Africanist diasporic identities: Nigerian immigrants in the Global North in Bode Omojola’s opera Ìrìn Àjò

This study offers an interdisciplinary analysis of Bode Omojola’s opera Ìrìn Àjò (2018) and its musical-theatrical representation of the socio-economic experience of Nigerian immigrants in the Global North. Drawing from the fields of musicology, diaspora studies and sociology, this work seeks to unknot the intricate relationship between cultural bearings and the phenomenon of diasporic communities. Ìrìn Àjò , a seminal work by the famous Nigerian composer Bode Omojola, is core to this study. The opera sums up Nigerian immigrants’ miscellaneous expeditions as they traverse their embraced countries’ composite landscapes. The work conveys the rich musical traditions of Nigeria, as well as the ambition, provocations and victories of Nigerians in the diaspora as they encounter various issues around identity, integration and socio-economic discrepancies in the Global North. Engaging the mixed-method approach, the study combines qualitative analysis of Ìrìn Àjò with ethnographic fieldwork through interviews and observations of Nigerian immigrant communities in the Global North. The analysis of the opera’s theme, musical motifs and narratives within the context of socio-economic circumstances and cultural adaptations of Nigerian immigrants details how Omojola’s opera Ìrìn Àjò meaningfully represents immigrant experiences rarely seen and heard at the operatic stage.