Oralizing Global Pandemics: The Case of Selected Covid-19 Responsive Topical Songs from Africa

Abstract

The functional nature of Africa’s orality has always been manifest in its potency of serving specific needs of the society in which it originates. It is on this premise that this paper seeks to appraise oral artists’ commitment in addressing emerging issues in the society through topical songs. In the main, this paper aims at (re) valuing the effectiveness of oralizing global pandemics such as Covid-19 in selected topical songs from Africa. The paper attempts to assess the place of Covid-19 responsive topical songs in combating the pandemic, analyze their artistic constitution and lastly, evaluate the role of technology in aiding their composition and dissemination. This research is majorly guided by functionalism and psychoanalytical criticism as well as qualitative research design. The analysis of selected songs from across Africa reveals that topical Covid-19 songs played a significant role in combating and complementing measures aimed at fighting the pandemic. The analysis also reveals that effective repertoires were employed in the composition of the songs. Finally, the analysis exposes the key role (s) played by technology in shaping and aiding the composition and dissemination of the songs