Folktale Tradition of the Esan People and African Oral Literature

“OKHA”: FOLKTALE TRADITION OF THE ESAN PEOPLE AND AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE

1ST IN THE SERIES OF INAUGURAL LECTURES

OF SAMUEL ADEGBOYEGA UNIVERSITY

PROFESSOR BRIDGET O. INEGBEBOH B.A. M.A. PH.D (ENGLISH AND LITERATURE) (BENIN) M.ED. (ADMIN.) (BENIN), LLB. A.A.U (EKPOMA), BL. (ABUJA) LLM. (BENIN)

Professor of English and Literature Department of Languages Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa.

Wednesday, 11th Day of May, 2016.

PROFESSOR BRIDGET O. INEGBEBOH B.A. M.A. PH.D (ENGLISH AND LITERATURE) (BENIN) M.ED. (ADMIN.) (BENIN), LLB. A.A.U (EKPOMA), BL. (ABUJA) LLM. (BENIN)

“OKHA”: FOLKTALE TRADITION OF THE ESAN PEOPLE AND AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE

1ST IN THE SERIES OF INAUGURAL LECTURES

OF SAMUEL ADEGBOYEGA UNIVERSITY

OGWA, EDO STATE, NIGERIA.

BRIDGET OBIAOZOR INEGBEBOH B.A. M.A. PH.D (ENGLISH AND LITERATURE) (BENIN) M.ED. (ADMIN.) (BENIN), LLB. A.A.U (EKPOMA), BL. (ABUJA) LLM. (BENIN)

Professor of English and Literature Department of Languages Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa.

Wednesday, 11th Day of May, 2016.

“OKHA”: FOLKTALE TRADITION OF THE ESAN PEOPLE AND AFRICAN ORAL LITERATURE

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Published in 2016 by: SAMUEL ADEGBOYEGA UNIVERSITY, OGWA, EDO STATE, NIGERIA.

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Vice-Chancellor, Chairman and members of the Governing Council of SAU, The Management of SAU, Distinguished Academia, My Lords Spiritual and Temporal, His Royal Majesties here present, All Chiefs present, Distinguished Guests, Representatives of the press and all Media Houses present, Staff and Students of Great SAU, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.

Summary This lecture seeks to demonstrate that “Okha” folktale tradition of the Esan People is a form of Literature in its own right. It is rich in aesthetic and artistic qualities. It has a recognizable structure, as well as a high functional value in the society. It is a rich form of cultural heritage which mirrors and transmits the Esan culture from generation to generation. It entertains and instructs. At the same, it time acts as a vehicle for the code of living. It acts as a device for sustaining the code and imparting Esan cosmology. They give the Esan people a sense of belonging and a feeling of self- pride. The performers of Esan folktales manipulate language literarily to present the image of Esan women and men in the world of the folktales. Overall, the lecture argues that although feminist literature posits that all women are being oppressed by men, a close examination of women in Esan Folktales reveals that some women are oppressed and remain passive; some women are oppressed and resist; some women are unoppressed; while some women are portrayed negatively as women who dominate other women and men.

Preamble Mr Vice-Chancellor Sir, I came to Esan Land in 1972. I savoured the vast artistic oral dramatic performances of Esan verbal arts, especially the folktales and I worked with all my might to study them, record and store many of them, and add them to the body of universal knowledge that is available to the modern man.

I became more interested in the study of Esan Folklore and Literature during my researches in 1978, 1994 and 2000, as a result of my desire to salvage and save what appeared to me to be the remains of the endangered species of the wealth of the memory of artistic giants of Esan Oral Literature. With the advent of globalization the number of speakers of Esan Language is reducing drastically. 5

Moreover, people’s interest in Esan verbal arts is beginning to wane. Some old generation of folktale singers are beginning to go to the great beyond, with all the tales locked in their memories. This is in line with Gideon Darah (2010) and Ahmadou Hampate Ba’s saying that, “every old person who dies in Africa is like a library destroyed by fire.” Ojaide (2003:3) emphasizes: “…the urgent need to retrieve as much of the (African) folklore as much as possible for study and preservation before its aged custodians die with their cast knowledge.”

Okha Folktale Tradition of the Esan People and African Oral Literature

Introduction The performance of every Esan folktale is a significant and interesting moment of artistic experience. The narration of a folktale in Esanland is a total human experience that involves dramatizing the tale, uniting its aesthetics and sociology; and it is a work of art. Feminists state that all women are oppressed. However, women are expected to emancipate themselves from any traditional system that obstructs their development and grow into self-assertive and self, fulfilled women (Ezeigbo, 1996.) I found that women who distinguish themselves in Esan folktales by being committed in one desirable field of human endeavour or the other and leading good lives are highly respected. They are not oppressed.

The Esan People

The Esan people in Edo State, of Nigeria, occupy five local government areas. These include: Esan West, Esan North East, Esan South East, Esan Central and Igueben, and are geo-politically known as Edo Central Senatorial District. The population of the people is about 591,534 (Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette, 2009) and they occupy a total landmass of 80.805 square metres (Ewanlen, 2011). Esan turned “Ishan”, courtesy of Anglicism, is linked with Benin as an ancestral home (Aluede, 2006). This view is held by Eweka (1992), Okojie (1994) and Egharevba (2005). As a result of its historical origin, the socio-political, socio-cultural and religious structures, including oral folktale traditions, modes of worship, and marriage of the people draw on that of the Benin, who coronate the reigning sovereigns in Esanland. The Esan people speak six main varieties of Esan Language (Uromi, Ubiaja, Igueben, Ewohimi, Irrua, and Ekpoma varieties) which are mutually intelligible. According to Okojie (1994), the different varieties of Esan

6 are “highly mutually intelligible, such that successful communication between speakers is no problem”.

This lecture seeks to demonstrate that “Okha” folktale tradition of the Esan People is a form of Literature in its own right. It is rich in aesthetic and artistic qualities. It has a recognizable structure, as well as a high functional value in the society. It is a rich form of cultural heritage which mirrors and transmits the Esan culture from generation to generation. It entertains and instructs. At the same it, time acts as a vehicle for the code of living. It acts as a device for sustaining the code and imparting Esan cosmology. They give the Esan people a sense of belonging and a feeling of self- pride. The performers of Esan folktales manipulate language literarily to present the image of Esan women and men in the world of the folktales. Overall, the lecture argues that although feminist literature posits that all women are being oppressed by men, a close examination of women in Esan Folktales reveals that some women are oppressed and remain passive; some women are oppressed and resist; some women are unoppressed; while some women are portrayed negatively as women who dominate other women and men.

Folktales and African Oral Literature

Utility of African Oral Literature: Why Study African Oral Literature?

Mr Vice-Chancellor Sir, African Oral Literature has been found very useful to Africans, especially, the students in Africa and in the Africa Diaspora. I am very excited to have studied it. The study of Oral Literature is important to students of Literature because: (1.) Until fairly recently, the study of literature was restricted to the study of written literature, based perhaps on the mistaken notion that the term “literature” is restricted to only “written literature”. Today, the term literature includes both oral and written literature. (2.) To us Africans, who since the beginning of the 20th century have been pre-occupied with the struggle for independence, and the assertion of our own identity and achievements the various verbal art-forms, that make up Oral Literature represent a level of artistic consciousness in pre-literate Africa. (3.) The study of Oral Literature complements the study of Written Literature. Many African writers draw consciously and unconsciously on oral 7

literary tradition of Africa, therefore the study of Oral Literature enables the student of African Literature to appreciate Written Literature better. (4.) Oral Literature is a form of literature in its own right; it is a rich form of literature which provides satisfaction to students of Literature in addition to the study of Written Literature. (5.) Oral Literature teaches didactic, moral and aetiological lessons.

Oral Literature is used to describe that kind of Literature that is first composed orally and transmitted orally. It is an important aspect of folklore. Oral Literature includes those “Verbal arts” which are part of folklore transmitted from generation to generation, such as: stories, songs, proverbs, riddles, dances, festivals and other traditional dramatic displays. Orality is the most characteristic feature of Oral Literature. Oral Literature materials have been transmitted from generation to generation, thus they belong to the society, as common property without any known individual author. Oral Literature is created for the eyes as well as the ears, in the sense that the oral artist creates in the midst of an audience; the audience sees the artist perform and also hears him. The oral artist therefore strives for immediacy of effect. He uses the voice as well as physical gestures to enhance his performance. His art, therefore, is a kind of dramatic literature in the theatrical sense of the word. The oral artist is an actor, a singer, a dancer and an orator, all at once. The audience plays a dual role: first, as audience, watching and appreciating the work of art; and secondly, as a joint creator with the artist. Thus the audience is a participating audience.

The Characteristic Features of African Oral Literature

Oral Literature and written Literature compared

Oral Literature and written literature are similar to the extent that they are both concerned with the life experiences of people in the oral societies and literate societies respectively. They are both indirect methods of expressing life; they are fictitious; and they are both meant to entertain and instruct. They are different to the extent that Oral Literature has the following characteristics: (i.) Its orality in composition and transmission; (ii.) Common authorship. It is transmitted from generation to generation; (iii.) Meant for eyes and ears;

(iv.) Audience participation; (v.) Performance is a kind of drama; thus, Oral Literature is a kind of dramatic literature; (vi.) Over-lapping nature of the different genres of Oral Literature – prose, poetry, drama, proverbs, and so on; (vii.) Existence of many variants (versions) of the same narrative; (viii.) Use of repetition; (ix.) Use of ideophones; (x.) Training of the Oral artist is mostly informal; (xi.) Most genres of Oral Literature exist within an artistic convention thus, there is, for example, the opening and closing formal for folktales. (xii.) Language: though often, close to everyday ordinary speech, it is nevertheless very rich, often symbolic, metaphorical and uses a wide variety of imagery and figures of speech, such as simile, metaphors, irony, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, and many orders; (xiii.) Use of direct speech; (xiv.) Mimicry (of action and speech mannerism). (xv.) Voice modulation (lowering and raising of the voice), often combined with lengthening of sounds as well as elision of sounds; (xvi.) Oral Literature is essentially an oral art-form; thus, when reduced into writing; its essential nature as well as many of its features are lost, and what is left is mere skeleton; (xvii.) Every performance is a unique moment of artistic creation which cannot be duplicated.

