SWEET MOTHER BY PRINCE NICO MBAGA

-

SWEET MOTHER BY PRINCE NICO MBAGA
ANALYSIS BY EGURIASE S.M. OKAKA
In the early 1980s Prince Nico Mbaga a high life singer from equatorial Guinea stormed the Nigeria music scene with a thought provoking album track titled “SWEET MOTHER.” I was in my tens when I first heard this song from this great singer. This music was a bomb which exploded and unfolded the importance of motherhood to the world.
Nico Mbaga narrated the story of motherhood and stylishly shows us the sufferings which mothers go though when rearing their children. His narration also gave hope to the would-be mothers. This is one of the best of Africa music that told the story of a complete Africa mother.  Indeed, this is one story told in the language that all can relate with that is, the pigin English.
            Nico seized the opportunity to tell the world of his experience and sufferings his mother went through in bring him up. We can understand that he first tasted and drunk from the cup of water before giving us to drink. From this story we learn that Africa fathers most times stopped their work at conception or at where they impregnate their wives and leave her to continue from there. It is the woman who holds the responsibility of taking care of the child before and after birth. This is not too good though, what should we do? Well the simple answer is to change that fact.
What endears people to his style of music is the effective use of percussion instruments to send his message across to his audiences. He uses sounds and his powerful vocalization in a stylistic manner that drives home his point. This gave him an edge over other high life musicians of his time. Nico Mbaga was a household name in the high life music industry.
His music passes an important message to the world through it themes: Mother is supreme, you cannot get another mother like your mother so respect her, our mothers are special. These are many other themes you can find in the song “Sweet Mother”.
The song also bring hope to mothers when he advised that they should stop crying on account of their children that there is hope for them, that there is this statement which is true in all spheres of life: that the child they suffer to bring up today will in turn bring them hope tomorrow. That is to say that, “one good turn deserves another.”
His song is true of us because we have mothers and we can testify that what he said of mothers is the truth and nothing but the truth. There are bad mothers of course, in this case they learn to be true because no mother wants to be tagged as such.
The song is good! The lines are good! The rhythm is good too! Great lyrics!

By:
Eguriase S. M. Okaka

Comments

Post a Comment

Efua Sutherland: The Marriage of Anansewa,The Wedlock of the gods By Zulu Sofola, The gods Are Not

The Song of the Women of My Land By Oumar Farouk Sesay

-
Image
    “The Song of the Women of My Land”   -Oumar Farouk Sesay         Like a sculptor  chipping away at bits of wood     Time chisels away bits of their memory       It strips away Lyrics  of the song of the women of my land     Leaving only a fading tune echoing the song         They sang in the forlorn fields     About their lives; songs     Of how they ploughed the terrain of their  minds-cape     For memories of Lyrics  lost in the vast void of time     In those days when a song beheld their lives:     When servitude cuffed the ankles of their souls,     And dereliction decapitated the epic of their lives.       With a song, they sponged off their anguish,     To behold their collective p...
Read more

Raider of the Treasure Trove By Lade Worsonu

-
Image
    “Raider of the Treasure Trove”   -         Lade Worsonu   But what can be worthy of your life? What dearest than the gems of your dreams, The reason you are here? Always strive To fly flags of joy, and sail up streams Powered by the breeze of love, your course Chartered in the ink of compassion And, fling roses wherever you pause Heaven-on-earth your destination   Of things which blot out that brief Or breach your sails with arrows unseen; No! Rob you of your life, rage is Chief Rage drags rags after you.   Of charity Laughter, sweetness and light, rage is thief Enemy of equanimity, Rage spreads toxic fumes on every scene In essence, rage spells calamity.   It’s sole cause? Your perception of storms Breaking around not upon, your head. There are neither snakes deviants, nor norms: As you think, so you feel.   Watch your mind. Rage sets sail.   Can ruin lag ...
Read more

Let Me Die Alone By John K. Kargbo (Thematic Preoccupation)

-
Image
  THEMES (Thematic Preoccupation)     Inordinate ambition and desire to govern                This theme of inordinate ambition and desire to govern is evident in the play. Madam Yoko for instance, cannot be said to be excessively ambitious but she holds on to the vow Gbanya made towards her to relinquish power to her a long time ago, that upon his death the chiefdom hill is passed into her hands.  Gbanya insists because if Senehun is to survive a man must lead her not a woman.  Yoko who knows what it means to be in power, and knows what she wants, refuses to be bribed with all the cattle Gbanya offers to compensate her with. Also, the theme of coordinated ambition can be traceable to the characters of Lamboi, Yoko’s brother, and Musa, the beer and medicine man.  Lamboi hashes a plot to eliminate Gbanya and succeed him for fear of Yoko.  “I fear that woman.  Yoko, if he lives longer...
Read more