On a call with Mubo as the kids journey back from Uluuton, that sanguineous hard lipping voicing of Mama Comfort Omoge singing “mo dele Alaro o ni Oke Egba…” is being blasted by the driver; sweet memories of the many stages I saw her singing and the few times I met her while she came seeing her grandkids at Iye Ope’s, serenades through.
Some of us have done badly writing about Ikale and the entire Ondo South. Especially given how its rich culture and discipline has taken us to the hills of global intellectual pugilism. I salute brains like Akingbulu Olakunle who wrote an amazing piece on Iwo Festival. We will need him to turn those beautiful sentences into a book someday.
Ikale Culture is embedded in its music. Unlike Ilaje music which is defined by the Zion Church tradition majorly, Ikale music is distinct as it is purely cultural and social which has helped to produce more globally respected icons. While Ilaje music has a higher and more vocal sound base, it’s rootedness in the religious themes bellies its sociopath.
Ikale music also explore unisexual and anti-partriachal depth which is quite rooted in its categorization of masquerades into gender sensitivity where you find Janduku; Oya; Okomale; Iyemale; Obodo; Ogonikoko; and of course Okooro. This gender sensitivity is also deep in Ikale music with the characteristics of Biripo and Asiko.
Asiko has become the most researched and known musical genre in Ikale all because of the great exploits of Comfort Omoge!
But we have not written well about her. We will need to do deeper compassing into the ingredients she cooked together to produce great classics that stole the heart of the world. She became the first female musician to do a global musical tour and is placed on the same pedestal with greats like Fela, King Sunny Ade, Ebenezer Obey and the likes.
What Comfort Omoge has done to Ikale Music through Asiko, is as great as what Crosdale Juba has done with Ikale Highlife. It’s a great feeling that these heroes continue to get playing times in the global musical spaces. What is needed is more pens to engrave them into history and global musical archives.
And with this prenote, we will have to bring to more life the works of our legends and how much they have helped to shape our cultures, social and even political life!
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