African Folktales

African folktales, including Esan folktales are expressed in the indigenous languages. This, according to Taiwo (1985):

…illustrates the simplicity and superstition of rural African peoples, and they reflect the stage of development of a particular society. They reveal the fierce sense of justice of Africans, their belief in witchcraft [AND SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION], emphasis mine, and their powers of patience and endurance.

The folktales span a wide range of themes and characters that embody great lessons on life and living. The character, tortoise, for example, dominates many folktales in Nigeria, Benin, Cameroun and countries in Central Africa. Tortoise unites the various societies in the way they think and act. Following this, Okeh (1995) opines that:

…these people, although they speak different languages today, cherish tortoise as a unique cultural hero: utilize him for the framing of social ties and education of the individual. Physically, he maintains the appearance of that reptile of the species, Chelona. Morally, however, he typifies man in society who can be a model to be imitated or a villain to be avoided. (3)

The tortoise is intelligent, resourceful, but tricky and selfish. The different characteristics he manifests can be food for thought anywhere in the world.

African folktales transmit orally from generation to generation the totality of life of the African people. This covers the spoken language, people and place names, oral traditions and origin tales, people’s world picture, religion, health care system, marriage, family and the collective consciousness of the people. The Africans understand all these better in their traditional indigenous languages. Shaking the language foundation of the Africans is synonymous with wiping out their culture and wiping out Africa.

Approaches to the Study of Folktales

Scholars with different orientation have approached the study of folktales in different ways. Most of the early scholars of folklore were anthropologists and ethnographers whose main concern was with culture. They did not study folktales as literature. They did not care for the aesthetics in the folktales they studied, but as would be seen later in this lecture, their approach is quite relevant to the study of Esan folktales. Bascom informs that:

two important questions interest students of folklore research…how are we to explain the similar tales that are found in the different societies …how do we explain those startling and even shocking events in myths and folktales which are completely at variance with the accepted cultural norms, and which would be condemned as sins or 10

punished as crimes, if they were actually committed in the society in which the narratives are told? (2)

The ways any scholar answers the questions may identify him/her as a member of one or the other of the different groups of folklore research scholars. Broadly, three groups of early folklore scholars are identifiable. These include the Antiquarians, Anthropologists and Ethnographers. Anthropology is a broad field of study; it is a discipline which has many branches. However, the most relevant branch of Anthropology to the study of Esan folktales is Ethnography, which is also called cultural Anthropology or Ethnology or Social Anthropology. This is the branch of Anthropology that is most related to folklore. In this lecture, women in Esan folktales are examined in their interaction with other people having in mind their anthropological and sociological relevance to feminism.

The Ethnological Approach

The Ethnological approach studies the content of the tales to see the light they shed on the societies from which the stories originate. The earliest major work in this school is Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie, where he categorizes tale into fairy tale (marchen); legend, and myth. These categories have formed the basis of the various definitions of tales to date. All categories of tales identified by different scholars are subsumed in Jacob Grimm's categories. For example, Jacob Grimm emphasizes that:

The fairy tale, Märchen is with good reason distinguished from the legend, though by turns they play into one another. Looser, less fettered than legend, the fairy tale lacks that local habitation which hampers legend, but makes it more home-like. The fairy tale flies, the legend walks, "knocks" at your door; the one can draw freely out of the fullness of poetry, the other has almost the authority of history. (412-13)

A fairy tale can be told in various different locations as variants of the same tale, but legend is limited to a particular location and it is the story about that particular location that is about a particular people. Chinyere Nwahunanya emphasizes that:

the ethnological tradition in the study of myth features mainly ethnographers and anthropologists, and they look 11

at myth from the point of view of the "matter" of which the tales are composed, i.e., the content of the stories and the light shed on the societies from which the stories originate. (161)

This ethnological tradition has as its branches evolutionism and functionalism. Evolutionism branches out into Euphemerism, Solarism and Naturalism, all of which are diachronic approaches to the study of myth. Frazer's ideas are indebted to evolutionist theories which were being applied to the study of folklore at this time. He propounds the theory of the "psychic unity" of mankind where he explains that the intellectual evolution of people is analogous to the evolution of societies. The level of savagery or civilization of societies depends on their various levels of evolution. Thus, the societies that have attained a particular level of evolution would think alike and have similar customs and values. This is based on Evolutionism, according to Charles Darwin's biological theory, which emphasizes that biological species evolved from lower to higher forms. Different societies evolve at their own pace overtime. So, some societies are better developed than others. Nwahunanya confirms that: Evolutionism assumes that all societies are amenable to change, and that they actually do change from a lower primitive stage to a higher, civilized stage...Those who have attained a particular level of intellectual evolution would think the same way, and have the same customs and values, irrespective of the part of the world they inhabit. (161)

Another group, the Functionalists, which is led by Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942), advocates contact with the communities from whose cultures tales were made. Malinowski worked among Trobriand islanders and came up with the conclusion that present and past lives of the people from where tales originated were interrelated and that tales must be relevant to the present way of life of the people and reflect their world view. He emphasizes that: "an intimate connection exists between the word, mythos, and sacred tales of a tribe on one hand, and their ritual acts, their moral deals, their social organizations, and even their practical activities on the other." (11)

He further states that "the immense services to primitive culture performed by myth are done in connection with religious ritual, moral influence and sociological principle" (14). His "charter theory" illustrates the above idea. For Malinowski, tales 12 and chants of the Trobrianders made up a charter for preservation and transmission of aspects of their culture like the marriage system, kinship, governance, economy, religion and so on. They are therefore very functional. He emphasises that:

(myth) fulfils in primitive culture an indispensable function; it expresses, enhances, and codifies belief; it safeguards and enforces morality; it vouches for the efficiency of ritual and contains practical rules for the guidance of man". (19)

Myth, for Malinowski, is a charter of the people's belief system, as well as a warrant. He talks about "functional unity", as against Frazer’s "psychic unity." For him, a tale's importance lies in what it reveals about the society. He argues, too, that differences in ecological locations and climate of the different communities accounted for the differences in their type of needs. The ethnological approach is very relevant to the study of Esan folktales. This is because a study of the folktales may give an insight into the Esan traditional society to some extent.

The Taxonomists

The taxonomists include the diffusionists like Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, and the formalists who include Vladimir Propp, Alan Dundees and Eleazer Meletinsky. The diffusionists, otherwise called the Historical-Geographical school reject the idea of psychic unity of mankind, but agree that similarities in culture result from culture contact. For example, Thompson contends that:

The basic assumption is that each tale (or other folklore item) has its own history and must be investigated independently. General conclusions as to the origin and migration of all or groups of tales must await the accumulation of monographic treatments of many story types. (498)

This method involves gathering the variants of different tales to ascertain their origin and the direction of their migration. Other scholars who worked with this method include Antti Aarne, Julius Krohn and his son, Kaarie Krohn, who belong to the "Finnish School". The Finnish Literary Society was founded in the year 1831. The society had as its primary purpose, the systematic collection and study of various folklore materials. The society drew together many scholars who became known later as the Finnish School. Among the most prominent scholars of the 13

Finnish School are Anti Aarne and Kharl Khron. In 1910 Anti Aarne classified tales according to tale types. Another scholar, Stith Thompson expanded tale types. He classified tales, basing his own classification on the various motifs. At any rate, Nwahunanya suggests that motifs are "those details out of which full-fledged narrative structures are composed" (164). Thus a tale may consist of one motif or several motifs. Thompson wrote his Tale Type Index, where he sets up five categories of tale types as:

 Animal tales  Ordinary folktales  Jokes and Anecdotes  Formula tales  Unclassified tales.

Each tale type is further broken into sub-categories, for example, Animal tales type is further broken into:

 1 - 99 Wild Animals  100 - 149 Wild Animals and Domestic Animals  150 - 199 Man and Wild Animals  200 - 219 Domestic Animals  220 - 249 Birds  250 - 274 Fish  275 - 299 Other Animals and Objects

In analysing the tale, The Star Husband, for example, Thompson explains that:

if one is to determine the direction the tradition (of a tale) has travelled, he must try to reconstruct a theoretical, original and at least attempt to trace the historical and geographical conditions under which the tradition has been kept alive in the memories and in the interest of the intervening generations. (417)

Thompson adopted the above methodology in order to establish the original home of a tale and how it travelled. He emphasized that similarities in tales occurred more in the single motifs. He focused on motifs separately in order "to establish the

14 archetype and sub-types and to arrive at a probable life history of the tale" (418). Thompson's Tale Type Index is a valuable reference book in six volumes. It is one of the earliest analytical efforts to classify tales. Although the tale type index was meant for a particular geographical region, it is now useful for all regions, including continental Africa.

