 to introduce our speaker this evening, who is our Leventus fellow, Dr. Toyan Samuel Josie, who comes to us from the University of Ibadan, where he was previously Head of Department of the Department of Music. He holds a PhD in Ethnomusicology from Ibadan as well and will be speaking to us this evening. His title of his talk, Performance, Space and Spirituality, Music and Orioke Christianity in Nigeria. Our discussant this evening is Professor Marlis Janssen from the Department of Anthropology. Thank you very much Marlis for coming this evening and thank you very much to our audience, our interest in audience. We have a very large online audience, something like 50 something at our last count, but this number is increasing by the second. So what we don't have in person, we certainly have online. Thank you very much everybody for coming. Thank you very much, Samuel, and welcome again. We very much look forward to your talk. Good evening everyone. Let me start by putting forward our note of appreciation to age 11thies for finding us worthy of this fellowship. And to thank SOAS for providing a very conducive atmosphere to do research. I'd like to especially thank Marlis for her support and to members of staff at the Department of Music here at SOAS for their assistance. Thank you. Angelika, we thank you very much for everything you've done for us. Let me also appreciate those of you who are here in person and those of you joining us online. Thank you for finding time to attend this presentation. The title of my presentation is performance, space, and spirituality, music, and Uriuki Christianity in Nigeria. This presentation is actually part of, I mean, an aspect of my ongoing book project. I will be shared with you this evening. Let me give you, tell you a short story of why I got to the mountain myself. Sometimes my parents felt I should be married and the wife was not forthcoming. So they encouraged me to go to the mountain to go and pray. Probably I'll get a wife from the mountain. So I went, we spent a few days on the mountain, we're praying, we did a lot of prayer activities. So while at the mountain, I noticed that music was, you know, massively used on the prayer mountain. I said, if this is a prayer mountain, why music, why music? So we sing, we pray, we pray, we sing. So since then I've been interested in exploring the sonic species of prayer mountain, Uriuki, which I'll explain to you later. Well, it may interest you to know that even though I didn't come back with your wife, but I came back with your research idea. Right. So let me first put Uriuki in perspective. Uriuki means prayer mountain. It is three dimensional in its expression. One is a physical space. Helicites, you have mountain. So it's a physical space. Uri means top. Uriuki means mountain. Uriuki. As a conceived space, it implies entrance into an imaginary space of seclusion from the mundane through abstinence from certain everyday lifestyles such as food and sex in order to attain a particular height of spirituality. So you see, okay, gain height in that imaginative sense. So it is common for Christians in Nigeria, if you offer them drink, they will say, oh, thank you, I'm on the mountain, even though it's seated, the person seated in the office. As a live space, it involves the practice of visiting designated mountains for prayers. Adra means prayer in Yoruba, hence the concept of Uriuki Adra prayer mountain. Since the 1930s, leaders and members of African indigenous churches who are known as Aladra, the praying people in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa, have been consecrating and patronizing illicit in rural communities where they spend day and nights in prayers to attain spirituality and to obtain victory over enemies. In this study, Uriuki will refer to Ili sites where Christians go for prayers, because there are actually some Uriuki or prayer mountain that are not on Ili location, they are just on the plain. But in this case, I refer to Uriuki as Ili location and Uriuki Christianity in this study will mean religious practices as experienced or performed on Uriuki. This work engages and contributes to literature, conversation around ecological spirituality, sacred spaces, African spirituality, Nigerian and Yoruba Christianity, and ethnomusicology. The first studies I've examined, I've attempted to define sacred space, discuss its manifestations in local and global context. These studies have examined sacred, I mean the nuances and ambivalences of sacred spaces and I like its functions, its functions in different religious and social settings. Right from the work of Chidista and Linnantau in 1995, they see sacred space as a ritual site for formalized, repeated and symbolic performances and a significant place where people's questions are answered. This current study extends the conversation on sacred spaces by illuminating how Uriuki, which is an undisplored phenomenon in African sacred geographies, curates an energetic zone where people negotiate vitally necessary conditions in Africa and Nigeria in particular. There's a growing scholarly interest in prayer mountains and African-lived Christianity. Why these studies demonstrate how prayer mountains are shaped by indigenous worldviews and Christian teachings. The synergetic interactions between expressive modes of religion, specifically music and prayers in performing Uriuki spirituality has not been fully explored. Also, scholars have pointed out how sonic forms like music is undisplored in the academic study of religion because of the Western model of inquiry which privileges sites over sound in religion. And we know that religion, especially Christianity, is a religion of sight and sound. These scholars invite us to consider sonic perspectives improving religious spaces beyond the primary interest in religious sight of text, of reading and writing, for us to have a deeper understanding of sacred spaces in non-Western societies like Africa. This current study responds to these invitations by focusing on the sonic and performative spaces of religion in Africa and Nigeria in particular from an ethnomusicological viewpoint. The inextricable relationship between religion and music, especially Nigerian and Yoruba Christianity has been established. Eastern studies have interrogated issues around traditions and innovations, religious and social-added construction, and mediation in everyday music in a typical church setting. Despite the visibility and vibrancy of Uriuki, which is a distinct sacred site from conventional church space, not much is known about Uriuki music and how it offers us the means of understanding religion and its meaning in contemporary Africa. Therefore, this study seeks to answer the following questions. One, how does Uriuki ritual practices specifically prayers and music serve as both religious and artistic conduit for performing spirituality? Two, what is the symbolic relationship between prayers and music? And how are they used to heighten each other in Uriuki worship? And three, what does Uriuki sonic space mean for understanding the nexus between spirituality, environment, and well-being in Nigeria, in particular, and Africa in general? For this work, I gathered my data on a ethnographic conducted between 2017 and 2018. I told you my journey to the mountain has started far back before my research. This study was conducted in Osho State, and why the choice of Osho State? Osho State has the largest concentration of prayer mountains in the country. It is even reported there are over 200 patronized prayer mountains in Osho State. More importantly, it is an iconic location in the emergence and growth of indigenous Christianity since colonial Nigeria. I selected two well-patronized prayer mountains in Osho State, southwestern Nigeria, and these mountains are Uriuki in Ikui and Uriuki in Edebuth in Osho State. These mountains from my research have been established