UNESCO partners with Nigerian university to establish music department

The new establishment seeks to promote and modernise traditional music from the continent, as well as add to the appeal of the many forms of the music and help it spread around the globe.

To kick off, the university, which is located in Akungba-Addo, Ondo, in southwest Nigeria, hosted Ino Mirkovic, UNESCO honorary and goodwill ambassador.

An acclaimed violinist, Mirkovic has performed at several concerts around the world since he was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 1998.

Shortly after his arrival, Mirkovic told his audience that the knowledge he has garnered from working around the world would be useful in the drive to set up the department.

”I am invited here to help establish a department for arts or music and performing arts,” he said. “For me, this is going to be very challenging because Nigeria has a tradition in music and dance.

"I also think it will be challenging to bring the knowledge and the experience of western and eastern cultures and to upgrade the local culture here to have a new mixture, which has never happened before.”

Mirkovic said he would organise student and staff exchange programmes between Adekunle Ajasin University and other institutions around the world that offered courses in music and dance.

The pro-chancellor and chairman of the Adekunle Ajasin University council, Tunji Abayomi, said universities were supposed to bring the world to an immediate community while carrying out unique and innovative work.

Abayomi said Mirkovic would work as a consultant to enable the department to produce graduates who could compete in the world. The project itself, he said, was a product of a vision that intended to set up Adekunle Ajasin University as a globally recognised institution.