foundation is that the visitors sometimes donate their one 

year‟s earnings or so to the improvement of maternal and child healthcare in the village.  

Mark you! All this is not done in Meki‟s hometown or village, Nnewi or Otolo.  In dealing 

with persons or groups, the motto with Meki is “Talent without Borders.” 



6 

 

 

Meki and the African Theatre 

There is a side of Meki that even some academics have never understood.  It is the Meki of 

the Theatre who writes plays and musicals and produces them for the stage.  When one 

theatre academic questioned Meki‟s right or competence to engage in theatre productions, 

Meki riposted that he had known one or two professors of theatre arts who also recorded and 

released popular hits and did not have to explain what they were doing dabbling into music.  

The fact is that Meki had always taught his students that the African concept of music 

involves three main activities, namely singing, playing instruments, and dancing or miming.  

All the three require spaces, actors and audiences or spectators – the very same things which 

are required for the artistic production that some people call theatre.  

 

 This has thrown Meki into the sphere of communication of ideas by theatre.  Theatre, 

according to some authorities, has three main principles.  First there must be an actor or 

actors.  And, in the case of mmanwu/mawu, it is not only human actors but spirit and human 

actors.  Then, there must be space, which does not have to be inside a building.  It can be 

anywhere.  Perhaps, we can take the village arena/square or anywhere that mmanwu/mawu 

performs to be the space.  And, the third principle is that there must be an audience – people 

who will watch or listen to the actors or actresses.  Enekwe (1987) gives an opinion that 

cannot be impeached: 

However, I would like to add that theatre usually occurs in public space.  If we 

conceive the audience as a community with shared values and emotions, then we can 

understand why theatre is usually public.  These factors, therefore – actors 

consciously playing for the entertainment of others, an audience and public space, all 

of which imply one another – are the quintessential conditions that govern the theatre. 

(p. 35)  

In the African context, public must have its own definition since African architecture caters 

for individual and pubic needs. 

 

When the Federal Government of Nigeria wanted to communicate messages of rural and 

community development, they invited many artists who produced sketches and variety 

shows.  When Meki designed his Road show, he chose to have the messages conveyed by the 

medium that rural Igbo Folk could not, and dare not doubt.  He chose to have the messages 

sent by masquerades or spirit-manifests, and gave the production, the title of Ozi MManwu – 

The Message from the Spirit-Manifests.  With that Design, he captured much of rural 

Igboland because he understood and engaged their psychology and psychic tolerance and 

accommodation. In further pursuance of his interest in the theatre, he founded and 

incorporated a professional Theatre and Cinema Company, made up of young boys and girls 

who were interested in making their living through the theatre and prepared, if possible, to go 

it alone without any support from the Government.  That Company produced young 

dramatists some of who are today household names and very active in Nollywood as script 

writers, actors, and make-up artists. 

 

His major artistic outburst in the theatre includes opera, music-dramas and musicals.        

Opus 1: Music-Drama Works (Dialogue and Music score) including The Lost Finger 



7 

 

(1980); Ombudspirit on Politics (1981); The Third Coming; Kunje (Danced Drama Theatre); 

Regeneration; and the Rhyme of Sangobeni (Danced Drama Theater). Opus 2: Musicals 

including Lazy Bones; A Drop of Honey; We The People; The Kola Cola kid; The Moonsage 

Hero; The Saviour Comes Again; and the Woman of Samaria.  Opus 3: Operas including 

Adaora; Mystery is illusion; and Omaledo (Children‟s Opera) 

 

A whole point of Meki playing so many parts in public and academic life is that he does not 

approach whatever part from the perspective of the make-believe.  He puts in all he is in such 

a way that, that part becomes and not only reflects Meki. No wonder he becomes an expert in 

a very short time. 

 

In addition, he becomes the elephant, which was placed for identification by six Hindustani 

blind men. And one blind man caught its squirming tail in his groping hand and declared that 

the elephant was just like a snake.  The blind man who touched its ear declared that even the 

blindest man would know that the wonder of the elephant was just like a fan, while the blind 

man who fell against the side of the humongous beast proclaimed to the world that it was just 

like a wall, just as the blind man who touched its leg said that the elephant was just like a 

tree.  All the blind men went away in heated argument, everyone believing his own 

description.  But, the naked truth is that everyone of them was wrong and everyone was right.  