and patronized well over 80 years. I participated in various activities on the mountains, including small group prayer meetings and general meetings. For days and nights, I took part in musical performances on the mountain. I interviewed selected mountain prophets, prayer leaders, musicians, including singers and instrument players, as well as other participants who visited the mountain for prayers. In this study, I used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore my participant's worldview and personal experiences, why the music collected was subjected to structural and textual analysis. I explored spatial and economical theories as the interpretative and analytical tools for my study. Let me provide, give you an insight into the profile of Uriuki participants. Uriuki participants include men and women who are petty traders, artisans, professionals from different fields of human endeavor, from various Christian denominations, there are many denominations in Nigeria. And people also come to Uriuki from outside Nigeria. Some of my respondents are from America, from South Africa, from Ghana. Why some prayer mountains are gender specific, like the first, like Ikoi mountain that is Uriuki Ikoi, which is exclusively for men. And the prayer mountain I told you I went was, I mean is exclusively for men. Many of the prayer mountains allow men and women. In mixed settings, women and children constitute the larger population on the mountain. Also, church founders and leaders frequently visit the mountain for spiritual renewal to lead their congregation, like one of my respondents told me. I have been coming to Ikoi mountain for over 15 years, and I have been here for six days. I come here monthly. I visit this mountain so I can refresh my anointing before God. And it is a covenant between me and my God to come monthly to receive power and anointing that I will use at the valley. For the people I will come back to this idea of value later in my presentation. The leadership and administrative structures of Uriuki are to a large extent different from that of a regular church setting, even though some of these prayer mountains are attached to a particular denomination or church. The mode of worship in Uriuki is largely spontaneous, and music making is often based on a volunteer arrangement. Let us have an insight into Uriuki's sonic space. I want to be powerful. That's the last statement. I use music in this study for singing, dancing, drumming, because in African thoughts, music involves these activities. However, I will make specific reference to any of these during my presentation. In Uriuki music, in Uriuki, music and prayers make up the greater part of worship. These expressive forms of worship are largely participatory. You heard the preacher say raise up your hand. They are spontaneous. Usually unscripted, both prayers and songs on Uriuki are unscripted, they are spontaneous, and they are claimed to be divinely inspired, yet they draw from social, religious and cultural narratives. In Uriuki, prayers and music are highly functional, as they are both intentionally used by participants to potentiate each other. To comprehend Uriuki prayers is to listen to its music. In Uriuki, songs are transposed to prayers, prayers are modulated to songs. For Uriuki, to comprehend Uriuki prayers is to listen to its music. So, to comprehend people's spiritual and socioeconomic concerns is to pay close attention to what they pray and sing about. Cumans et al 2012 inform us that sacred sites mean something more. Uriuki means something more to people in Nigeria. For some, it is a solitude place away from urban distractions, because spiritual renewal, like you heard in one of my respondents, that is on the mountain, to renew is anointing. And for others, it is a place to attain power and victory over enemies, real or imaginary. For Uriuki participants, power from above is a currency needed to achieve this mode of being. Hence, the insistence quest for power is an overarching theme in Uriuki songs and prayers. In Uriuki theology, for an individual to enjoy spiritual and material awareness, such a person must fight and win to possess power. In one of the prayer meetings I attended, the prayer leader wanted us to pray to ask for fresh power. He asked us, how many of us have tasted fresh parwain or undiluted parwain? Some of us raised up our hand in the affirmative. And he explained to us how fresh parwain can be intoxicating. And he told us that the same way that fresh power can be intoxicating, when you receive this power from one eye, it will intoxicate you and it's very powerful. So he asked us to pray these following prayers. Meaning undiluted power, Lord granted unto me. In Yoruba, Ajabale means fresh and is suggestive of something raw, undiluted and sweet yet dangerous. For Uriuki Christians, this raw power takes up multiple minutes. As I have argued elsewhere, that Yoruba Pentacostas draw from their social cultural epistemology in performance spirituality. After a few minutes of praying that intense prayers with bodily movement, the Baba Uriuki, that is the founder or the lead prophet on the mountain, reminded participants about the benefit of possessing that raw power. To stimulate participants to pray fervently, he asked us to ask for power by singing. Power like fire, power like thunder, the power that supersists other power, power comes. The representation of fire, I mean the representation of power as fire, thunder, wind and other natural elements is pervasive in traditional Yoruba and Christian thoughts. In Christianity, these elements can weed transformational, creative and destructive powers at the same time. A case is the manifestation of wind and fire on the day of Pentacost, which was a transformative linguistic experience for the early church apostles, they spoke in Newton. The same fire was called by Elijah to destroy the sacrifice of prophets of bar on the mountain. Similarly, in Yoruba worldview, thunder, lightning, a violent and destructive phenomenon, and a link to chaotic worship of shongo, God of thunder, one of the most feared Odisha divinities in Yoruba land. Therefore, the quest for intangible power through tangible forms demonstrate the link between the indigenous Yoruba and Christian understanding of the political economy of power, immediating the spiritual and the material worlds. Need to wonder why people consider prayer mountains as the most suitable place for spiritual combat. In Orioke, participants are constantly reminded to be fears in prayers against known and unknown malicious forces. Through expressions such as kill them before the KU, the enemies in Africa are wicked and uneducated. Bad voice is better than the crack destiny. These violent expressions in prayers are apocalyptic devices to quote Adilakon 2023, which are evocative of spiritual warfare among Nigerian Christians, including Orioke Christians. The militarization of religious spaces and practices through performative modes like prayers and music makes Orioke an interesting spectacle to fully comprehend the popularity and value of religion in Africa and Nigeria in particular. Why scholars have examined how spiritual warfare, which is a framework for the militarization of prayers, operates, manifests and transcends local context and circulates as global practice. The role of music in the militarization of prayers demands scholarly investigation. In Orioke Christianity, the mountain is a theater of war, both in its lived and its conceived modes. Many of my participants claim that the rigorous climbing of stairs, some about 300, 400, to get to the peak of the mountain further intensifies the aggression to fight. This position further validates how the environment influences religious thoughts and practices. One of the mountain prophets, Prof. Jeremy Amon, explained to me that serious battles of life are not fought in the valley. I mean, not fought