Samuel Akpabot (3 October 1932 – 7 August 2000) was a
Nigerian
Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...
music composer, ethnomusicologist and author.
Early life and education
Samuel Ekpe Akpabot was born in
Uyo
Uyo is the capital city of Akwa Ibom in South South Nigeria. Ibibio is the language spoken in Uyo.
It became the capital on September 23, 1987 when Akwa Ibom was created from the former Cross River State. According to the 2006 Nigerian Cens ...
,
Akwa Ibom State
Akwa Ibom State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered on the east by Cross River State, on the west by Rivers State and Abia State, and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. The state takes its name from the Qua Iboe ...
, Nigeria, to parents of
Ibibio Ibibio may refer to:
* Ibibio language
* Ibibio people
* Ibibio Sound Machine, an English electronic afro-funk band who sing in Ibibio
See also
* Ibiblio
ibiblio (formerly SunSITE.unc.edu and MetaLab.unc.edu) is a "collection of collections" ...
heritage. He was educated at
Baptist Academy
Lagos Baptist Academy is a secondary school located in Obanikoro, Lagos, Nigeria. The school was established in 1855 by the American Baptist Missionaries. The school is regarded as a sister school to Reagan Memorial Baptist Girls' Secondary Schoo ...
and
King's College, Lagos
King's College, Lagos (KCL) is a secondary school in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria. It was founded on 20 September 1909 with 10 students on its original site at Lagos Island, adjacent to Tafawa Balewa Square. The school admits only male students ...
; at the latter, he was classmates with
Emeka Ojukwu,
Lateef Jakande
Lateef Kayode Jakande (23 July 1929 – 11 February 2021) was a Nigerian journalist and politician who served as governor of Lagos State from 1979 to 1983, and later Minister of Works under the Sani Abacha military regime.
Background
Lateef ...
and
Alex Ekwueme
Alexander Ifeanyichukwu Ekwueme (21 October 1932 – 19 November 2017) was the first elected Vice President of Nigeria from 1979 to 1983 during the Second Nigerian Republic serving under President Shehu Shagari as a member of the National Pe ...
. During his time at King's College, he took up playing
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, becoming captain of the college's team in his senior year. From King's College, he proceeded to work as a sports journalist with the ''
Daily Times''. His love for football continued in the 1980s as a sports columnist for the ''Daily Sketch'',
Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its me ...
, and the ''
Nigerian Tribune
The ''Nigerian Tribune'' is an English-language newspaper published in Ibadan, Nigeria. It was established in 1949 by Obafemi Awolowo and is the oldest running private Nigerian newspaper.
In the colonial era, the newspaper served as the mouthpie ...
''.
In
Lagos
Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...
, he was a chorister with the
Christ Church Cathedral of
Lagos Island
Lagos Island (''Ìsàlẹ̀ Èkó'') is the principal and central local government area (LGA) in Lagos, it was the capital of Lagos State until 1957. It is part of the Lagos Division. As of the preliminary 2006 Nigerian census, the LGA had a pop ...
then under the leadership of
Ekundayo Phillips and from 1943 to 1952, he lived in the Bishop's Court, the residence of
Leslie Vining
Leslie Gordon Vining (18854 March 1955) was an English Anglican bishop and the first Archbishop of the Church of the Province of West Africa, from 1951 to 1955.
Life
He attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge and completed his studies in 1910. He ...
. In 1949, he started a highlife band called The Akpabot Players. In 1953, he proceeded to study at
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...
, London. On returning to Nigeria, he became a senior music producer with the
Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation
The Voice of Nigeria or VON is the official international broadcasting station of Nigeria.
History
Founded in 1961, the Voice of Nigeria began life as the External Service of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (now Federal Radio Corpora ...
.
Akpabot earned a doctorate degree from
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
.
Academic career
After spending three years with the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, Akpabot joined the music department of
University of Nigeria
The University of Nigeria, commonly referred to as UNN, is a federal university located in Nsukka, Enugu State, Eastern part of Nigeria. Founded by Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1955 and formally opened on 7 October 1960, the University of Nigeria has thr ...
,
Nsukka
Nsukka is a town and a Local Government Area in Enugu State, Nigeria. Nsukka shares a common border as a town with Edem, Opi (archaeological site), Ede-Oballa, and Obimo.
The postal code of the area is 410001 and 410002 respectively referr ...
, as an assistant lecturer. At the university, he taught students African music and music history. In 1964, he travelled abroad to further his studies at
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. On the completion of his studies, he returned to Nigeria in 1967 and taught at Nsukka from 1967 to 1970, a period spanning the
Nigerian civil war
The Nigerian Civil War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970), also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence f ...
. He left Nsukka in 1970 to become a senior research fellow at
Obafemi Awolowo University
Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal government-owned university that is located in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the University of Ife ...
. At Ife, he was director of Chapel Music and was involved in the annual Ife Festival of Arts. He left Ife in 1973 to pursue his doctorate at Michigan State University.
Works
Akapabot's first major composition was "Scenes from Nigeria", a 12-minute orchestral piece with an African flavour created to celebrate Nigeria's independence. In 1963, Akpabot composed one of his well-known works, "Ofala Festival", a tone poem that was composed for the
American Wind Symphony Orchestra
The American Wind Symphony Orchestra (AWSO, also called the American Wind Symphony, or AWS) is an American musical ensemble incorporating many of the wind instruments found in a symphony orchestra. It is dedicated to the performance of contempo ...
.
[Bessie Essex Courier, S. W. (30 June 1973). "Akpabot, african artist, talks about 'soul music'". ''New Pittsburgh Courier'' (1966–1981] In 1965, he composed "Cynthia's Lament", another piece for the wind symphony orchestra of
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
.
From 1970 to 1973, Akpabot was director of chapel music at Obafemi Awolowo University. While there, he composed a folk song, "Ise Oluwa", for the Ife Arts Festival, "Jaja of Opobo", an operetta in
Efik, English and
Igbo
Igbo may refer to:
* Igbo people, an ethnic group of Nigeria
* Igbo language, their language
* anything related to Igboland, a cultural region in Nigeria
See also
* Ibo (disambiguation)
* Igbo mythology
* Igbo music
* Igbo art
*
* Igbo-Ukwu, a ...
for the festival, and a string orchestra piece entitled "Three Nigerian Dances".
While studying for his doctorate in Michigan, he composed "Nigeria in Conflict" for the wind symphony orchestra, his third piece for the Pittsburgh-based organisation. Akpabot's last major orchestra piece was Verba Christi, a vocal composition with instrument accompaniment that was commissioned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation for
FESTAC 77
Festac '77, also known as the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (the first was in Dakar, 1966), was a major international festival held in Lagos, Nigeria, from 15 January 1977 to 12 February 1977. The month-long event ce ...
.
Writings
*''Ibibio Music in Nigerian Culture'', Michigan State University Press, 1975.
*''Introduction to African Music'', Oxford University Press, 1978.
*''Foundation of Nigerian Traditional Music'', Ibadan: Spectrum Books. 1986.
*''Form, Function, and Style in African Music'', Macmillan Nigeria, 1998.
References
Sources
*Bode Omojola (1995) ''Nigerian Art Music''. Institut français de recherche en Afrique, IFRA
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Akpabot, Samuel
1932 births
2000 deaths
Nigerian composers
20th-century Nigerian musicians
Baptist Academy alumni
King's College, Lagos alumni
Nigerian expatriate academics in the United States
Michigan State University alumni
People from Akwa Ibom State
Alumni of the Royal College of Music
Academic staff of the University of Nigeria
University of Chicago alumni
Academic staff of Obafemi Awolowo University