Abstract
There has been a dearth of scholarly inquisition on Owerri Bongo music, a genre marked by its seductive rhythm, didactic lyrics and cultural aesthetics. There is a transcultural attachment to Owerri Bongo music which is catalysed by the dynamics of the digital media which transforms music from a local or linear experience to a global interactive medium, dismantling geographical limits. With the aid of the digital media, music albums can be streamed on social media and digital devices, thus, giving visibility to both the artistic works and the artists. This study expands epistemological frontiers on Owerri Bongo music by investigating the mother metaphor in selected Bongo songs and its impact on the psyche of the youth. The study is predicated on Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory which is primarily applied to examine how art stimulates the subconscious of a human, especially the superego. Besides gathering relevant data on songs that express the mother metaphor, the research also relies on data obtained from interviews with selected legends of the Bongo music genre. The findings of the research are hinged on the cultural aesthetics of the Bongo musical art and the psychic influence of the mother metaphor it expresses on the mind of the youth, the objective of which is to turn them to cultural heroes that uphold the ethos of their society.
Key Words: Cultural aesthetics, Digital media, Owerri Bongo music, Psychoanalysis, Youth.
DOI: 10.36349/alqajolls.2026.v01i02.034
author/Dr. Ada Onyebuenyi, Chiadikobi, Chinwe Mary-Rose & Dr. Ugochukwu Iwuji
journal/AL-QALAM JLLS 1(2) | June 2026
