Performance and plot in The Ozidi saga

The Ozidi Saga1 tells the story of a culture hero (Ozidi) of the Ijo of the Niger Delta in southern Nigeria. In the traditional context in which the career of the hero was recalled--an annual festival of seven days' duration, involving a variety of symbolic rituals as well as singing and dancing--the re-enactment took the form primarily of dramatization of key moments or episodes in the myth; the full story was never told in a coherent sequence from a canonical beginning to a canonical end. In this way there was ample room for the ritual officiant, dressed in white apparel and holding objects traditionally identified with the hero, to engage in song and dance sequences involving the participation of his acolytes and members of the attending crowd. The celebrated Nigerian poet-playwright John Pepper Clark[-Bekederemo], who first drew our attention to this exciting tradition (1963) and later published a text of the full story he had collected (1977/1991), has also recorded a 16mm film of a festival honoring the Ozidi tradition in Tarakiri Orua, recognized as its home of origin.2Issue title "Slavica.

Cheikh Anta Diop: The Search for a Philosophy of African Culture.

I. Okpewho — Cheikh Anta Diop : en quête d'une philosophie de la culture africaine. Appréciation critique de l'œuvre du penseur sénégalais par un intellectuel africain d'expression anglaise. Bien que Diop se soit distancié formellement de la négritude senghorienne, I. Okpewho considère qu'il en a subi l'influence et le critique pour un certain romantisme qui en résulterait. Il n'en reconnaît pas moins l'intérêt, ne fût-ce que par la provocation intellectuelle qu'elle implique, d'une œuvre finalement peu connue dans les ci-devant colonies britanniques.Okpewho Isidore. Cheikh Anta Diop: The Search for a Philosophy of African Culture.. In: Cahiers d'études africaines, vol. 21, n°84, 1981. pp. 587-602

Rethinking Epic

This article surveys the record of oral epic study, foregrounding the comparative scholarship of the “oral-formulaic” school of Milman Parry and Albert Lord, with the elaborations and refinements of their arguments especially by John Miles Foley. Further contributions both from African studies and from research in ethnolinguistics and ethnopoetics are also highlighted. The article argues that despite the brilliance of the scholarship so far in this field, there has been too much emphasis on the idea of tradition and too little sensitivity to the social and political realities of life among the folk who produce these epics. The article argues for greater consideration of both the contexts of performance of epic texts and especially for their historical connections with the times in which we, the present-day consumers of their messages, live

The World of African Storytelling

My favorite introduction to a discussion of African storytelling is to recall a setting that Oyekan Owomoyela sketched out many years ago from his experience in the Yoruba city of Ibadan in western Nigeria. It is of a traditional family relaxing in their premises at the end of a hardworking day. After the evening meal, the members of the family gather on a porch and if there is moonlight, the younger members gather in the courtyard to play games like hide and seek. On the porch, the entertainment begins with riddles. What dines with an oba (paramount chief of a community) and leaves him to clear the dishes? A fly. What passes befor the oba’s palace without making obeisance? Rain flood. On its way to Oyo its face is towards Oyo, on its way from Oyo its face is still towards Oyo. What is it? A double-faced drum. After a few riddles, the tales begin (Owomoyela 264-265)

Dialook

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