Published Article

                                                                                                                      ABSTRACT

Since Nigeria's independence in 1960, the music education model in Nigeria and many parts of Africa has been promoted as bi-musical, dominated by Western and African music elements. The same model has characterised the curriculum contents and the actual teaching and learning of music. In the recent period, many scholars have proposed that the main aim of African musicology should be to balance the curriculum contents and interpret the same in the classroom practices at least within the reality of the (Nigerian) society. The question is, is it possible to achieve a balance between Western music theory and its African counterpart? Will a balance in the curriculum address the cultural and social deficiencies of the educational system? While focusing on these questions, this paper examines bi-musicality in the Nigerian music curriculum and music systems. Its analytical turn adopts Nativism as a postcolonial mode of reorientation as a framework to raise concerns regarding decoloniality in music education in Nigeria, especially the need to reconnect with indigenous traditions. Despite the fluidity of decolonising creativity and culture in Nigeria vis-à-vis globalisation and modernisation, we propose reviving some essential musical and cultural traditions that are facing extinction and adopting them into the music education curriculum.

KEYWORDS: Decolonisation, Music Education, Nigeria, Bi-Musicality, Cultural Identity.