The Formalists The formalists also belong to the taxonomist tradition. Vladimir Propp belongs to this group. He studied variants of the fairy tale and discovered that they form the structure of the fairy tale and correlate within the composition of the tale. He calls `motifs' "functions" because each of them has a specific role to play in the plot. Another formalist structural analyst, Eleazer Meletinsky studied the internal linear structure of tales and the ends of tales. He introduced the idea of social conscience and tried to demonstrate how the rewards given out at the end of tales and the recipients reflect the difference between the various classes in the society. His idea brings into the study of tales class conflicts and the idea of inequality among the various classes in the society.

The formalists, according to Okpewho, are "those scholars who conceive of the oral narrative in terms of units of ideas which the artist has derived from different traditional sources - traceable or otherwise - and grouped together in a convenient pattern of narration or performance" (Okpewho, 5). Studying tales in the formalists' way presents oral narratives as units of ideas gathered from various sources and grouped together for the purpose of storytelling and dramatization, instead of studying them as accounts of the activities of the characters in the imaginary world of the folktale.

The Cognitists Approach Scholars in this group divide into the psychoanalysts and the symbolists. Both groups make their concern what happens in the mind of people who tell stories. Prominent among the psycho-analysts include Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). The symbolists include Ernest Cassirer and the structuralist, Levi-Strauss. Freud, starting his experiments with his mental patients, encouraged them by method of "free association" to tell him everything that led to their problem. Nwahunanya claims that: Freud divides human mental development into three stages:

the Ego libido (that characterizes infancy and early childhood when the child is still tied up to his mother), the narcissistic libido (when the child exhibits a growing awareness of its body and sex organs); and the object libido (the period of adulthood when we start to extend our sexual desire to external objects …Myths are in some sense "the dream thinking of the people" and they preserve the unconscious pre-occupation of the infancy of a race. (167)

Thinking of oral narratives this way removes from them every idea of imagination and creativity. Following Freud's personal unconscious, folktales are mere dreams. Carl Gustav Jung talks about the "collective unconscious" made up of primordial images or archetypes. The symbolists represented by Ernest Cassirer, talk about myth as symbol. Cassirer states that myth is primitive. He draws a line between primitive thought and symbolic (scientific) thought.

The Structuralist Approach

The structuralists try to combine the idea of structural functionalists who state that tales reflect clash of competing interests in the society. Claude Levi- Strauss combines the structural functionalist idea of rival interests in society with the formalists concern with syntagmatic structure of folktale. Consequently, Levi- Strauss develops his paradigmatic structural analysis. He propounds a theory based on Roman Jakobson's idea of binary patterns in language. Kirk illustrates Levi-Strauss theory as follows:

Just as the elements of language-sounds or phonemes-- are meaningless in themselves, and only take on significance in combination with other phonemes, so the elements of myth - the individual narrative elements, the persons or objects - are meaningless in themselves, and only take on significance through their relation with each other. But it is not the formation of mere narrative as such that is significant; rather it is the underlying structure of relations that determines the real "meaning" of a myth, just as it is the underlying structure of a language that gives it significance as a means of communication. Variant versions of myth may show changes in the surface 16

meaning, but the structure and basic relationships will often remain constant. (42)

Levi-Strauss is highly interested in the binary pattern in the development of human linguistic capacity. He assumes that for people to interlocute there has to be a code of understanding between them. He suggests that a tale should be split into units to bring out the various motifs. He is concerned with how individual narrative elements, the persons and objects become significant only when they relate to other elements.

Multi-Dimensional Approach Some scholars, especially within the last three decades have advocated a move away from the sociological and structural methodology of earlier scholars to recommend a more composite methodology that encompasses some conclusions of earlier scholars, as well as the inclusion of the study of aesthetics. Some scholars call this approach the multi-dimensional approach, while others call it the composite critical eclecticism approach. Feminists call their approach feminist interdisciplinary approach. Earlier scholars neglected the aesthetic aspect of their work. Confirming this, Nwahunanya informs that:

The realization that no one theory of myth can ever be adequate, and that what is needed is a critical eclecticism, whereby the best aspects of the different theories are merged to constitute one fresh approach, has led these more recent scholars to look at myth from all possible points of view, including the literary. (172)

One of the earliest scholars to explore the usefulness of the multi-dimensional approach to oral literature is Heda Jason, a Jewish scholar. She suggests that:

Tales should be arranged following a linear continuum of degrees of "realness", shading extremes at either end. The texts will be distributed along the continuum, and, with each retelling of a tale-plot, the tale may shift its place on the line…the relationship may be expressed approximately as follows: the nearer, better-known, and more every day the historical and geographical setting of the tale, and the nearer its actors to the narrator's personal experience, the more "real" the happening of the tale will appear to the narrator. (134)

Viewing folktales in a "continuum" accommodates various aspects and stages of storytelling. Jason's work is significant in many respects because it is an important influence on some later scholars such as Okpure O. Obuke, who later developed the multi-dimensional approach to the study of oral narratives and raised it to the level of aesthetics. Obuke shows the difference between an ordinary storyteller and the good artist as:

The mere storyteller tends to rely more on the plot which he has learned, and does very little to recreate the plot and clothe it into a pleasing work of art. On the other hand, the good artist, or the good performer, is one who has mastered the various techniques involved in the creation of an oral narrative. He is concerned with the creation of beauty, and not the mere narration of a story. He therefore uses such other non-verbal techniques as he considers appropriate in the creation of a performance. (164)

Obuke aims at a dramatic presentation as well as the recreating of the same basic narrative plots, themes, formulas, images and symbols which he has clothed with his originality. More recent scholars now look at oral narratives from the multi-dimensional interdisciplinary approach. Some examples include Harold Scheub, Isidore Okpewho, Samuel Ukala and Okpure O. Obuke. Most scholars who use this approach emphasize the multidimensional nature of Oral Literature and the interrelatedness of its various parts. There is also an emphasis on the close relationship of other genres. For example, Ukala stresses this relationship between the various genres of oral narratives, such as myths, legends and folktales. According to Ukala,

The appreciation of African folktale has, since the late nineteenth century, been predominantly from the theoretical perspectives of Evolutionism, Diffusionism, Structural-Functionalism and Psychoanalysis [as recorded in Ruth Finnegan (1972, 12). Although these have been largely discredited because of their highly speculative nature and inadequate concern with aesthetic value, some of their features specifically their classification systems or typology (related to Diffusionism) and their functionality, including that of providing psychological escape (related to

structural functionalism and psychoanalysis), still linger on in African contemporary folktale scholarship. More attention has, however, been focused on the modes of transmitting the folktale. (62)

Ukala emphasizes performance and dramatization of the folktale. He epitomizes the composite critical eclecticism and multi-dimensional approach in his work, "From Folktale to Popular Literary Theatre: A Study in Theory and Practice." He argues that:

Nigerian folktales are suitable indigenous sources upon which to evolve a popular literary theatre in Nigeria, since folktales, in themselves, are popular narratives which embody the comprehensive worldview of the Nigerian people and are performed through a complete set of replicable conventions with which the greater majority of English-speaking Nigerians may readily identify. (Ukala, 11)

Ukala analyses Ika folktales as literature. He emphasises performance, dramatization, audience involvement and aesthetics. Similarly, Harold Scheub emphasizes performance as he claims that:

the Xhosa Ntsomi is a performing art which has, as its dynamic mainspring, a core-cliché (a song, chant, or saying) which is, during a performance, developed, expanded, detailed, and dramatized before an audience which is itself composed of performers, everyone in a Xhosa society being a potential performer.(3)

Scheub further highlights what makes up the aesthetic enjoyments of the Ntsomi performed by Noplani Gxavu as follows:

Her performances are marked by sustained animations. She incorporates into the production such devices as the verbalization of her characters' conscious states, and she develops her central characters fully and colourfully. A rhythmic movement of the body, the face changing constantly from mischievous beast to innocent child, almost exaggerated gesture and a considerable range of vocal dramatics: these combine with a keen intellectual 19

treatment of the theme to produce lengthy and balanced performance. (7)

He shows that an artist has a role to play in the shaping of his text and the enjoyment of the audience. He does not merely hand over the tales verbatim from generation to generation. He emphasises the need for a performer to carry her audience along. He states that "the Xhosa Zulu artist almost immediately senses the mood and attitude of her audience, which will control the first few minutes of the production" (12). He portrays the performance of the Ntsomi as an animating and aesthetic experience between the performer and his audience.

Indeed, Obuke asserts that:

Oral narrative performance exists in Africa as an artistic mode of communication. In traditional African oral society, the history, morals, values, norms, ethos, philosophy, religion, political and social ideas, et cetera, were dramatized, concretized, recreated, poeticized, mythologized and imparted through and by art. Therefore one of the main functions of oral narrative performance in Africa is to provide artistic experience as well as aesthetic satisfaction for the society. (157)

Obuke employs the ethnological approach in analyzing “the content of the stories and the light they shed on the societies from which the stories originate." He identifies in the `matter' of his tale such parts as "the history, morals, values, norms, ethos, philosophy… social ideas." Moreover, he borrows a leaf from the cognitist tradition of the symbolists, who concern themselves with symbols and what happens in the minds of the narrators of the tales. Obuke emphasizes the involvement of two main structures in folktales, "the surface structures, and the underlying structure of images and symbols" (158).

He emphasizes the aesthetics and creativity of oral narratives, as well as the syntagmatic and paradigmatic functions of language, like Claude Lévi-Strauss of the structuralist functionalist school. Obuke treats oral narration as a mythical spectrum of performance that involves recreation of "existing plots by skilful organization and manipulation of language and action for artistic purpose" (164). Thus oral narration involves recreation of plot and the verbal and non-verbal aspects

20 of language. The study of folktale by this method elevates folktales to forms of literature in their own right.