So be it with Meki. 

 

Meki and Musicology 

Any friend or colleague of Meki‟s can easily testify that Meki does not complain.  If he is not 

satisfied with the state of anything, he tries to do something about it to effect a change.  For 

example, when he came into music academics, he was not satisfied to find that musicology 

existed in a strait jacket, constructed by Euro-American ethnocentrism, which provided the 

technologies and parameters for musical study and discourse.  He was particularly distressed 

by the way in which African music was treated in this scheme – as a phenomenon which did 

not exist in its own right but had validity only if it flitted into the perspectives of European 

anthropologists, missionaries or colonial officers and traders. 

 

With this idea of doing something positive in the scheme of African musicology, he broke 

the cherished rule in physics, which holds that like poles repel each other while unlike poles 

attract.  He attracted like-minds like this writer, Professor Richard Okafor, the late Dr. Joshua 

Uzoigwe, Lawrence Emeka, Professor Dan Agu, Dr. Yemi Olaniyan, Dr. Christian Onyeji, 

Dr. Sam Chukwu and Dr. Bode Omojola, and in this way the Nzewi School was born.  This 

idea has found acceptance, through A. M. Jones and Hugh Tracey, in East and Southern 

Africa – hitherto the citadel or shrine of the old style African musicology. 

 

Meki invented his own notation for Ese tuned drums.  On first looking at this notation, any 

simple literate mind could say that “Here is nsibidi or the old Egyptian hieroglyphic.” But, it 

works.  Just hear them spring to life when Meki picks up his drum sticks and you could call 

them the miracle of the millennium. 

 



8 

 

A good book they say “is the precious life blood of a master spirit.” And for Fulton J. Sheen: 

“Books are readily available, and what companions they are.  A good book is the same today 

as yesterday.  It is never displeased when we put it down; it is always inspiring when we pick 

it up.  It never fails us in times of adversity.”  For Joseph Addison: “Books are the legacies 

that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to 

generation, as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.”  This is in synchrony 

with the great American statesman, writer, and sage, Benjamin Franklin, who stated: “If you 

would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading 

or do things worth the writing.” 

 

Meki has shared his ideas with the world through several publications, which made their way 

to the bookstands on their own merit and the force of the ideas they convey.  It is not difficult 

to find that many of them are radical or revolutionary – made to unsettle the starchy mind: 

 

(1990). Ese Music Notation and Modern Concert Presentation. 

(1997). African Music: Theoretical Content and Creative Continuum. 

(2000). Musicology vs. Ethnomusicology: African vs. the Contemporary Perspectives. 

(2003). African musicology in the global thrust: redemption for disorienting human pulse. 

(2005). Modern art music in African: whose modernism? 

(2006). Growing in musical arts knowledge versus the role of the ignorant expert. 

(2007). A Contemporary study of Musical Arts – Informed by Indigenous Knowledge 

Systems (Vol. 4). 

 

Many of Meki‟s past students affirm that he was the first person to teach them in a formal 

classroom-setting that masquerades are wrongly termed as such by Euro-American 

anthropologists and musicologists.  And that they should be termed what they really are in 

African philosophy and systems – SPIRIT MANIFESTS – for according to the teaching of 

our fathers, our father‟s fathers, and their fathers before them, what we see or hear perform 

are spirits, which come out through ant holes after appropriate sacrifices and rituals have 

been performed, and manifest themselves so that human beings can see and hear them.  

Indeed, in many an African system, nothing masquerades and there is no mask.  Everything 

that appears is the spirit in that form and manner. 

