Special Feature: King Pereama Freetown's Metamorphosis_By Ekanpou Enewaridideke
King Pereama Freetown is an exceptionally talented musician from Ayamasa and Kpakiama in Bayelsa and Delta States. He has just witnessed metamorphosis in two levels of life. This atavistic metamorphosis, which features in his recent songs, has musically situated him above others in instrumentation, vocalisation and penetrating themes.
Few years after King Pereama broke away from King Robert Ebizimor then as Grandmaster, his songs receive a mixed 'listenership' and analysis in the hands of music fans and critics. Thematically, his songs divide the music fans and critics into two formations – young boys and old men. In this period, the songs of Pereama find their way into the world of the young people. To the old folks, his songs are instrumentally and thematically targeted to worsen the already existing decadence in the society. Therefore, to the old folks, King Pereama Freetown is an artiste that sings to entertain the young and the world in a negative way. However, his recent song which will be analysed later, shows a significant departure from the territory the old folks musically place King Pereama Freetown.
King Pereama Freetown's progressive metamorphosis can be seen from his recent release of October, 2002. The recent composition, which is well received in every part of the marginalised Ijaw nationality, embodies the atavistic metamorphosis in its entirety. His recent song is a flourish of poetry, prose and philosophy beautifully blended into a meaningful whole that has a thematic universal relevance. The natural poetry the Ijaws, according to Professor JP Clark, have long been associated with, which he reveals in his various interviews, is brought into King Freetown's song in its sublime freshness and evocativeness. This is an epoch-making break with his former derogatory categorisation.
King Freetown's latest song released in October 2002 does not strike one as a musical piece but more as a prose work that employs artistically the power of poetry and drama to achieve a purpose. There are novels in which the writer draws on the techniques of poetry and drama to assert a purposive moral whole. King Pereama Freetown's song parallels this literary phenomenon.
The elements of poetry and drama artistically infused into the song confront one with their freshness and evocativeness as soon as the song begins. King Freetown's latest release entitled: 'OYAKEMEDEREKUMOR' (linguistic equivalent: don’t mock a poor man), begins dramatically with a captivating beat or rhythm: the rhythm lasts for sometime followed by the chorus which celebrates poetry. Cast in its pure transliterative sense, the chorus goes thus:
'Teeth-white people, don’t ridicule
The poor people
We are brought together
Here by God
The poor work everyday
And both the poor and the rich are fed
They toil everyday to feed us
If stung they go on one-month strike,
We shall suffer.
Both the poor and the rich
Shall remain hunger-stricken'
The chorus embodies the theme of the song as it occurs after every vocalisation to the end. The world is created in such a way that the poor and the rich are inextricably linked. They cannot be separated from each other. The poor and the rich complement each other as there is an inseparable interdependence between the two. Because of this he maintains that the rich should not mock the poor and claim superiority because such posture negates the natural societal symmetry associated with creation approved of by God.
Having artistically cast the chorus in prefiguration of the theme of the song in his vocalisation, he emphasises the interdependence between the poor and the rich in a way devoid of usual extraneous details. However, before he beams light on instances of inseparability between the two, he musically pays tribute to King Robert Ebizimor, the music legend that shaped his talent. This tribute is poetically cast thus:
'King Robert Ebizimor gave me
The music box
A fish that walks with BRAN catfish
Remains redolent of BRAN catfish
So here I stand'
In the song King Pereama Freetown is totally preoccupied with a passion to debunk the claim that the poor are disposable elements on earth because the rich lose their relevance without the existence of the poor. King Freetown philosophically maintains that a rich man can buy a car of one million naira but it is from the poor that he buys the fuel. Back from work after closing, the rich will have to eat as of necessity but it is from the poor their wives buy fish and other things for consumption. Though blind to whether he will be in the music field forever or not through a change of vocation.King Pereama Freetown is convinced that the rich and the poor are brothers and should live like brothers. In a blend of poetry and philosophy he says thus:
'The rich and the poor are brothers
Fused into one by God…
Uphold the symmetry
Listen you dancers;
Respect the artistes!
Artistes! Respect dancers.
Landlord! Respect tenants.
You tenants! Respect landlords.'
With a moving instrumental accompaniment the song progreses 'Pereamatically'.As the side entitled OYAKEMEDEREKUMOR moves progressively but artistically to the end, King Pereama Freetown changes the beat. In line with the artistic syncopation, he changes his appeal too and calls on some of his friends to propagate his message of the need for the rich and the poor to embrace mutual respect for a more progressive life on earth. This appeal is philosophically cast in a poetic way.
'For a very long time I have wept
I have come to the end of my weeping.
Come and weep with me,Johnson.
Come and weep with me, Monwarin Akpi.