in the valley, the valley here referring to conventional church space. He said, and I quote, difficult battles in life are dealt with on the prayer mountain. And anyone comfortable in life does not come to the mountain, we are here to fight. In the Nigerian context, being comfortable means being able to feed yourself and your family, being gainfully employed, getting married in good time like my own experience and having children, being able to pay various bills, including rent. It also implies living in good health, being free of debt, obtaining a travel visa after multiple attempts, building one's house, being elected into a political office, having a prosperous church, both numerically and financially, and many more. For Adeyemo and others on Urioke, these layers of comfort may not be achieved until certain malicious powers are disestablished. The assertion by Adeyemo we are here to fight. Ihargi is evocative of the militarization of religious spaces and practices, hence shaping Urioke as a discursive site for understanding power relations in everyday religious and social experiences of people in contemporary Nigeria. I return to our metaphors of war, I invoked in Urioke religious practices such as prayers and music. During an all night prayer, I attended. The prayer leader reminded us that as believers, we must attack and defend in prayers. Before leading us to pray a few strange and strong prayers, he led us to sing. Fire for fire, yeah, la man fiche, fire for fire, yeah, la man fiche, bogo a yeh mi, de no kari, o gono shi no bule, fire for fire, yeah, la man fiche, meaning we will engage fire for fire. We will engage fire for fire. If the morning specters open their fire, the host of everyone will respond with fire. We will engage fire for fire. Leading us to sing before praying is not a sedentary. It is intentional. Why? Because in Yoruba thought, Uri-ni-shuo-juote meaning song precedes a fight or a burden. In Urioke conversations like sermons, prayers, and songs, in auspicious circumstances of life, whether spiritual or physical, are represented using different metaphors of war such as ogun, badm, hija, fight. I argue that beyond invoking ideas of conflict, music including singing, dancing, and drumming are expressive and artistic modes of stimulating war against the other through spiritual combat in Yoroke. And for people including Christians to enjoy a good life amidst the socioeconomic and political collapse in many African states including Nigeria. Spiritual warfare must be won, then welfare is assured. Let us have a feel again into Urioke's sunspace. I thought to enjoy more of that. In Urioke Christianity, the representation of Urioke as war zone is not only realized through oral modes of prayers, but it's also expressed through music with fast tempo singing, drumming, and clapping, as well as vigorous dancing. Yoruba musical instruments such as the agogo, you can see the bell, akuba, two-piece drum, and shekere, godrat, as well as other musical instruments, western musical instruments like gunga, trap drum, and keyboard are extensively used in Urioke. So intensify prayer on Urioke is to heighten the music. I analyze the typical percussion section in Urioke music. The typical percussion section you have in a Urioke setting will be these instruments. I analyze this typical percussion section as an archetype of the percussion section of a military band, and that the regular pulse supplied by the bass drum boom, boom, boom in a military band is undertaken by agogo, which provides the timeline in Urioke music for mission. Just like soldiers matched to the steady beat of a bass drum, so does the agogo provide the metronomic framework for all Urioke participants who are spiritual soldiers to dance to steady rhythm. The clapping of ants, with other precautions, produces an interlocking rhythmic structure that typifies the exchange of bullets in a conventional world. Just like the bass drum is central to military music, so is the agogo central to Urioke music. In Chinese cultural thoughts, Rome 2020 illuminates how drums and bells embody an engendered violence. He argues that the skiffle operations of these instruments was considered key to winning battles. Little wonder why agogo the bell is referred to as agogo ibala, or agogo ishegun, meaning bell of salvation or bell of victory among indigenous Uuba churches, including Urioke Christians. Urioke songs, like prayer, draw freely from indigenous musical elements. Why many of the Urioke music makers claim that their songs are spontaneously and divinely inspired? The adaptation of Yoruba folk tunes is prevalent in Urioke songs. Also, the use of short verses, short verse song in color and response from bass on pentatonic scale is predominant in Urioke songs. It is interesting to note that many of the participants testify that they learn new songs from Urioke, which they take down to their churches. So you see the idea of bringing something from the top down to their churches to teach their members. Therefore, I maintain that Urioke soundspace is an artistic site where indigenous musical practices are constantly produced, reproduced, circulated and sustained in post-colonial Nigeria. In religious contexts, music and prayers are considered spiritual activities, yet they are socially constructed. But elsewhere, prayers and songs in Urioke and other Christian spaces are laced with social commentaries. Hence, music in Urioke Christianity transcends religious purposes, as music makers often use it for other mundane functions. Many of the prayers and song leaders confirmed to me that beyond using music to provoke participants to pray, it is also used to ginger them. The word ginger is a colloquial expression, which means light up or to spice something or to spice something or a person. This further confirms the submission of scholars that even in the sacred, the mundane is present. So why is the street idea of ginger appropriated in a sacred space like Urioke? First, I observe that the long hours of prayers, sometimes between 6 to 12 hours, is a laborious activity that requires a lot of energy and Urioke participants find music very useful to provide such support. Thus, music serves as a kind of stimulant in performing spiritual labor in Urioke Christianity. Like one of my respondents explained it this way to me. It is not easy to pray. Prayer involves the whole of your body and there's tendency for you to want to get tired, especially during an all night prayers. She said, as we lead prayers and we notice that the people are becoming tired, we throw in a song to ginger their spirit. One of the ginger song, I'm going to engage you because on Urioke it is participatory. So you respond, I will rise and shine. I will call you respond. I will rise and shine, I will rise and shine. Above is ginger song, you know. You know this time in the parody the same song in a parody form I want to engage you again So this time your response will be it's a nylon bag nylon bag that used to cry something So you respond. It's a nylon bag. How are you? My problem is a nylon bag. It's a nylon My problem is a nylon bag. It's a nylon Meaning my problem is a nylon bag. You responded. It's a nylon bag. I carry it and I dump it. I dump e-lock. I dump unemployment. I don't poverty. It's a nylon bag. Another ginger song Is a mini ma coco los america cotolo a mini you know facing each other that I'll be the first person to go to America before you go. I'll be the first person to go to Germany before you go. These songs and many more give a sense of everyday social experiences of the people ranging from waste management. My problem is a nylon bag. I drop it to migration. I'll be the first person to go to America before you to social mobility. I will rise and shine in Oryoke music is not only used to ginger the people music and prayers as essential condiments in Oryoke rituals. One of the mountain prophets