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LITERARY EVALUATION OF THE POETICS IN THE IDOMA ORAL PERFORMANCES

Digitally Signed by: Content manager’s Name DN : CN = Webmaster’s name O = University of Nigeria, Nsukka OU = Innovation Centre

Agboeze Irene E.

ABAH IKWUE

PG/MA/09/50577

ARTS

ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES

ii

LITERARY EVALUATION OF THE POETICS IN THE IDOMA ORAL

PERFORMANCES

BY

ABAH IKWUE

PG/MA/09/50577

RESEARCH WORK PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND

LITERARY STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF

MASTERS OF ARTS, DEGREE IN LITERATURE (M.A)

2015

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CERTIFICATION This is to certify that this dissertation is an independent study carried out by me, Abah Ikwue

with registration number, PG/MA/09/50577 under full supervision and in accordance with the

requirement of the department of English and literary studies, faculty of Arts, University of

Nigeria, Nsukka for the award of Masters of Arts (M.A) in literature. I also certify that this

work has not being presented in part or full for the award of any other diploma or degree

within or any other university

Supervisor ----------------------------- ------------------------ Prof. Damian U. Opata Signature Date HOD ----------------------------- ------------------------ Prof. Damian U. Opata Signature Date Dean of Faculty ----------------------------- ------------------------ Prof. Patrick Okpoko Signature Date

External Examiner ----------------------------- ------------------------ Signature Date

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APPROVAL PAGE

I, Prof. Damian U. Opata do approve this dissertation having fulfilled the requirement for the

award of Masters of Arts (M.A ) in Literature of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Prof. D.U Opata ----------------------------- ------------------------ Supervisor Signature Date

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DEDICATION

To God Almighty.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I particularly thank my supervisor. Prof. Damian U. Opata whose painstaking evaluation and

assessment of every chapter and line of this dissertation gave it the desired substance and

quality. I equally thank the Idoma traditional institution; the Ochi Idoma palace in Otukpo, the

Alekwu and Ichicha cultural groups, the ancient palace of His Majesty Ochi’ Umogidi

Okpleko I, Omakwu Aibe and the current palace elder, Ikwulono Omakwu for granting me

access into the people’s oral literary archive warehoused by Alekwu and Ichicha.

I wish to sincerely appreciate and acknowledge my father, Mr. Ogili Abah whose support and

encouragement sustained me through the period of this research. I thank in no small measure,

my wife, Mrs. Joy Chinasa Abah-Ikwue and my son Ogili Goldmine Abah-Ikwue for their

understanding. Also not left out are my friends and mates in the M.A class who read through

this work. They are Mr. Kingsley Ugwuanyi, Mr. Uche Nnamani. I thank also Mr. Fidelis

Okoro, Mr. Chidi Nwankwo for their useful suggestions and encouragement. My colleagues in

the Department of English Language and Literature, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of

Education, Owerri are equally appreciated. I thank in a special way my Dean in the School of

Arts, Dr. Lady Oguoma Patience for her supports.

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ABSTRACT

This research is a literary evaluation of Idoma oral poetry. The researcher in building a

background for his study begins in chapter one to look at the origin, the constituents, the

archives, aspect of the Idoma verbal arts/performance of Idoma society where the research is

based. The study moves on to review the contributions of various scholars to the study of

Idoma oral literature which helps to justify and show the relevance of this study. The

researcher adopts the “cultural poetics” of Stephen Greenblatt to show relatedness of other

forces that go behind literature to help in shaping the Idoma society through sociohistorical and

cultural awareness. This theory through the methodological lens of field research for data

collection and analysis has helped me to come up with three major subjects or thematic focus

for the study including; Death as Dominant Motif in analysis of Idoma Dirges, philosophical

interpretation of Idoma Oral poetry and the theme of praise and its historical relevance in

Idoma oral poetry.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page i

Declaration ii

Dedication ii

Acknowledgements iv

Abstract v

Table of Contents vi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.2 A brief survey of Idoma Society 2

1.3 Statement of problem 12

1.4 Significance of the Research 13

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 14

2.2 Theoretical framework 22

2.3 Summary 25

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Source of Data 26

3.2 Data Collection Procedure 26

3.3 Subjects 27

3.4 Instrumentation 27

3.5 Transcription 27

CHAPTER FOUR: LITERARY ANALYSIS OF IDOMA POEMS

4.1 Death as Dominant Motif in the Analysis Of Idoma dirges 28

4.2 The Philosophical Interpretation In The Analysis Of Idoma Oral Poetry 46

4.3 The Metaphysical Investigation 46

4.4 Epistemological Investigation 52

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4.5 The Theme of Praise and its Historical Relevance in Idoma Oral Poetry 60

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

5.1 Conclusion 65

5.2 Summary 66

Works cited 68

Appendix

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This study is an attempt to look at the poetics in the Idoma oral performances in order to

explore their rich literary value. The traditional Idoma society just like many others in Africa is

endowed with very rich oral literary culture. The research attempts to look at Idoma as an

ethnic group with distinct linguistic identity even though there are available dialectal variations

here and there. The most important thing however is that, the people still share common

historical, cultural, and socio-political affinities which are the major drivers of their common

and unique oral literary tradition. The major aspect of Idoma oral tradition that forms the crux

of this research is the people’s art or composition of oral poetry drawing from the available

oral performances with heavy reliance on evaluating their literariness. In doing this, attempt

has been made to explain the poetics in the Idoma oral performances and their various types as

well as their importance to the society.

In an attempt to do this, the forms and contents of the various aspects of the Idoma oral

performances such as funeral dirges, praise poetry, religious invocations and prayers,

devotional poetry and chants, and incantatory poetry were studied with the aim of bringing out

their literary qualities. In doing so, an aspect of language use and literary devices as employed

by the various artists were given detailed attention. This involves the identification of the

various figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, irony, hyperbole, oxymoron, metonymy,

assonance and even proverb used. Other devices evaluated in the arts include theme,

mood/atmosphere and the audience involvement.

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1.2 A Brief Survey of Idoma Society

i. Origin: Idoma people hailed from Apa in Kwararafa Confederacy and are all

descendants of Idu. It was learnt from the interview carried out with Alekwu poets that

the father of the entire Idoma was Idu who happened to be the second son of Ale. Ale

gave birth to four children: Atta, Idu, Idoko and Agabi. While Atta fathered the entire

Igala kingdom, Idu fathered the Idoma, Idoko fathered the entire Igbira people, and

Agabi fathered the Iyala and Ogoja people in Cross Rivers State.

A picture showing the front-view of Ochi’Idoma palace in Otukpo during the field work

Apa was a Jukun homeland. In most traditions, this locality was also known as Okali or

Okolofa which is today called Wukari. The voice of the different Idoma historians and the epic

poets are the same that this was the ancestral homeland of Idoma people. There are some

suggestions by the informats, too, that some Idoma ancestors lived in Apa side by side with

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other ethnic groups and that the term Apa was a blanket one covering a wide collection of

people, which is an evidence in my research interview with one of the narrators of this history

as shown below:

IDOMA: Aalo ni’Idu maa, Aalo mna Apa Aipe ni’ Idu maa, leki Idoma Okoko, oi ki’ Idu, ada ko’ Otukpo Ale, oi ki’ Idu, ada ke’ Egwumale

Ode oi ki’ Idu, Omo’ Ogwuche, Onah, Ejeh Ogwuche ada ko’ Oglehu Onah ada Ku’ Ugbokpo Ejeh ada Ku’ Umogidi Aalo ba’ Apa mla’ ache oha Ache lebe ku Jukun, Igbira, Igala Wukari mla’ ache oha Eyeeyee

ENGLISH:

We the children of Idu are from Apa The children of Idu are named, Idoma Okoko, son of Idu and the father of Otukpo Ale, son of Idu who begot Ogwuche, Onah & Ejeh Ogwuche fathered Ugbokpo Ejeh fathered Umogidi We stayed in Apa with other people Like Jukun, Igbira, Igala, Wukari and others.

This evidence is also backed-up by Armstrong’s suggestion that “the Idoma, Igala and

the Yoruba formed part of the same social complex until about 6,000 years ago” (14).

The various folktales, myths and legends rendered by Alekwu and Ichicha, and those

narrated by the oral historians of Idoma such as the one above suggest that Idoma has

been involved in series of migration before arriving at their present location. Based on

the Idoma history traditions, Erim suggested this period, ‘‘1535-1625A.D as the earliest

recorded migration in the Idoma history’’ [6]. All the traditions beginning in the third

phase of Idoma emigrational history suggest that Idoma left Apa as a result of

untenable conditions created by constant warfare. It would seem that the fortunes of the

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inhabitants of Apa in these wars were reflected in dynastic struggles, which brought

about an increasing sense of insecurity. This situation continued to get worse for a a

period of time and Apa was eventually deserted. According to other historical sources,

the war that caused the final migration that brought the Idoma to this part of the lower

Benue valley was “the horse war” which the narrator termed “efu onya”.

The Idoma ethnic group in the present location is situated at the South eastern part of

Benue State and is the second largest ethnic group after Tiv. Benue State was created

on the 3rd February, 1976 from old Benue-Plateau. The state lies between longitudes 6o

– 10o East and latitude 6o – 8o North. It is bounded by Nassarawa State in the North,

Taraba in the Northeast, Enugu, Ebonyi and Cross River to the South and Southeast and

Kogi to the West and Northwest. The state covers an area of about 69,740 square

kilometers.

The Idoma speaking group is also found in considerable number in Nassarawa and

Cross River states. The recent population census put the population figure of the nine

Idoma local government areas of Benue State at one million, two hundred and ninety

three thousand (1,293,000).

ii. Constituents: The Idoma ethnic group as earlier pointed out above is a very broad

entity which comprises nine local governments that make up the Benue South

senatorial zone. The Local Governments are Apa, Agatu, Otukpo, Ohimini, Okpokwu,

Ogbadibo, Obi, Oju, Ado. Among these are five dialectal variations in the Idoma

language. The dialects of Otukpo, Ugboju, Adoka, Umogidi, Oglehu and Onyagede all

of Otukpo and Ohimini local government areas resemble one another. The Otukpo

dialect is described as the standard central dialect and has been chosen (consciously or

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unconsciously) as a lingua franca (so to speak) with Otukpo remaining as the cultural,

commercial and administrative headquarters of the Idoma kingdom.

My research and investigation is centrally based in Umogidi and Otukpo. The other

dialects are the Egwumale that differs significantly from all others and has been

influenced by Igala, while that of Okpoga has individual features. Otukpa, Owukpa,

Orokam have common resemblance and are influenced by Nsukka Igbo. Another

dialect is Agatu which differs from the others except Ochekwu, with which it has

certain affinities.

iii. Religious/Social Life: The Idoma people are very hardworking, hospitable people who

treasure self-respect and independence. They are mainly farmers whose chief crops are

yams, cassava, guinea corn, groundnuts, rice and cotton. Apart from farming, they also

indulge themselves in hunting, fishing, carving and weaving. They usually live in clans

which have central open playgrounds. They have a very strong chieftaincy which

antedates colonial administrations. The institution of Oche is the political organization

of chiefdom in Idoma nation. The head of this institution of government is what in

Idoma is known as Oche (Chief or King). The Oche of the entire Idoma is known as

Ochi Idoma whose palace is in Otukpo and his title is Agaba-Idu meaning the lion of

Idu.

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A sculpture showing Agaba in front of Ochi’ Idoma palace, taken during the field work

The day-to-day running of the kingdom is not completely left in the hand of Oche who

is the Chief Executive but there are other smaller Chiefs who assist him. They are the

representatives of their various districts. They are district heads who legislate in the

Oche’s palace.

The average Idoma person is religious as well as superstitious. The traditional religion

of Idoma is a form of pantheism meaning the people believe in different gods including

earth god, ancestral god which Alekwu represents. Religion pervades all aspects of the

life of the people which is the reason why there is a belief that God is present in their

lives all the time. According to the Idoma belief, one’s success in life depends to a great

extent not only on the correct observance of all the civil rules and regulations but

meticulous adherence to taboos and acts that are prohibited as well as respect or regard

for the old people since they are believed to constitute powerful intermediary between

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the world of the dead and the living. Any infringements on the rights and privileges of

the elders will evoke severe repercussions as the ancestors and the spirits will also be

offended. The Idoma people have a strong belief in ancestral Alekwu worship.

It is believed according to the Idoma worldview that the dead members of the Idoma

kindred were believed to be paradoxically alive. The implication of this is that death in

corporeal sense did not remove the dead from the kindred membership as such. This

suggests that when someone dies in the physical, the spirit keeps roaming about until it

is invoked and initiated to join other members of the ancestors in the Alekwu cult

which is symbolically represented by the masquerade of each ancestor. In that regard,

certain classes of ancestors were considered vital and living members of the

community. According to the Idoma world view, they are consequently endowed with

certain rights and responsibilities, which in most cases include among other things to

guide the affairs of the living and to serve as link between the physical world and the

spirit world. This position is similar to Bayo and Rasheed’s assertion that the cult of the

ancestors has been perfectly built into the African perception of cosmic and social

existence [67]. The resurrected ancestors or the Alekwu concretely transform

themselves to Ekwu Afia and come to the world occasionally to feel the spiritual pulse

of the kindred spirit. This agrees with Ted and Amali’s positions on the reason why it is

believed that the Alekwu in the Idoma society plays an important role in the lives of the

people.

iv. The Archive: The ancestors re-invoked as Alekwu play not only a religious and

metaphysical role, but also warehoused the people’s history, literature and philosophy.