 

Meki: The Africanist 

There is the story of a patriotic American who told his audience that Americans have 

achieved so much because the last four letters in American reads „I can,‟ and so, Americans 

approach every enterprise or undertaking with the spirit of „I can.‟  Someone in the audience 

politely reminded the speaker that African ends in the same letters as American and that it 

was in the same spirit of „I can‟ that Africans founded the ancient Egyptian Civilization that 

produced the only Wonders of the Ancient World still standing as Wonders in spite of all that 

the third millennium science and technology can do.  That man in the audience was not Meki 

Nzewi but might well have been.  Hardly is there an academic whose whole life – academic 

and extra academic – symbolizes the African spirit more than Meki.  Indeed, it is an 

understatement to say that Meki is a strong defender of African music.  He has a holistic 

approach to African music and African culture.  His is the life of holistic Africanity.  The 



9 

 

wonder is that in its promotion and stout defence, Meki has not burnt himself out with 

apoplexy.  Thank God that it is not only so but also that he gathers disciples and followers as 

he rolls along. 

 

Meki: The Person 

Professor Meki Emeka Nzewi was born 70 years ago to the Nzewi family of Umuanuka, 

Otolo village in Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria.  Nnewi has a culture of producing hard-

nosed business men, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists like Ekene Dili Chukwu.  But, Meki 

did not and does not have any strain of Shylock on which many people have stood to amass 

their wealth or pelf.  He is humane, gentle and generous, unstinting in providing help to his 

friends, and careless of discomfort in helping or inspiring others.  When I was a Junior 

Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1976/77), Meki gave me his Boys‟ Quarters, 

free of charge, thereby providing an accommodation as well as an opportunity to be exposed 

to his philosophy, practice and life.  And his kindness can also be seen in his wife, Philo, his 

three sons (Atuegwu, Odyke and Chimdi) and two daughters (Ogochukwu and Ifeoma).  

Meki‟s family is making excellent progress. 

 

In addition, he is self-effacing and his status, age or rank easily melts away when he is 

working as a member of a team or in the company of his colleagues.  He has the knack of 

creating his students into his colleagues or even mentors, since he does not care from whom 

or from where a good idea emanates.  Again, “Talent Without Borders.” 

 

A thoroughbred academic, Meki has supervised many Ph.D. and Masters‟ Degree Candidates 

in Nigeria and the Diaspora.  Prof. Meki Emeka Nzewi is the author of over 10 books and 

more than 60 book chapters and journal articles, most of them published overseas.  Besides, 

he has attended and presented over 100 papers at both national and international musical arts 

conferences. 

Professor Meki Emeka Nzewi is a member of many professional, national and international 

bodies, namely: 

1. International Society for Music Education (ISME) – Member/Board Member, 2002 – 

2004. 

2. International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) – Member. 

3. Pan African Society for Musical Arts Education (PASME) – President, 2001 – 2005. 

4. Society for Ethnomusicology – Full Member. 

5. Founder and Centre/Programme Director for the Centre for Indigenous Instrumental 

Music and Dance Practices (CIIMDA). 

6. The Nigerian Society for Music Education and Research (NISMER) –

Founder/Member. 

7. Ama Dialog Foundation, Nsugbe – Co-Founder/Director. 

8. Association of Nigerian Musicologists (ANIM) – Member. 

 

Many people who know about Meki‟s tenacity of purpose and doggedness in fighting for a 

cause he considers just will be surprised when they meet the Meki who will not push himself 

beyond a certain point in fighting for his entitlement.  In this situation, the person of Meki 



10 

 

that takes over is the one which believes that justice will eventually be just, no matter how 

long or what it takes. 

 

We have made, albeit, a cursory survey of Professor Meki Emeka Nzewi as an Africanist 

supremo, teacher, composer, dramatist, scholar, motivator, concertizer, and cultural 

entrepreneur.  What we have heard, known and seen makes it all the more harder for us to 

say Ecce homo – Behold the man – and to present the person behind the personality. 

 

A national feather of honour is added to the several ones already in Meki‟s cap.  Many more 

honours are coming.  The cap fits, the feathers adorn it and the head wears it well.  When we 

have role models which we look up to, we strive harder.  By standing on the shoulder of 

giants, we see farther. 

 

References 

Adeogun, A. (2006).  Music Education in Nigeria, 1842-2001: Policy and Content 

Evaluation, Towards a New Dispensation.  Doctoral dissertation, University of 

Pretoria. 

