By Moses Oludele Idowu
The death of any man or woman diminishes me because I am involved in humanity and believe in the brotherhood of man. For that reason I do not and cannot celebrate the death of anyone, even my enemies. It is against this backdrop that I sincerely express my condolences to the family, fans and the entire art community on the death of Mrs Iyun Janet Ajilore, popularly known as St. Janet.
In my own belief system we do not pray for the dead because nothing can be done or undone again by the dead. I however pray for the family that she left behind and especially her children that God will show them mercy and they will find the right and good way.
This brief commentary would not have arisen or been necessary but I saw some comments and posts by some men of letters and the angle they chose to focus their examination and I too decided to offer some remarks to see the other side. At least every coin has two sides and every cable has got two poles. This my own commentary will be the other side, perhaps the unpopular side and the readers can now judge for themselves.
Let me begin with a confession. I do not know Iyun and have never met her but I have heard about her music and have examined some of her lyrics and tunes and once briefly seen her performance on video. This has made or forced me to consider and examine the real meaning and purpose of art.
The Power of Art
By Art, in the context of my present examination, I am referring to all and everything that involves a person’s skill, talent, learning, work and product through which he creates products and engages or interacts with larger society and communicates a message to the prevailing culture..
Every art conveys a message to the contemporary culture. In this context Art includes the whole ensemble of products of creativity like music, literature, drama, painting, sculpture, etc., and artists include writers, musicians, poets, painters, dramatists etc.
No society has ever joked with such people. Art is power, art is prophecy. Art tells where a culture is and how it is going and where it is headed. You can examine the contemporary art in a nation and if you can read well tell where that nation or society is headed.
History is replete of this terrible power that artists -writers, musicians and poets, etc – have exerted in every age and over every generation. They have shaped societies, unleashed revolutions, instigated wars, affected the culture both for good or for evil.
The American Revolution would have been inconceivable without the writings of Thomas Paine. In point of fact history now records four things as being responsible for that Revolution – the fiery preaching of colonial preachers, the ride of Paul Revere, the guns and militia of George Washington and the influential writings of Thomas Paine.
The French Revolution was made possible by the groundwork already laid by the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau. In point of fact every member of the Revolutionary vanguard of the National Convention from Danton to Robespierre had a copy and had read Rousseau’s works.
Can you imagine the 17th century revolutions in England without the Bible and the writings of the Puritans? [ See Professor Christopher Hill’s excellent book, The Bible and the 17th Century Revolution in England]
The American Civil War happened because of slavery but the issue of slavery did not become a national issue or rise to the front burner of national discourse until Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote her book – Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
That book is credited as the spark that triggered the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln confirmed that fact when he first saw Stowe and met her with his remark : “So this is the little woman that caused this great war.” Stowe so presented the cause of the slave and brought the issues so clearly that they could no longer go unaddressed.
The Arab Spring did not just happen or sprang from nowhere or from the blues; it was triggered by a book. That is the power that artists have exerted in every age which can be used for good or evil. [ For a detailed treatise on the power of literature on revolution see, Moses Oludele Idowu, Literature, Revolution and Social Change, paper delivered at Annual Conference of Association of Nigerian Authors, 2013]
If literature could exert such power music is even worse. Because it takes skill and efforts and discipline to read and understand. It takes some effort and commitment and sacrifice to pore over a whole book or paper which most people do not have. This is why most revolutions have occured in typographic societies like 17th and 18th century – societies where printing predominates and where the obstruction and intrusion of television had not made its debut.
With music you do not need any effort or sacrifice or even skill to hear or listen. This is why music has exerted immediate and terrible power over the masses. And this is why as the music goes so a society or culture goes. You can see something very far away but you can’t hear anything unless it is close by.
Hearing assumes proximity. Since music is addressed to the ear ( unlike painting, writing, drama that are addressed to the soul through the eye, music has an added potential and possibilities and advantages.
And with those assets comes the power to elevate, ennoble, advance or destroy and murder – morally, socially, spiritually and even intellectually. There is a reason why Nigerian children are becoming difficult to train, why they are becoming resistant to discipline and no longer likes to read but cut corners. I can explain it but not in this present examination.
Music has power, terrible power. Much faster than any other art it can ruin so easily and completely and totally. John Wesley spoke of an artist in the 17th century England ( I am outside my study and station presently or I would have supplied the name) who could make people cry or laugh according to his tunes or music. If he wanted the people to cry he knew what to sing and if he wanted them to laugh he knows. Now, that is power.