The Alekwu contribute towards oral history and literature of the Idoma, because in

some festivities, including funerals, Alekwu Afia (masked Alekwu) recited the

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genealogies of the different lineages praising in songs the heroism of early ancestors

since the time of migration. They engage one another in a competition where they test

one another’s literary ingenuity by rendering beautiful poetry. In this instance, oral

poetry in Idoma can be seen as a compendium of profound resources of language for

expressing the feelings, thoughts, beliefs, philosophies, values and histories of the

people. It contains aspects of culture such as social ethos, religious dogmas and all

aspects of material and non-material culture in which the people live, move and have

their being.

v. The Idoma Verbal Arts/Performance:

va. The Idoma Verbal Arts: Like any other cultural group where oral literature and oral arts

exist, the Idoma verbal arts are sustained fundamentally by performance. In other

words, virtually every study on the concept of an Idoma oral literature stresses the

complementary nature of the verbal arts with performance.

It is in view of this fact that Amali avers that the Idoma religious/Alekwu poetry is a

verbal form of expression whose composers are generally not known, but handed down

over the centuries from generation to generation (32). Fennigan also asserts that one of

the striking characteristics of oral as distinct from written literature is its “verbal

variability” (8).

It is pertinent to point out here that every Idoma person who lives in that oral culture is

a potential performer of some sort, but few ever distinguish themselves as artists of the

first order.

Oral literature is no doubt a literature delivered by word of mouth; therefore, during

this festival, the general adult members of the community (males) participate in this

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performance. Alekwu-afia numbering about fifty engaged one another in a poetic

rendition of different kinds testing and proving their imaginative/creative ingenuities.

As stated earlier, the artistes equally employ certain appeals not only in what they are

saying but in the way it is said (whether in the manner of plain speech or of chanting or

singing). Even in some categories of Idoma verbal arts where a more or less fixed body

of text is recognized and the artist is expected to recite it, much of the appeal lies in the

quality of the voice used and the skill with which the speaker manipulates the tone of

the words involved. Other more elaborate forms of oral performance during this festival

involve the use of musical instruments and dance as accompanying devices. It is on this

strength of creativity and imagination that we make bold to say that Idoma oral

performing art is rich in literary qualities and should be seen as such.

As an African group for whom praise and criticism are favoured forms of discourse, the

freelance Idoma poets who sing praises of Oche in his palace employ certain stylistic

elements in their songs such as repetition. The interesting thing remains the way and

manner in which the repetition is manipulated. The poets especially Alekwu afia during

performance usually build imagery out of various elements taken from the surrounding

culture and environment (e.g., animals, trees, rivers etc.). For instance, in one of the

festivals a particular Ekwu afia uses the imagery of a goat selling leaves and yet could

not find the same leaves to feed on even when it could not sell all the leaves it went to

market with. This symbolically depicts a situation whereby someone finds himself amid

plenty yet wallows in hunger and want. If present at the festival, one can see the various

ways in which the oral poets (i.e. Alekwu afia) manipulated symbols and imageries

within the poem, showing how one small image develops in scope as the poem is

rendered. Speaking of Babalola’s Ijala Okpewho reiterated that he (Babalola) treats us

to an insider’s view of the various stylistic techniques and characteristic of the

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Yoruba language, which lend Ijala its poetic flavour, such as complex structure of

imagery and allusion, the manipulation of sounds and of the voice to achieve specific

effects of beauty and meaning, and (more interesting) those linguistic devices which

are not common in everyday speech but are part of the poetic diction of Ijala.

vb. The Aspect of Performance in Idoma Oral Poetry: More interesting about Idoma

performing arts is the fascinating way in which the maskers dramatize various

actions/issues captured in the renditions. This dramatization of actions makes the

poems assume the proportion of life, even though they are purely imaginative fictions.

Furthermore, Idoma oral poetry like most forms of oral performance is an integration of

artistic forms. As pointed out earlier, in its performance, for instance, there is drama.

There is a combination of verbal elements with musical accompaniment. There could

be visual aspects involving the use of costumes, mime and dance. In the Idoma Alekwu

poetry, especially religious type, the rendition made during pouring of libation becomes

important not only in the utterance of the poet/performer. The action of pouring out the

libation, the positions of feet, hands and indeed dramatic aspects such as how the artist

holds a cup of Oburukutu (locally brewed beer) are all integral aspects that evoke the

full essence of the performance. The artist in this instance addresses an audience that is

physically present or one that is invisible such as ancestors.

Movement, an important aspect of acting, is involved as the artist does not adopt a

single posture. He may even put on a certain costume that may have colour symbolism.

The costume worn by Alekwu afia has two colours of black and red with black

symbolising the world of the dead which is believed to be dark inside from which the

ancestral spirit is believed to have lived, into the world of the living. The red on the

other hand symbolises the red earth where the said ancestor was buried when he died.

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vc. Symbols and Meanings: In the simple act of libation therefore, a whole range of

meanings operate. To this end, Onuekwusi asserts that, “we are not just concerned with

words but with movement, action and symbolism all of which go to enhance the

meaning of poetry” (80). This tallies with Mezu’s assertion that one of the most

interesting aspects of traditional African civilization is “the unity of the art forms” (93).

To Baudelaire, there exist the unity and association of music, poetry, dance and

painting in the process of which the sounds of music, the rhythms, phrases and

syllables, the allegories and analogies of poetry, the steps, movements, jumps and

signals of dance and finally the colours of painting are unified in a symbolic world

where religion provides a solid and firm structure.

In conclusion, the centrality of performance in the Idoma oral poetry genre is indeed

significant. Songs are realized in performance and it is performance that gives each one

of them its distinctive character. The good singer seeks the involvement of his or her

audience through an appeal to both its emotional and intellectual faculties, thus the

singer or performer of any kind of Idoma oral poesy needs to be very knowledgeable in

the culture of the community. Because the effect that the singer has on his audience is

invariably dependent on the dexterity with which he or she manipulates the values and

resources embodied in the Idoma language, it is very advantageous for a singer to show

unwavering allegiance to this crucial aspect of Idoma culture. In a similar study,

Chukwuma Azuonye terms this functionality on the part of the artist in his study of

Ohafia Igbo Singer of Tales as according to him;

By this principle, the Ohafia people evaluate the songs purely in terms of their

manifest effects on culture and society and on the behaviour of individual

members of the society. This principle refers merely to the practical utility of

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the songs, especially when performing in association with the well known

dramatic war dance of the people and its accompaniment of martial music as

part of integrated heroic musical whole [48].

The Idoma language has an exceptionally rich supply of proverbs and proverbial

expressions, maxims, vowel harmony or assonance, puns, repetitions, alliterations,

rhymes, tonal variations, and other sound patterns which heighten effect, and the gifted

singer learns to use these materials to his advantage. In the Idoma worldview also are

embedded numerous folktales, legends, anecdotes, myths, and beliefs that aid

creativity.

1.3 Statement of Problem

In all cultures, man spoke before he wrote. Immediately man invented language in pre-literate

societies, he sought ways of saying things pleasantly to his fellows. Even in the most

rudimentary societies, language is a system of arbitrary vocalizations to man in a specific time

and space assigned meaning in which he understood and mutually learned, and shared with his

fellows. Onuekwusi avers that, ‘‘man’s first attempts to create literature are traceable to early

man’s after-labour narrations of farming, hunting, fishing and other experiences to his fellows

in their cave dwelling’’ [1]. He further explains that during this narration, man tried to

manipulate and arrange words, sometimes in poetry forms, to increase the pleasantness of

expression and the content and functions of words as carriers of information, education and

emotions.

The earlier European writers/researchers on Africa have severally created doubtful impression

that African oral art was merely primitive and verbal repetitions of what was memorized and

handed down from one generation to another. They opined however, based on the reason above

that, it was supposed to be simplistic since it was believed by them to be mindless,

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unimaginative which do not posses the qualities of perfect literature. Most of these researchers

had never visited the communities they spoke so learnedly about, not to talk of taking their

time to investigate the literariness in the said African oral arts/performances. Some of them

took this position about Africa based on the report presented to them by the early European

explorers who visited the continent for reason of trade, missionary and conquest.

These prejudices are, however, far from representing the true situation which is one of the

problems this research sets to address. By evaluating the literary qualities of the poetics in the

Idoma oral performances, we are indeed presenting a true picture of the literariness or literary

qualities of not only Idoma oral performing arts but Africa in general.

1.4 Significance of the Research

The value of this research to the promotion of African Literature in general and the Idoma

society in particular is enormous just as the research goes a long way to educate people outside

Idoma domain about the people and especially their oral literature. The research is equally

significant as it is intended to challenge and spur others to write and research more about the

Idoma oral literature, even though, the Amalis - Idris and Shamshudeen have done

considerable research on the genre before. The Idoma oral literature is so rich and one hardly

sees much written about it. But with the availability of present research, people can better

appreciate the Idoma oral literature and subsequently, their culture.

Another major importance of the research is the fact that the people’s oral arts which were

undocumented are collected, recorded and properly documented in written form. This to a

great extent has solved the problem a would-be researcher may have faced enquiring into the

people’s oral literature especially as it concerns oral poems since this work, would have been

produced to aid further research. Also, the research is significant because it has brought an

aspect of Idoma oral literature to limelight.

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CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

There have been many studies of the vast body of the oral literature of Idoma, published and

unpublished, dealing with arrays of issues but very little work exists on the study of the literary

and aesthetic qualities of Idoma oral literature, especially their poetics. Even a cursory glance

at the works of such scholars who have done much on this, like R.G. Armstrong, R.C.

Abraham, S.O.O. Amali, Idris Amali, Ted Anyebe, and many others would show immediately

that much works have been done on Idoma literature without much attention given to its

literary qualities.

R.C. Abraham, a colonial researcher in Idoma, in his work, The Idoma Language, postulates

that “Idoma ethnicity like many other African groups has a very rich literature expressed in a

beautiful language” (101). R.G. Armstrong who conducted an empirical research on Idoma

historiography and their literature complemented this assertion. He was the first scholar to do a

research on Alekwu chants entitled, Onugbo Mlo Okoh: the Tale of Two Brothers. His second

work is The Idoma Kings: the Nature of their Office and their Changing State. He classified

Idoma oral poetry into court poetry, freelance poetry and religious poetry. He further

postulated that:

The court poetry is found around the Oche’s palace. The professional praise

singers sing the chief’s praises and those of their predecessors and their

achievements. While freelance poetry are those songs sang by poets who go

about freely to perform in any occasion for them to be paid for their services

[sic]. The religious poetry however are those performances, which do not only

involve the people whom they represent, but also their lives and their

relationship with their gods [qtd in Amali, 43].

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S.O.O. Amali too has paid attention to Idoma poetry in his work: Idoma Dances and Their

Continued Relevance to the Society. A Study of Idoma-Otukpo Ichicha and Alekwu. In this

work, his focus is no doubt on the social relevance of the Alekwu religious practice and its

poetic performance through the dramatic mode. He posits that:

The Idoma religious/Alekwu poetry belongs to the community that practices it.

It is a verbal form of expression whose composers are generally not known, but

handed down over the centuries from one generation to another. During the time

of performance, addition, modifications and alteration are not welcomed as that

can destroy the original theme and content, [32].

The opinions and views of scholars and even the informants are related on this point. This is

why the Idoma Alekwu/Ichicha religious poetry is said to be fixed. They are classified as fixed

because they are sung and performed according to a laid down mode set by the ancestors of

Idoma people. In the course of performing the arts, the artiste has no room to alter anything

outside the set standard. His concern, however, is how Alekwu/Ichicha songs can be used as a

vehicle for social change.

This is evidently far from our focus in this research. This could be what Fennigan had in mind

when she says; “Because oral literature has no known author, it is anonymous and apocryphal,

it is communal, it is freehold and a general property usable by any one who has learnt to do so,

and is guided by tradition”[9]. She further attempted to classify African oral literature into

three basic forms. They include the narratives [what is spoken], poetry [what is sung]; and

drama [what is acted]. It is important to point out at this point that our concern in this study is

on [what is sung] which is poetry.

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Onuekwusi states that “poetry, even in the written form, cannot exist outside music, melody

and rythm for the music impulse often forms the basis of poetic composition” [77]. According

to him African oral compositions of poetry especially, words and music are inseparable.

This is because words, even as they are carriers of thought, are so chosen and

arranged to provide sound, the orderly arrangement of which constitutes music.

Much of what is recognised as poetry in African oral literature is designed to be

performed in situations where songs and music are important props of emotion

[77].

Okpewho though recognising that musical notations should be ideal for his work, admit: “My

present level of competence in music does not permit me to attempt a notation of this tale so as

to establish the proper role of background music in the modulation” [71]. Obviously, a lot of

interdisciplinary “relay race” has yet to be done by African scholars to firmly establish that

African oral poems are music or songs.

Oral poetry in Idoma can therefore be seen as a compendium of profound imaginary resources

of language for expressing feelings, thought, beliefs, philosophies, values and histories of the

people. It contains aspects of culture such as prejudices, real or imaginary, social ethos,

religious dogmas and all aspects of material and non-material culture which the people live,

move and have their being.