Agawu, K. (2003). Representing African Music: Postcolonial Notes, Queries, Positions.      

New York: Routledge. 

Agu, D. C. C. (1984).  Indigenous Choral Music in African Christian Worship: An Analytical 

Study of the Youth Songs in the Niger Diocese of Nigeria.  Doctoral dissertation, 

Queen‟s University of Belfast. 

Agu, D. C. C. (1991). Form and Analysis of African Music. Enugu: New Generation Books. 

Amalu, Gabriel and Agbai, Emeka (2008).  Service Above Self. Lagos: BlackGold 

Publications. 

Blacking, J. (1973). How Musical is Man? Seattle: University of Washington Press; London: 

Faber and Faber (2nd ed.), 1976. 

Emeka, L. N. (1991). Dead folks alive.  1991 Ahiajoku Lecture Colloquium. Owerri: 

Ministry of Information and Culture. 

Emeka, L. N. (1993). Metaphysical technology.  Enugu State Mmanwu Festival and Iri-ji 

Tradition ’93 (pp. 19-29). Enugu: Ministry of Information and Culture. 

Enekwe, O. O. (1987). Igbo Masks: The Oneness of Ritual and Theatre. Lagos: A Nigerian 

Magazine Publication. 

Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education (4th ed.). Lagos: Nigerian 

Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC). 

Herbst, A., Nzewi, M. and Agawu, K. (2003). Musical Arts in Africa: Theory, Practice and 

Education. Pretoria: UNISA Press. 

Herndon, M. (1976). Reply to Kolinski: Tarus Omicidia. Ethnomusicology, XX(2), 217-231. 

Idamoyibo, O. I. (2006). Igoru Music in Okpeland: Its Function and Compositional 

Techniques. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pretoria. 

Jones, A. M. (1959). Studies in African Music. London: Oxford University Press. 



11 

 

Kelly, J. (2003). Quotes Worth Repeating. Mumbai, India: Better Yourself Books. 

Nzewi, M. (1971). Rhythm of dance in Igbo music. Conch 3(2), 104-108. 

Nzewi, M. (1974). Melo-rhythm essence and hot rhythm in Nigerian folk music. Black 

Perspectives in Music (BPIM), 2(1), 22-28. 

Nzewi, M. (1976). The masquerade concept: Categories and roles. In N. Nzewunwa (Ed.), 

The Masquerade in Nigerian History and Culture (pp. 43-72).  Port Harcourt: The 

University of Port-Harcourt Press. 

Nzewi, M. (1977). Master Musicians and the Music of Ese, Ukom, and Mgba Ensembles in 

Ngwa, Igbo Society.  Doctoral dissertation, Queen‟s University of Belfast. 

Nzewi, M. (1978a). Ancestral Polyphony: Immanent dimensions in Igbo arts. African Arts 

XI(4), 74, 92-94. 

Nzewi, M. (1978b). Some social perspectives of Igbo traditional theatre, BPIM, 6(2), 113-

143.  

Nzewi, M. (1978/79a). Folk music in Nigeria: A communion. African Music, 6(1), 6-21. 

Nzewi, M. (1979b).  Some structural features of the Igbo festival. BPIM, 7(1), 169-181. 

Nzewi, M. (1983a).  Philological derivations of melo-rhythmic improvisations.  African 

Ethnomusicology, V, 319-338. 

Nzewi, M. (1983b). The cerebral arts in Nigeria.  Presence Africaine, 125, 83-103. 

Nzewi, M. (1984). Traditional strategies for mass communication: The centrality of Igbo 

music.  Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology, 1(1), 1-13. 

Nzewi, M. (1987). Ese music, honours for the dead; Status for the sponsor.  African Music, 

6(4), 90-107. 

Nzewi, M. (1997). The teaching and learning of music in African cultures. Musikunterricht 

Heute, 16-34. 

Nzewi, M. (1999). Challenges for African music and musicians in the modern world music 

context.  Intercultural Music, 2, 201-225. 