describes the interdependent relationship between music and prayers this way. He says In addition to prayers in Oryoke, dancing is an expressive mode of performing spirituality and achieving subjective happiness among participants. Like Uberro 2016 observes when members of indigenous churches dance, including Oryoke Christians, they dance away their soul. In conclusion, this study attempts to bring to the fore the centrality of religion as one of the ways for understanding humanity in Africa. It emphasizes that a sacred space like Oryoke is not just an ordinary space, but a symbolic space where people engage in communication with the spiritual supernatural in a bid to navigate their existential circumstances. Furthermore, the study demonstrates how expressive forms of religion, particularly music and prayers, shape and is being shaped by indigenous religious and Christian practices. Again, I reiterate kumans et al 2012. Secret sites mean something so does Oryoke mean more to people in Nigeria. Beyond a space of seclusion from the hustling and bustling of everyday life, it offers people a site to enhance their spirituality. Since the people's voices are not aided at the top spaces of government, where socioeconomic decisions that impact their lives are taken, Oryoke provides an alternative and significant place where people's questions are answered. In some, I argue that Oryoke's performance space of music and of prayer is a symbolic space for a better interpretation of people's spiritual and existential aspirations amidst the socioeconomic and political uncertainties in post-colonial Nigeria and Africa. I thank you for listening. You know, you can speak, you can speak, yeah. The camera is for you from Zoom as well. So thank you very much, Sam. I thought you'd be inspiring. It was also very entertaining. So thank you very much for the gin, thank you very much tonight. And for what you said, you're very rich at democracy, which I think illustrates very well the interplay between prayer and music among neurovirtuations in Nigeria and very others that have been invited to act as discussants, right? It is very interesting seminar and your work is very good and resonating with my work, while I'm really happy to be here. So you started by sharing a personal anecdote that we also started by sharing a personal anecdote that's okay. So at the beginning of my act, it was a field research from Trislam and other religious communities, one element of various religious traditions in Lagos. I quote a religious leader to ask them whether it's a Trislam service. And his response that time didn't make any sense to me. He asked me whether I would bend from the mountain to which I responded. There are no mountains here. I'm in the other partner. I was living in Lagos, the other part of that cycle. But it was all over much later that I realized what he was actually asking whether in a mythic way, whether I was menstruating, because menstruating women aren't banned from attending religious services because they're Trislam services. But there are actual mountains in Lagos. I still found out myself when I was invited to join a group of Trislam worshipers to the mountain of prayer. And it was a steep hill behind the Sheraton Hotel in Lagos. I was allowed to join them on condition that I would dress fully in white. For those of you who know me, you have never seen me wearing any other color than black. So that was quite a big thing. So that day I dressed fully in white. We undertook the pilgrimage to the mountain of prayer and that was quite challenging because first we needed to cross the steep where we needed to walk ourselves and not to purify ourselves, to need a stream look more like an old gutter. But anyway, and then we had to climb the steep hill while holding wooden swords in our hands to attack the people that we might encounter during our pilgrimage to the mountain of prayer while singing both Christian and Muslim songs. So again, this kind of close interaction between the singing and between the prayer. When we finally reached the top of the hill, we were welcomed by a prayer leader who summoned us to explain various prayer points for achieving health and wealth. And then again attended by music and songs. And then we descended the hill many hours later and my white outfit in the meantime had turned completely black to the amusement of the guests in the Sheraton who had no idea why this olive world was covered fully in mud. Anyway, based on your case studies and based on my personal anecdote, I think it is obvious that prayer mountains are crucial to the ways in which Yulva Christians practice their faith in southwestern Nigeria. But arguing that ory-ok ritual practices, particularly music and prayer, are media to better understand Christianity as it is practiced in Yulva lands is different from saying that these ritual practices are the expressive forms of Yulva Christianity or more broadly African Christianity. As you are aware, I find a notion of an African Christianity highly problematic because it assumes that there is a mainstream Christianity, i.e. the Christianity that was introduced to Africans by Western colonial missionaries from which African Christianity is then derived. So as a result, Africa is frequently but unjustly seen as the periphery of the global Christian roles in terms of both religious influence as well as geography. And in a similar vein, the idea that there is a specifically African Islam which differs from the mentally from Arab Islam formed the basis of colonial policy with regard to Islam in West Africa. And although the concept of an African Islam has been severely criticized, there is still a tendency to depict Islam as it is practiced in West Africa as less orthodox than it practice in the Arab Middle East. So to decolonize the study of religion in Africa, I prefer talking about Christianity and Islam as it is practiced in Nigeria, but then referring to an African Christianity or an African Islam. So that way you also avoid describing Christianity and Islam as homogeneous movements in different African countries. So my question is whether you consider African Christianity and Christianity in Africa to be synonyms, because in my view these are different things. And I prefer talking about Christianity as practice in Yoruba land than talking about Yoruba Christianity. So what justifies the notion of an African Christianity in your opinion? Now my second point has to do with your description of spiritual warfare as also Pentecostal phenomenon. So several authors and you refer to them in your longer paper, including Ebenezer Obudare who is Marshall have written about the so-called Pentecostal revolution in present-day Nigeria. But rather than focusing on the influence of the Pentecostal Nicar churches on other religious movements in Nigeria, I think it makes sense also to look at the influence of the much older Alladura churches on Pentecostal churches. So what have the Alladura churches brought to this so-called Pentecostal revolution in Nigeria? And the so-called emeritus professor who is still breaking the myth John Hew has written this very influential book on the Alladura movement in the 1960s. So to what extent can prayer mountains as well as spiritual warfare be seen as an expressive form of Christianity perform these prayer mountains as a feature of Alladura churches? So rather than looking up at the influence of the Pentecostal churches on other religious organizations, I think it makes sense to look at the influence of the much older Alladura churches on Pentecostalism. And during my field research I was struck by the very immediate language. You get beautiful examples in your paper which is used in prayers. So worshipers were told to pray vehemently to crush their enemies to death and to burn them to ashes, right? Well they marked while praying and observing my research participants praying sometimes