ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the music of Victor Olaiya, one of Nigeria's pioneers of highlife music. The growth of modern popular music in Nigeria is closely tied to the political history of the country as shaped notably by British colonialism. A good number of Olaiya's songs are performed in indigenous Nigerian languages, with his native Yoruba language dominating. The easy passage of Olaiya's music attests to its relative detachment from oppositional politics. However, was a political legacy that united Ghana and Nigeria, and without which highlife music could not have attained its unique identity in West Africa. Musical performances represent an important cultural matrix for nostalgic discourses. The single Yoruba talking drum of the band is used in a rather restrained manner, as an echo—a nostalgic sampling of its more traditional role, punctuating occasionally and without the conventional support of other members of the dundun ensemble.