Like S.O.O Amali, Idris Amali researched into Idoma oral literature with bias in favour of

proverbs and idioms. His works are: Form and Meaning of Idoma Otukpo Proverbs, Proverbs

as Concept of Idoma Performing Arts and Sources of Idoma proverbs: A Guide to

Paremiographers. It is evident that virtually all the Idoma oral artists use proverbs extensively

in their songs. Amali studied such artists as Joe Akatu, Abojeema and Aklama Itoodo. All of

them use proverbs as vehicles to pass the meaning and themes of their songs. In his recent

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work, Flute Proverbs: the Case of Idoma Aklama Itoodo, he observes that “ in the textual

presentation of the flute calls of Aklama Itoodo of Idoma Otukpo, it is evident that the flute

call contains succinct Idoma proverbs and idioms” [11].

To Okpewho, such folklorist research which is sometimes taken for oral literary research is

somewhat misleading. According to him:

Sometimes the use of the term oral literature and folklore is a little confusing.

In many cases the latter is used when only the former is meant, i.e., a scholar

may praise a Yoruba or Kikuyu proverb as an example of the poetic qualities of

the people’s folklore [5].

Okpewho may have made this point from his study of some oral literature he has investigated,

but our study of the poetics of Idoma oral performances proves to us that proverb itself forms

an integral part of the oral performing arts and customs of an Idoma community. Achebe

informs us too that for the Igbos the core of conversation is the appropriate use of proverbs,

and they believe: “proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten” [qtd in Jayalajshmi,

13].

Anyebe, in his uncanny propensity for the conscious liberation of ethnic mythology and

traditional arts, explains in his work, Enhancing Rural Development through Drama; the

Idoma Experience, that the communal essence which exists in the spiritual communal drama as

seen in the Alekwu funeral is significant in this study of Idoma oral performances. According

to him:

…for instance, the entry of Alekwu afia in a funeral scene is by itself symbolic

which has a long history for explanations. The various colours of costume, the

headgear, the zooming movements and the chants are symbolic aspects that find

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socio spiritual rationalization in the plenitude of its powers over the minds of

the people/actors/audiences [34].

This may be what Okpewho had in mind when he opines that:

It is therefore in the study of performance that we are able to see the essential

character of oral literature as distinct from written literature that is, as an art

form created in the warm presence of an audience as against the cold privacy of

the written work [42].

To Fennigan, oral literature is by definition dependent on a “performer who formulates it in

words on a specific occasion- there is no other way in which it can be realised as a literary

product” [2]. According to her, the significance of performance in oral literature goes beyond a

mere matter of definition: for the nature of the performance itself can make an important

contribution to the impact of the particular literary form being exhibited. In tandem with the

above assertions, Hymes, notes that a performer would seem to be taking a situational concern

to concentrate on performance as an activity emergent or arising within a social context. This

concern he tells us in the textual analyses in one of his notable papers:

......is with performance, not as something mechanical or inferior, as in some

linguistic discussions, but with performance as something creative, realized,

achieved, even transcendent of the ordinary course of event [qtd in Okpewho 4].

Speaking on the importance of performance to oral literature, Okoh observes thus:

To anyone unaccustomed to non-written pieces being regarded as literature, the

first fact to appreciate is that we are here dealing with materials that boast no

independent existence outside an enactment, an occasion or, in more formal

terms, a performance [87].

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Chukwuma has similar view when she opines that “performance is the life of oral literature,

and involves the totality of artiste, audience and contexts. It is the main distinguishing feature

between oral and written literature” [9].

According to Ode Ogede who studied Igede Dirges:

The dirges reveal the kindred spirit that the Igede share with other African

groups as evident for example, in the belief in the narrow link that exists

between the world of the living and the world of the dead (6).

Thus, among the Igede, the performance of dirges is not a specialist occupation of separate

communities or cult groups, such as hunters with their ritual observances as reported by

Babalola in The Content and Form of Yoruba Ijala and Ajuwon in Funeral Dirges of Yoruba

Hunters for Yoruba communities. Nor do we find among the Igede such professional mourners

as the Idoma Alekwu and Ichicha troupes as recorded in Ted Anyebe’s Enhancing Rural

Development through Drama: The Idoma Experience.

Na’Allah and Ogunjimi see dirge as a funeral poetry which deals with universal meaning based

on the philosophy of human existence. To them, death is a universal phenomenon, the fate

everybody must embrace [183]. Fennigan drawing from Nketia’s study of the Akan funeral

dirges sees dirges as “songs sung or intoned by women as part of the public mourning during

funerals” [153]. She tells us further that “speech [is] inlaid with music, sobs and conjoined to

bodily movement” [153]. Okoh argues that, in as much as death is often associated in Africa

with great grief and mourning, “a funeral song may be chanted, hummed or performed in

certain private contexts, in complete disregard of such occasionality rule” [86]. Okoh’s

argument here is at variance with Fennigan’s occasionality theory in oral performance. In her

view, as quoted on page [31] of this paper, oral literature can only be realised when a

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performer formulates it for a particular occasion. What this means is that occasion determines

what song is sang at a point in time.

In the Idoma society, however, the occasionality theory is firmly applied as dirges are not just

sung, for death must occur before dirges are sung. In fact there is an aspect of Idoma dirges

that an informant described as fixed, meaning that the mode of singing these dirges remains the

same from one generation to another. This dirge is sung by Alekwu and Ichicha who perform

the rite of passage to formally open the road for the spirit of the dead to roam freely from the

world of the living to the world of the dead. They sing the ancient historical song of the Idoma

people. These songs go hand-in-hand with the prayers offered by both the lead-singer and the

Alekwu to the gods of the land. This, Akporobaro also highlights in his study of Akan, Ewe

and Urhobo funeral dirges. He sees it as “a lament in poetic form of a mourner for a departed

loved one” [52]. To him dirge is not just a formless cry of bereavement. It is a highly stylistic

form of expression that is governed by specific poetic recitative conventions used to express

the feelings of the mourners in a determinate form and performance procedure.

As an African group for whom praise and criticism are favoured forms of discourse, the Idoma

use praise and criticism as major themes in their oral performing art for dealing with those in

positions of power for they perceive power as existing in material, political, social, and

spiritual realms. And they believe power can be deployed either to positive or negative ends.

Whether it is in festive or solemn moments, the Idoma habitually employ praises and songs of

admonishment with astonishing effect – to entertain, please, or amuse those who are powerful;

to laud or criticise those who excel or fail to excel in exemplary modes of behaviour; to

instruct others to emulate acceptable modes of behaviour; and to obtain spiritual favours or

cleansing from the ancestors.

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Commenting on praise poetry with Isoko oral performances in mind, Akporobaro in

Introduction to Africa oral literature observes:

This is a form of poetry that is specifically designed for the eulogistic portrayal

of the virtues of a given subject. The subject of the praise may be a king, a

chief, a war leader, an animal or plant. The most characteristic feature of the

praise poem is the invocation of the noble and heroic qualities of the subject

through the use of appropriately suggestive metaphors, symbols and allusions

(50).

Among the two societies under study, the Idoma and Isoko, we see a little difference. While

the former in her praise songs found not only praise and eulogies but also an avenue to instruct,

using humour to criticise and satirise the same leaders whenever they act contrary to the

community’s norms or value systems. The latter, however, focuses only on the praises and

invocation of king’s heroic qualities. This, as the Idoma, is equally the case in very many other

social-cultural groups in Africa. A case in question is that of Gule Wankulu of Malawi as

recorded by E.S Timpunza:

The audience participants fall under the illusion that the actors are spirit of the

ancestors which is feared and revered? Thus the performers in this category

freely sing songs about the corrupt village chief and court counsellors; foolish

husbands who are hen-pecked by their possessive wives; lazy or impotent

husbands; the stupid and selfish chief who does not protect the interest of his

people; the untidy and quarrelsome wife; the uncle who bewitch his nephew; the

bad father-in-law or mother-in-law; the good for nothing son-in-law [82-3].

Looking at his Igede society and their form of praise songs Ode Ogede observes in his work;

Art, Society and Performance: Igede Praise Poetry that:

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Praise and disparagement songs are highly valued forms of artistic expression

among the Igede, for the people exceptionally cherish honour, integrity,

achievement, justice, and generosity. Always manifest in the scale of values of

the Igede is a willingness to reward those who embody these cherished

attributes as well as the determination to punish those who fail in the public

display of integrity, honour, and courage [4].

The concept and practice of performance are central to artistic expression and experience in

African oral tradition.

In the actual public performance of his role, the picture becomes even more complex, for the

poet-singer performs as part of an ensemble of drummers, dancers, and singers. The Idoma

Alekwu poet does not just recite his poetry but acts it, uses variation of pitch, and aims at

communicating his poem through the simulation of all the senses. He produces at one level a

symphonic chant, at another drama and music.

2.2 Theoretical Framework

The theoretical base of this research is hinged on ‘New Historicism’ of Stephen Greenblatt,

“Poetics of Culture”. This study investigates the literary qualities of the poetics in the Idoma

oral performances with the aim of exploring and revealing the relationship between the poems

and their socio-historical relevance to the Idoma people. “Cultural Poetics” assumes that texts

not only document the social forces that inform and constitute history and society but also

involve prominently in the social processes themselves which fashion both individual identity

and the socio-historical situation.

In one of the poems, collected during Eje-Alekwu festival in Umogidi for instance, the poet

praised the heroic qualities of the first king of the community, His Majesty, Omakwu Aibe.

The poem that were reviewed in detail in chapter four, was performed to herald the arrival of

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Omakwu from Otukpo to Umogidi his father’s land. At this time, Omakwu was a wealthy man

who traded on several goods between the Idoma nation and other surrounding ethnics like the

Igbos through Obolo-afor, in the present Enugu State, Iyala and Ogoja in the present Cross

River State, etc. The poem further reveals that, on his arrival in Umogidi, his people saw him

as the only one who could liberate them from the attack of their hostile Tiv neighbours. As it is

common with historical poems, the poem succeeds in revealing the incredible power of the

character which eventually gave his people their freedom; an achievement that made them

crowned him king.

This could be what Greenblatt has in mind when he explains that by means of an economic

metaphor, texts and other symbolic goods contribute to the distribution of social energy by

which he means the intensities of experience that give value and meaning to life and that are

also indispensable to the construction of self-awareness and identity. His aim is to prove that

Literature and the arts are integral with other social practices that, in their complex

interactions, make up the general culture of an era.

In the interpretive and analytic procedures we adopted in this research, we have been able to

establish a strong link between the Idoma oral literature, poetry in particular and their history.

This is so because, one of the interviews with a group of Idoma oral historians at the palace of

Omakwu revealed that Idoma people hailed from Apa in Kwararafa confederacy and are

descendants of Idu. This claim is supported by a particular Alekwu poet who chanted a poem

on the people’s migration history. He established that Idoma ancestors lived side by side with

other ethnic groups and that the term Apa was a blanket one covering a wide collection of

people.

It is however pertinent to observe that the exponents of “Cultural Poetics” are of the view that

“if new historicists limit themselves to analysing examples of class dominance and exploitation

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in literary texts, but stop short of a commitment to reform the present social order, they have

been co-opted into ‘complicity’ with the formalist literary criticism that they set out to

displace” (qtd in M.H Abrams & G.G. Harpham, 244).

In view of the above, the evaluation of the legendary poem for Omakwu has given an insight

into the social cultural experiences of the community of birth of the subject of praise which is

Okwutachi and circumstances surrounding his birth. Through its constituent elements of

allusions, events, oblique references, we also see in the above poem the construction and the

deconstructions of the migration history of the Umogidi people. The poem no doubt fuses

imaginative inventiveness with historicity. The new historicists, most of them literary scholars,

have challenged and resisted the assumptions and goals of traditional historicism thus:

They deny, for example, that anyone can ever know exactly what happened at a

given time and place. All that can be perceived is what has been handed down

in artefacts and stories, making history a narration, not a pure, unadulterated of

precise observations (Ann B. Dobie, 176).

To avoid been swept away by criticism of the New Literary Historicists, I seek to understand in

this research, the texts of Idoma poetics under study, by examining their cultural context. The

anxieties, issues, struggles, politics (and more) of the era in which they were created, by

looking at the people’s literature. It is important to point out too that the texts even though

performed recently are literature handed down to the current generation of artistes by the

ancestors of the people. What is important however is that, the thematic thrusts of them are

such that are relevant in all ages and time. So the concern of this study is to see how these oral

materials can be used for the socio-cultural, religious and political well-being of Idoma people.

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2.3 Summary

We have been able to critically look at the works of such scholars of Idoma oral literature like

R. C Abraham in his work, The Idoma Language, R. G. Armstrong in his work, Onugbo Mlo

Okoh: The Tale of Two Brothers S.O. Amali in his work, Idoma Dances and their Continued

Relevance to the society: A Study of Idoma – Otukpo Ichicha and Alekwu, Idris Amali in his

works, Forms and Meaning of Idoma Performing Arts and Sources of Idoma Proverbs: A

Guide to Paremiographers, Ted Anyebe in his work, Enhancing Development through Drama:

the Idoma Experience, including the works of other specialized researchers of other African

groups such as Isidore Okpewho, Jasper Onuekwusi, Ruth Fennigan, Abdulahid Na’Allah and

Bayo Ogunjimi, Okafor, C.A, Ode Ogede, Charles Nnolim, Nkem Okoh, F.B.O Akporobaro,

E.S. Timpunza, Helen Chukwuma, Obiechina E., Chukwuma Azuonye and many others.