resemble them shadow boxing because they were punching invisible evil forces crushing them to death, right? Attacking these evil forces that were blocking their progress in life. And once I was punched in the face by somebody attending a religious service because he was gesticulating so wildly that I was hit in the face. Anyway, so a dilemma which I hope you will be able to resolve for us. I don't have an answer to that. How the emphasis on spiritual warfare coincides with the Bible verse to love your neighbor as you love yourself? So I don't know how to make sense of this millions in language. And so that's maybe the question for you. I hope you have the answer. I don't have it. And finally, I would like to ask you to elaborate on Ori-Ok's spirituality as a postcolonial phenomenon. So in your presentation you argued that the Ori-Ok south skate is an artistic space where indigenous musical practices are constantly reproduced, circulated and sustained in postcolonial Nigeria. So while colonial rule brought an end to jihad, the postcolonial era and its neoliberal reforms resulted in the collapse of the state. It saw the intensification of interreligious but also intra-religious conflicts. So does spiritual warfare need to be understood against the backdrop of the socio-economic as well as political transformations? In other words, do prayer mountains provide Christians with the spiritual means to overcome the social anxiety and the economic hardship that have become lived realities for many Nigerians? So that's my final point where you can elaborate more on the postcolonial setting and how to understand this kind of emphasis on spiritual warfare. So I would like to stop here if that's okay. Thank you again for your very entertaining and jingering presentation and I'm sure that there are many more questions. So I stop here but thank you again for this presentation. Are you going to respond? I'll just take two. I don't mind actually a position in describing African Christianity. Yes, it is small to say that it is something regional. If you go to Pekka in Visit Nigerian Churches Day, they are not practicing London Christianity or England Christianity. For instance, it took me a few minutes to explain my call and response to you in an African Christianity setting. They already know me. If I say somebody shouts I'm in here, many of you don't know what I'm talking about. But if I visit an African congregation, they understand. So that's why we describe these Christianity as embedded in Africa. So it's an again, it's scholarship in the established concept of African Christianity. Whether or not you are very comfortable about that would be something we would need for broader discussion. All right. On the issue of the influence of the Aladro Mega Churches, see if you listen carefully to my presentation. This ethnographic presentation is from the Aladro Church, the CAC Christophus League Church. Because in my bigger work, in my final work, this, sorry, I didn't get to be compressed presentation, this is an Aladro is curious. And you will find Megamec Churches trying to replicate this. So you find churches saying we have prayer meetings, prayer mountain, we have seven days prayer, a mountain, a counter, you know, and all of this. So participants on Oryuoka are drawn from different English. And so you find you look at practice, you know, being introduced on the body. So the Aladro, they are very, very influential on Megamec Churches, including MFM. If you listen to MFM prayer, prayer points, I mean, it's just a transposed version of Oryuoka prayer point that we have. So the Aladro, including CAC, CNS and others, they are very strong presence, very strong influence on Pentecostalism in Nigeria. In fact, they are even referred to as the first indigenous, they are referred to as the first indigenous Pentecostals in scholarship in Nigeria. So it is not to say that the Pentecostals are influenced on the Aladro, rather the Aladro as influence on Pentecostal, especially prayer points. Well, the other points that I've noted, I'll go to the end of the presentation. Thank you very much. But I think it's interesting what you just mentioned, because maybe the influence of the Aladro Churches on the Pentecostal Churches in there is not widely acknowledged by Pentecostal Churches, right? Yes, it's not a prayer, but in practice we know, we know, we can see, we see a race up behind, pressure underneath. These are Oryuoka prayers. In fact, in some places, I remember going up, my dad would say, we want to change this place to an Oryuoka, and we are just in the church setting. So there's an idea, there's an understanding that in space, we can change, we can transport, we can move from that space to another space. It all started in the mountains again. Where is Kola? I mean, in the literature. Yes, in, as a historian, because not even John Beal was very clear when he went to the door. What I've implied is, is there a pre-Christian version of the implication of this, what about, is that a pre-Christian, which is very much a song of all of us, given how you don't want to be a Muslim, you don't want to be a Muslim, you don't want to be a Christian, you don't want to be a Muslim. So is there any feedback from victory, something that is in the modern pre-Christian sense? Well, my work, people cost exclusively of Christian prayer mantis. As to the emergence of the, when prayer mantis started, it's difficult for anybody, but scholars have established that Oryuoka started, perhaps, the moment when African people started. Meanwhile, before that time, pre-Christian experience, these mountains were already sacred spaces in indigenous traditional space, context. People go to venerate these mountains, you know, do monthly or annual rituals, you know, because there's the presence, they believe there is a manifestation of the supernatural. So in the indigenous context, these spaces were already sacred. With the invention of Christianity, this space became a test, a test, became a test that pre-Christian started writing, because it's the same place they go to worship before Christianity came. So when Christianity came, rather than going to worship the, you know, their deities and all that, they started consecrating, if you listen to what they mentioned, they started consecrating these spaces for prayer rituals and for prayer activities. So rather than going there to venerate an idol, you go there to pray. So for Christian, it's a paradox of rejection and preservation. We preserve this mountain as an heritage site, but we no longer worship the indigenous spirit, we worship, you know, the supernatural god. So it's a continuum, you know, reproducing it, you know, in another context. So to sum it up, nobody can say exactly, this is where we look, but we know that there's a pre-Christian practice of, you know, going to mountains, forests, loose sacred waters to, you know, do religious and spiritual practices. For the Sophie, I have no idea. I wasn't expecting you to care. But Muray, do you have an idea, because I find it quite, it's a really interesting question. So, because John Beall claimed that there was a Muslim influence on night rituals, right? He claimed that it was a Muslim invention, not so much a Christian invention. So do you think there is a kind of Sufi influence on the prayer mountains? Certainly, in the pre-Jewish idea of Sufi practice, the little one actually went into an underground place where, possibly, there were more underground spaces in the house of that. But I do remember having an eBay hill before it came up to the university in 1961, and it was really a special place, even then, even to me. I was taken by that problem. So, I think there's a whole dimension of, you know, it is now that there's not more music to it than it used to be. I know that, you know, it only really came in from then, you know, just like what you said, about 1961. I think it's a