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Music Professor Wants to Bring the World to DH to Explore Music of the African Diaspora
*By Larry R. Hygh, Jr., Ed.D.
Oghenevwarho Ojakovo joined the faculty of California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) as an Assistant Professor of Music and the Director for the Center for African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians (The Center) in Spring 2024. “I want to be a good professor to my students, teach to the best of my knowledge, and bring new innovations of learning and knowledge,” he says.
The Center is housed on the CSUDH campus and is a site for the study and preservation of music of composers and performers of music of the African Diaspora. It is an archiving, research, and performance program of the College of Arts and Humanities implemented in partnership with the University Library. The Center offers a multidimensional program that includes the Georgia and Nolan Payton Archive of Sacred Music, the Dominguez Hills Jubilee Choir, and the African Diaspora Sacred Music and Musicians Network and Forum.
“Come and see what we do at The Center. Come to our concerts. Come to our lecture series. Without the Black community The Center would not exist,” he says. Ojakovo says The Center is starting from scratch and comes with a lot of challenges. Some of the questions at the top of his mind, “How can we tell our musical stories? What will DH music department be known for?” He has created a Gospel music concert series and produced a concert to celebrate Black History Month. “I want to bring people from different parts of the world to DH.”
Since arriving at CSUDH he has developed three new courses: African American Music: An Introduction; Music and Black Cultural Formation; and Black Music and Politics. Prior to CSUDH, Ojakovo worked as a Teaching/Research Assistant at the Department of Music, Women’s and Gender Studies, the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Alberta, and as an Assistant lecturer at Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria.
His research interest centers on the intersection of music making in Africa and the diaspora performance space and its contribution to negotiating and renegotiating the complexities that affect the lived experiences of Africans in the diaspora.
Ojakovo earned a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Alberta with a concentration on music and radicalism in Islam, a Master of Arts in Performing Arts from the University of Ilorin where he researched the music of street panhandlers, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Delta State University.
Ojakovo grew up in Warri, Nigeria and cites his parents as his greatest influence. “Growing up my parents instilled in me the values of life and hard work,” he says. He is the father of two daughters and his family lives in Canada.
He loves jazz and African festivals. “Those things give me joy.” Ojakovo plays the drums and can be found reading the works of James Baldwin, Malcolm X, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. because he says it creates a new consciousness of his Blackness.
What’s the best part of being at CSUDH?
“Managing The Center. The Center is close to me…There is a spirit of oneness that exists within the faculty and possible collaborations. It brings everyone together compared to a bigger university. It brings everyone together in the same space.”
What advice do you have for students?
“Take school one day at a time. There is no need to rush. Take each day as it comes, but we should also take time for ourselves. Your experience as a student should involve extra-curricular activities.”
What do you like doing outside of being a professor/hobbies
Ojakovo enjoys cycling, hiking, and swimming.
What is your favorite quote?
“Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.” (Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman and Presidential Candidate)
Website
https://www.csudh.edu/cah/adsmm/
*Hygh is an Assistant Professor in the Communications Department teaching in the Advertising and Public Relations degree program. Prior to academia he spent 20 plus years as chief communications officer in The United Methodist Church. Visit him on the web at www.LarryHygh.com.