The review of the above related literature have no doubt shown that much work have been

done on the African nay Idoma oral literature in general and poetry in particular but none has

been able to critically investigate the literariness or literary qualities of Idoma oral poetry. This

singular fact is the reason why we are embarking on this research.

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CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

The methodology employed in this research is the “literary analysis” of the texts of oral

poetics of Idoma-Alekwu performances. This method has been carefully designed to analyse

the texts through the medium of language and other literary devices to reveal the layers of

interpretation and understanding that surrounds the people’s oral tradition through the

theoretical lens of “Cultural Poetics”.

3.1 Sources of Data

The researcher first of all travelled to the villages where informants were interviewed and a

row data collected. In other occasions, the researcher had to attend the Eje-Alekwu festival

where they – Alekwu poets chanted songs reflecting the Idoma culture and history. These

songs were recorded, transcribed into the texts of Idoma language and later translated into

English for analysis. Dirges were also collected during burial and funeral ceremonies.

3.2 Data Collection Procedure

The data were collected during the festival performance of April 11, 2010 at Umogidi

community to mark the annual Eje-Alekwu. Many of the artistes did not only recite their songs

but equally performed them. This was the period during which most of the oral materials we

are using in this research were collected; it was such an engagement with the core cultural

values of the community that endeared the performances to the audience. The event had drawn

together many Idoma people from different economic, educational, and social backgrounds to

share their common interest in the value system Alekwu represents. They were also collected

during burial ceremonies around communities in Idoma.

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3.3 Subject

As common with the analysis of literary texts, I have been able to identify in the poems the

various figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, irony, hyperbole, oxymoron, assonance and

even proverb. Other devices identified in the works include theme, mood/atmosphere and the

audience involvement. As part of a research method, literary analysis of oral poetics can be as

a significant tool for gaining insight into collective practices and behaviours. It has the capacity

to help in understanding the larger cultural, historical and socio-political well-being of Idoma

people. After careful evaluation of the data, the following subjects matter were deduced; the

futility of existence caused by inevitability of death, the metaphysical component in Idoma oral

poetry, the epistemology and tradition in Idoma oral poetry, and finally, the subject of praise in

Idoma oral poetry.

3.4 Instrumentation

The instruments used in collecting data for this research were tape recorder for recording raw

data while interviewing the informats and the Alekwu poets. Another instrument is the video-

recorder for capturing the performance aspect of the ceremony especially during festivals and

burial ceremonies. This becomes important since the Idoma verbal arts is sustained

fundamentally by performance.

3.5 Transcription

This is the stage where the collected data are carefully studied and transcribed from the

recorder to the text of the original language. In this study, the interview was carried out in

Idoma language after which it was transcribed into the texts of the same language and later

translated into English language for analysis.

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CHAPTER FOUR

LITERARY ANALYSIS OF IDOMA POEMS

In the previous chapter, we established the theoretical framework/methodology of this

research. In this chapter, I carried out the analysis of different Idoma oral poetry to bring out

some degrees of literariness in them. In other words, I am concerned with questions of style

and techniques of presentation, especially those aspects that help us gain full understanding of

their thematic thrust.

I would like to approach the analysis of the Idoma oral poetry using thematic and motif

analysis under the following sub-titles; the issues of death, mourning and grief in Idoma dirges,

the philosophical and socio-cultural relevance in Idoma oral poetry and the theme of praises

and in Idoma oral poetry. This will be done believing that the study designates a cross-

disciplinary analysis that would help to fashion out the socio-political and cultural significance

that define an era of Idoma historical origin as exemplified in the texts.

4.1 Death as Dominant Motif in the Analysis of Idoma Dirges

Funeral songs probe the mystery of death, the helplessness of man and also provide some

consolation for the living who feels the pangs of the inevitability of death. Death is perceived

from what Rasheed Na’Allah calls “an eternal living philosophy”, especially death of the aged.

The old people who die are said to have only changed realms. They merely pass to the world

beyond as ancestors who would then keep an eye over their descendants who are still living. It

is also believed that young people who die resurface in another world or location to live their

lives to the ripe age when they will then transit to the world beyond and join other ancestors.

Instead of death therefore, the most suitable word for this “eternal-living philosophy” is

transition. This whole philosophy is reflected in Idoma funeral poetry in which death itself

becomes an object of song.

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Consciously or otherwise at the funeral, the artiste who performs before an audience finds the

need for the establishment of rapport with his audience for communication to take place.

Different poets have different ways of manipulating their materials. Some poets employ the use

of opening tags. This is a way of capturing the attention of the audience. In the case of the

poets (the Ichicha group) who perform along Alekwu-afia in the following example, they do

not use the common opening tag; rather they scream:

IDOMA: Elee le le lee (ehe), ene no num

Ada no mum ooo!!! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Eche! Eche! Eche! Eche!

ENGLISH: Elee le le lee (alas) my mother who bore me My father who bore me ooo! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Earth! Earth! Earth! Earth! (Specimen A, line 1-4).

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The researcher 2nd from the left posing for photograph while collecting information from

Alekwu-afi

This suggests that something terrible has happened and the audience would want to know what

it is. Funerals are sad events. Therefore, one finds the tone of Idoma dirges mournful and the

poet can use his or her tone and carefully choose words to get the audience to whatever side

he or she wants them to be.

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This is an example of a simple dirge, a natural spontaneous expression of grief. Elee le le lee

(line one) and Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! (line 3) are ideophones expressing the idea of shock,

surprise or even pain. Either by accident or design, the poet in the following example which is

the continuation of the one above, portrays Oko as a warm-hearted, loving and level-headed

brother, while Onugbo, his brother, is portrayed as jealous and irrational:

IDOMA: Odan k’Oko imo Onugbu oinenun,

Oga nyo gega dodun Odan k’oko leto’ ote, Oko Kahini “Onugbo Oinem”

Anya ifio Onegbo ofu, Oine Ko’ Oko Egbe Ko’ Onugbo de kputu Onugbo loinenu, Oko nmo ee. (Specimen A, line 48-55). ENGLISH If Oko did not see Onugbo his brother, He would not go anywhere, Whenever Oko went hunting, Oko would say “Onugbo, Oko’s brother” Anger over-powered Onugbo, brother of Oko Then Onugbo’s gun spoke kputuu Now Onugbo has killed Oko, his brother. (Specimen A, line 48-55).

As Okpewho rightly points out, “repetition is no doubt one of the most fundamental

characteristic features of oral literature” (71). It has both aesthetic feature and a utilitarian

value: in other words, it is a device that not only gives a touch of beauty or attractiveness to a

piece of oral expression (whether song or narrative or other kind of statement) but also serves

certain practical purposes in the overall organization of the oral poetic rendition. For instance

in the above example, the names, Onugbo and Oko are repeatedly mentioned almost in every

line, the technique which the poet employs in order to create an emphasis in the minds of his

audience. As a result of the event, the sympathy of the audience goes to Oko, the murdered

brother.

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In fact, Idoma language is such a highly tonal language that the use of tonal modulation easily

strikes a listener as one of the most prominent features of any form of poetic performance. This

tonal quality in the poem produces an onomatopoeic effect as echoed in line 5, “Onugbo gun

spoke kputuu”. Line 4 of the above poem i.e. “Anger over-powered Onugbo” is a good

example of personification because “anger” has been given a human attribute of over-

powering. That also creates an image of possession.

One also finds in the Idoma dirges praises for the dead individual. This is so because the poet

or oral artiste who in this case stands as an author would want to remember certain things the

dead did for his people when alive. At this stage of the funeral rites however, the women are

separated from the men who are members and initiates of Ichicha and Alekwu cult. The songs

express the valour and bravery of their departed companion. An example of this is found in the

following:

IDOMA: Alechenu Omakwu Akanaba K’Idoma

Ochi nehi okweyi epa Neyi lo onongblo wo Oyowe lache kola’ adanu Oyu dam lu’ uwa duu (Specimen B, line 10-16)

ENGLISH: Alechenu Omakwu The pillar of Idoma

The big tree with two branches Great son of Omakwu He built road for his father’s people He built earth-dam for them too. (Specimen B, line 10-16).

A rendition like this is sung only when the deceased is a heroic individual in his community.

The lead singer, as can be seen above, relates the heroic deeds of the deceased in terms of

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social status, traditional influence and political relevance. This in Idoma’s belief will help in

influencing the attitude of the present generation since such heroic feats he had achieved while

alive can be emulated to bring about peace in the society.

This reminds us of Ode’s assertion while researching into his Igede praise and vilification

songs. According to him:

Whereas dirges perform ruefully looking at life retrospectively with a sense of

the magnitude of resignation and self-reproach toward our collective mobility to

prevail over the crowning loss and deprivation of life, the loss of the one thing

which we love most, the driving impetus for political songs is the consciousness

that those still living have yet the capacity to make themselves happy by

altering the direction of the political action in their community (67).

In that direction, the singers find cause to offer praise to human behaviour that can lead to

communal well-being, while using vilification devices to condemn antisocial acts.

So in the Idoma dirge we find the theme of praises of such attitudes as honesty, hardwork, fair play, solidarity and generosity, which are underlined as the people’s preferred values. For instance:

IDOMA: Akano jela ibi akpo mnabo Ka’Alechenu. Akano jema ibi akpo mnabo Ka’ Alechenu duu. (Specimen B, line 17-19).

ENGLISH:

If you think you are so generous, you borrow from Alechenu. If you think you are so humane, you borrow from Alechenu too. (Specimen B, line 17-19).

Here, the dead is mourned and honoured, and the general links between the past and the

present, the living and the dead are brought out clearly in the songs. The sorrow felt by

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mourners at funerals can be heightened by a skilled performer who can evoke the pathos of the

situation in his or her passionate utterances.

IDOMA: Eko no mnigwu aa Omno’ Okwu igwu Odan ka’abo yipu k’ona Oga weche anchan (Specimen B, line 18-21).

ENGLISH: The maggot that kills the corn Comes from under the corn Once the hand is in the food It does not come out empty

(Specimen B, line 18-21).

This proverb is saying that death does not just occur without a cause, and this cause must come

from the dead’s own’s root. The second part of the proverb suggests that human being gives

death shelter upon which it operates. This presents another philosophy in the Idoma belief that

the death of an under-aged is not without a cause and that cause must be someone not too far

from the dead. So it is believed that whenever such death occurs in any family, someone

invited that death and provided it shelter.

After all said and done, the mourners will still accept the fact that it has occurred and therefore,

it can not be reversed. For example,

IDOMA: Odan ko’ola leyi me Oche ikayi jewo mma O da no ya le ya ee. (Specimen B, line 21-23). ENGLISH: Once the fire is out One cannot warm himself with ashes What happened has happened.

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(Specimen B, line 21-23).

The poet uses this proverb to say to the family of the deceased to be consoled and try to forget

the dead. The poet is not in any way suggesting that the relatives should not mourn their

departed beloved; he only wants them to also know that:

IDOMA: Iju yoya to’ okwu mlo’ okwu gogon ma. Ena ya koje me, oche ichokwu lemma. (Specimen B, line 24-26).

ENGLISH: The fly honoured the corpse It did not accompany it into the grave The one you people did should be enough Since one cannot eat corpse. (Specimen B, line 24-26).

What this means is that no matter how intimate you are with the dead or mournful you are, you

cannot accompany it to the grave.

Akporobaro points out that “as characteristic of the dirge the sentiment of the mourner is

expressed in terms of strong and vivid metaphoric imagery” (306). So the stanza before the

next shows us an example of such metaphoric imagery represented by fire who could be the

breadwinner of the family. This means that the dead when alive was the one fending for the

entire family. From the poem, therefore, it is deduced that the breadwinner is gone and now

there is no one capable of filling the gap.

It is in view of the above that Okpewho points out that inspite of the fundamental differences

between oral and written literature, “they are both united, fundamentally also, in the use of

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words and in the ways in which they employ words to paint mental pictures that appeal to our

feeling and our understanding. These mental pictures are what we know as images” (98).

So the basic metaphoric images in the stanza on specimen B, line 18-20 are contained in

almost all the lines e.g. maggot, corn, food and hand. So dominant are these metaphors that

they have completely overshadowed the object that they are supposed to refer to. Anyone

unfamiliar with Idoma dirges and culture would hardly imagine that the stanza had anything to

do with the dead and the cause of death. Here the image of the cause of the deceased relative is

represented by maggot while that of dead person is represented by a phrase under the corn as

pointed out earlier.

The feeling is further heightened when the poet creates more mental pictures in the minds of

the audience. This is usually found where there is enmity between two houses or families and

someone from any of the houses dies. Tongues will begin to wag and accusing fingers pointed:

IDOMA: Okwu kunu nya o’anchan Odeyi to’okwu

Ohwi fofunu na’ache ge bi Le mna adagba aa.

(Specimen B, line 26-30). ENGLISH: This death is not ordinary There is something behind it It is only an arrow that people use To kill an elephant. (Specimen B, line 26-30).

Here the mourner in question is insinuating witch as the cause of the death of the deceased and

more often than not, the mourner calls for revenge. The evidence is found in line 2 and in line

3and 4 the picture becomes clearler when the poet refers to the witch as ‘‘an arrow’’.