That is why what a person sings is not just that person’s responsibility alone, it is society’s because it affects all.
The Purpose and Meaning of Art
What is the purpose of Art? What is the meaning of Art? Is it to elevate or ennoble, to cause societies to see themselves and hear, to amuse, enlighten and promote or to degrade, question, contest and upturn the moral foundations and ethical bearings or corrode the time- tested bases of societies? Is it to teach children to drop out of school, question their parents’ wisdom, make money through dubious ways, glorify and dignify crime, adopt a sexually-permissive behaviours?
These questions need to be asked because even in art there are certain base minimum and standards below which an artist need not go. There are ethical boundaries within culture and around culture, time- tested values and enduring graces that one generation passes to the next. You do not undermine these in the name of art or because you want fame.
You do not teach children to rebel against their parents or wives to monetise or commercialize their private parts – all in the name of Art. Art must be ennobling, it must build up societies and culture not tear it apart. It must enshrine and strengthen those ethos that we cherish in Africa and which our forefathers fought and waged war to preserve and which the law of God and Man enjoins. When an Art departs from these then it must come under scrutiny, examination and judgment.
That is not being judgemental or self- righteous or being a “moralist”- a nebulous term intended at gaslighting by people who should know but don’t know. If you sing your music inside your house to your own children I won’t comment. If you write your book and only for your children as Charles Dickens rewrote the New Testament strictly for the education of his children inside his own house, I would not comment.
But once you bring an art to the public space and sell to the public then we have to examine it, scrutinize and interrogate it. That is not moralism or judgementalism, it is also the duty of Art to interrogate itself. That our society has failed and our media has failed in this essential duty is no excuse. If you don’t want your art to be judged then keep it within your house. Judging the art is different from judging the artist. Art affects societies both for better and for worse and that is why it cannot be left to itself.
A nation can be ruined by a book, a philosophy and an art. Rousseau and Voltaire were responsible for the overthrow of religion and morals and the consequences that followed in France by their writings. Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘Will to power’ became the standard ideology for the rise of Nazism. Nazism was the consequence of that art with the bloody and terrible consequences that followed. Hitler celebrated Nietzsche and adored him just like the French revolutionaries revered Rousseau.
As the art goes so goes the culture and societies.
The Beatles left their mark but to what purpose? For.good or for ill? The sexual revolution that has caught America and the youths by the jugular was not without their input. In point of fact the Beatles was one sole reason for the sexual revolution. What is the effect of that in America today? Teenage pregnancies, unwed mothers, school drop-outs, truncated careers
It is not enough to sing well. It is not enough to use the art to move people or change the convention of.music because you wanted to be different. It is also crucial to ask what will be the effect of this on the culture, society and the next generation?
It is not enough to be popular or famous or be rich through art you must also consider at some point how this art impacts the societies and in what directions this will move the culture. What would be the effect of this?
With the benefits of hindsight today we can say Nietzsche’s philosophy did not help Germany, it hindered her. Did Rousseau help France with his ideas? Yes they led to guillotine, Reign of Terror, killings and lynchings and wars. But Britain has achieved the same progress if not more without those traumatic experiences. There is an easy way and there is the hard way and this is where relevant and responsible art comes in.
When Swinburn declared – “Glory to man in the highest” – he sang a new tune for the world to be governed by, a world on which God or any idea of transcendental is irrelevant. When Nietzsche declared that “God is dead and we have killed him” he sought to give society a new way of living where religion or morals will have no place but only power and “will to power,” a world where no transcendental power will have a say in man’s affairs and where the “slave morality” – his exact term – of religion would have been set aside. Now we ask, what is the effects of these philosophical moorings on the world today.
Yes we have “killed” religion and banished it from the public square and we have “dethroned” God – something that even Lucifer could not do, fear men – from man’s affairs and enthroned secularism. Now we ask, what is the effect on the world scene and since those men penned those declarations? It is not an accident that the following 20th century after those men spoke and penned this have been riddled with two World Wars and several wars and plagues costing the lives of almost a hundred millions. As I speak there are now about 200 wars or conflicts in different parts of the world. Indeed, we have killed “God” but at what cost? Where has it led us?
That is why Art matters. The art you ignore today will be the reason for the march of armies tomorrow. The ideas and music that you think are not important because they are morally insensible and insensitive may become the idol of the next generation.
How.many read Shakespeare in his days? He wasn’t even considered the greatest by his own people and they even took down his play once. It was Germany that first saw the genius of the man that has been described as “the father of all dramatists.” But today history has a different verdict from the men of his own days.