The Feminist Inter-Disciplinary Approach My research on categories of female character in folktales employs the feminist inter-disciplinary approach in analysing Esan folktales. The folktales are analysed in terms of their contents, the artistic and aesthetic enjoyment they offer, as well as the inherent feminism. The feminist inter-disciplinary approach is an admixture of the literary, the ethnological, the sociological and the participant observer methods. Folktales are told in Esan for entertainment as well as for instruction of the younger generations. The folktales contain the belief system of the people, as well as other iconic cultural materials. The society is educated informally through folktales.

Esan folktales, for example, relate stories of human activities in the traditional Esan society, like novels relate the stories of human activities in a literate society. The relevant sociological and ethnological thoughts in the folktales are also examined in line with the views of Omafume Onoge who asserts that:

an understanding of the sociological milieu of the artist should, in fact, be the starting point of the criticism of any literature. It attempts to correlate the work to the social background to see how the author's intention and attitude issue out of the wider social context of his art in the first place and, more important still, to get to an understanding of the way each writer or each group of writers captures a moment of the historical consciousness of the society. The intimate progression of the collective mind, its working, its shapes, its temper, these - and more - are determinants to which a writer's mind and sensibilities are subject, to which they are responding all the time and which, at a superficial or profound level, his work will reflect in its moods and structures. (91)

The feminist inter-disciplinary approach is different from the purely sociological, anthropological and structural methodology of earlier scholars, whose works, according to Ukala have: "been predominately from the theoretical perspectives of Evolutionalism, Diffusionism, Structural-Functionalism and

Psychoanalysis…discredited because of their highly speculative nature and inadequate concern with aesthetics". (62)

This approach encapsulates the methodologies of other disciplines. It highlights the content and the themes, as well as the inherent feminism in Esan folktales. It also views the activities of the female characters in the tales from the perspective of the feminist. The Esan man's position in the folktale correlates to a great degree with his position in folk life. For example, many of the tales are about some polygamous, patriarchal, pleasure seeking men who spend their time dominating women and their children. Similarly, the women's position in the folktales mirrors to a great extent what obtains in the traditional society. Some of the women are oppressed and subjugated, while some live fulfilled lives. Most of the homes are polygamous, so the women spend most of their time having babies for their husbands. This confirms what happens generally in African traditional society. David Lamb stresses this that:

the African man will still be African man, and his main preoccupation will still be proving his virility. Traditionally, the male role in Africa was waging war, hunting, clearing land and building huts. Women were responsible for gathering wood, fetching water, raising children and harvesting crops. If there was extra food to sell, the woman kept the profits. She was the resource of Africa's rural development, and her role was largely autonomous, seldom subservient. (40)

Some exceptional women gain recognition and are highly respected because of their charisma, wealth of experience in the custom and tradition of their people, as they relate to the peaceful co-existence of the members of the society, their economic power and self-reliance, as well as some spiritual powers they possess. Talking about the Nigerian women generally, Ezeigbo argues that:

as in other places, most women in Nigeria today are labouring and living under stress. The woman is often overwhelmed by the responsibilities in her life - those created by the society and by herself. She is expected to perform her traditional role efficiently; run her home, be a good wife, a super-mother and a supportive member of the extended family. She is expected to contribute to the family

income. And she must perform creditably at her job or business to be recognised or to make progress. And this impossible task she has to accomplish in a culture where she is taught that she is inferior to her male counterpart. (5)

The stress Nigerian women are living in is caused by the society that relegates them to the background. The situation Ezeigbo describes correlates with life in Esan folktales. The chauvinistic and domineering attitudes of the patriarchal males in the folktales mirror the societal expectation of men's role in folk life. On the other hand, the different manifestations of women in Esan society correlate with the various positive feminist traits some women evince in Esan folk life.

Essentially, most Esan folktales contain some elements of "facts" mixed with imaginary creative elements. Tales like those involving rulers (Ogiso and Oba) are based on historical figures and actual events. However, these tales are embellished by the performers who add to them much of what might be aesthetically pleasing. These include songs, music, miming, gesticulations, ideophones and unusual comparisons. The feminist inter-disciplinary approach, involving sociological, participant observer and literary methods brings out effectively the activities of characters in the folktales and their perspective.

Following this, the analysis of Esan folktales reveals that the society of the folktales though it is an imaginary society also has vices such as envy, wickedness, oppression, bad government, treachery, witchcraft, irrationality, short temperedness, impatience, and stealing that are found in other cultures. The folktales entertain and at the same time, act as a vehicle for the code of living and as a device for sustaining and imparting the Esan code of living and Esan cosmology. The fact about the patriarchal dominance of the men over the women in the folktales stands out clearly. The passive nature of some of the female characters, male dominance, the anxieties, and the self-assertive efforts of some of the women are highlighted.

Academic Studies of Folktales

Landmarks

There has been much development in the study of the folktale. Early collection of tales dwelt on laws and customs of various places as well as anthropology. For example, in 1607, Camdem published a small collection of commonplace notes called Remaines of Greater Works, concerning Britaine and in it he included descriptions of old customs and coins, as well as a list of proverbs that date back to early times. In 1812 the Grimm brothers published their household tales. Other landmarks include the following: Anti-Aarne’s tale-type index published in 1910. This aimed at classifying European tales into types. Stith Thompson expanded this between 1928-1961.This yielded the compendious Aarne-Thompson Tale-type Index, where Stith Thompson described the folktale as a traditional tale that has an independent existence. He stated that a tale-type may have one or more motifs and classified this into five main categories. These included Animal tales: Folk tales; Jokes and Anecdotes, Formula tales and unclassified tales. He further categorized these into numerous motifs that are applicable to both European and non-European tales.

Moreover, in his book, The Folktale, Stith Thompson used the term “Folktale” to refer to different types of stories. These stories could be written or oral. According to Thompson: although the term “folktale” is often used in English to refer to the ‘household tale’ or “fairytale” (the German Marchen), such as the Cinderella or Snow White. It is also legitimately employed in a much broader sense to include all forms of prose narratives written or oral, which have come to be handed down through the years. (4). Most tales now written down were formally transmitted orally from one generation to another. It can be rightly said therefore that oral narrative gave rise to written literature. Thompson further posited that folktale has different forms such as:

1. ‘The Marchen’, which is also referred to as fairytale, household tale or conte populair, (ordinary people’s tales) for example, Cinderella and Show White. The Marchen is a tale of some lengths involving a succession of motifs or episodes. It moves in an unreal world without definite locality or definite characters and it is filled with the marvellous humble heroes kill their adversaries, succeed to kingdom and marry princesses.

2. ‘The Novella’, for example, Arabian Nights. Action here occurs in a real world with definite time and place. This tale is believed to have been transmitted orally before it was put into writing.

3. The Hero tale is another form of folktale. This may move in the frankly fantastic world of the Marchen or the pseudo-realistic world of the novella. It recounts series of adventures of the same hero, for example, the superhuman struggle of Hercules or Theseus against a world of adversaries. It is popular with those belonging to a heroic age of civilization, like the early Greeks or German folk in the days of their great migrations.

4. ‘Sage’ which is also called local traditional, local legend, migratory legend and tradition populaire. It is an account of an extraordinary happening believed to have actually occurred. It may recount a legend of something which happened in ancient times at a particular place. The legend attaches itself to a locality but will probably also be told with equal convention of many other places, even in remote parts of the world. It may tell of an encounter with marvellous creature like fairies, ghosts, water- spirits, the devil and so on. This may also refer to a memory of some historical character, for example Pied Piper of Hamelion.

5. ‘Explanatory tale’, which is also called etiological tale, Natursage or pourquoi story. This story often explains the origins and characteristics of various animals and plants, the stars, mankind and his institutions.

6. Myth is a tale laid in a world supposed to have preceded the present order. It tells of sacred beings and semi-divine heroes and the origins of all things usually through the agency of these sacred beings. It is intimately connected with the religious beliefs and practices of people, for example, the East African story of ‘Gikuyu and Mumbi’.

7. ‘Animal tale’ is that story where animals play a large role. The tale is usually designed to show the cleverness of one animal and the stupidity of another. The interest lies in the humour of the deceptions for example, the English cycle of fox and wolf.

8. ‘The Fable’ is an animal tale. However, it is most essentially distinguished from other animal tales by an acknowledged moral purpose. Examples of this include the collection Aesop and the Panchantantra. They sometimes attach actual maxims. 25

9. ‘The anecedote’, also called ‘jest’ merry tale or German (Schwank)’ is told for humorous purpose. Important themes producing popular jests are the absurd acts of foolish persons (the numskull tale). Deceptions of all kinds and obscene situations abound in this form.

10. ‘The saga’, is a literary tale of heroic age. A good example of this is the Nigerian tale, Ozidi. This illustrates the struggles of a man piled against a world of strong supernatural force and the world of human beings. He revenges for honour but over revenges.

In 1928 Vladimir Propp wrote the Morphology of the Folktale, to demonstrate the morphological structure of Russian fairy tales. He defined function as an act of dramatis personae which is interpreted in terms of its function. He identified thirty-one functions and claimed that their sequence is always the same. This analysis was based on the surface lineal chronological sequential order of events in the tale. He analyzed each event in its component parts and called the relationship between the recurrent parts and constant values functions. His most important function is the eighth functions: The villain caused harm or injury to a member of the family. He contributed to the study of the folktale the idea of twin function pairs, for example: pursue/rescue; defeat/victory; death/life; poverty/wealth. He also places much importance on the tale that had a definite structure.