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In another poem, the poet employs the use of exclamations. This is to achieve an end. They are

used to show the gravity of the situation. It is also important to know that poets use them to get

the attention of the audience, hence such exclamations like:

IDOMA: Ele le le lee! Ehe! Wuuu! Ada no mum! Ene no mum! Otu ibium oooo! Out ibium. (Specimen C, line 1-5) ENGLISH: Ele le le lee! Alas! Wuuu! The father that bore me! The mother that bore me! The night overtook me ooo! The night overtook me. (Specimen C, line 1-5).

This example is used to express grief or sorrow in a sudden outburst of emotion. The oral

artistes singing or reciting the dirge at times code-switch from Idoma to Yoruba, Igala, and

Igbira languages:

IDOMA: Ogili nya’ adanu mlo oje ojokwu “Olowo laye” olije le’eche aaa Unonji ki Ikwue Omakwu o agboji eta Ai poli’ IKwue mnena igwene Eke mnenwu ofuchigwo (Specimen D, line 8-12) ENGLISH: Ogili buried his father with fat money “Olowo laye” (he who has money has life) The grave of Ikwue Omakwu has three steps

The children of Ikwue Omakwu killed fourteen cows They also killed thirty goats. (Specimen D, line 8-12)

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The reason for this code-switching is not hard to find. This is because the Idoma-Alekwu poet

is chanting what his ancestors handed-over to him. These ancestors are believed to be brothers

of those of the Igala, Igbira, Iyala and some part of Yoruba who occupied the same

confederacy before they were dispersed. So there are traces of linguistic resemblance among

the tribes. Here are the examples of the translations of the above example in the languages.

Yoruba – Olowo laye

Idoma - Olije leche aaa

Igala - E ne ki n’oko, onw n’ile

Igbira - O’ nye k’ehi o’nye h’eni

Iyala -

English - He who has money, has the world.

So to prove that the artiste is knowledgeable on the oral history and culture of his people, he

goes far back to the ancient time to employ certain coinages from those languages or tribes

mentioned above.

Equally, in the Idoma dirges there are ironies. In fact, irony occupies a major part in Idoma

funeral dirges.

Some of the examples are as follows:

IDOMA: Onowa yenu aa Enu oma anu bogo Na’ ache le’nyo onowa aa (Specimen C, line 6-9).

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ENGLISH: The blacksmith forges the hoe That hoe dug the hole (grave) In which people buried the blacksmith (Specimen C, line 6-9).

The poem is ironic in that the blacksmith forges hoes, knives and cutlasses in order to survive

and at the same time creating weapons for destroying himself. The blacksmith in this instance

is supposedly a wealthy man but ironically, each creation has its positive and negative values,

its strength and weakness. Therefore, the poem is suggesting that we should take heart and not

complain when the road is bent. The poem is image-laden, indicating that wealth has many

colours. This is a good example of what Akporobaro describes as a “philosophical

contemplation of the ironies of life” (318)

Another example of irony is the use of the phrase ‘mother earth’. In this example, the earth

gives life to man by providing food for man at the same time ‘eats up’ man when he dies:

IDOMA: Aja nodre imna No’ oche ile aa Aja oma neke kayi’ lo’oche nyi aa Eko no’ oche gekwu (Specimen C, line 21-24).

ENGLISH: It is the earth food comes from That man feeds on It is the same mother earth That eats up man when he dies. (Specimen C, line 21-24)

This poem beginning from the first stanza to the last, suggests a sober reflection on life and

death, the cycle of existence, the goals of life, and the afterlife. This stage gradually eases

tension by showing that the deceased contributed his share for the upliftment of man, that no

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man lives forever, and that the dead deserves repose. Here also, the theme of futility of life

comes to mind as a warning to the living against putting a high premium on what is transient.

So, the final stage in the funeral rite consists of a reconciliation of the first two stages, when

the feeling of loss is still fresh and when the mourners begin to accept the reality of the

situation. These two stages give way to prayers for the repose of the dead and for the living to

bear the loss. The song that accompanies the prayer is meant to tell the deceased members of

the family that the dead has achieved a lots as he has many children who are already

celebrating his life well-spent.

A good example of this can be seen in the following Idoma dirges.

IDOMA

Leader: Umogidi moyi ee Lemi ijamata yogo Chorus: Ijamata mali’ igwu No male’ eye ee Leader: Omakwu moyi ee Lemi ijamata yogo Chorus: Ijamata mali’ igwu No male’ eye ee Leader: Oika Aibe moyi ee Lemi ijamata yogo Chorus: Ijamata mali’ igwu No male’ eye ee (Specimen D)

ENGLISH

Leader: Umogidi gave birth ee To Locust plenty Chorus: Locust gave to guineacorn And gave birth to millet ee Leader: Omakwu gave birth ee

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To Locust plenty Chorus: Locust gave to guineacorn And gave birth to millet ee Leader: The son of Aibe gave birth ee To Locust plenty Chorus: Locust gave to guineacorn And gave birth to millet ee (Specimen D)

The female mourners, especially the Ichicha group sing this song to tell the audience that the

children of the deceased are indeed celebrating the demise of their father in a lavishing way.

Even as we can find in the song above, philosophical images depicting a crucial belief in

Idoma that to beget children is a joyful thing. This is indeed what Finnegan has in mind when

she opines:

As the adult man or woman achieves various successes in life, he or she is

rewarded by the community with a chieftaincy title, during which occasion yet

more praise chants as well as songs of rejoicing are performed. At the death of

the individual, some songs lament the loss of the physical life while other songs

give consolation for a life well lived and usher the deceased into the glorious

company of the ancestors (138).

So in the Idoma society, a deceased without children or offspring suffers double loss. In fact,

the above song is full of symbols too. What we are saying mainly is that the prominence and

relevance Omakwu enjoys in the land is as a result of the number of children he begot while

alive. The children in turn, either through farming or otherwise become the source of his

wealth. So in the song, Guinea corn and Millet are images symbolizing the abundance of

wealth. Therefore, his burial calls for celebration. The Locust in the song symbolizes the

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children of the deceased who are in the mood of celebration, squandering the said resources to

prove their might.

One can also see that, among the Agatu people especially, it is said that the musical element is

so pronounced and refined that the sympathizers would forget about the dead and enjoy the

lyrics of the dirge.

The oral artiste in the process of singing the dirges also digresses:

IDOMA: Ogili kaka, oi nehi Ka’aba

Ada loyi ojimeli ma Uweyi ikwo ne? Ogili kaka! Ogwinu gam leyi wo. (Specimen E, line 3-5).

ENGLISH: Ogili the great, the bigger son of Aba If a father gave birth to a hardworking son Shame doesn’t catch him Ogili the great! He built house for me to lay my head. (Specimen E, line 3-5).

The poet in this stanza is trying to recollect the favour one of his patrons (Ogili) did him. It

could be that this patron was at this particular funeral ceremony. This device can also be

employed by the artist to ease off the burden from the minds of the mourners.

In other examples comparison is made between man and other objects or images of nature.

IDOMA: Ikwu nya wa lebe ka’aga oko kum ma

Owa lebe keyi ochebe aa Olebe kepu aa, nchowu gebe Lebe kepu aa, nchowu gebe Odadodu num ya, nchowu gebe (Specimen E, line 10-14)

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ENGLISH: This death came like the axe on my neck It came like a twinkling of the eyes Light as leaf, I ride the boat to a place Light as life, I ride the boat somewhere. (Specimen E, line 10-14).

Here, the comparison is made between man and other lesser living things. The poet compares

himself to a leaf (a dead one) embarking on a spiritual journey to the great beyond.

The song also serves as a promotion to the realm of spirituality for the dead as it is believed

that this stage of ritual ceremony carried out by Alekwu and Ichicha is meant to appeal to

ancestors to allow the spirit of the dead to roam freely to join them in the world of the dead

where the said ancestors are.

The use of metaphor by the oral artistes and the mourners is another literary device adopted by

them. This involves the use of words to indicate something different from the literary meaning.

An example of this is seen here:

IDOMA: Ikpi’ igbankpa num kpotainu

Ohigbo owo Owaje aa Onya bobi ga lo pahila (Specimen E, line 30-33). ENGLISH: The maize seedlings that I stored in the ban For the next raining season The evil horse has come and scattered them. (Specimen E, line 30-33).

The maize seedling in this example is the deceased who was the breadwinner of the family.

The evil horse is death who has scattered the breadwinner. Another example of the use of

metaphor is in the following example:

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IDOMA: Ikpanga eko ga loyi ee

Ikpanga eko ga ee Oi kega ee, eko kega ee Eko keya oi keyi tola’ adanu ee (Specimen E, line 34-38). ENGLISH: Caterpillar the time has come And the child goes home The time has come And the child goes to the father’s place. (Specimen E, line 34-38).

In this example, the child refers to the deceased and the caterpillar the world as a stage where

the child goes. Home refers to the great beyond and the father refers to the ancestors of the

deceased. The poet is saying that the time has come for the soul of man to go and meet his

ancestor.

Because the songs contain mostly proverbs, inanimate objects have been given human

attributes. The prominent examples are the use of ‘death’ and ‘mother earth’:

IDOMA: Ikwu ogbonoko ojeema noo

Ikwu odinum yo nakache koyehe tum aa? Ikwu aba naga kwum, kama boyi nem Tam ma? (Specimen C, line 25-29).

ENGLISH:

Death is wicked, he knows no relative Death what have I done to you, That you expose me to laughter

Death why not take me and leave my brother. (Specimen C, line 25-29).

Here ‘death’ is addressed like human being who lives among people; it is wicked and does not

have pity on anybody. In fact it is no respecter of man. In the above example, the poet asks a

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rhetorical question in line 2. This question strikes one’s mind since death is not human or God

who determines man’s fate on earth, to take or retain life. In fact the poet uses this to heighten

tension.

To create a certain kind of effect on the audience, the poet also uses rhetorical question.

IDOMA: Alechenu ni’ ikwu mno aa? Nchen!

Onye ga yo’ owe lalo ge? Onye ga je’ enkpo lalo ge? Alechenu anu yo’ owe aa Anu ye’ enkpo lalo aa. (Specimen B, line 7-12).

ENLISH:

Is it Alechenu the death has carried? Unbelievable! Who will construct road for us? Who will produce water for us?

Alechenu was the one who constructed road for us He is the one who gave us water (Specimen B, line 7-12).

These questions are asked in the above lines in the course of performing the dirges solely to

produce an effect and not to elicit a reply.

To create a special effect on the minds of his audience, the poet uses oxymoron. For example,

IDOMA:

Onugbo lo’ Oko oinenu mno ee, ehe! Enya oligbo mninu ka’ ano mnipu aa. (Specimen A, line 50-51)

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ENGLISH: Onugbo has killed Oko his brother ee, alas! This is Oligbo killing himself And thinks he kills his stomach. (Specimen A, line 50-51)

The Oligbo in the above example sees his stomach as another entity that can be destroyed and

he himself will not be affected. The idea itself is contradictory as well as silly because things

are not so. His stomach is part of him, and a main part in fact, so killing his stomach means

killing himself and not the other way. This explains exactly what happened between Onugbo

and Oko his brother.

4.2 The Philosophical Interpretation of Idoma Oral Poetry

The various components of the lives of the Idoma people have poetic renditions which are

associated with myths, legends and archetypal forms. For better understanding of this section

of our analysis, philosophical investigation will be applied in the study of the texts selected.

According to Bertraud Russell in Uduma Oji, philosophy is “an attempt to answer questions

not carelessly and dogmatically… but critically after exploring all that makes such questions

puzzling” (22). Ludwig Wittgenstein to assert that “philosophy ought really to be written only

as a form of poetry” (Qtd in Ursula Goricke and Vorgelegt Von, 1). The study shall be carried

out using two branches of philosophy known as metaphysics and epistemology.

4.2.1 The Metaphysical Investigation

The metaphysical investigation in this study will be carried out believing that philosophy no

longer attemps to uncover some given facts upon which knowledge would be founded [facts of

consciousness, empirical data, or fundamental ontological truths seen in intellectual intuition].

Rather, philosophy now describes the possibility of knowledge in terms of the conditions

through which knowledge claims are achieved.

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Here is Idoma invocation poem as performed by one Alekwu-afia during a particular festival.

IDOMA:

Oko’ ogba amome ka’ Ada… dam Entekpa joko gam Ogabakpa joko gam Enkekpa mlo’ Ogabakpa aine Obobi joko gam nneyale Ofu Ka’ Adam no fie du aa, ga joko gam Wa ga joko loje ogbola Ka’ Abah Ami, Agbo no go ote leyala Agaba noyi kwo ote Odan Agaba I’kwo ote Eba nya nyo ga Owu ka’ Adam wag a jo ofu gam. ENGLISH:

The last prayer of my ancestor Entekpa stream gives me voice Ogabakpa stream gives me voice Entekpa and Ogabakpa are one Because Obobi gave me voice, I won The great power of my father gives me voice All the powers of my father come and give me voice Come and give voice to the costly iron of Abah I, Agbo that went hunting and conquered What a lion in a hunting contest If Lion went hunting, which other animal dares? The superpower of my father come and gives me inspiration.

