Sámi Yoik and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat: An Ethnographic Study of Music as a Medium for Activism

Abstract

Sámi yoik and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat are the subjects of this thesis, which examines music as a form of activism through an ethnographic lens. The study's primary focus is an anthropological examination of Sámi music performances and oral histories. The Sámi are an indigenous people that live in northern Fennoscandia, which includes Norway, Finland, Sweden, and the Russian Kola Peninsula. The Federal Republic of Nigeria in West Africa is also included in the study.

The study has its core in fieldwork into Fela’s Afrobeat and Sámi yoik music as symbolic venues where different forms of activism are embodied, managed, and carried out, as music is a significant instrument for both cultures. I contextualize the tales of various Afrobeat and Sámi yoik musicians by outlining the historical context of the two subjects mentioned and use this as a springboard for the tales and interview stories and experiences of my respondents, who are from Sápmi and Nigeria.

This study analyzes the meditative process of understanding yoik and Afrobeat by situating the two traditions and their practices in the current Sápmi and Nigerian soundscapes; it is an anthropological investigation of the use of music as a tool for activism. Both yoik and Afrobeat demonstrate the connection between their cosmology and spirituality through music. The music provokes reflection, revision, and reevaluation of conventional notions of indigenous protests.

This thesis explores how the individual respondents' musical experiences, lyrics and stories provide a way for them to express their indigenous rights, express themselves, and—most importantly—use music as a tool for action aided by how their identity is framed. The phenomenon of music becoming an ethnographically expanded weapon for action is thus documented in my work.