A Study of Selected Esan Folksongs and Proverbs in Nigeria as a Lead into Their Spirituality

No doubt, African indigenous knowledge (AIK) is an umbrella body which accommodates African literary creativity, philosophy, history, politics, music, religion, fine arts and science. In the same sequence, while proverbs are known to be wrapped up in and are spoken of in deep language, music remains a conduit through which by repetitive listening a lot of people are able to grasp their meanings. Among the Esan, Edo State of Nigeria, interlacing singing with apt proverbs is seen as good singing. This mutual coexistence between singing and telling proverbs often creates a singing style which is akin to recitatives. In this paper, we discussed selected song texts and proverbs which boarder on the people’s view about God and godliness. In eliciting data for this study, a random sound check of traditional songs and proverbs was done and apt data were sieved from the pool for this study. There is an avalanche of proverbs in Esan traditional society which are connected with diverse issues in their cosmology. In this study, the authors treat certain proverbs which are products of indigenous knowledge and examine their didactic essences in contemporary parlance. To extract data for this study, a mixture of research methods was used which included library search for relevant literature, interaction with the locals, use of interlocutors and interviews within the five local government areas which make up the province. It is reasoned that this work will be a contribution to the growing body of research relating to African indigenous knowledge (AIK) in the education of humanity and that it has much to impact on our society than we yet know.