The above poem was performed by Alekwu of Abah in Umogidi community during the Eje-

Alekwu festival in 2010. The festival creates an avenue for all the Ekwu-afia to come out and

compete among them who possessed the greatest power of oratorical skill. Stating the

historical origin of the above poem, I am agreeing with what Deranty describes as the

substantial significance of Kant’s ‘Corpernican revolution’ which states that history,

philosophy and other ideas go behind literature to bring out a more concrete meaning of

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whatever study carried out in literary analysis and that the most important elements in textual

analysis is discovering how the text was formed.

The above Ekwu-afia finds it necessary to first of all seek the protective and inspirational

power of his great ancestor before meeting his competitor. The puzzle here is that, is the poet

who is Alekwu of Abah really referring to the competition he is about to enter with his fellow

Alekwu afia or the invocation is a symbolic representation of the relationship between the man

and his God who possesses the supernatural power to bless, protect or not to? If the answer is

in affirmation, then, the ‘voice’ in the poem represents any of such supporting powers or gifts

from God that man needs to overcome life’s threatening challenges. This thought been

expressed here is articulated in the people’s pantheistic tradition, meaning Idoma people

worship and draw powers from several gods like ancestral gods, earth gods, river gods and

goddesses. These different gods are in hierarchy looking at the way they are called:

IDOMA ENGLISH

Owo-Icho God in heaven [supreme God]

Owo-Kum Ancestral gods [lesser god]

Owo-Aje Earth gods [lesser god]

What happens here reminds me of what Akporobaro says:

The uncertainty principle in life which leads man to worship, sacrifice,

adoration, prayers and songs has generated unique forms of performance or

recitative poetry. The Orikis of the Yoruba people, the prayers of the Dinka and

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the Psalms of David are culturally differentiated forms of poetry which

established the link between poetry experience and the local environment (240).

The poet communicates with ancestors, deities, gods and goddesses and like the above poem,

the rendition is mostly performed during the rituals and sacrifices that are accompanied on

many occasions by chants, songs, incantations, musical elements and dramatic oral

performances. To an Idoma man, these are very necessary elements for properly locating the

importance of these supernatural forces. It is necessary to point out too that the liturgical

system or mode of worship in traditional Idoma societies is organized around the survival of

man. This survivalist tendency in the poem brings one to the question of reality and beingness.

So the uncertainty principle in human existence pushes the Idoma people to seek for protection

of the forces they believe control the universe.

The survivalist framework in beingness in the Idoma worldview is most appropriate in

understanding the people’s conception of being. So to survive is to seek the protective powers

of the forces earlier mentioned. Within this framework, the question of vitality also comes in,

which is seen in the sense of understanding the being in terms of force and interrelationship

among these forces or beings. Asogwa has this in mind when he says:

Since the African life experiences are punctuated by ups and downs, success

and failure, dashed hopes, unrealizable dreams (goals), disappointments,

uncertainties, unpredictability, etc. nothing holds. The African needs something

he can know certainly and what he can hope for; to know himself and what he

ought to do. It is at this juncture that metaphysics becomes handy, it plays the

role of trying to reassure the African through the offer of a reality more

fundamental than this fleeting and shifting experience (39).

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In the rendition of this poem, cultural artefacts play important roles. It has been argued that

cultural artefacts are essential apparatus in the poetic descriptions of the supernatural forces.

Each of the gods and goddesses being praised in the poem has images and other extra verbal

apparatus. The poem above presents images of two streams of Ogabakpa and Entekpa that are

believed to have in them a certain supernatural powers which make the people to call on them

anytime they want to carry out actions they believe needs the support of the supernatural

forces. The poet is indeed invoking the powers that are more than him to come to his aid in the

mission he is about to carry out. This can be found in “come and give voice to the costly iron

of Abah” [line 8].

The above picture gives us an impression that the life of an average Idoma man is controlled

and regulated by the unseen hand of the Supreme Being [God the Creator]. This is so because,

after calling on the smaller gods, the poet in the last line, ‘‘the supreme power of my father

come and gives inspiration’’ calls on God to come to his aid. To them, God being at the apex

of the hierarchy of beings oversees and regulates what goes on in the universe.

For the Idomas, the concept of causality is a very central issue. For instance, when death

occurs in the community, especially that of the under-aged, it is believed something or

someone caused it. This causality concept in Idoma metaphysics in this following stanza of a

poem discussed in the earlier subtitle.

IDOMA: Eko no mnigwu aa Omno’ Okwu igwu Odan ka’abo yipu k’ona Oga weche anchan (Specimen B, line 18-21).

ENGLISH: The maggot that kills the corn Comes from under the corn

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Once the hand is in the food It does not come out empty

(Specimen B, line 18-21).

In a situation like this, the question that is asked is why must a particular event happen to a

particular person, at a particular place and in a given time? This happens during an inquest

when the corpse is yet to be buried. This means that the concepts of chance those not have a

place in the Idoma metaphysics. To an Idoma man, what we call chance is our ignorance of the

series of actions reactions that have given rise to a given event. Ozumba in his African

Traditional Metaphysics shares different view:

The corollary of this view is to hold that the African man’s World is

deterministically ordered through and through. This is not true. The African

cause and effect nexus still permits the exercise of freewill. When a man is

faced with alternative options , he is free to choose to carry out one or the

other. However, in Certain case, the individual may find himself compelled by

Circumstances beyond his control to choose one of the Alternative options[4].

Philosophically, the investigation of the poem above reminds one of what happens between

the church and the search for the knowledge of truth in the Middle Ages. During that time, the

church imposed itself as the guardian of knowledge and conscience. In the same vein, the poet

of this Idoma oral poem sees the worship of his ancestral gods as a means towards achieving

anything meaningful in life. Sieghild Bogumil-Notz rightly informs us that, “under the

influence of Saint Augustine, the church not only assigned a Christian meaning to

metaphysical thought, but also attributed a new function to literary practice” (3). The

knowledge of the essence of things was interpreted as knowledge of Christian truth, revealed

by the words of God. During the scholastic era, literature had the function of maintaining faith,

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glorifying God and his creation. This is why the poet, like all artistes, was considered a servant

of God.

It is however pertinent to ask ourselves again and again; do the Idoma nay African people find

value, in such belief in the ancestral gods and its command of supernatural power over the

affairs of man? Discussing the relevance of metaphysics for the African, Joad in Asogwa

points out that: ‘‘For if values are real and can be known by the human mind, then precisely

because they are valuable they exercise a pulling over the mind that knows them’’ (39).

The modern and contemporary poets try to scrutinize man and his reality. It is on this

standpoint that the philosophical investigation helps me to question the absolute. Sieghild

shares similar view when he says; “It is the same place and the same self-conquest that the

poets refer to in their search for the origin of the other, and the other of their origin (3).

4.2.2 Epistemological Investigation

Like African metaphysics, African epistemology is deeply rooted in African tradition.

Originally, the tradition of a people is the effect of their experience; and since philosophy is a

reflection on human experience, it follows that African tradition, which entails African

religions, root culture, oral literature, traditional arts, fables, proverbs, idioms, rituals, music,

dance, folktales and myths, are the content of African epistemology.

Primarily, epistemology asks questions about the nature, origin, sources, validity, extent and

limitation of human knowledge. In this investigation, I shall be asking questions concerning

the reliability or otherwise of knowledge gained from the study of the following Idoma poems.

This poem embraces other structures of the belief system such as taboos and guides certain

values and ethics of the social system. For example, it is believed that worshippers of certain

gods and goddesses should not eat certain types of animals, else sacrilege will be committed. It

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may even be specified that certain categories of people must not be involved in the ritual

process as in the case of Okwu Ogogo and Eje’ alekwu festival among the Idoma where

women and the under-aged are not allowed to participate. When a stubborn woman insists on

seeing the ritual as it is performed, the act is capable of leading her to permanent barrenness

and some other infectious diseases. The same thing applies when a married woman commits

adultery. When such occurs, Ada’ alekwu sings the following song to intimate other members

of the cult.

IDOMA: Ebi lenya

Onya no le’ ebi kpo Ole’ ebi kpo Ebi bio iii! Ebi bio Ifu no gu joka’ obla aa Anu mo ane O’gole lohi ga ee Anu mo mia’ ane ENGLISH:

Abomination has occurred The woman who commits abomination Commits abomination And abomination holds her Yes! It holds her The rat that goes to cat’s market Looks for trouble It knows better If it returns safely e e It knows better.

The poet engages in epistemological language, symbol, aphorism or parable, as vehicles of

insights. He has revealed through enigmatic language, truths of our existence and the nature of

the world especially as it concern adultery.

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Looking at the above poem for instance, the chief priest who sings the song can as well go

straight and inform his listeners of the abominable act but decided to cloth his message with

such imaginative language. His aim is to show the intensity of the message. In the second

stanza the image of rat symbolises the abominable or adultress woman while cat’s market

represents the prohibited act (adultery) which is capable of consuming her if purification does

not take place.

In Idoma society, adultery no matter how craftily contrived, will eventually lead a wife to

punishment and shame. In Idoma-Alekwu religious/cultural practice, the adultress is punished

and shamed. She is made to confess her sin publicly. Besides the above, the wife is liable to

lose her children, husband and even herself to death if she fails to observe the necessary rituals

and confess her sin.

Whether it is in festive or solemn moment, the Ada-alekwu habitually renders this song to

admonish, instruct and correct those members of the family or community who indulge in such

practice. This reminds us of Martha Nussbaum’s notion that literature ought to be considered

works of moral philosophy as it promotes a more empathetic society. In his reaction to this

notion, Chris Mullen in “Literature and Philosophy: Antagonists or Partners” observes:

Literature addresses the “experience” of being a moral agent by addressing the

concrete features of persons and circumstances, provoking the reader to reflect

on moral issues in a different “indirect” way in taking you into a spectrum of

different experiences (8).

Similarly in the poem, Alekwu does not spell the children and husband of the adulteress wife

because it is believed that the wife makes money out of the act and uses same to prepare meal

for her family. This happens especially when the husband notice an attitude of such around his

wife and fail to raise an alarm. To avert the impending dangers or repercussion, the kinsmen of

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her husband would ask her to provide a goat which would be handed-over to the masker of the

Alekwu-cult as directed by the chief-priest. later, a prayer is offered to grant the adulteress

pardon and at that, the goat takes over her guilt and dies in her stead. She will in turn be

stripped half nude and be made to join the maskers going round the community singing the

mythical song of “Onya-ogbaja”. What happens here is a spiritual symbolism which justifies

the fact that epistemology in the Idoma worldview is mythically and spiritually inclined. So the

Idoma philosophical tradition relates more with the spiritual and supernatural elements in

nature which give emotional and aesthetic satisfaction to the average Idoma person.

The position of Plato may be tenable in appreciating the creative milieu and psyche of the

custodians of traditions/religious poetry. Plato asserts that the poet must be inspired by gods

and goddesses through divine frenzy. This frenzy is translated into poetic verbalizations of the

artiste. This poem justifies the assertion that, while one is learning about different societies that

shape certain texts, one is equally learning about their norms, values and both cultural and

religious practices. This poem helps us to know that in Idoma society, such act as adultery

attracts heavy penalty.

Ann Dobie has this in mind when she says:

The new historical critic works in two directions. She seeks to understand a text

by examining its cultural context – the anxieties, issues, struggles, politics (and

more) of the era in which it was created. She also seeks to understand the

culture by looking at its literature. Even a work that is not overtly political or

ideological affects the culture that reads it and is in turn affected by that culture;

the two are intimately bound up with each other, making it impossible to read a

text in isolation (179).

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Even the Romans call poet “vates” which means a diviner, a seer, a prophet, a priest who they

placed on a high scale, the priest or diviner in Idoma keeps constant touch with the gods from

whom they receive their visions and inspirations to perform.

The priest is the link between the people and their gods, therefore he renders beautiful poems

through chants in the course of performing certain rituals. This fact is captured in stanza four

of an Idoma poem “Festival”

IDOMA:

Ada’ Ogweba Le’eho ka’ ache bi nyo ee Gla’ Ada…. Ada Iyo aa ogweba mie ee.

ENGLISH: The holy man of God

Pilot people’s message To each family ancestral spirit Items presented to chief priest.

So the priest is believed to possess divine qualities according to Idoma (Alekwu) religion. The

people see their priest as a messenger who delivers their message to their gods. They do this

because of the their strong conviction life generally hinges on spirituality and an understanding

of the world via a spiritual source since the people’s epistemology regards the experiential

world and the non-experiential world as causally related.

This is not perculiar to Idomas as even in Greeks, there is a believe that the visions were then

revealed to mortals in hexameter verses, in geometric figures and in arithmetical numbers. Just

like oracle of Appolo at his shrine in the city of Delphi, the Priest who recited to the new

initiates of the myth of the Black Bagre in the lodagaa tribe of the North Western region of

Ghana, was also looked upon as divinely created. More so, in the Greeks and Romans, the

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oracle of Delphi and the Cumaean Sybils talked poetry, so did Homer; but Vergil, Horace,

Ovid and other creative minds wrote poetry.

