‘Everyone goes to war and no-one knows why’
Alex Gray is a student of Biomedical Sciences at Newcastle University.
Without knowing anything:
That might genuinely be the biggest waste of nine minutes I’ve ever spent. What did I achieve from that? Where was the meaning? All I heard were two slightly out of sync voices asking me the same question? I think my main problem with the music was the bad quality synthesiser which was providing all of the backing track to the same two lyrics. For me, it wasn’t a problem of where the song was from, it was a problem of how the song sounded, which is interesting because I usually enjoy synthesiser beats. There was very little change, it was the same motif repeated with the same lyrics being said over the top. I understand that there was a political message in the song – I eman he repeated it enough times – which could be in reference to any of the multiple genocides and wars that were going on in Africa during the 1900s.
After being informed:
This has to be about the Nigerian Civil War. Onyeabor was a reclusive man who chose not to speak about his music, maybe he was simply too afraid to talk about his music for fear of what might happen to him? Questioning the government, particularly at this time, was an incredibly dangerous thing to do – Nelson Mandela proves that. The political intent is very clear behind this song but I can understand why it isn’t particularly popular comparatively. The content of the song just isn’t there, there is so little for the listener to become invested in that it simply becomes a question to which no one can answer. Everyone goes to war and no-one knows why, don’t question the listener, provide alternate options.