St. Janet Music and Art
We now come to the aspect of her art and particularly her type of music. I have heard or read some comments about her creativity and skill. A person must definitely be creative to survive in an increasingly demanding and competitive market. I am not competent to comment about her creativity or lack of it. The aspect that this commentary will dwell on is the convention and purpose of art, the social and revolutionary purposes of music.
Every society has some irreducible minimum of conventional standards and rules – written or unwritten – which even art must respect in order to safeguard the well-being and security of all. Somehow, in my opinion, St. Janet’s music and art especially in her early days and career depart from these. Whether she actually evolved and developed from this early period I do not know or have a means of knowing.
The promotion of vulgarity and profanity, the engagement of indecent and obscene language, the unguarded and unimpeded celebration of sex and immorality both in melody and lyrics – these are not the true purposes of music or art. I am not aware whether her music especially in its early incarnation will survive that judgment.
I have actually heard some and even examined the lyrics and they are simply obscene and unhealthy for the soul – any soul except the sick soul. The veiled promotion of sex and the coded suggestions to women to privatize their private parts detracts from the real purpose of music and the revolutionary dimensions of art.
The open and public glamorization of sex departs completely from African ethos and cultural values. Our ancient forefathers spoke guardedly about sex but openly about death because they did not fear death. You will find that in every ancient African history because they valued the mystery of life and treasured it. There is a reason why the Creator hid the sexual organs of both male and female in a private part of the body because He wanted it to be private and respected.
Our forefathers in Africa knew this and they kept faith with it. Sadly today this generation does not know it and that is why we now speak openly about sex but guardedly about death and that is why death – which our fathers did not fear – now haunts us and wastes us.
St. Janet’s music or art did not know or care about these anthropological categories. To her, possibly, fame or popularity and breaking into the limelight were of more value and more important and insistent. I am aware that the Lagos State House of Assembly once banned her music from being played on any radio stations in Lagos State. That tells you something. If a poor man considers you poor, then, how great is your poverty! If a set of politicians who themselves are not known to be morally upright still find a music morally wayward then it tells something about the degree of that waywardness and perversity.
There is another issue here which is important. Both St. Janet and her husband admitted in an interview they do not sing the same songs in the hearing of their children at home. Really?
So why sing them in the public to my own children and children of others? If a caterer admits the menu is not suitable for the consumption of her own household should she sell them to her clients and customers outside?
I am aware that some are talking about creativity and freedom to be different and all such rhetorics of nonsense. Does creativity or freedom requires an artist to undermine the moral and ethical foundations of society? Does creativity necessitate the unraveling and demolition of the moral fibre and cultural values built by interminable generations?
Most vehicles in Nigeria use premium motor spirits as fuel but I can use other means through creativity like gas, steam and- if possible – air. That would be creativity and there is no law against that. But it would be wrong in the name of creativity to put the vehicle on the road and violate the traffic rules and conventions of the larger society endangering other road users. It would be wrong to drive against oncoming traffic, overtake by the right, or drive on the left instead of right – all in the name of creativity and freedom.
How I power my vehicle is my business but how I drive on the road is the society’s business. That is not being judgemental or self- righteous that is the way that all societies are governed.
The allusion and comparison of her music to Fela is most disingenuous and intellectually lazy. Fela might have been unrecommendable by his sexually- explicit lifestyle and commitment to hemp but Fela’s music is revolutionary and contains serious, important and truthful messages to both leaders and followers. Fela knew the revolutionary power of music and that when he mounts the stage he was addressing the world and even generations and he was concerned about that African consciousness and impacting it correctly.
Every man desires fame, every woman longs to be noticed or connected with a person of fame or power. It is one of the vanities of the human heart. But in our relentless pursuits of fame, in our longing for visibility and popularity we should place the heath of society at the back of our minds. Michael Jackson was world famous but then the end came very sadly through drug overdose.
The Beatles once boasted they would be more popular than Jesus Christ but the end came through gunshots. The end does come and put an end to all fleeting ambitions and ceaseless human strivings.
Then the work lives and continues to speak and then the judgment too begins. In all we do we should also consider the end and the good of humanity. Because after all said and done, after all the fame and notoriety the end does come.
Thank you patient reader, thanks for your patience.
Appreciation
I use this opportunity to thank all who sent greetings on my birthday on August 2. I also thank those who sent gifts to me. The Good Lord richly reward you ALL.
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August 5, 2026
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