In 1955, Claude Levi-Straus, an anthropologist worked on myth a generic term which, according to him, includes all oral forms. His interest was on ‘mytheme’, a conceptual structural unit based on the relationship between a subject and predicate in which the analyst rewrites a myth’s components. He propounded the theory on the structural study of myth based on the notion of the structure of language which was based on the binary principle of opposition which underlined all folktales and other folklore texts; as evident in such items as up/down; tall/short; black/white; lack/abundance.

Mediating element brings about the reconciliation of opposites and brings about what he sees in myth to interpret the world view of society. He identified a network of symbols and images that underlie the tale, that is, deep structure underlying elements: images and symbols and underlying oppositions. He took a number of myths and brought them together to find a set of myths, found the relationship between the set, the thematic relationship and took care of any

26 contradiction in the sets. According to him, meaning of myth could not reside in isolated elements but only in the totality, in the way elements were combined.

In 1962, Allan Dundees worked on The Morphology of North American Folktale. He applied Vladimir Propp’s methodology in the study of the folktale. He came up with the idea that there was definite recurrent sequence of motiphemes in the folktale which constituted a limited number of that distinct pattern. According to him motipheme referred to “an act of dramatic personae”. However, he discovered a total of ten distinct patterns that were rigidly fixed, instead of Propp’s thirty-one functions that were rigidly fixed. He considered each motipheme to be a structural model (minimum unit).

Other landmarks include Harold Scheub’s work on Xhosa Ntsomi (1969). He adopted the structural approach. However, he laid emphasis on performance and discovered that folktales contained some repeated elements such as sayings and chants and called them ‘core- cliches’ that is, the remembered element of the Ntsomi tradition. These were recalled during production by the complex element of queuing and scanning. They were also involved in a new work of fixed symbols that were important in the thematic development of the narrative. For H. Scheub any narration came alive as a living artistic work that sustained the audience interest by its beauty. He also emphasized the image making process. According to him, the images are the most basic materials of the art forms. He talked of image type like thematic, expansive and parallel images. He talked about image sets and emphasized repetition as a narrative device in oral narrative performance.

Taking a cue from Scheub and other aforementioned scholars some recent scholars emphasize aesthetic multi-dimensionality. Mention might be made here of the work of some scholars like Hilda Jason and Okpure Obuke who look at oral narratives as literature. The Esan oral prose narratives are discussed in this lecture in line with the multi-dimensional approach. Esan oral narratives are called ‘Okha’. They are spoken and their actualization depends on performers who formulate them in words on specific occasions. To create and perform a tale or an ‘Okha’, one requires a great deal of mastery of language, vocabulary moderation and modulation of voice, body movement, dance, facial gestures, ideophone, among other paralinguistic and linguistic resources. Moreover, the audience, act as co- creator with the artist. They prop the artist, effect his/her need and sing choruses.

Academic Studies of Oral Literature in Africa

Academic work on African oral literature had been scanty. Folklorists got their interest in oral literature kindled in the 19th century, as studies in traditional epics of Finland and Scandinavia were published. Some colonial masters who came to Africa collected some folklore and oral literature of Africa to use as specimen to prove that Africans had no education, were not civilized and had no idea of aesthetics and literary works, and history. These collectors were more interested in the African belief system and relics of the past. They collected oral tradition as oral history and not as literary works. For example in 1921 the University of Cape Town and University of Witwatersrand, South Africa, published the Journal of Bantu Studies. In 1938 Benard Vilakazi studied Izibongo panegyric poetry of the Zulu people.

Later on, Daniel Kunene (1902–1935) also wrote on Zulu Poetry. Milman Parry studied Homer’s epics: Iliad and Odyssey, as works of an oral artist and came up with the concept of oral formulaic theory. Albert Bates Lord defines formula as, “a group of words which is regularly employed in the same metrical conditions to express a given essential idea.” He applied the theory to some Yugoslavian epics and came up with much success. Scholars took a queue from him and wrote many books and articles, using the theory.

Africans developed more interest in studying African folk poetry and epic narratives. An example is Okpewho (1992) who wrote Epic in Africa and other works of oral literature. Between 1930 and 1940 scholars of the Negritude Movement in French West Africa worked on oral poetry and other aspects of oral literature. The London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and other funding agencies in other European countries provided grants for studies in African oral traditions. Other works in the area of African oral literature include Horn of My Love (1974) by Okot p’Bitek of Uganda and Oral Literature in Africa (1970) by Ruth Finnegan.

In Nigeria and some other African countries, with the awakening of the spirit of Nationalism in the 1960s, interest in African history and verbal arts soared. For example: Oyin Ogunba wrote a thesis on “Ritual Drama of the Ijebu People: A Study in Indigenous Festivals,” in 1967. Nigeria hosted the second festival of Black and African Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977.”Isidore Okpewho of the Department of English, University of Ibadan wrote some books on oral literature. These include: The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of Oral Performance (1979);

Myth in Africa: A Study of its Aesthetics and Cultural Relevance (1983); edited The Oral Performance in Africa (1990) and so on. J.P. Clark wrote the Ozidi: Saga Epic of the Ijaw People, among others.

Romanus Egudu and Donatus Nwoga edited Poetic Heritage: Igbo Traditional Verse in 1971; Wande Abimbola wrote Ifa Divination Poetry in1977: Gideon Dara wrote Battles of Songs: Udje Tradition of the Urhobo; 2005. Bridget Inegbeboh wrote: The Structure and Theme of The Orphan and The Prince : An African Folk Tale (2009), published in Berlin, Germany ; Women in Isilua: African Folktales of the Esan of Nigeria (2013) and Ogiso’s Daughter and the Soap Dish (2014), both published in Glassboro, USA, among other essays on Africa Oral Literature.

Academic Studies of Esan Folktales

I recorded my first field work in oral literature in 1992, in my M.A. project entitled, “The Manifestations of the Orphan in Esan Oral Narratives.” In year 2000, I completed my doctoral thesis on Oral Literature at University of Benin, entitled: “Women in Esan Folktales: the Feminist Perspective.” The thesis was revised and published in book form in 2013 and 2014 as Women in Isilua and Ogiso’s Daughter and the Soap Dish respectively. Moreover, I have analysed the tale, The Orphan ‘Omoakekan and the Prince Owioba, in FABULA, a Journal of Folktale Studies, published by Walter de Gruter in Berlin, 2009. I have analyzed two other folktales: “The Orphan and the Water Devils” and “The Orphan and the Old Woman” in The Tribal Tribune, A Journal of Anthropology, published in Orissa, India, in (2013).

Till date I have translated more than fifty folktales from Esanland and thirty- six of those are analyzed and contained in the books published between (2013) and (2014). I have been very keen on preserving as much of the folklore and folktale tradition of the Esan people as possible to stem the tide of extinction. The younger generation is no longer telling folktales in the evening, as used to be the practice in the past. The major singers of tales in funerals, marriages and other important events and lovers of traditional tales grieve over their loss, like people who look on helplessly, as their big libraries are engulfed in a raging inferno, as mentioned earlier.

It would appear that scholars have ignored to take the study of Esan Folktales to be great magnitude like I have done in this lecture and my works elsewhere. I enjoy performing and discussing “Okha”, Esan Folktales much. I 29 perform them before people, especially my students of African Oral Literature and Nigeria Oral Literature in Translation from time to time. The folktales were collected from various towns and villages in the existing five local government areas that make up Esan (Esan North East, Esan South East, Esan Central, Esan West and Igueben).

I had some challenges during my gathering of folktales and writing of this lecture but the zeal to document Esan folktales, as a part of the heritage of Esan and world literature propelled me on. Moreover, I left my home for many long periods of days and nights, while I went to the various villages to collect the folktales. Most of the folktales were collected in the evening or at night, as folktales are told mostly in the evening after the day’s labour and after evening meals in some places. Most of the night journeys were very stressful and harrowing experiences especially whenever it rained during such journeys.

Okha Folktale Traditional of the Esan People

Nature of Esan Folktales

At their leisure hours and during some ceremonies, the Esan people entertain themselves with folktales, music and dance. They enhance their enjoyment by the use of some traditional music equipment like the box-drum, the gong, called ‘agogo’, the gourd rattle, called ‘koise’, and the small skin drum called ‘saruta’. Moreover, the Esan people sing songs that are poetic in nature.

Esan folktales move from conflict to resolution. There is usually a beginning, middle and an end. Folktales constitute part of the complex communication system of the Nigerian people, especially the Esan people. This is made up of signs and symbols as well as some structural models. Each tale has a new dimension to it each time it is performed. Each performance is unique. Each tale consists of a surface structure, as well as an underlying structure with images and symbols that point to what is meaningful in the life of the Esan people.

The surface structure is made up of movements that progress from a conflict situation to a solution which is usually got in the extra-terrestrial world or Hades. This journey marks the climax of the performance, after which a surprising and more desirable resolution is arrived at. On the other hand, the deep underlying structure points to what is considered meaningful in the society. The tales at this level explore many themes that explore the inherent problems in the society, which 30 may include poverty, oppression, injustice, fraud, discrimination, pride, lonesomeness, jealousy, distrust, scapegoating, marginalization of a minority group, pretence and so on. Moreover, the tales teach the desired virtue of patience, sincerity, commitment, loyalty, vision, industry, self-reliance, magnanimity, bravery, obedience, faith, supernatural presence, and so on.

Essentially, performance of Esan folktales is communal as different members of the audience present get involved. They throw in their side comments of approval or disapproval following their agreement or disagreement with the authenticity of the performance and their enjoyment or otherwise of the occasion. The multi-dimensional and aesthetic approach to the analysis of performance of folktales would involve an understanding of the surface linear and sequential movement as well as the underlying images that constitute the conceptual element of any narrative. There occurs an aesthetic kinship between the synchronic and diachronic categories, that is the structural models and categories. These comprise a look at the social context of the oral narratives as well as the individual creative elements the narrator uses to make his performance unique.