fascinating subject, the use of music in a religious context, when it's not allowed to play music. There is actually a question very connected to this. There is someone that's asking, I think it's the point that non-Christian actively participate in all the prayer rituals. And so you would like it to elaborate, which is kind of connected, honestly, the non-Christian participation. Yes, I mean, because it's a symbolic site, people are finding answers. It doesn't matter where the answer is, I mean, just for them to get answers. So, you know, looking, you find participants drop from Christian and non-Christian spaces. Some of the participants are interviewed who did an anonymous, anonymous, anonymous, anonymous, I mean, they should keep them, you know, should keep the identities, you know, because the Christian, Muslim entanglement into interaction in South East Nigeria, it's not, there's no space, you can move, you know, simply just move, get what you need to do, come back and then continue. So, it is established and from research that Muslims and other, even indigenous traditional worshipers also visit prayer places. And again, not to say that, I mean, this cross, this cross, you know, crossing of religious spaces, you know, to get, what is essential is to get answers. Once you can get answers, so that it's established non-Christian culture, you can pray. And the idea, Prof talked about, the idea of prayer, prayer and music in Islam, in my ongoing work on what I, I mean, I'm trying to enter a conversation that has already been started, I mean, initiated the idea of Islamic revivalism and Christianity, to find music, you know, very, very, very significant in this indigenous way. And it's because, like I said in my presentation, prayers are, I mean, modulated to songs, songs are modulated to, you know, prayers. So, what you cannot say in your, in your, you know, close with yourself. Songs can allow you to say it. For instance, in my ongoing work, as far as the songs used in this Islamic Revival centers are Christians. So, it's an interesting experience as we move on, especially in southwestern Nigeria. The crossing, you know, the following is, it actually is, it's, it's massive. It's seamless, you know, depending on what's proposed you to visit. Do you want to take more from the, yeah, and then we'll take more from the audience, from the online. Okay. Go. So, southwest, where you come from, is a list of Christian numbers. And in south, eastern Nigeria is dominated by Christian people. And south, south, probably there are militant Christian luscious stock and luscious. Why the Northern part of the area are dominated mostly almost more conscious of where it's coming. You know, Back, Back is his house was kind of here. It's very easier for a man to find a Christian boy who wants to pray together with a Muslim and find a Christian Muslim going to a prayer house, old child with a Christian prayer. What you must have been more than part of the prayer is community and totally unacceptable. So there is what we call the hypocrites in the media. OK, you need idea, you know there, to either be a Muslim or a Christian, but something often makes the children need them, Christianity and Islam. And the prayer house becomes too much in southwestern Nigeria, especially in the 19th century. The emergence of those prayer homes, I think, has to do with socioeconomic difficulty, whereby people are finding that they are right in the area. So instead, to create the reality, they resolve in engaging such prayer warriors, pray for them simultaneously. I think that's what there are some alarms for one of the oldies to gather when people from South Africa came for site activity. That was on by the TV, and we remember it was in South Africa. So this thing, given that of Islam in the first hour, no one has to do with economic benefits. Some are just using the religion to try to get out of the thing. Because even if you look at us, who are happy to come up with this prayer, to find out what truthfully reads, some of them they have to do with their craft, they have to pick out these now, and they are able to go down with it. But they are just using that sooner. Make a lot of money. Even the Muslim, some of them are using the religion to do the same. Does anyone respond? OK, well, it's established that the state is vibrant in the south, southern and southwest, south, east, and south is established. Whether near Islamic transformation going on, whether obvious. For instance, you find even in some Islamic movements now, you find some special forms of prayers, taking place outside the mosque, weekly, to be monthly. Like I've already pointed out, it's again a response to finding answers to socioeconomic issues. So because the north has its position clear for the new journey, you may not find this transformative practices very obvious. But that is not to say that they are not going on the ground. Well, I fully agree with you. Yes, it is about an IS background, it was the main precisely, it's about finding answers to socioeconomic issues. OK, and one thing that I find really interesting, you'd say that like religious violence, don't really match an academic in your lands because people grow up in a kind of multi-phase setting. Whereas you use the term hypocrisy, like it is a kind of form of hypocrisy. If you, for example, as a Muslim, then go to a Christian prayer camp or find an interest in a kind of different language which you use because it's kind of contradictory. You talk about seamlessness and you talk about hypocrisy. So, there are quite a lot of questions from the chat. I'm just going to think, I'm just going to want to say how has this phenomenon been integrated into the Afro-African Catholic Church in the diaspora? Because you mentioned Pekka, so perhaps you can tell us a bit about the definition of the question. And there's another one that I've been asking about why are women generally more than men after all your prayers? That's not interesting. Why are there women, there's more women attending to the prayer. And then the final one is about the role of the musicians. Someone is actually asking if they are professional musicians and if they're certainly in jobs, profit, money, I'm reading. So, there's three questions which, yeah, so that I ask for agenda and then sort of the element of the organization. Thank you. Yes, like I did say at the video presentation, Oryoki is a physical space. So, if there's a mountain in any way in the world and there's an African Christian in there, I'm sure the person will recognize that point. But again, we're also talking about the imaginative space. So, the idea of Oryoki, I can sit here and be on Oryoki, right? So, if there are physical spaces in the sites, I'm sure that Africans will participate. Because of my work, I've not been able to visit any sites here. In London, probably to find, you know, whether people recognize this space, maybe something that so has kind of only I can't be sure to look at as spaces. But I know that in South Korea, where you have the largest, just a bit of largest coastal condition, I don't know if it's still the largest. It was Africa exclaiming the largest, the largest, where the largest coastlines auditorium, $500,000, $16,000. There are mountains to South Korea. And they gave the ideas that wherever indigenous religious practice and strong Aladran, other indigenous coastal places. So, you have the idea of where mountains is established in this collection. So, I know that, yes, in terms of, in terms of going to that imaginative space, people can do Oryoki practice wherever they are. Whether there's physical sites or not, there's periods. Why more women than men? Well, in Africa, especially in Nigeria, women are the largest cost consumer of religious product or commodity. And not only in Africa. Studies have shown that women are more religious than men. Why? Because they are concerned about