Nzewi, M. (2000). Musicology vs. Ethnomusicology: African vs. the Contemporary 

Perspectives.  In F. Gunderson (Ed.), Proceedings of the Forum for Revitalizing 

African Music Studies in Higher Education (pp. 145-149). Michigan: University of 

Michigan.  

Nzewi, M. (2001). Beyond song texts – The lingual fundamentals of African drum music.  

Research in African Literatures, 32(2), 90-104. 

Nzewi, M. (2002). Fundamentals of Igbo musical culture (some structural and social 

referents).  In G. E. K. Ofomata (Ed.), Survey of the Igbo Nation (pp. 367-385). 

Onitsha: Africana First Publishers Limited. 

Nzewi, M. (2003a). African musicianship in the global thrust: Redemption for disorienting 

human pulse.  In Sam Leon (Ed.), Musicianship in the 21
st
 Century: Issues, Trends 

and Possibilities, (pp. 219-233).  Sydney: Australian Music Centre. 



12 

 

Nzewi, M. (2003b). Acquiring knowledge of the musical arts in traditional society.  In A. 

Herbst, M. Nzewi, and K. Agawu (Eds.), Musical Arts in Africa: Theory, Practice 

and Education (pp. 13-37). Pretoria: UNISA Press. 

Nzewi, M. (2004). The Avu of Alafrika: A narrative on an encounter with musical arts 

knowledge.  Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa, 1, 55-83. 

Nzewi, M. (2005a). African musical arts creativity and performance: The science of the 

sound.  Nigeria Music Review, 6, 71.  

Nzewi, M. (2005b). Modern art music in Africa: Whose modernism? In B. Omojola and      

G. Dor (Eds.), Multiple Interpretations of Dynamics of Creativity and Knowledge in 

African Music Traditions (pp. 59-80). Point Richmond: MRI Press. 

Nzewi, M. (2005c). Instrumental music ensemble as a general musicianship training strategy.  

In A. Herbst (Ed.), Emerging Solutions for Musical Arts Education in Africa (pp. 

202-210). Cape Town: African Minds. 

Nzewi, M. (2006). Growing in musical arts knowledge versus the role of the ignorant expert.  

In M. Mans (Ed.), Centering on African Practice in Musical Arts Education (pp. 49-

60). Cape Town: African Minds. 

Nzewi, M. (2007a). Re-searching music education for civic activism. Music Education 

Research, 9(3), 305-321. 

Nzewi, M. (2007b). The force that rides the sound.  In L. Breslar (Ed.) International 

Handbook of Research in Arts Education (pp. 1443-1448). Dordrecht: Springer. 

Nzewi, M. (2007c). A Contemporary Study of Musical Arts - Informed by African Indigenous 

Knowledge Systems (Vol. Four). Cape Town: African Minds. 

Okafor, R. C. (1980). Igbo Minstrels. Doctoral dissertation, Queen‟s University of Belfast.  

Okafor, R. C. (1988). Focus on music education in Nigeria.  International Journal of Music 

Education (IJME), 12, 9-17. 

Okafor, R. C. (1989a). Of ditties, needs and amnesia – Music and Primary Education in 

Anambra State, Nigeria. British Journal of Music Education (BJME), 6, 289-303. 

Okafor, R. C. (1989b). Popular music education in Nigeria. International Journal of Music 

Education (IJME), 14, 3-13. 

Okafor, R. C. (1989c). Women in Igbo musical culture. The Nigerian Field, 54, 133-140. 

Okafor, R. C. (1989d). Music, women and social mobilization. Nigeria Magazine, 57(1&2), 

18-26. 

Okafor, R. C. (1991a). Music in Nigerian Education.  Bulletin of the Council for Research in 

Music Education, No. 108, 87-103. Re-published in the Journal of International 

Library of African Music, 7(2), 5-11, 1992. 

Okafor, R. C. (1991b). Music in Engineering in Nigeria – Manipulating the environment. In 

R. C. Okafor (Ed.), Elements of Science and Technology in Indigenous Nigerian 

Culture (pp. 165-177). Enugu (ASUTECH): Centre for Science, Technology and 

Culture. 



