Queen Theresa Onuorah is famous for her Edegede music, which she calls Egedege of Africa.


Egedege was popular in the 1980s and 1990s and was popularised by the queen, although its reach seems to have been confined to South East Nigeria.

The music, however, is distinctly cultural, one might even say folklore-like. But it is also exuberant, high-tempo and very danceable. The Egedege music is a combination of dance, songs, instrumentation and colourful traditional dancing outfits. The music is usually introduced by an elaborate and expertly rendered fluting, which is a treat on its own. The fluting serves as a cue for the dance group to come onto the stage led by the queen.

Queen Theresa Onuorah uses her music not only to entertain but also to impart wisdom.

In her song Ijele Elubego, she touched on the topic of acceptance as crucial in the preservation of culture. In another context, this can be interpreted as also the preservation of rights, freedom and justice. Here are the lyrics in question:

“Omenala ndi diri ndi, ka nke anyi were diri, omenala anyi diri anyi. (Let other people’s culture be for them, that ours may be for us, let our culture be for us.)”

So, Theresa is essentially telling us that the preservation of our culture is hinged on our acceptance of the culture of other people. That is a logic that is rooted in common sense. It is also one we can extrapolate further as regards rights, freedom and justice.

We explore these theme in our article "On rights, freedom and tolerance: Lessons from Theresa Onuorah's Egedege Music."

Bonus: There are also YouTube video sof the song in question in the article

Happy reading.