Christy Agbodeka

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Christy Agbodeka (Summer 2010) Photo (c) Courtney Flett

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.


Interview by Courtney Flett, Summer 2010
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