Tunde King: The Pioneer, Maker of Jùjú Kings

Jùjú is a Nigerian music genre widely accepted because of its originality, versatility, dynamism, relatability and beauty, rooted in Yoruba culture, fusing traditional percussion and vocals with Western instruments like the guitar.

Jùjú music did not surface until a group called “Area Boys,” with an inspirational leader, Abdulrafiu Babatunde King, who would later be referred to as Tunde King, started hanging out at a mechanic shop in the Olowogbowo area of Lagos, which has always been at the cusp of urbanization and trendsetting in West Africa.

Abdulrafiu Babatunde King was born on 24 August 1910 into the family of Ibrahim Sanni King, in the Saro-dominated Olowogbowo area of Lagos Island. His father was a chief Native Court clerk at Ilaro and had lived for some time in Fourah Bay, Sierra Leone. Tunde King attended Methodist Primary School and Eko Boys High School, where a schoolmate taught him how to play guitar.

In the 1920s, Jùjú, which was previously known as Palm Wine music, started off as a musical conversation among social drinkers, combining Yoruba folk music with musical idioms and became an important entertaining source for all, which later metamorphosed into a musical career.

By 1929, King secured a clerical job and worked part-time as a singer and guitarist with a trio including guitar, samba and maracas, but later changed to tambourine, guitar-banjo and sekere. The three-man band later expanded to four, with King playing six-string guitar-banjo and also leading the vocals, Ishola Caxton Martins playing sekere, Ahmeed Lamidi George on tambourine, and Sanya “Snake” Johnson on tom-tom and supporting vocals.

Tunde King, who was known as the originator and creator of Juju music, said the name Juju itself came to being after he bought a tambourine from a Salvation Army store, which he gave to his samba drummer. The drummer, who developed a unique style of throwing the tambourine into the air and catching it, made people tell him to “Jùú Jùú,” which translates to “throw it, throw it.”

Most of King’s songs recorded huge success and wide acceptance by the populace. Some of his notable songs are Oba Oyinbo, where he celebrated the ascension of King George VI of Britain, where he ironically said, “We have a father … King George is our father … White man Cameron (the governor) is our father.” He went further in songs that were not recorded, expressing resentment more explicitly.

The song Soja Idunmota describes a monument of a white soldier with a native carrier whose head is hanging down, saying, “Cruelly, they forget the common descent of man.” In the song Eti Joluwe, he said it was better for Yorubas to work for themselves than for the government.

In the mid-1930s, he enjoyed huge success, with several recordings and radio broadcasts, but he still has to perform at private functions to earn a living like playing at the wake of the prominent Doctor Oguntola Sapara in June 1935.

King rose to fame after his music was aired by Radio Nigeria in 1932. While his recordings gave him a firm place in the music world, his Radio appearances earned him an established reputation in Lagos before his full recognition as the leader of Jùjú genre in the mid-1930s.

After some years, Parlophone of the EMI Group did his first mass recordings of Jùjú music in 1936, released on 78rpm shellac discs. The Jùjú pioneer made over 30 records, among which are Eko Akete, Oba Oyinbo, Sapara ti Sajule Orun, Dunia, Ojuola Lojo Agan, and others, out of which two of the recordings, Oba Oyinbo and Dunia, were included on an anthology CD Jùjú Roots: 1930s–1950s, released by Rounder Records in January 1985. However, he earned a very low amount from the royalties after he was paid a little amount to record each release, but his releases (records) gave him face in the society as he became an artiste of the elites and stakeholders.

In 1939, during the outbreak of World War II, Tunde King joined the Merchant Marines and returned to Lagos in 1941, after which he departed for another eleven years and was rediscovered in Francophone ports playing in places like Conakry and Dakar, and thereafter returned to Lagos in 1954.

During his absence, a lot of Jùjú singers, who have been admiring King’s style of music, were springing up and trying their hands on the music genre. At the time, Akanbi Ege also known as, Akanbi Wright, was recognized as a foundational figure from the early, pre-war era, alongside Tunde King. Ayinde Bakare who was a bandleader at the time helped to finetune the sound of Jùjú in the 1940s and 1950s,

Julius Araba, became a known figure as a pioneer of the early to mid-century Jùjú scene, while the Won Kere Si Number Wa crooner, Olayiwola Fatai Olagunju widely known as Fatai Rolling Dollar, started his career early, contributing to the development of the style before becoming a veteran performer.

As opposed to some reports referring to Fatai rolling Dollar, I.K Dairo, Akanbi Wright, etc as the pioneers of Jùjú music, it is imperative to note that Tunde King is the pioneer of Jùjú music in Nigeria because he is older than majority of them and began Jùjú music as early as 1920s while some of the acclaimed pioneers were not yet born.

The initiator of Jùjú music, Tunde King, breathed his last breath in the 1980s. It is, however, a known fact that Abdulkabiru Babatunde King inspired a lot of great Jùjú artistes after him, who have all brought different uniqueness into their crafts, that sets them apart and makes Jùjú one of the formidable traditional music genres in Southwest Nigeria.

Sunday Adeniyi Adegeye, MFR, popularly known as King Sunny Ade, KSA, Chief Ebenezer Obey, Obey Commander, Isaiah Kehinde Dairo, I.K. Dairo, Shina Peters, and other Jùjú artistes brought in electronic instruments to elevate the beauty of Jùjú music.

In the subsequent writing await the histories of other Jùjú musicians who have contributed immensely to the prominence of Jùjú music in Nigeria, and also some of the controversies borne out of rivalries among some of these musicians.