Similarly, the Ogweba (Sayer) or Priest who usually chants incantation does so in a very

secluded place with members of the audience carefully admitted and selected. In most cases,

the audience are those who have one problem or the other and want Ogweba to look into it for

them. Or in a particular festival like Eje’Alekwu when the Priest (Ada’Alekwu) renders certain

incantations to invoke the power of ancestral gods to instil calm especially when the event is

threatened by certain unknown forces. In one of the festivals in Umogidi community of Otukpo

L.G.A in Benue State, Otohi Okoh (The community Priest) recites the following incantatory

poem:

IDOMA: Okpancho mle’ eche

Aje nya me no nwule fie duu aa Igbo! ikpa’aje nya no yo Ee no nyo di dago alewa aa Omakwu oi ka’ Aibe Oje no bogo ena bogo egwa Eno ge nya ‘anyakwoihe mla’aipe Otote no ge kwe Eje mla abo ancha Agaba no la’ abo nandla ne’eche mlo ola Alo ga inyobu ko’ iche ee Aipolo le’ eje te nyi ee Emi no owo nyo Lo owo bi gla lo Lo owu bobi kpowu ge che-che Eje’alekwu koi le ebo-ebo. ENGLISH:

Heaven and the earth The land has grown the mighty Yes! This is the land where he was When he performed several wonders Omakwu! The son of Aibe The iron that digs the scorpion’s hole And also digs snake’s hole

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The one that buries the old and the small A hunter that catches a Tiger with bare hand The lion that his hand stretches and fire strikes

We are before your presence today Your children have fermented guinea corn In preparation for Eje’alekwu festival Where has rain gone to? Send rain to us Send away the bad wind Let Eje’Alekwu festival be a success.

The priest begins by praising the worshiped ancestor. He employs several metaphorical

images such as the iron, the hunter and the lion in attempt to compare and qualify the power

possessed by these ancestral gods. After praising him, he presents the matter before the gods

while kneeling in front of the shrine. To the people, their ancestor has every power to do all

things hence, their reason for asking him to help them release the rain. This brings to fore the

African epistemological belief in a basic assumption about reality. It expresses that reality is

beyond the empirical world of space and time; that everything which exists is charged with life

forces or spirits, i.e. all beings possess a spiritual backing.

This is indeed the philosophy underlying this particular rendition because, it leads us to

question the reality and the essence of this kind of belief system. Epistemology for instance

tells us that knowledge is based on conclusive evidence, belief is based on assumption, and

there is no degree of assumption that can guarantee the truth of any belief. Scholars of African

ontology have overtime kicked against or have technically avoided the discursivity of the

above epistemological viewpoint of assumption and reality. This could be the position of

Tempels when he urged his people to:

Put away their western philosophical thought, their judgement and received

ideas but use their minds in getting at Bantu (African) thought. That could have

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been a sure way of buying peace, decorum and harmonious co-existence (qtd in

Asogwa, 47).

Asogwa furthers this discussion observing that “the African and Western approaches to

theodicy show remarkable convergence and divergence” (47). The above poem shows how

much regard Idoma people accord the gods or divinities, to them, they are real. You can see

this clearly in the last four lines where the priest is addressing the ancestral gods as though he

is physically present.

The advocates of an African epistemology hold that Africans have their unique way of

apprehending external object or reality. They contend that there is African epistemology

separate from and superior to the epistemology of the West. Among this advocates are Leopold

Senghor, Anyanwu, Anselm Jimoh, etc.

Leopold Sedar Senghor brings to fore African epistemological anthropology in his philosophy

of negritude. According to him, Negritude designates ‘‘the whole complex of civilized values-

cultural, economic, social and political- which characterises black peoples or more precisely,

the Negro-African world’’ [qtd in Wiredu, 13]. The character of these values becomes more

apparent and more fundamentally at the epistemological level. In On African

Socialism,Senghor developed the theory of African ‘‘mode of Knowing’’ in attempt to defend

African authentic ideology.

An African differs remarkably from Westernant in his treatment of his gods. The African

adopts pragmatic, reciprocal method. The poem justifies this assertion in line eleven when the

priest says; “we are before your presence today”. The priest says this after he has utilized ten

lines praising the gods. Being in the gods presence means there is a problem and the people

need gods answer.

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Furthermore, the analysis has helped us to understand that Idoma people are basically farmers

who celebrate and worship their ancestors in a festival called Eje-alekwu to mark the coming

of the rain. This analogy becomes important bearing in mind that cultural poetics challenges us

to redirect our attention toward a series of philosophical and practical concerns that highlight

the complex interconnectedness of all human activities.

So the audience of this type of performance are only the traditional custodians and selected

members of Alekwu cult. Albert Mosley give the catalogue of those that we can regard as the

real poets of the incantatory poetry as those who are members and practitioners of a particular

belief system who carry out certain religious and cultural functions on behalf of the members

of the community. To this end, this poem shows that the Idoma people look for forces that can

rescue them and make their existence possible and peaceful. We can then recall what J.S. Mbiti

refers to as the “vital force” in the survival of the human beings. There are many ways in

which incantations provide this safety value for human existence.

4.3 The Theme of Praise and its Historical Relevance in Idoma Oral Poetry

The study is on poems which are created and performed to extol the heroic or noble qualities of

chiefs, kings, hunters, animals or plants. The following is a good example of a poem that extols

the heroic qualities of the first king of Umogidi, His Majesty, King Omakwu Aibe.

IDOMA: Aje loi nehi ma e e

iii! Ogbobe’ efu ka’ alo Elo ma e e Oje noi boyena, boge’ egwa Eno inye’ nenche Mle’ enehi Oto’ ote noge kwe’ Eje Mla’ abo ancha Agala no la’abo nandra

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No’ ola gbohi Oha’ alo ta ga e e

Chorus: Olo’ ofu ka’ alo

Olo’ ofu ka’ alo iii! olo’ ofu ka’ alo Ga e e. ENGLISH:

The land has grown the mighty Yes! The general is born The iron that digs scorpion’s hole And also digs snake’s hole The one that buries the old and the small A hunter that catches a Tiger with bare hand The Lion that his hand stretches and fire strikes He is the one we are talking about Our saviour! Yes! Our saviour has come.

Chorus: Our mighty

Our mighty Yes! Our mighty He has come.

This is indeed a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of His Majesty, Omakwu

Aibe, who stood against his people’s enemies and later brought freedom and liberation to them.

As typical of epic heroes, Omakwu was a legendary hero who usually protected his people or

even performed certain superhuman exploits in battle or in marvelous voyages and founded

Umogidi community.

The poem is loaded with metaphorical images depicting the super human qualities of

Omakwu. Such images are the mighty, the general, the iron, a hunter, and the lion. Other

literary elements are the use of hyperbole which runs through the poem, and that of

personification where symbolic images like the land and the iron are ascribed human attributes

of growing and digging respectively.

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This was indeed, the poem of praise sang to herald the arrival of Omakwu from Otukpo to

Umogidi his father’s land. At this time Omakwu was indeed a mighty man who traded on

several goods between the Idoma nation and other surrounding ethnics like the Igbos through

Obolo-afor, in the present Enugu State, Iyala and Ogoja in the present Cross River State and

some areas in Ebonyi State respectively. So on his arrival in Umogidi, his people saw him as

the only one who could liberate them from the attack of their hostile Tiv neigbours. So on his

arrival, he demonstrated incredible power which eventually gave his people their lasting

freedom which made them to crown him king.

The poem as the one above and some others we will be looking at shortly, are performed by a

court poet or courtesan by a bard or good imaginative and inventive speaker. The praise poem

is in some ways historical, in some respect that it deals with a historical character, his deeds,

behaviour, his clan, those associated with him, the places he has been and the realities of the

period in which he lived. To buttress this point, let us still look at another poem chanted for the

same character by one of the Alekwu-afia in one of the festivals in Umogidi community:

IDOMA: Ole Okwutachi

Abo no ya aa Aje Oma alo gbela to Aje no mo ma kunu afleyi aa Onya nehi Ene nehi ka alo Eyijum onya ka’ Aibe Otu ole kunu a’ aleche he ta Oma ko’ Oche K’alo Alo to aho nya Eko noyi aa le jle echa’ ahapa aa Elo’ Ojo ke’ efu gwo Efu nya? Efu ko’ Onya kau Fulani Ohi gbo’ oyei kuwa aa Odun dache kwi inya ikwu Eko ne loju ju mla mli wa aa Ka kwo ohonye ta ka lo Itu gi’ ipenkpo aa

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Ko jega luwa kwinyaq gwao olela kuwa ta Amanche, Ene ache Onya ka oba dodu Ofa nana nepla’ anu gbo gbo aa Ee noke kwo’ Omakwu itayi nu ipi ikpa Ee ninye efu oi kwu Ehe! Ogbo’ gbu ka’ alo Ehe! Olo’ ofu Ehe! Ohonye ta ka’ ache. ENGLISH:

At Okwutachi There it happened The land that leaves much to be imagined The land that first witnessed And heralded the people’s EMANCIPATOR The doggedness of a mother The strength of a woman Eyifum wife of Aibe Her courage resulted to people’s freedom The mothering of the people’s legend To you we owe many thanks When the child (Omakwu) turned seven days There rang a bell of war Which war? The Fulani “horse war” For their dear life Everybody ran away After dinging-donging among themselves For the people’s Messiah To be cast into the river To enable them hide away from their enemies The mother of children The wife of all husbands Resisted after several chivvy She then hid him (Omakwu) inside the calabash While the migration continues Hurrah! The legendary hero Hurray! The mighty Hurray! The People’s Emancipator.

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Through the motifs found in this poem, we have been given an insight into the social cultural

experiences of the community of birth of the subject of praise which is Okwutachi and

circumstances surrounding his birth. Through its constituent elements of allusions, events,

oblique references, we also see in the poem the constructions and the deconstructions of the

migration history of the Umogidi people. To this end, it is not out of place to assert that, the

praise poem fuses narrative with praise. It also fuses imaginative inventiveness with historicity.

For instance, it has been established in the above poem that sometime in history, the Fulani

people invaded the Okwutachi community which was a settlement in the old Apa kingdom

where the entire Idoma people migrated from, to their present place of settlement. So through

the poem too, we come to know that the migration of Idoma from Apa in the old kwararafa

confederacy was caused by the war they fought with the Fulani people in what was called “the

horse war”.

As a study carried out under the theoretical lens of cultural poetics, the questions that come to

one’s mind after reading the above praise poem is not “Were the characters or personae in the

poem based on real people?” or “Do the events recounted in the text re-create experiences

from the author’s life?” Rather, the question is “How does the text reveal and comment on the

disparate discourses of the culture it depicts?” With that new question, the reader is able to

view history moves from behind a literary work as the poem above to expose the socio-cultural

and political discourses that define a migration era of Idoma people. On a general note, this

poem provides for Idoma people the records of their historical life, the migration and the

general experiences of the people for improvement on the social, cultural, economic and

political life of the communities. This is indeed a springboard for the study of Idoma history.

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CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

5.1 Conclusion

Throughout the continent, debates around the fate of oral literature are extensive; pessimistic

positions coexist with more optimistic ones. In view of this fact, the study has been able to

investigate the literary qualities of the poetry in the Idoma oral performances. In the past,

African oral literature were mostly analysed from an anthropological point of view. This

research however, has been able to look at the Idoma oral poetics with the aim of interpreting

them as reflecting a homogeneity of the people’s collective oral literary culture through the

theoretical frame of Greenblatt’s “New Historicism” called “Cultural Poetics”. I have been

able to acknowledge the high level of literary accomplishment in the various types of the

people’s oral poetry such as dirges, religious poetry, incantatory poetry, epic or praise poetry

drawing from their rich performance culture. The study disclosed a communal cultural

imagination of the Idoma people with a very strong social function. It has been able to

establish that oral poetry performance is not only relevant as a means of entertaining the people

but it influences the people’s political opinions and help them to voice their views and

grievances, to reinforce or negotiate the cultural features of their communities and to define

the social identity of the individual.

The poetry in the Idoma Alekwu performances is useful, in that, through them the people

became aware of themselves, other human beings, their environment and their history. The

poets during rendition use colourful words and vivid images to describe human beings, their

feelings and their behaviour towards one another. These performances also portray natural

phenomena like landscapes, plants and creatures in the same lively language. They also

recount events and happenings in the people’s lives and in the history of their societies. Hence

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these performances stimulate our observation and imagination. We begin to understand things

described better and in a new light. The poems give us insight into people, things and events.

5.2 Summary

In summary, the work comprised of five chapters. The first one took me through the

introduction, a brief survey of Idoma society where I discussed the origin, constituents, the

archives, aspect of the Idoma verbal arts/performance, statement of problem and significance

of the research. This chapter helps us to know more better the people whose society my

research is centred.

Chapter two attempted the review of related literature. Here, I have been able to critically look

at the works of such scholars of Idoma oral literature like R.C. Abraham, R.G. Armstrong,

S.O. Amali, Idris Amali, E.O. Erim and Ted Anyebe. The review also took me through the

works of other specialized researchers of other African groups such as Isidore Okpewho, Ruth

Fennigan, Onuekwusi Jasper, Abdulahid Na’ Allah and Bayo Ogunjimi, Nkem Okoh,

Chukwuma Helen, Akporobaro F.B.O, Ode Ogede, etc. This review showed that much works

have been done on African nay Idoma oral literature in general and poetry in particular but

none has been able to critically investigate the literariness in the poetry of Idoma oral

performances. The aim is to justify the research.

Chapter three took care of the theoretical framework and research methodology. The theory

adopted in this research happened to be the ‘New Historicism’ of an acclaimed critic Stephen

Greenblatt known as ‘Cultural Poetics’, bearing in mind the relatedness of other social forces

that go behind literature to help in shaping the Idoma society through sociohistorical and

cultural awareness.