their husbands, their children and their families. So, in a space like Africa and Nigeria precisely, women, you know, because men is a patriarchy kind of system, women are too, you know, taking care of the children. So, they have time to go to these spaces to pray. And in all their prayer points, whether in the Islamic revival setting and in the Christian setting, it's about their children, it's about their Osborne, it's about their children, it's about their Osborne. So, that simply explains why there are more women on the prayer mountain. That is not to say that you don't have men too, especially if you go to a gender-specific prayer mountain to find a woman there. And on the role of musicians, yes, there are two categories of musicians on Oryoki. Primarily, you have those who are volunteers. They are in-house musicians, those ones are on ground. They are sometimes part of the religious leaders on the prayer mountain. They are there, they supply music. But those who come to pray actually perform on this musical instrument. But for special events, mega-events, like the post-life actually, you find, you know, guest musicians invited. They come with their own, you know, team to perform. But in the typical Oryoki setting, it's based on prioritizing musicians coming back to find some of the people that are complaining. This drummer is complaining, this drummer very well. But there is nothing he can do because the person is just there to pray. And in a chapter of my work, I talk about music making on Oryoki, the musicians themselves see it as part of their spiritual label on the mountain. That as they play, as they play this instrument, three of charts, that answers to their questions will come speeding. And again, it's about their idea of situationality. That's why I tell you that as I was reading the prayer, something came to me, it's about some composition, it's about situationality, it's about situationality. So music making is laggy on volunteer basis. I mean, I don't want to use the word amateurish, it's laggy based on volunteer arrangement. I'll take questions from Maya. Maybe you can ask the other one. Thank you, I enjoyed it so much. I don't know much about this context and so this is going to be going through the music and musicology side of things, but it seemed that on the one hand, you're talking about Oryoki as sort of a separate style of different points happening in churches. Yeah, at the same time, you were also saying it's certain it's in the churches. And you gave us the example of the crisis that you're talking about in branding, equi, and so it's there. So I'm just wondering to what extent do you think Oryoki does represent its own genre, its own style? And how is it circulating beyond space? Can you get examples of it that are really all that circulate in the future, where it's all about making playlists so that they can recreate the space through sound, the power of the sound state with them? Very interesting. There's an article I talked about, Oryoki. You hear when you go to the valley. I hope you understand what I mean by the valley. When you go to the valley, you hear people make reference to these Oryoki songs on the mountain. And because these songs are claimed to be divine inspired, you only find them in town. So people get this inspiration. So when they spray up or they see people writing down the songs, bringing out their point of record, you know, because it's spontaneous. And then because they are known, the songs are taken for prayers and all that. So you find, yes, and because Oryoki songs largely draw from indigenous elements, makes it, you know, that's, so people keep hearing that indigenous sound, indigenous melody, the both of the functions that I said. In fact, the second example I played for you is a recording of Shagwon, Olo and Yomi, and the title of that recording, Songs of the Prophet, Songs from Oryoki. So you find a collection of, you know, songs. So if I want to, if I'm on the body in the body, and I want to hear Oryoki songs, I just play that and it invokes, you know, it invokes that space for me. So indeed, yes, Oryoki music, I mean, Oryoki is the production center, where people go, you know, they take new songs, take it down. And you will find popular gospel musicians also recording this Oryoki songs. So if you listen to that recording, yes, Shagwon, we are really fine to know Oryoki is one of the aconic, you know, our leaders actors in New England, you know, space center, along with Agibwe, you know, and all the time. So yes, Oryoki is a production center, where people produce lots of music. Yes. In a lot of religious systems, including in parts of Latin, music is actually used. Don't put you into a trance. It's a form of order, it never exists. Particularly with music, the check-in note, that or the drums. And I wonder if, in fact, when you're speaking of spirituality, you aren't part of thinking about self-inductive trances. And is that a whole dimension? Because in a sense, when you are in trance, you can speak in trance and all the other things. So I wonder if you don't feel any use of music in different trance. It was sent into a monastic Christian, you know, mainly with music, in juices of trance. Okay, you want to know if... I want to know if you folks are on your mountain. Of course, I mean, in any of the religious gathering, even whether I'm a traditional ascetic, whether it's religion or religion, people, it can involve trance. I mean, people can get into trance. And that is established, you don't need to add. Yes, when music is at a point on the milky, people move into trance. You hear them start speaking in tongues, manifestations, all kinds of things. So, yes, music gets people into that space because that's the point when you get to that point. It's another space. And from that space, there's another communication at that level. And then, you know, speaking from that space again, too. So you are in a space, music takes you to another space, and then you can speak again to those. And it's about hearts, it's about hearts, it's about lemurs. I know, depending on how much you can use it to get. Even in our social life, people hear music and it starts to go to another dimension. And you say, what is wrong with you? This music, we are here and somebody's hearing music and the person jumping apart. What are you calling it? That music, you know, is taking, so that, yes, there's established music, you know, give your trance, patronage and other parts. Yes, I did observe it from the milky. Okay, so I'll just take another couple of questions from the online audience, if that's okay. So there is a question from, thank you very much. Do you engage in with the sociological factor that accounts for the sonic ritual in the mountain? I am wondering if in a larger space, how you account for the political in the context, the company or people who play a mountain in this place, when did you seek a number of solutions? Are these out of your experience in the same place? And you may want to examine that. Yes, it's my bigger work. I think my scholarship, yes. Like I said, one of my respondents talked about that, if you are comforted, you do not come to the mountain. And I gave the context, you know, this level of creativity. Somebody who wants to win the election will go to the mountain. Somebody who cannot pay rent, because if you are comforted, you'll be able to pay rent. That's the understanding. If you are comfortable, you should marry on time. So there is, and there are other, you know, social and economic political contexts around. In fact, in my prayer mountain, is the place I use politicians call to pray. You call me quietly. And because no identity will be used, like a woman I invite, I will tell you who came from South Africa and it's a daughter of a marigold beach, which is on. So there is, you know, these issues around social, economic, political, including religious. Does