In a traditionally oriented setting, the audience participates very actively, if the members are tuned up with shots of alcohol before and during the performance. Some overzealous members take over the narration, particularly when the artist alludes to some other incidents that exemplify some aspects of the narration, that is, by way of digression. These enthused people supply the required digression. They tell the anecdotes and stop when they have made their point to allow the performing artist carry on with the narration. They sing, gesticulate, clap their hands, drum and dance to some of the narrative renditions.

To create and perform a tale or an “Okha” one requires a great deal of mastery of language, vocabulary, moderation and modulation of voice, body movement, dance, facial gestures and ideophones. Moreover, the audience act as co-creators with the artist. They prop the artist, effect his/her need and sing choruses. Esan folktales are aesthetically pleasing. A wide variety of imagery and figures of speech are employed in the tales. These include similes, metaphors, irony, personification, hyperbole and alliteration. The aesthetic enjoyment usually involves multiplicity of excitements and moments of expectations, disappointed or fulfilled beyond expectation.

Oral Dramatic Performance in Esan Folktales

Performers are oral artists who communicate with their audience by providing artistic and aesthetic satisfaction. They use verbal and non-verbal techniques, as well as artistic and aesthetic devices to unfold the themes and content of their narratives. On the other hand, performances consist in speaking, artistic action, which is the doing of folktale, the artistic event, which is the situation, as well as setting. Performance exists in the memory of the oral artist. As a result, it does not have a permanent existence. This is because no two performances of the same tale by the same oral artist are ever the same. The performer strives for immediacy of effect. He is influenced by the mood, the context, the setting and other factors of the occasion.

Sometimes the performer forgets some aspects of the narration. When this happens some members of the audience take over the narration, prompt him, and add their own perspective of the narration. This is well articulated in Sam Ukala’s “Law of African Oral Dramatic Performance”. On the whole, performers and performances of the African Folktales of the Esan people intertwine into a marriage of the performers and the performances of the folktale, the moral values, the world picture, religion, and social ideals of the Esan people. These are dramatized and re-created in various ways, so that the participant audience’ culture is transmitted from generation to generation. Performance used in this work is used to mean dramatization of folktales.

That is, dramatization of African folktales of the Esan people. The essence of the performances of these tales lie in their ability to entertain with their artistic and aesthetic devices and that makes them literature. These devices include, among others, conventional opening formular, conventional closing formular, gossip, imagery, figures of speech, such as metaphor, similes, hyperbole, personification, synechdoche, symbolism, songs, repetition and ideophones. A performance of any folktale usually has a structure that consists in the conventional opening, the body and the conventional closing formular. The oral artists dramatize the numerous vices that characterize the human society and evolve themes that seek to bring about peaceful co-existence of human beings in the society.

These themes teach lessons on morality and good conduct, which when imbibed would ensure the survival, progress and general wellbeing of members of the society, especially the Esan traditional society, the custodians of the folktales.

The audience plays a very vital role during any performance. Performers create in the midst of audience, who see them perform, hear them and correct them. The performers, therefore, dramatize and strive for immediacy of effect. They use their voices, as well as physical gestures to enhance their performances. They act, sing, dance and speak as orators, all at once.

The term “folktale” is a distinctive genre of oral narratives. It is often used to include all forms of oral prose narratives of pre-literate society. It also includes all forms of prose narratives whether written or oral which are transmitted from generation to generation. Folktales are imaginary tales, usually not seriously believed by those who tell them and those who hear them. They are used to entertain and instruct, especially as many of them have moral lessons attached to them. Animal characters tend to predominate in folktale, although human characters also feature prominently. Most animals are given human attributes. Moreover, inanimate objects are given human qualities. Most interestingly, the human world, the spiritual world, the animal world, the vegetable world and the inanimate world (where everything is alive) interact freely.

Folktale is a part of Verbal Arts, which has language as its major vehicle. Verbal Arts, which means oral literature, includes stories, songs, proverbs, riddles, dances, festivals and other traditional dramatic displays. The oral artist, in this case, the performer of folktales, creates in the midst of an audience. He strives for immediacy of effect. He modulates his voice and uses physical gestures to enhance his performance. His performance is patterned after dramatic literature in the theatrical sense of the word. He acts, he sings, he dances and speaks publicly, all at once. The audience doubles as audience, watching and appreciating the narration; and as co-creators with the artist. They participate fully in performing the folktales.

Esan folktales are imaginative stories transmitted from the past; from generation to generation and they are told by Esan people primarily to entertain and instruct. These folktales are usually told in the evenings, after the day’s labour. Men, women, boys and girls take turns to tell folktales. However, some storytellers these days are now modernized, so they tell their folktales at any time of the day or night, during some occasions like marriage ceremonies and burial ceremonies, where they are paid to perform. Such performances may be accompanied with drumming, dancing, folksongs and dramatization. 33

In this lecture, our focus will be on two folktales from Esanland, namely, “Isilua, the Daughter of the Entire Edo People” and “Ilobekemen”; and their analysis as follows: In the tale “Isilua, the Daughter of the Entire Edo People”, an improvident king (oba) marries a wife, isilua. A strange woman infiltrates the palace and marries the oba. She rivals Isilua very seriously and succeeds in advising the oba to send. Isilua away. Iden dies. The palace chiefs bring Isilua back to the palace. In Ilobhekemen, a good and generous woman is diabolically harmed by her unfriendly friend and two other women, who also hated Ilobhekeme for being industrious and very wealthy. The supernatural intervenes. The three women confess their sin against Ilobhekeme and become mad, along with their co-culprit, the village witch doctor. Ilobhekeme is restored back to a better position than the one she once occupied. She recovers every possession she lost and receives much more blessings.

ISILUA, THE DAUGHTER OF THE ENTIRE EDO PEOPLE

It was played in honour of Isilua, it was played for the young girl called Iden; it was played in honour of the Oba Edo, it was played in honour of Palace Chiefs; it was played in honour of Iyamanbhor; it was played in honour of Oba's servants; it was played in honour of one woman called Ibharentiyi. The word we are saying, it was in Edo land it happened.

Story-teller sings: I have seen you, I have seen you, Inegbeboh, I have seen you.

All the palace chiefs were complete in the house of the Oba `gbam'. They were greeting the Oba, "Khara Umogun". They told him, "during the time `his' father was alive, his house was for our meeting, one thing is there that we are telling you now, our master, you have no wife." The Oba asked them, “did you really say I should tell you why the matter of a wife is looking difficult for `him'? The palace chiefs told him to say it out. He told them that he did not have things, he did not have clothes. He did not have any money. He did not have anything at all.

The most difficult one among all was that he had no house. "Where would `he' keep a wife?" He told the palace chiefs that this father did not die and leave a house behind for him. He had not been able to build his own yet. He told them that he really knew that it was not good to find that he had no wife. The palace chiefs told the Oba that the matter they had in mind was what they told him like that. “What we tell you, to make the town good, so that your house will be good, do not tell us `no'. Where we are now, we shall build a house for you. We shall also take a wife and put inside. God is going to do it. After we have given you a wife, we will know another suggestion that would be necessary to make".

The Oba thanked them for the nice words they said. The palace chiefs really built a house for him. The house had things that were very many inside like the house of an Oba. They also bought clothes for him. They told him that they would also give a wife to him, since he earlier said, he was looking for a wife to marry.

Story-teller sings:

Inegbeboh, you remember, you remember Inegbeboh, you remember.

Four chiefs left home, they were completely in the streets of Edo, they were searching for a wife for the Oba that he would say is beautiful. One man called Iyamanbhor found four chiefs arrived at his house.

Iyamanbhor greeted them, he asked them: "Is it quite alright?" They told him, "It is alright, one matter is there: `their' master has no young girl that is why `they' have come to your house now, `they' heard that one of your children is there that is really beautiful that fits the Oba as a wife, that your child called Isilua".

Story-teller sings: The child of the entire Edo people, Isilua o The child of the entire Edo people, Isilua o o.

Iyamanbhor asked them, "Is this why you have come to my house?" They replied, "yes, yes". He told them that he had no child called Isilua. The chiefs said to him, "please, do not tell lies to us". Iyamanbhor was laughing.

Story-teller sings Song 1 Play oracle, play oracle, oracle playing does not work again. Play oracle, play oracle, oracle playing does not work again.

Song 2: A new wife does not sweep, a new wife does not scrub; Inegbeboh, a new wife does not sweep, a new wife does not scrub.

Iyamanbhor went to call Isilua. She answered. Isilua then came to the father, she asked him, "Father, did you call me?" "yes" Isilua was really very beautiful. I will tell you why they were calling her the child of the entire Edo people. Have you come?

Member of the group (M.O.G): Yes, yes.

Story-teller: See the palace chiefs of the Oba, they say that they have come to tell me that you should get married to the Oba of Edo because the Oba has no wife". Isilua told her

36 father and the palace chiefs that where her father sends her she would go. She said,"but one thing is that you said that Oba has no goats, he has no fowls, he has no good house and other things". Her father told her not to worry, that she should go and marry him, as he earlier said. However, if it is discovered tomorrow that any thing happens there, "come and tell me, I will do it for you".

Story-teller sings:

The native doctor that plays oracle for the fowl told the fowl `do not bulge eyes'. When bulging of eyes kills the fowl, it will then remember the native doctor.

