Difference between revisions of "Christy Agbodeka"
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'''Name:''' Enyonant (Christy) Agbodeka<br> | '''Name:''' Enyonant (Christy) Agbodeka<br> | ||
'''Gender:''' Female<br> | '''Gender:''' Female<br> |
Revision as of 16:35, 19 September 2010
Name: Enyonant (Christy) Agbodeka
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Birthplace: Dagbamete
Place of Residence: Dagbamete
Occupation: Student, Level 3 JSS (Junior Secondary School)
COURTNEY: How are you involved with music?
CHRISTY: In music?
COURTNEY: Yes. How does music affect you?
CHRISTY: Affect me?
COURTNEY: Yes.
CHRISTY: Music sometimes, when I’m in, like, I’m not feeling so well, and some of the colleagues are also playing music, I hate it. Because, the time I’m supposed to enjoy music, eh. It is not that time, so unfortunately. For example, I’m hungry and you are playing music, I hate it. But the time I’m here, I’m not, me I’m not hungry. And I get food to eat. Me, I like music. Sometimes, I also make myself to involve dance culture.
COURTNEY: Involve dance culture?
CHRISTY: Yeah, so in school eh, we do some, so many kinds of music. Akpele [spelling?], Kpalogo…
COURTNEY: In school?
CHRISTY: Yes, Kpalogo, Mbobo [spelling?], the one you are playing…
COURTNEY: Gahu?
CHRISTY: Gahu, we also play the rhythm. Atchipu [spelling?]. So, kpalogo is different from atchipu. Atchipu, they are going to dance like this. And the way you dance it [Indecipherable words, something about the only difference]. But, the Gahu, you are going to shake your body. Like the way you are doing it. So dancing, dance, there is no difference between…we have some. We have two type of culture, the local one and then the…The local one is the one you perform in your community, but the official one is the one the musicians have been doing.
COURTNEY: The musicians have been doing?
CHRISTY: The one you brought it here, is the, they’re the musicians.
COURTNEY: Oh, from our country?
CHRISTY: Yeah. But the one that we are doing, I will call if different from that. That one, we are going to use a drummer to play. So drummer, unfortunately, if you don’t have a drummer and you want to play that one, but if you have that with the same one, and you want to, you want to do, like eh, to practice it you drummer. But if you have the players you can practice it. But, em, maybe two weeks after, if I came to it, we have some fanfare in our school at [name of Junior High School indecipherable]
COURTNEY: You have what?
CHRISTY: Fanfare.
COURTNEY: Fanfare.
CHRISTY: You know that?
COURTNEY: Is that with trumpets and um…
CHRISTY: They brought some, some kind of tunes, but…
COURTNEY: Some kind of tunes?
CHRISTY: Yes. They brought some, so we are doing ohsubababeeway [spelling?]. You know that one?
COURTNEY: I don’t know that one.
CHRISTY: Ohh, that song my brother has it on their phone.
COURTNEY: Yeah, they have it on their phone?
CHRISTY: Ohsubababeeway, and they have been playing the drums too. But that’s what the musician has been doing. So the drumming, our boys, our boys are in the school. So they play the drums and we also dance.
COURTNEY: The boys play the drums and the girls dance?
CHRISTY: Mm hmm. But that’s the, the song we have been doing, they composed by the musician.
COURTNEY: Okay.
CHRISTY: You do not use the local one.
COURTNEY: You don’t use local ones?
CHRISTY: Because the local ones, em [click sound]. As for drumming, the boys have been doing it. Like, if you are, like we are in the schooling, come I will take you there.
COURTNEY: To the school?
CHRISTY: Yeah, but you are here so I don’t have any time to take you there.
COURTNEY: Can the girls drum too? Do girls drum?
CHRISTY: Me?
COURTNEY: Any girls. Do girls drum or just boys?
CHRISTY: I didn’t hear that.
COURTNEY: Do girls drum?
CHRISTY: Yeah.
COURTNEY: Yes, girls drum too? Girls and boys?
CHRISTY: Yeah. Like, but the one you are saying here is even for girls.
COURTNEY: From the Gahu?
CHRISTY: Yes. The one me I’m saying. As for the Gahu, it’s the local one. But we, the one we are doing is the musicians. The musicians have been doing it. Even if I, me I don’t know the song well. But, like, maybe I am in the group.
COURTNEY: In the group?
CHRISTY: Yes. I can even sing it. But me alone, eh…
COURTNEY: It’s harder?
CHRISTY: Oh, me, I don’t really. If I’m like, me I feel lonely, eh, I do not stand up in song.
COURTNEY: You don’t stand up in song when you’re alone.
CHRISTY: No.
COURTNEY: Is music important to you?
CHRISTY: Oh, music is very important to me. Like, if I complete JSS, JSS final, and I stay in the house for three, eh, six months.
COURTNEY: When you complete what?
CHRISTY: JSS. You have to stay in the house for six months.
COURTNEY: After you complete which?
CHRISTY: JSS. After I complete JSS.
COURTNEY: I don’t know what that is [couldn’t understand fully what she was saying because of trouble deciphering the accent when she said the letters].
CHRISTY: I see, after I complete the JSS 3.
COURTNEY: Oh, JSS. Junior Secondary School.
CHRISTY: Yes.
COURTNEY: Then you stay in the house for six months?
