“I believe the best way to talk about African music is from the perspective of Africans themselves,” says Oghenevwarho Ojakovo, an assistant professor of music at CSUDH and director of the Center for African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians.

For the past year, Ojakovo has embarked on an aggressive campaign to bring African musicians and scholars to campus. This has recently included Emaeyak Peter Sylvanus of the University of Nigeria and Charrise Barron from Harvard University, who spoke about the ways sacred African music interacts with other forms of music or even political protest.

The Center also gathers song scores, recordings, and videos of performances from churches and artists in Southern California for its growing archive in the Gerth Archives and Special Collections. These include original scores from composer and songwriter Jester Hairston and recordings by choral conductor and ethnomusicologist Albert J. McNeil.

“These archives will become a reservoir of information and inspiration for future generations to look back and see where this music comes from and how it has evolved,” says Ojakovo.

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