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Chapter four happened to be the major one where analysis of the texts of Idoma oral poetry

was carried out. The analysis helped us to see in them, the socio-political, religious and cultural

relevance of the people’s oral performance to their society. The chapter was subtitled and

grouped according to the themes and motifs of the poems. They include, Death as Dominant

Motif in the Analysis of Idoma Dirges, The Philosophical Interpretation of Idoma Oral Poetry,

and The Theme of Praise and its Historical Relevance in Idoma Oral Poetry.

Chapter five provided us with the conclusion and summary where a brief overview of the

entire work was made.

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Amali, S.O.O. Idoma Dances and Their Continued Relevance to the Society - The Analysis of Idoma-Otukpo Ichicha and Alekwu, 1985. [Unpublished Thesis]

Amali, Idris. Flute Proverbs: The Case of Idoma Aklama Itodo, in Ujo. Adejo [Ed.], Makurdi: Eka Agabaidu Press, 1999.

Anyebe, Ted. Ehancing Rural Development through Drama: The Idoma Experience, in Ujo. Adejo [ed]. Makurdi: Eka Agabaidu Press, 1999.

Armstrong, R.G. The Idoma kings: the Nature of Their Office and Their Changing States. Ibadan: University Press, 1980.

Asogwa, C.I. A Preface to African Philosophy. Enugu: Jemezie Associates,2001.

Bakari, R.S. Epistemology from an Afrocentric Perspective: Enhancing Black Students’ Consciousness Through an Afrocentric Way of Knowing. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/pocpw12, 1997.

Bogumil-Notz, .S. Literature and Philosophy. Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems [EOLSS]. http://www.eolss.net/EOLSS, 2014.

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F.B.O. Akporobaro. Introduction to African Oral Literature. Lagos: Princeton Publishing Company, 2006.

Finnegan, Ruth. Oral Literature in Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

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APPENDIX

SPECIMEN A

IDOMA: Elee le le lee (ehe), ene no num

Ada no mum ooo!!! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa!

Eche! Eche! Eche! Eche! Eche ukpam odufi Oko mlo Onugbo fa

Odan k’Oko imo Onugbu oinenun, Oga nyo gega dodun

Odan k’oko leto’ ote, Oko Kahini “Onugbo Oinem” Anya ifio Onegbo ofu, Oine Ko’ Oko Egbe Ko’ Onugbo de kputu Onugbo loinenu, Oko nmo ee. Onugbo lo’Oko oinenu mno ee, ehe! Enya Oligbo mninu ka ano mnipu aa

ENGLISH: Elee le le lee (alas) my mother who bore me My father who bore me ooo! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Aaaa! Earth! Earth! Earth! Earth! Oko and Onugbo his brother If Oko did not see Onugbo his brother, He would not go anywhere, Whenever Oko went hunting, Oko would say “Onugbo, Oko’s brother” Anger over-powered Onugbo, brother of Oko Then Onugbo’s gun spoke kputuu Now Onugbo has killed Oko, his brother. Onugbo has killed Oko his brother ee, alas! This is Oligbo killing himself And thimks he kills his stomach. SPECIMEN B.

IDOMA: Alechenu Omakwu Akanaba K’Idoma

Ochi nehi okweyi epa Neyi lo onongblo wo Oyowe lache kola’ adanu

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Oyu dam lu’ uwa duu Alechenu ni’ ikwu mno aa? Nchen! Onye ga yo’ owe lalo ge? Onye ga je’ enkpo lalo ge? Alechenu anu yo’ owe aa Anu ye’ enkpo lalo aa.

Akano jela ibi akpo mnabo Ka’Alechenu. Akano jema ibi akpo mnabo Ka’ Alechenu duu.

Eko no mnigwu aa Omno’ Okwu igwu Odan ka’abo yipu k’ona

Oga weche anchan Odan ko’ola leyi me Oche ikayi jewo mma O da no ya le ya ee. Iju yoya to’ okwu mlo’ okwu gogon ma. Ena ya koje me, oche ichokwu lemma Okwu kunu nya o’anchan Odeyi to’okwu

Ohwi fofunu na’ache ge bi Le mna adagba aa.

ENGLISH: Alechenu Omakwu The pillar of Idoma

The big tree with two branches Great son of Omakwu He built road for his father’s people He built earth-dam for them too.

Is it Alechenu the death has carried? Unbelievable! Who will construct road for us? Who will produce water for us?

Alechenu was the one who constructed road for us He is the one who gave us water

If you think you are so generous, you borrow from Alechenu. If you think you are so humane, you borrow from Alechenu too.

The maggot that kills the corn

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Comes from under the corn Once the hand is in the food

It does not come out empty Once the fire is out One cannot warm himself with ashes What happened has happened. The fly honoured the corpse It did not accompany it into the grave The one you people did should be enough

Since one cannot eat corpse. This death is not ordinary There is something behind it It is only an arrow that people use To kill an elephant SPECIMEN C.

Ele le le lee! Ehe! Wuuu! Ada no mum! Ene no mum! Otu ibium oooo! Out ibium. Onowa yenu aa Enu oma anu bogo Na’ ache le’nyo onowa aa

ENGLISH: The blacksmith forges the hoe That hoe dug the hole (grave) In which people buried the blacksmith

Aja nodre imna No’ oche ile aa Aja oma neke kayi’ lo’oche nyi aa Eko no’ oche gekwu Ikwu ogbonoko ojeema noo Ikwu odinum yo nakache koyehe tum aa? Ikwu aba naga kwum, kama boyi nem Tam ma?

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ENGLISH: Ele le le lee! Alas! Wuuu! The father that bore me! The mother that bore me! The night overtook me ooo! The night overtook me. The blacksmith forges the hoe That hoe dug the hole (grave) In which people buried the blacksmith It is the earth food comes from That man feeds on It is the same mother earth That eats up man when he dies. Death is wicked, he knows no relative Death what have I done to you, That you expose me to laughter Death why not take me and leave my brother. SPECIMEN D.

IDOMA

Ogili nya’ adanu mlo oje ojokwu “Olowo laye” olije le’eche aaa Unonji ki Ikwue Omakwu o agboji eta Ai poli’ IKwue mnena igwene Eke mnenwu ofuchigwo Leader: Umogidi moyi ee Lemi ijamata yogo Chorus: Ijamata mali’ igwu No male’ eye ee Leader: Omakwu moyi ee Lemi ijamata yogo Chorus: Ijamata mali’ igwu No male’ eye ee Leader: Oika Aibe moyi ee Lemi ijamata yogo Chorus: Ijamata mali’ igwu No male’ eye ee

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ENGLISH: Ogili buried his father with fat money “Olowo laye” (he who has money has life) The grave of Ikwue Omakwu has three steps

The children of Ikwue Omakwu killed fourteen cows They also killed thirty goats. Leader: Umogidi gave birth ee To Locust plenty Chorus: Locust gave to guineacorn And gave birth to millet ee Leader: Omakwu gave birth ee To Locust plenty Chorus: Locust gave to guineacorn And gave birth to millet ee Leader: The son of Aibe gave birth ee To Locust plenty Chorus: Locust gave to guineacorn And gave birth to millet ee

SPECIMEN E.

IDOMA: Ogili kaka, oi nehi Ka’aba

Ikwu nya wa lebe ka’aga oko kum ma Owa lebe keyi ochebe aa Olebe kepu aa, nchowu gebe Lebe kepu aa, nchowu gebe Odadodu num ya, nchowu gebe Ada loyi ojimeli ma Uweyi ikwo ne?

Ogili kaka! Ogwinu gam leyi wo. Ikpi’ igbankpa num kpotainu

Ohigbo owo Owaje aa Onya bobi ga lo pahila. Ikpanga eko ga loyi ee

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Ikpanga eko ga ee Oi kega ee, eko kega ee Eko keya oi keyi tola’ adanu ee

ENGLISH:

Ogili the great, the bigger son of Aba If a father gave birth to a hardworking son Shame doesn’t catch him Ogili the great! He built house for me to lay my head. This death came like the axe on my neck It came like a twinkling of the eyes Light as leaf, I ride the boat to a place Light as life, I ride the boat somewhere. The maize seedlings that I stored in the ban For the next raining season

The evil horse has come and scattered them. Caterpillar the time has come And the child goes home The time has come And the child goes to the father’s place. SPECIMEN F.

IDOMA: Oko’ ogba amome ka’ Ada… dam

Entekpa joko gam Ogabakpa joko gam Enkekpa mlo’ Ogabakpa aine Obobi joko gam nneyale Ofu Ka’ Adam no fie du aa, ga joko gam Wa ga joko loje ogbola Ka’ Abah Ami, Agbo no go ote leyala Agaba noyi kwo ote Odan Agaba I’kwo ote Eba nya nyo ga Owu ka’ Adam wag a jo ofu gam. ENGLISH:

The last prayer of my ancestor Entekpa stream gives me voice Ogabakpa stream gives me voice Entekpa and Ogabakpa are one Because Obobi gave me voice, I won

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The great power of my father gives me voice All the powers of my father come and give me voice Come and give voice to the costly iron of Abah I, Agbo that went hunting and conquered What a lion in a hunting contest If Lion went hunting, which other animal dares? The superpower of my father come and gives me inspiration.

SPECIMEN G.

IDOMA: Ebi lenya

Onya no le’ ebi kpo Ole’ ebi kpo Ebi bio iii! Ebi bio Ifu no gu joka’ obla aa Anu mo ane O’gole lohi ga ee Anu mo mia’ ane ENGLISH:

Abomination has occurred The woman who commits abomination Commits abomination And abomination holds her Yes! It holds her The rat that goes to cat’s market Looks for trouble It knows better If it returns safely e e It knows better.

SPECIMEN H.

IDOMA:

Okpancho mle’ eche Aje nya me no nwule fie duu aa Igbo! ikpa’aje nya no yo Ee no nyo di dago alewa aa Omakwu oi ka’ Aibe Oje no bogo ena bogo egwa

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Eno ge nya ‘anyakwoihe mla’aipe Otote no ge kwe Eje mla abo ancha Agaba no la’ abo nandla ne’eche mlo ola Alo ga inyobu ko’ iche ee Aipolo le’ eje te nyi ee Emi no owo nyo Lo owo bi gla lo Lo owu bobi kpowu ge che-che Eje’alekwu koi le ebo-ebo. ENGLISH:

Heaven and the earth The land has grown the mighty Yes! This is the land where he was When he performed several wonders Omakwu! The son of Aibe The iron that digs the scorpion’s hole And also digs snake’s hole The one that buries the old and the small

A hunter that catches a Tiger with bare hand The lion that his hand stretches and fire strikes

We are before your presence today Your children have fermented guinea corn In preparation for Eje’alekwu festival Where has rain gone to? Send rain to us Send away the bad wind Let Eje’Alekwu festival be a success. SPECIMEN I. IDOMA:

Aje loi nehi ma e e iii! Ogbobe’ efu ka’ alo Elo ma e e Oje noi boyena, boge’ egwa Eno inye’ nenche Mle’ enehi Oto’ ote noge kwe’ Eje Mla’ abo ancha Agala no la’abo nandra No’ ola gbohi Oha’ alo ta ga e e

Chorus:

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Olo’ ofu ka’ alo Olo’ ofu ka’ alo iii! olo’ ofu ka’ alo Ga e e. ENGLISH:

The land has grown the mighty Yes! The general is born The iron that digs scorpion’s hole And also digs snake’s hole The one that buries the old and the small A hunter that catches a Tiger with bare hand The Lion that his hand stretches and fire strikes He is the one we are talking about Our saviour! Yes! Our saviour has come.

Chorus: Our mighty

Our mighty Yes! Our mighty He has come.

SPECIMEN J. IDOMA:

Ole Okwutachi Abo no ya aa Aje Oma alo gbela to Aje no mo ma kunu afleyi aa Onya nehi Ene nehi ka alo Eyijum onya ka’ Aibe Otu ole kunu a’ aleche he ta Oma ko’ Oche K’alo Alo to aho nya Eko noyi aa le jle echa’ ahapa aa Elo’ Ojo ke’ efu gwo Efu nya? Efu ko’ Onya kau Fulani Ohi gbo’ oyei kuwa aa Odun dache kwi inya ikwu Eko ne loju ju mla mli wa aa Ka kwo ohonye ta ka lo Itu gi’ ipenkpo aa Ko jega luwa kwinyaq gwao olela kuwa ta Amanche, Ene ache Onya ka oba dodu

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Ofa nana nepla’ anu gbo gbo aa Ee noke kwo’ Omakwu itayi nu ipi ikpa Ee ninye efu oi kwu Ehe! Ogbo’ gbu ka’ alo Ehe! Olo’ ofu Ehe! Ohonye ta ka’ ache. ENGLISH:

At Okwutachi There it happened The land that leaves much to be imagined The land that first witnessed And heralded the people’s EMANCIPATOR The doggedness of a mother The strength of a woman Eyifum wife of Aibe Her courage resulted to people’s freedom The mothering of the people’s legend To you we owe many thanks When the child (Omakwu) turned seven days There rang a bell of war Which war? The Fulani “horse war” For their dear life Everybody ran away After dinging-donging among themselves For the people’s Messiah To be cast into the river To enable them hide away from their enemies The mother of children The wife of all husbands Resisted after several chivvy She then hid him (Omakwu) inside the calabash While the migration continues Hurrah! The legendary hero Hurray! The mighty Hurray! The People’s Emancipator.