Her father took some kolanuts, he gave them to the palace chiefs, he told them that he is giving his child to the Oba. He said, "if any suffering should occur tomorrow, I will come and help her". All the palace chiefs thanked him.

They were rejoicing. One of the palace chiefs told the father that this child will not suffer where they the palace chiefs are in this world.

Story-teller sings:

Threading is what we are doing, thread `gege gege! When the monkey finishes dancing it goes on top of a tree, thread `gege!'

Iyamanbhor took his child, of his Isilua, and gave her to the palace chiefs to give to the Oba as a wife.

Story-teller sings:

Idumebo the great town, You will be well all the time, Amen.

Where the Oba was setting on the high throne, he saw the palace chiefs and one young girl were coming. The young girl carried some load on her head. When they reached where the Oba was, they told him how they got this young girl called Isilua to bring. They told the Oba how the father was very kind. They told him that they told the young girl how the palace was. The child sat on the body of the Oba. The

Oba told the palace chiefs to wait for him to entertain them for the good work they had done.

Story-teller and M.O.G sing: Take a parcel to Adesua Obolo killed me Adesua, The child I am so proud of The day I remember, Inegbeboh, I do not sleep Edenugbo, it remains a little, Edenugbo

Narration continues –Story-teller: The Oba told the palace chiefs to go. He told them that he would in-struct that they should be called to a meeting tomorrow so that he would tell a story to all of them. He really thanked all the palace chiefs. When it was day break, the chiefs all went to the house of the Oba to the meeting. Oba told all of them, `welcome'. He told them that he had already taken a wife `now.' He sent someone to the new wife to bring some kola nuts to present to the palace chiefs.

The Oba waited and waited for her to come, she did not come. He went to meet her in the room of her own. He was calling her to bring kolanuts out to present to the palace chiefs of the entire Edo that were in a meeting in his house. Isilua told him that 8 she was coming. She put kola nuts in a beautiful saucer and carried to the palace chiefs. All the palace chiefs admired the woman Isilua according to how she came out. She greeted people and all the palace chiefs.

Story-teller sings:

Who does not know Onogie, Look at Onogie, Look at Onogie, Onogie and his wife Show that the Oba Is really very rich.

Story-teller sings:

I have been going about the street, I have been going about the street, The street where I was born, The street. Peace, peace, peace in which I was born, When it is peaceful, I like it.

One good thing that was really good concerning Isilua was that each time the palace chiefs came to a meeting in the Oba's palace, if even the Oba is not at home, she would do things more than when the Oba is at home. She would cook food, she would give them wine to drink. This was what they noticed that made them be calling her, "Isilua the child of the entire Edo people". All palace chiefs would pray for her. She was also very good to her husband The Oba.

Story-teller sings:

Pray for my child for me, Pray for my child for me, Blessing is the best.

Isilua had her own servant, like the Oba had his own servant. When Isilua reached the Oba's house, she met that the Oba had nothing like they earlier told her. She called her servant, she told her that there was nothing at all in the house of her husband. She told the servant that she wished to go to her father's house. She said that she wanted to go and tell her father what she met in the house of her husband. At the time she was planning this matter, the Oba did not know. That servant told her not to stay too long in the father's house. The servant went to the Oba and told him what Isilua said. Fear gripped the Oba, whether she would return again. He told the servant to follow her to her father's house. The servant told the Oba to allow her to go. Isilua prepared and went to her father’s house, Inegbeboh! When she reached home she told her father that the husband he gave her to had no clothes, he had no goats, fowls, and the house the palace chiefs built for him was where "they" stay.

Story-teller sings:

Lightener, lightener - O - lightener, I tell you, come and show me the way, Inegbeboh, lightener, lightener, Come and show me the way, lightener. Be gentle, be gentle, A child is the reason why one is gentle, Be gentle. Omozele e e e, Uye a dance Which day is the day Omozele e e e, Uye, Which is the day?

M.O.G: Did Isilua alone go home? Did she go with her servant?

The story-teller told them that he would tell them later why the servant did not follow her along again.

Story-teller sings:

Ejemen hello! hello! Ejemen hello! In the evening come and visit me Ejemen hello!

Her father gave her goats and her mother gave her fowls. Her father gave her a plate of beads and a plate of coral beads. He took a pair of trousers A dog would not bite me, he took a dress, he packed things entirely that befitted the wife or a king and he gave her. He reminded her what he told her earlier, the first day before she went to the house of her husband.

Story-teller sings:

Do not be in a hurry to rejoice Whether it has been very difficult or not, The wife of the Oba is the wife of the Oba. When the Oba waited and waited and Isilua did not come, he sent his servant to go and see what she was doing in her father's house that she did not come yet. Well done everybody

Story-teller sings:

Bless this child for me Bless this child for me Blessing is best. The matter of a poor man is suffering The matter of a poor man The matter of a poor man is suffering.

Fear gripped the servant because of the way Isilua had stayed long at her place. He told the Oba. He asked, if he could go and find out. The servant went to find out. Isilua and the different things that her father and her mother gave her reached the Oba's house. The Oba told her welcome. He told her that he was becoming afraid whether `you would still come back following how you stayed long'. Isilua told him that she would not find herself not returning. She told him that she stayed long because she saw how the palace was, so she told her father everything because "he earlier told me that he would help me if I encounter any problem in my husband's house".

Isilua told the Oba that all these things were given to her by her father to bring along. The Oba was very happy. He sent a message to all his palace chiefs to come and see what his father-in-law sent to him. He took everything: clothes, goats, cows, fowls, beads, coral beads and very many things and showed them. All of them were happy. They unanimously thanked his father-in-law for his kindness. The Oba wore the big coverlet and started dancing.

Story-teller sings:

It remains a little poorman It remains a little It remains a little poorman It remains a little

Story-teller sings:

Say something. He is saying something. Say something. Say something. I say be patient. Say something.

The Palace chiefs that were in the meeting told the Oba that Isilua, a gift that God gave to the Oba is what she is. They told him how good she is to them, too they the palace chiefs when they are in all meetings here, if even you are not at home. The Oba called Isilua and told her what the palace chiefs said. He told her please, not to change from it.

Story-teller sings:

Inegbeboh, we all know is a woman We all know she is a great woman

Story-teller sings: The child of the entire Edo people Isilua o o The child of the entire Edo people, Isilua o, Isilua o.

One day came, Isilua's servant came to where she was, he met that Isilua was crying, she was mournful. The servant asked her what was the matter. Isilua told him that the matter of the child she did not have was why she was crying. The servant told her that one child called Okojie was in the Oba's compound that she should adopt that as a child. Isilua told him `no'. She was looking for a child of her own. The servant asked her if he should tell the Oba what she said and still tell him to call a native doctor in order that "you would find a baby to have", Isilua told him, ‘yes!' He told the Oba. He called in a native doctor to find out why Isilua did not have a baby. When the native doctor came, the Oba told him why he sent to call him.

He told the native doctor that in as much as Isilua has been so good to him she had not found a baby to have for him. The native doctor played oracle for the Oba. He told the Oba that this matter of a baby was little. He told the Oba that a certain big problem was coming to the Oba's compound that was greater than the one they were talking about. He told the Oba that one young girl called Iden, a witch, really pretty, would soon come to reach the palace of the Oba. She is coming to pull down trouble in the Oba's house. He said, Iden was what they called the young girl.

He told the Oba that young girl was coming to drive Isilua away because she saw that peace was between `you' and Isilua. The Oba, because he did not believe it, told the native doctor that they could not find what could drive Isilua from his palace away, since it has been found that Isilua is everything of his. The Oba told the native doctor to carry his things then get up and go. He drove him away.

Story-teller sings:

I use okede to greet you all I use okede to greet you I use okede to greet you people, I use okede to greet you.

M.O.G: That native doctor, he drove him away, however, in the evening they will remember that native doctor. After the native doctor had gone home, the Oba was thinking about the matter he told him, that a certain young girl that was called Iden was coming to his palace. She was coming to pull fight to come. She would come and drive Isilua away from the palace. He asked what would be done now? The Oba said, they should go back to call that native doctor to still play oracle like the former one, for him to tell the Oba what he would do concerning this young girl that was coming, in order that shame would not come to his palace. The native doctor came. He told the Oba that except he did not use his own eyes to see this young girl Iden when she comes. He told him that if he saw her he would drive Isilua away from the palace.

He still told the Oba that if he sees the young girl he would wish to add her to his wife because of her beauty. If she stayed for some time, she would do something for driving Isilua away because a witch was what Iden was. He also told the Oba that Iden was already coming; she was coming to that very palace.

Story-teller sings:

Iroko does not grow leaves that are straight Iroko does not grow leaves that are straight Iroko does not grow leaves that are straight That Iroko does not.

Narration continues: The native doctor warned the Oba not to see Iden if she came to the palace. The Oba posted security guards at the entrance to be keeping watch so that Iden would not pass to come into the palace.

Story-teller sings:

The elephant and the hunter are going to meet, The hunter should not run from the elephant. Tell the hunter to wait and fight with the elephant. The work of Iden was to scatter the house of everybody where there was peace.

Story-teller sings:

This will never finish. They say it is in the body. They do not finish eating pounded yam and fail to remember the matter of a child. This will never finish.

The Oba told Isilua not to think about any thought atall for a person was not there that could drive her away from his palace because "you have done everything for

43 me in this world". Before one knew it, Iden arrived at the palace. She told the security guards that Omoyemen of Ugo was what they called her, not Iden. They allowed her to go in and see the Oba. When she reached where the Oba was, she told him; that she was Omoyemen of Ugo. Oba believed as she said, that was not Iden.