Come and weep with me, Egbomotoru.
Time I stopped my weeping.'
The second part of King Pereama Freetown's song is entitled 'LOVELY MUMMY'. This part expresses sorrow over the death of the mother of Mrs. Biboere Manager named Comfort. It narrates the circumstances surrounding the death of the mother of Mrs. Biboere Manager. A brief biography of the woman is given coupled with the impact of her death on the family. The poetry, prose and philosophy associated with the above part also feature here.
'LOVELY MUMMY' begins with a beat that is neither too fast nor too slow followed by a proverbially cast dramatic appeal that when tragedy strikes, it is only the affected that feel the pain. This dramatic rendition is followed immediately by the chorus which is cast in its transliterative sense thus:
'Comfort is dead!
Her children are weeping.
They refuse to be comforted
Because comfort their mother is dead.
Comfort is dead!
The children are weeping
Calling their mother.
Comfort has gone to Dueamabou.
Chilled to the marrow, Biboere
Is calling on her mother:
Mother, I am filled with cold
Because you are dead'.
Having employed the chorus in a poetic, philosophical and dramatic mould, he embraces prose in the vocalisation. King Pereama Freetown maintains that death strikes in different ways: one can die sleeping; one can miss steps, fall and die, one can die in the forest working and one can equally die through road accident. Whichever way death comes, according to King Freetown, the responses are always those of sorrow, sadness, anger, despondence, disillusionment and disenchantment. Comfort, Biboere’s mother, according to King Freetown, dies of headache that moves progressively to its terminal point.
Comfort, the mother of the wife of Senator J.E.Manager, indigenous to Ogriagbene in Bomadi Local Government Area by marriage, was a canoe merchant before her death. With her canoe-selling business she was able to care for her family sufficiently. On the fateful day highlighted in the song, Mama Comfort was on her way to market but she was struck by a headache at the waterside. She took some drugs but the situation got worsened. She was rushed to Ezegbene and Aghoro Zion but without a corresponding progress and respite from the headache. From Aghoro she was taken to Warri for appropriate clinical attention. However, the medical crew in the hospital could not save her and so she moved progressively towards the grave. In her death throes in the hospital Comfort said thus:
'Oh! Lord don’t allow me
To die this way.
My children are still young,their tender
Feet too tender to tread alone.
Hunger will strike them to death.
So Lord, don’t allow me to
Die this way.
Oh! Biboere my caring daughter,
Weep not;
Screw up courage,
Care for my children left behind'.
Despite this impassioned appeal, Comfort’s death coincided with her last poetic line. Over the corpse Biboere and Joseph (her sibling) began to wail. Because wailing could not solve any problems, the children mustered courage and took her to Aghoro for burial.
The full flush of King Pereama Freetown's poetry can be seen towards the end of the music when he changes the beat. This time, the whole piece embodies philosophy and superstition beautifully blended. Artistically, King Freetown creates Biboere as a character, gives her words and allows her to speak in the mould of a dramatic monologue:
'Comfort, my mother;
You were caring.
You nursed us
But now you languish in the grave
Leaving me cold and alone.
How are you in DUEAMABOU?
Are you comfortable there?
I would have sent you something
But there is no messenger here.
Caring mother, I wish You well
In the land of the dead
Until we meet and part no more.
Stay well, my mother!
Febugha, J. E. Manager’s uncle, is dead too.
Imprisoned in DUEAMABOU.
Caring mother, look for Febugha
In the land of the dead.
When you see him, tell him, we wish him well too.
Caring mother, also Greet Pereokubo
Too in the land of the dead'.
In a manner philosophical, poetic and dramatic,King Pereama Freetown waxes to the end of the song, impressively loaded with expressive images.
Clearly located and distilled from the analytical story above is the fact that King Pereama Freetown's appeal can be extended and interpreted in another way. The Niger Deltans have been marginalised by the Federal Government and the oil companies despite their mineral endowment. Despite the huge wealth from Niger Delta, the people are made to face humiliation, dehumanisation, exploitation, deprivation and improvishment in the hands of the various authorities. Federal government and the oil companies cannot exist without Niger Delta. Perhaps, confronted with the harsh realities that define the Niger Delta, King Freetown is uncomfortable. Therefore his appeal is to the various authorities to stop the dehumanisation of the Niger Deltans and integrate them into the mainstream of development in the country because there is interdependence between the two at different levels.The interdependence between the rich and the poor is not different from the interdependence that exists between Niger Deltans and the Federal Government of Nigeria/the oil companies.This interpretation only exists at the allegorical level which critically enjoys applicability here.
By:EKANPOU ENEWARIDIDEKE
Writes from Akparemogbene,Delta State.
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