Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Heather Wallington - viola
Mark Thomas - Director of Photography
Rob Kelledy - Sound recording and Mastering
Tim Williams - Editor and Producer
This began as a little piece which deals with repetition and distortion, echoes, fragments as a way of reminiscing on the past year and its blurred lines of memory, history, global connections and happenings, and how we are all connected, even through the air we breathe. As for the bird, anything can fall out of the sky, but in all cases we must ask: what caused it to fall?
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Psappha is grateful for the support its ‘Composing for…’ programme receives from: Arts Council England; PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner scheme; Fenton Arts Trust; The Garrick Charitable Trust; Idelewild Trust; The Radcliffe Trust; and The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation.
Please support Psappha's work: psappha.com/support-us
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LEARN MORE AND FOLLOW PSAPPHA
Website: psappha.com
Subscribe to Psappha's Enewsletter: shorturl.at/ryFGO
Twitter: twitter.com/PsapphaEnsemble
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Instagram: instagram.com/psapphaensemble
Heather Wallington - viola
Mark Thomas - Director of Photography
Rob Kelledy - Sound recording and Mastering
Tim Williams - Editor and Producer
This began as a little piece which deals with repetition and distortion, echoes, fragments as a way of reminiscing on the past year and its blurred lines of memory, history, global connections and happenings, and how we are all connected, even through the air we breathe. As for the bird, anything can fall out of the sky, but in all cases we must ask: what caused it to fall?
---
Psappha is grateful for the support its ‘Composing for…’ programme receives from: Arts Council England; PRS Foundation Talent Development Partner scheme; Fenton Arts Trust; The Garrick Charitable Trust; Idelewild Trust; The Radcliffe Trust; and The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation.
Please support Psappha's work: psappha.com/support-us
------
LEARN MORE AND FOLLOW PSAPPHA
Website: psappha.com
Subscribe to Psappha's Enewsletter: shorturl.at/ryFGO
Twitter: twitter.com/PsapphaEnsemble
Facebook: facebook.com/psappha.ensemble
Instagram: instagram.com/psapphaensemble




![Shruthi Rajasekar - As Oyinbo Come (world premiere)
Psappha Ensemble:
Benedict Holland - violin
Jennifer Langridge - cello
Tim Williams - cimbalom
Stephen Barlow - conductor
Claire Wild - soprano
In Unheard Voices, four composers collaborated with poets whose performing voices reveal diverse spoken accents and varieties of spoken English, to write songs that enable the huge diversity of varieties of English to be heard through the classical singing voice.
This performance was recorded live at Hallé St Peters in Manchester (UK) on 25th March 2021. To view the 4K version we recommend you use Google Chrome or the Firefox browser. The performance took place during the Covid-19 pandemic and was live-streamed without an audience.
Premiered by Psappha as part of Unheard Voices, a project supported by the University of Salford, Arts Council England, and Psappha.
Learn more about Psappha: http://psappha.com
Film Production
Cameras - Soup Collective
Audio & Mastering - Rob Kelledy
Film produced and edited by Tim Williams
As Oyinbo Come [As the white man came] (Words by Vashti Suwa Gbolagun / Music by Shruthi Rajasekar)
PIDGIN
Na as Oyinbo come naim kasala bust – We dey our tin jeje dey play
One early mor-mor so
Naim dem begin show face
Fest na oga Laws, then Nico join am Before we go know wetin dey ground
Dem begin dey dig
Place wey Nanchen say make we no touch Na di place gon, gon Oyinbo like
See me see wahala
Dem say make we comot go yonder
We neva siddon nish
Dem say make we join dey dig
Say e get one money dem dey call tax
If we no pay we no go see food chop
Like play like joke we come start
Our land no be our own again
Na visitor come be landlord
Nanchen vex come dey swallow people Old, young and pikin
The matter still dey pain till now
STANDARD ENGLISH
At the advent of colonialism, trouble started
We were on our own
One early morning
The colonialists began to arrive
At rst Sir Laws and then Sir Nicholas
Shortly after that
Digging began
The sacred grove of the goddess
Was where the colonialists chose
Then trouble began
We were asked to move from our Ancestral home We had hardly settled on the new land when
We were asked to dig
Then we were told about tax
If we did not pay, we would not eat
Like a joke we began to mine
We lost our farmlands
As the colonialists took charge
The goddess got angry and swallowed up
Old, young and infant
The memory still hurts
About:
Environmental degradation in the Jos plateau of Nigeria is a result of colonial intrusion. In the 19th century, traditional lands for farming were seized for the colonial mining of tin. These farmlands indigenous inhabitants were then forced to work the mines in order to pay tax to the colonial government. Family life disintegrated as men were required to spend days away from their homes. Meanwhile, some women took over the responsibility of providing for their families, while others were recruited to the elds, often leaving children without parents to guide them.
The excavating machines created large holes in the earth that were left abandoned by the colonialists. Today, these have become ponds of death that swallow humans and animals. The tin tailings also contaminate the water and surrounding soil. Decades after commercial mining by the colonial government ceased, this loss of land, livelihood, and family life has continued; little is known about the physical and psychological effect of this on the Jos environment. The poem As Oyinbo Come serves as a reminder of these various forms of loss. It was written to create consciousness and to awaken the people to a collective drive to see our land restored.
Vashti Suwa Gbolagun
Learn more about Vashti Suwa Gbolagun - https://blogs.salford.ac.uk/create-student-awards/create-student-awards-2022/the-deans-award/vashti-suwa-gbolagun/
Learn more about Shruthi Rajasekar - https://www.shruthirajasekar.com Shruthi Rajasekar - As Oyinbo Come (world premiere)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gTUTC4DzoeE/mqdefault.jpg)