13 

 

Okafor, R. C. (1994). Minstrely in Ezeagu Local Government Area: Onu-Okwa, “the voice 

of the partridge.” The Nigerian Field, 59, 19-25. 

Okafor, R. C. (1995). Following the spirits to tomorrow. Okanga, 1, 38-40, 42-43, 45-48. 

Okafor, R. C. (1996). Supernatural Burgomasters: Mmanwu (Masquerade) in discipline in 

traditional Igboland.  The Nigerian Heritage, 5, 74-88. 

Okafor, R. C. (1998a). Ezeagu Atilogwu: The Legendary Igbo Troupe. Enugu: New 

Generation Books. 

Okafor, R. C. (1998b). Popular music in Nigeria: Patronizing attitude or benign 

complacency? British Journal of Music Education (BJME), 15(2), 181-189. 

Okafor, R. C., Nwokike, A., Eziechi, C. and Egudu, J. (1999). The Life and Works of 

Celestine Ukwu. Enugu: New Generation Books. 

Okafor, R. C. (2000a). Preparation and practice of the Igbo musician: A fusion of change and 

continuity. Musical Performance, 2(3), 45-61. 

Okafor, R. C. (2002). Vintage in New Bottles: Packaging and re-packaging of the musical 

culture of Nigeria.  Interlink – A Journal of Research in Music, 1(1), 32-50. 

Okafor, R. C. (2003). Musical Storytelling.  In A. Herbst, M. Nzewi, and K. Agawu (Eds.), 

Musical Arts in Africa: Theory, Practice and Education (pp. 169-174). Pretoria: 

UNISA Press. 

Okafor, R. C. & Emeka, L. N. (Eds.) (2004). Nigerian Peoples and Culture (4
th

 edition). 

Enugu: New Generation Books. 

Okafor, R. C. (2005). Music in Nigerian Society. Enugu: New Generation Books. 

Okafor, R. C. & Emeka, L. N. and HRH Inyiama, T. A.  (2008). Igbo Personal and Tittle 

Names. Enugu: New Generation Books. 

Okecha, S. A. (2008). Education. Newswatch (Special Independence Anniversary Edition), 

pp. 21-24, October 6. 

Omibiyi-Obidike, M. A. (Ed.) (2001). African Art Music in Nigeria: Fela Sowande 

Memorial. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden. 

Omojola, B. (1995). Nigerian Art Music. Ibadan: Institute Francais de Recherche en Afrique 

(FIRA). 

Onyeji, C. (2003). The Study of Abigbo Choral-Dance Music and its Application in the 

Composition of Abigbo for Modern Orchestra.  Doctoral dissertation, University of 

Pretoria. 

Onyiuke, Y. S. (2005). Childhood Music Education in Nigeria: A Case Study. Doctoral 

dissertation, University of Pretoria. 

Oehrle, E. and Emeka, L. N. (2003). Thought systems informing the musical arts.   In A. 

Herbst, M. Nzewi and K. Agawu (Eds.), Musical Arts in Africa: Theory, Practice and 

Education (pp. 38-51). Pretoria: UNISA Press. 

Tracey, H. (1948). Chopi Musicians: Their Music, Poetry and Instruments. London: O. U. P. 

Tracey, H. (1954). The social role of African music.  African Affairs, 53, 234-240. 



14 

 

Umezinwa, E. C. (Rev. Fr.) (2008). Identity, Freedom and Logic in Igbo Music Genres: The 

Resonance of the Metaphysical Essence Undefended (Towards a Philosophy of 

African Music). Doctoral dissertation, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. 

Uzoigwe, J. (1992). Akin Euba: An Introduction to the Life and Music of a Nigerian 

Composer. Bayreuth: Eckhard Bratinger. 

Uzoigwe, J. (1998). Ukom: A Study of African Musical Craftsmanship. Okigwe: Fasmen 

Communications. 

Uzoigwe, J. (2001). Tonality versus atonality: The case for an African identity.  In M. A. 

Omibiyi-Obidike (Ed.), African Art Music in Nigeria: Fela Sowande Memorial (pp. 

161-174). Ibadan: Stirling-Horden. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


