Plateau Music Artists and Subcultures

Native Plateau State people are the real Nigerians. Real Nigerians are people who combined the qualities of both northerners and southerners. Yes, we combine these qualities. The northern quality in us is seen in our ability to speak Hausa language in addition to our native languages for which there are more than thirty of them. The southern quality is seen in our liberal lifestyles, something that is rare up here.

When one takes music artists from Plateau State into consideration, one sees that they represent three subcultures.

The first category is seen in native Plateau boys. The languages they use to express themselves when they sing are Hausa, English and their native tongues. Examples are Jeremiah Gyanga and Dach-mo. Artists like P-Square whose parents are of southern Nigerian origin are seen to perform in Pidgin English and their native tongue. While artists like M-I who seem to come from educated parents are strict in their of use English exclusively.

These behaviors are merely an expression of the type of upbringing they had while growing up from boys to men. One thing about native Plateau people is that they find themselves in circumstance where Hausa is the major language of communication. It is generally the situation in this part of Nigeria. Their children thus grow up speaking Hausa which they learnt by virtue of the environment and English which they learn in the classroom. The situation is however changing albeit gradually as most people are beginning to understand that compelling their children to speak English strictly is a way of giving the kids some class. I personally don’t think so. Children should learn the English but also the native languages.

Other Nigerians who came to Plateau from the south are also compelled to speak Hausa language since it is the lingua franca up here. They however speak this outside of their homes. Under a normal situation, this Nigerians don’t speak Hausa to their kids at home however. Instead they speak to them in their own tongues as the children must know where they are coming from.

Education gives people some class. This class is accentuated by the use of English in the home. The children grow up knowing that their parents are different and grow up upholding this class. As a matter of fact the kids are trained that way.