CHRISTY: Six months before, but six months, like I get some schooling. I can also be there anytime. I should [correct word?] teach those people how to dance and how to…
COURTNEY: Oh you teach them how to dance?
CHRISTY: Yes, but now I’m not, I’m not interested into [Indecipherable word]. So I’m, my mind is serious to learn.
COURTNEY: Your main reason is to learn.
CHRISTY: Serious to learn. Me I have a good performance in school. But, the only thing I don’t have. My, both of my parents are like [Indecipherable]. But the money they are going to use is very, very difficult. So, if I give you my report card, me I even perform well. I have it in the room.
COURTNEY: Good. What music do you learn in school?
CHRISTY: Um, we like the distant [correct word?]. I’ve forgotten the name of the tune.
COURTNEY: Traditional music?
CHRISTY: No, the Christian one.
COURTNEY: Christian ones?
CHRISTY: Christian. Because that place, I’m in a Catholic school.
COURTNEY: You’re in a Catholic school? Oh, okay.
CHRISTY: So, we don’t have the traditional [Indecipherable word], but me I’m a traditional. But, they don’t know that me, I’m a traditional.
COURTNEY: Oh, okay.
CHRISTY: They don’t even know me, I am here from this village.
COURTNEY: Oh. So do you think this village is traditional?
CHRISTY: Yeah, but me, I’m also among them.
COURTNEY: You’re among them.
CHRISTY: So you, you have to come and join us.
[Discussion regarding current school closure, due to break in August]
COURTNEY: Has music changed from when you were little to now? Is it different here?
CHRISTY: Different? Yes, it different.
COURTNEY: How so?
CHRISTY: Because festivals [correct word] that are here, their music is different from when they are playing in the Shrine.
COURTNEY: So, her music is different in the Shrine?
CHRISTY: Because the music they have been playing, they’ll use maybe ten cloth.
COURTNEY: Ten cloth?
CHRISTY: Like, do you see this [road, rope, or robe] there? They will come at the [road, rope or robe] with their cloth, and they will tie it in their breast.
COURTNEY: Oh, okay.
CHRISTY: But, you have to wear a knicker. When they are dancing, the way the cloth has been doing, it will be very nice to use.
COURTNEY: So, has music changed at all?
CHRISTY: Yes, music has changed.
[Distracted by interruption. Decided to stop the interview here.]
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I first met Christy Agbodeka when I decided to explore the village one afternoon after the first of our daily drum lessons. Christy lives with her mother, father, stepmother and siblings just a few steps from the Lodge in which we were staying, so I hadn't wandered very far before we crossed paths. Christy was sitting beside a large tree just outside her house, rinsing tomatoes in bowl of water. Her mother sat close by sorting through some of the dried fish that they had brought back from the market, getting it ready to sell, or perhaps trade, to people in neighboring villages. Christy's mother, Comfort, spoke no English and I no Ewe, so I was unable to determine exactly what it was that she was doing. However, Christy was more than happy to have me sit down and join her as she worked on cooking the family's meal for supper. We sat across from each other and I watched, as Christy explained what she was doing. I helped to grind up some of the tomatoes, but for the most part, Christy enjoyed being the chef and I enjoyed my role as a culinary student observer. I stayed for almost an hour as the meal was prepared, and in this time I feel as though I only got a small glimpse into the life of this young girl. I knew that I wanted to learn more.
Christy was more than willing to sit down with me for an interview, and in fact, I would even describe her as excited about it. I was interested to see what thoughts a sixteen year old girl would have on the music in Dagbamete. I started by asking her how music affected her. Her response showed a dichotomous relationship with music. Though she likes music, there are times - when she's not feeling well or when she is hungry for example - that she hears it and hates it. Christy also identified two types of musical cultures, "the local one is the one you perform in your community, but the official one is the one the musicians have been doing." Confused by this, I questioned what she meant by the official one that musicians have been doing, and realized that what Christy was referring to is music that was brought in from Western cultures. Obviously, this music is not the same as the traditional music found within the village. Christy identifies the main difference being that for the traditional music, "you are going to use a drummer to play." In addition, Christy told me that music in the village is used in festivals, and that different music is used in shrines. I had previously interviewed Christy's father Super Agbodeka, who also mentioned the idea of music being used in festivals. It is evident that there are certain areas of Ewe culture where music is essential.
In contrast to in the village, in schools traditional music plays a lesser role. Christy is currently in her third year of Junior Secondary School and she says that she has "a good performance in school," but money for schooling is hard to come by. The first type of music that Christy mentioned from her school was fanfare. Though drums are also played, the music learned comes from "the musicians." By this, Christy was again referring to music from Western culture. I asked Christy more specifically what kind of music she learns in school, and her response was "Christian…I'm in a Catholic school…So, we don't have the traditional." It was interesting to me that Christy made a point of saying that the people at her school don't know that she's traditional. They don't know that she is "here from this village." When I asked her if she thought the village was traditional, her response was, "yeah, but me, I'm also among them." Christy identified different styles of traditional music and dance that she takes part in, mentioning: Kpalogo, Gahu, and several others for which I am not sure of their Ewe spellings. After only just beginning to learn how to do some of these dance, I can certainly understand why she would want to take part in them!
Interview by Courtney Flett, Summer 2010
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