Ebenezer Obey
By Bayo Adeyinka
I love Ebenezer Obey.
My father introduced me to his music. I still remember those mornings when he played his ‘record’- that black shining round vinyl on our turntable with the spindle at home. A song by Ebenezer Obey will start your day right.
I believe he’s the greatest Yoruba musician living or dead. In my world, none compares to him. His lyrics, the depth of his songs, his story-telling, the melody, his combination of the use of rhythm guitar, talking drums and bata, the idioms and moral values he espouses, the praise-singing and the contemporary nature of his music set him apart and beyond any Yoruba musician who sings in their native tongue.
No one praise-sings like Ebenezer Obey- just listen to his album on Alhaji Azeez Arisekola in 1978 where he called him ‘Oyinbo Oni-Datsun’, referring to when the late business mogul was a major distributor of the Datsun brand (my mother had a Datsun 120Y model in the 80s) or the album on Fatai Irawo, Chief Akin Olugbade, Alhaji Agboola Alausa in 1978, Kolawole Olokodana in 1977, Victor Odofin in 1975, Bisoye Tejuosho, Babs Animashaun in 1972, Eleganza Okoya in 1973, Chief MKO Abiola in 1974 and 1977 and many others.
I love the one on Bisoye Tejuosho. It’s a beautiful piece of music. Ebenezer Obey sang the footballer, Segun Odegbami into national prominence with his ‘It is a goal Odegbami’ song in 1979 . His song dedicated to the World Golden Eaglets in 1985 is so nostagic as that achievement was a national pride. All the praise-singers nowadays are ‘learning work’. There is almost no content to their praise-singing beyond the hype.
Listening to Obey’s tribute albums will make you long to live a fulfilled life. Listening to some of his tributes will bring a new perspective about life and death. Just take a listen to his song on Oke Aminu in 1973, his tribute to Obafemi Awolowo on his 1985 album aptly titled Immortality and many others. The tribute to Oke Aminu rings differently because it was an ode to a loyal and dedicated band member who passed on. Obey called him ‘Olohun Iyo Oke Aminu’- the one with the sweet voice. What a tribute that was!
More than all these is his ability to discuss national issues through his songs and create an awareness or publicity that even the government struggles to do. I bought a full compilation of all his albums a few months ago and it has been my companion almost everyday as I switch from one album to the other. Ebenezer Obey sang about almost everything. His song about the introduction of the Naira and Kobo in his 1972 album would have helped in no small measure to disseminate the information about the new currency and helped the populace to transit between the old pounds system to the new one.
Early this morning, I was listening to Obey’s song ‘Awon Alhaji’ released in 1971 where he sang about the new Alhajis who just arrived from their pilgrimage to Mecca. The album was to celebrate the ‘Ileya’ (Sallah) Festival of that year. What aroused my curiosity however and which formed the crux of this article was his mention of how some intending pilgrims could not make the trip after making payments because of the outbreak of cholera. He ended the 4 minutes and 27 seconds song by repeating, ‘Mo na owo mi soke, cholera ma ma mu mi’ (my hands are lifted, cholera please don’t afflict me) as he reeled off the symptoms.
Cholera outbreak in 1971 and now in 2024! Both around Ileya. The more things change, the more they remain the same. While the first instinct is to start lamentations about how we haven’t moved forward as a nation if we still have outbreak of cholera 53 years after Obey’s song (I wasn’t even born then when Obey released the album), my real motive of this article is for us to do a deeper dive and interrogate statistics and history a bit more to see if there is a relationship between activities around this period that can stimulate or encourage cholera outbreak.
Could it be increased animal migration during that period as we see rams, cows and goats at different places kept in very unhygienic environments? I passed through Alalubosa GRA in Ibadan a few days ago and the road beside Alesinloye market towards Jericho was a mess with ram sellers everywhere. Same for Long Bridge and Kara market in Lagos. Or is it the advent of rainfall and sporadic floods around this period?
I think if we interrogate our history a bit more with the help of data, we may be able to predict behaviours and possibly nip such outbreaks in the bud in the future.
Let me continue to enjoy my Ebenezer Obey.
Bayo Adeyinka, banker, writer and public affairs analyst, writes from Lagos
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