he have a second hand, gentlemen? Because he was interested, when I sat with him for so many years, I had to put him in. And I was like, wait a minute. That's a second hand, gentlemen. He's not the new gentleman. You have to deal with the study of the jet planes of the bus. We're both interested in speech and hearts. I'm not. Yeah. I'm not interested in speech and hearts. Thank you. Yeah. I need to give you a question from Charlie. We certainly find the one that's favorite. Oh yeah. Yeah. Is there any chance for the open music to be accepted globally? I know it's, once it's negated, it's online. You can listen to Chevrolet, you know what I mean? Online, just type Uriuki songs. You'll get, I mean, a colleague and I mean, I like to, if you want to dance more, just go ahead and type Chevrolet, you know what I mean? You'll find Uriuki songs to dance. So it's everywhere. Excellent. Okay. There is one more question from the, yeah, we can have a couple of questions from the audience and then we, yeah, we can answer them in the video. Yeah. Speak up. Thank you. Yeah, that was incredible. I just asked my mom if she owned a Uriuki song and she owned a Uriuki song. And I asked the audience, Uriuki was open to it. And then to go through the solution is the kind of track that needs to be, but also once Uriuki and she said that, she really don't want to just say that. At least she knew it. So that's what I'm thinking about. That's what she's thinking. Um, these managerial conditions are, along, along with them, she's coming, she's coming to a city, so, I don't understand why I'm not wearing this, but we think the people, are these religious traditions becoming more of a badge for knowledge within the university other than coming as practice in the country itself? And the woman, it doesn't make sense to you how I'm not wearing this managerial woman. It's not the woman who is, or maybe the woman inside the community or maybe there is no woman in Nigeria. So what is, how familiar are the Nigerians who know the solution to that? All right, I need to get, let me ask a question. Which delimitation is your mom's problem? Who to judge? If you just delimitation, if you don't want to be specific. Is she an American? Is she a Methodist? And then which part of it? But I know, I know, I mean, I know that even people come from the Eastern part of Nigeria to the West, you know, they come in buses. In fact, there's a particular prayer mountain, Deborah prayer mountain. The prayer mountain was established by a woman. The woman is living. To find people from the East, more on that mountain, the South West. So, it's possible that maybe in our Christian reputation, because you also find conservatives who do not go to spaces like this. To say, no, I will sit in my house and find ourselves to prayers, then go to even particularize the space. So, it's possible that your mom is that conservative that I know class of me. I sit in the church, I go to church on Sunday, I pray. If God doesn't answer, if God does not answer, then fine. But Urioke is vibrant, is vibrant in Nigeria. I mean, if you see the poster that I showed on my second slide. Angela Kakaiepi, go to the second slide. Okay, it's not coming up. You'll find prayer meetings, power, you'll only find. And then you'll find, these are the ones I showed you. Mega, go to the other one. Next one. Yeah, some mega events. You can find guest artists like I talked about. If you, this is the son of the founder of Urioke, Ege. This is son, he's father established that mountain, or, yes, his father established that, his father is something after the East for short. So, this is something that in the current generation. So, to further validate the fact that this is established. So, it's possible, maybe you speak to mom to say, well, you, I mean, that's just an example of thinking. Very good, thank you. Excellent, great. I think you have another question? One is very good. Well, Simon, okay. I would just put it up, generation, generation, generation. Generationally, what are you finding in young people? Are they participating in the music? Oh, the music, I don't know. Yeah, and are they attending the mountain? Yeah, it's fine though, you have a young name. I mean, Angelica, go to my first slide again, the first where I found my wife. So, you see, these are women, you know, on the mountain, on the hill, you have to, these are women, kind of, children, because they're already being socialized into this, you know, maybe the second, the first slide, the first, the second rather. After the tide. After the tide. Yeah. Okay, so you find young men, you know, you know, patronizing prayer for people. Then, I mean, to get a wife, get a job contract. So, like I told you, my own experience, I was, I was encouraged to go to the mountains. You know, so it's, it's, it's generational. Yes, we found that, we found us, and now, you know, we are passing, their children are taking over, but we find a lot of, you know, it's not coming up. So, I mean, is established your part of your life. That we found to play a different part. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Don't worry, let's have a quiet. I'm not sure if I found a very important part of it. For sure. I mean, first of all, when you were talking about costume wonders, I was a little bit curious about what kind of mentioned there would be between audio department in the summer, I'm hearing many more that we talked about before, this online, and the sleigh gospelish. I mean, we didn't, we didn't. We did this online, and there are people from around the world who don't, the online concert. Okay, the experience. Yeah, the experience. So, I was wondering what kind of connection there would be between that, and I do know that songs that have developed and I didn't ask the speakers, I don't know who would have developed them onto our views and put these outside, so for example, the first one I went to, I went out on them, and that was the huge song that was working on this and I put it on top of that. That was the one thing that was kind of being extruded to other, not migrating non-advocates. So, I was just wondering what kind of connection there would be from an audience to something like this, that would be very, very, more kind of... Well, there are two spaces, Sonica and... in terms of religious expression. The experience is something more popular, Pentecostal, mega-identical. I think it's even, it's been adjudged as the largest gospel concert in the world. It held last Friday, every possible Friday of December. But the prayer mountain was really the indigenous practice going. The experience, total space, is just for people to sing, worship, and then the localization experience and thought is another interesting perspective. Of course, you find musicians like Dogwin, Travis Gean, coming and collaborating with Nigerian musicians, that's another dimension. The experience is just for, just like a popular culture practice. In fact, if you watch the experience and you watch a mega event, you will find it difficult to explain what it depends on the lighting, the stage, the artist, and all that. But to be okay, it's another space and time. For instance, in the experience, even though participants are the experience, when they watch Nigeria, it will be alright. Again, we talk about the transportation of music for all your kids. If, as a child leader, I come to the prayer mountain and I hear a song that I like and I think to speak to spiritual and social reality of my people, I will let this song, and when I also go to meet prayers, I import these songs. So, yes, people go, like Maharaj, they go and use this quite a number of them. Thank you very much. Maharaj, can I make a final comment closing the event? Oh, well, I want to thank you again and I want to thank the audience for the interesting discussion. And now we should all go and dance in the prayer mountain. Thank you very much.