The Biafran Freedom Fighters

Igbo music refers to the traditional and modern musical expressions of the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria. It encompasses ritual and festival drumming, gong ensembles, dances, praise-singing, and narrative song, as well as 20th‑century guitar- and band-led styles such as Igbo highlife and contemporary pop-rap in the Igbo language. Core timbres come from distinctive instruments such as the ogene (iron gong), ekwe (slit drum), udu (clay pot drum), ichaka/ishaka (rattles), igba (skin drum), oja (wooden flute), and ubo aka (thumb piano). Vocals favor call‑and‑response, tonal text-setting that respects Igbo language inflection, and proverbial, moral, and praise content. From the colonial era onward, brass band, church choral music, palm‑wine guitar, and pan–West African highlife shaped a modern Igbo sound. In turn, Igbo musicians helped define the Nigerian branch of highlife, later inspiring contemporary afropop and Igbo rap while revitalizing fast, metal-gong–driven ogene performance for dance and celebration.