Owó Epo -By Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde

There is this song that has invaded the Nigerian social media space recently. I have never personally listened to the song for the purpose of knowing it however I know the song given the frequency of its barrage in my face.

The chorus of the song is paraphrased below:

“Owó epo, owó epo, àwon alábòsí owó epo, èròpé àmòyín, a ò mòyín”. I am a voracious consumer of music content, I did not start today, it has been a life long passion I have immersed myself into over two decades.

I consumed music from an academic point as over a decade it has been a consistent immersion into discographies, lyrical depths, consistency of music acts, tonality of musicians, literatures of musicians etc and their music. I have a library of music literatures that has shaped my perspective on music over the years. This study of mine permeates all genre of music, hence I have the same aptitude for your mordernist pop, soul or Afro pop as I have for Àpàlà, Fuji or Juju. In addition to this is the fact that I am a drummer of like two decades who has played to several contents, created several melodic foundations for different occasions.

Given this background of mine I can tell you categorically that the song above “owó epo” is not song or not a song that should have been this viral. The song is not unique, the song writing ain’t top notch, the melodic phrases are still very usual, and all in all it’s still thematic of your Nigerian music contents; women, money and hubris. So why did “owo epo” went viral? It’s simple and I will explain the cultural context of the popularity of the song. For those who do not understand Yoruba the song and singer are simply dissing those who have dissed the singer in the past by not rising to render help when the singer needed it, but now the singer is so rich or don blow to put in Nigerian pop speak and those who once forbid him are in drove search to lick of his abundance and oily fingers. That is the summary of “owó epo”.

“Owó epo” is a compound word that was curled from the Yoruba Maxim “owó epo layé n báni lá wòn kín lá ti èjè”. Crudely interpreted as “the world is only interested in licking your oily fingers not the ones stained in blood”. So why did “owo epo” went viral? There is a cultural context to this which is the fact that the song naturally appeals to our nature of grandeur and life’s happy ending mindsets. Who are the supposed detractors of the singer? Is it me or you? No! If anyone would have thought evil of him it would be members of his circle; his family and friends. So why not address your private matter with your detractors in the private?, Why bring it to us like it’s our corpse? Many bought into the song theme given Africa’s ritual history and demonization of African deities as perverse and paganist in the wake of the wave of Pentecostalism, we have been taught to see our our inability or sluggishness in breaking through as the works of certain principalities and powers. When things become better for us we go to church to give testimonies to shame our perceived enemies. The other part that aligns to us is the happy ending part which summarises our culture of dissing the present or retailing the suffering of the past in retrospect and seeing it as a springboard for tomorrow’s success. Hence when that success comes you are always under pressure to town cry about how bad the past was to shame those who did not stand by you in your anguished past.

My question is: “are the travails of the past necessarily a justification and guarantee for the greatness of the future?”

You all know the answer is not in the affirmative. However you are busy chasing non existent enemies who want to lick your oily hand. We have been constructed to have an entitled spirit that compulsory the expression and extension of benevolence to us and once the custodian of benevolence fails to render the needed help they become our arch enemies and from that day you embalm them in the mortuary of your heart endlessly seeking your own wealth in order to rub it in their face and when you do, you begin your own chorus or version of “owó epo”. “owó epo kó owó òróró ni!

Kehinde Oluwatosin Babatunde is a prolific writer and speaker.

Email: kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com