Story-teller sings:

Okojie do not go to Ubiaja o o o Those who we sent did not return Do not go to Ubiaja. Isilua went to her husband and asked him whether this was not Iden they told him not to allow her to enter the house. Oba told her that she was not the one, that Omoyemen of Ugo was this one, not Iden.

Story-teller sings:

Come and see Iseghohimen, One person that takes fight To the street, Iseghohimen.

The Oba sent to call all his palace chiefs for he has taken a new wife. This news spread round the entire Edo that the Oba has taken another wife.

Story-teller sings:

Isilua the child of the entire Edo people Isilua o o The child of the entire Edo people Isilua o o o.

When the palace chiefs reached the palace they said they should tell the Oba that they had come. They said that they wanted the new wife to bring kola nuts to them. The woman came out arrogantly. She carried kolanuts in her hands.

Story-teller sings:

Ailemen the palmtree in the street, Ailemen come and see the palm tree in the street oo! They cut it; tomorrow they cut it. They have no time to cut it.

With kolanuts in her hands Iden shouted, "you see kolanuts o o, our people, you see kola nuts". She did not show any respect at all. The palace chiefs told the Oba that they heard that he took a new wife called Omoyemen Iden. The Oba said, "Yes", "We all know that Isilua, your senior wife, is a very good person. However, this junior wife appears like somebody who is very proud". They went to call Isilua, too, to send some kolanuts to the palace chiefs. Isilua sent kola nuts to the palace chiefs. They were happy, as soon as they saw her because she was somebody who really loved them, whenever they came to the palace of the Oba. Isilua greeted all the palace chiefs. She told them. "I do not know whether you have been given some kola nuts before. I am the one called Isilua, the daughter of Iyamanbhor. I was a young girl when I came to marry the Oba. Many among you Palace chiefs still knew that time". All the palace chiefs greeted her very well. They prayed for her.

Story-teller sings:

I am not the enemy of the king, every time I go to Edo I am not the enemy of the king. Every time I go to Edo.

M.O.G: God bless everybody for this big work. I that Aboiralo Ogungbo, in particular.

M.O.G Sings Elders, take kola nuts and break `kpeleghede!’ In order that they will count us Among the good people, `kpeleghede!'

Narration continues: Isilua asked the Oba again, `Is this not Iden?' The Oba told her to be quiet, that she was not the one. One day came the Oba was preparing to go to where he would attend a meeting. He called Isilua and told her, Isilua told him to go and tell his wife he loved most, Iden, to tell her. The Oba moved close to Iden, he drew her very close to himself, he told her that he was going to a meeting. From that time onward, the Oba loved Iden more than Isilua. He forgot that Isilua was in that house. He did not love her again. After the Oba had left for the meeting, Iden the witch, carried a fowl and killed it, and placed it at the entrance to the Oba's room.

When the Oba returned, she ran to him, she told him, "were you not the one who said that Isilua is the wife you love most?" The Oba said, `yes'. Iden told the Oba, "see, Isilua will soon scatter this palace of yours because she first gathered it

45 together". The Oba asked, "What will Isilua use to scatter the palace?" Iden told the Oba, "See how Isilua killed a fowl when you went to the meeting and put on top of your door step, when she finished doing what she wanted to do with it". The Oba was annoyed when he heard this talk. He called Isilua in a harsh voice, he asked her why she killed a fowl and put on top of his doorstep. Isilua told him that it was not she who did it.

The Oba believed because they do not see a person who would spend a long time to build a house completely and still wish to use her own hands to break the house down. The Oba told Iden that she was telling lies against Isilua. Every time the Oba goes to a place, when he returns, Iden would tell him lies on Isilua.

Story-teller sings; Isilua o, Isilua o, Isilua the child of the entire Edo people, You have suffered.

Not quite long, Iden killed a goat and put it on the door step belonging to Isilua, she would kill a cow, kill a fowl and put on top of the door step of Isilua so that they would say Isilua killed them. The Oba would call Isilua and ask her, she would say she was not the person that she did not do. All this time, the Oba would believe the word Isilua said because of the way she had lived with him before. All the palace chiefs and their wives stood behind Isilua because of her goodness.

Iden was not the friend of the Oba, she was not the friend of Isilua. Since she came to the palace, none of the palace chiefs liked to come to the palace. She would be quarrelling with them all the time. Those things were all Iden planned to scatter the house of Oba and send Isilua away. After some time, Okojie, a boy in the palace died. The Oba went to call a native doctor to find out why his compound was no longer peaceful. When the native doctor came, he Obo-Ohankin told the Oba he had arrived. Isilua sat down; Oba sat down. The native doctor asked the Oba whether he told him to come and find out what killed his child and why there was no more peace in the harem belonging to him. The Oba said "yes".

The Oba told the native doctor that he wanted him to make Isilua swear a juju. The native doctor asked him how many wives he had, he told him, two. The native doctor told him to call the second one they call Iden, there. The Oba told him that what he told him was what "you will use to do something not what you saw". The Oba told the native doctor and the people that were all there that Iden had no hands in the thing that happened in the harem of his. He said that Isilua was the witch and not

Iden. The Oba also told the native doctor to go away from his palace if he was not ready to do things like he told him to do.

Story-teller sings:

I did not kill, I did not eat I make my belly very clean Those who killed, those who ate They make their belly very fat `dedede!'

They made Isilua kneel down to swear to the juju. If it was found that she did not kill the child, let her not die. She swore that juju. She drank `Ohankin.' As soon as the medicine turned her, she vomited it out. That showed that she did not know anything bad at all that happened in the Oba's palace. Everybody clapped for Isilua because the `Ohankin' did not catch her. Isilua called all the women to help her rejoice. They were rejoicing; they were dancing. The song they sang at the time they were dancing was this:

Story-teller sings:

A goat died they said it was Isilua A fowl died they said it was Isilua Isilua that suffered in the harem Isilua that suffered in the harem.

Iden stood up and she told the Oba and the people that the Òhankin' that Isilua drank was not genuine Òhankin', that ordinary white chalk was what it was. Oba told her that the truth was what she told. He believed. When it was day break, the Oba sent a message to an Ohankin native doctor, another one. He told him that his two wives were accusing each other on witchcraft. He told him that he wanted him to come and find out who was a witch among the two of them. Story-teller sings: Isilua, mine, the fruit of ogheghe The fruit of ògheghe'

You cannot be through a street without finding `ogheghe' the fruit of `ogheghe'. The Oba said that Isilua knew what she had done. He said, "the fowls that were here, you killed all of them. Goats, sheep, you killed off all of them. This was how you killed a child and ate". All the wives of the palace chiefs that were there were shouting. They took sides with Isilua. All of them knew that Isilua did not do anything.

Story-teller sings:

Do not sleep, Do not sleep, Do not sleep, Inegbeboh, Do not sleep, A good person does not sleep in the town, Do not sleep.

For a second time, the Òhankin" native doctor, again, gave Òhankin' to Isilua to drink. She drank it and vomited it again. That showed that she had nothing she did. At this time Iden told the Oba that she wondered why each time that Isilua drank Òhankin', if she vomited it the wives of the palace chiefs would be rejoicing with her. "Why were they rejoicing with her?" Iden still told the Oba to drive Isilua away, to remove her from among his wives. The Oba really drove Isilua away. The Oba really drove Isilua away. He told her, "go home, you are no longer my wife". This suggestion, Inegbeboh, Iden assisted the Oba to make it, so that she would become the wife the Oba loved most. The Oba drove Isilua. She carried one goat and some little things. Iden took a broom and used to sweep the legs of Isilua out of the palace of the Oba away. Isilua packed her things and went home.

Story-teller sings:

I am going to my house Oba, I am going to my house, Iden, I am going to my house.

That was the song that Isilua was singing when she was going home.

Story-teller sings:

If you see the pounded yam that Aminetu cooked, If they put fingers inside, It is like they put fingers into thorns. If she were my wife, they would take her to her parents. Aminetu who cooks bad food.

Isilua reached the house of her father. The father asked her whether she returned, she answered, "yes." She told them that if even she had returned, it was not the

48 fault of the Oba. She told her father and her mother that "One woman they call Iden is the one who drove me out of the Oba's house; it was not the Oba's fault". The Oba called all the palace chiefs and told them that what Isilua did to him was not small. He told them that she killed his child, she killed his goats, they were looking at her; she killed his fowls and they were looking at her. He told them that he did not want her again. The palace chiefs told him that where he could refuse Isilua, he could refuse all of them.

Story-teller sings:

If you play me tricks, I will play you tricks, Come and see nonsense! Come and see nonsense!

The palace chiefs told him that he should have told them before he drove Isilua away. They swore for who will still pay homage to the Oba, for who would reach the Oba's house again, because he told Isilua to go home. When the Oba saw that his house was deserted, he asked a native doctor what he would do for it to be seen that the house became lively again like before. The native doctor told him to look for fourteen wraps of pudding and fourteen pumpkins. He told him to throw them round the whole of his frontage. He really did it like that. When one palace chief was passing the outside of the Oba's house, he met that wraps of pudding and pumpkins filled the front of the Oba's house. That palace chief quickly went home to call the palace chiefs left so that they could go to the Oba's palace to pay him homage, as before because wraps of pudding and pumpkins were not good in front of the Oba's palace.

Story-teller sings:

He has said it o e e He has said it o e e e He has said it o e e e He has said it o e e e

All the palace chiefs carried things to the Oba. They bought things to pay homage to the Oba together. When they were in the Oba's house, some of them remembered Isilua. They also thought of how to bring her back. Isilua told her father that it was not the fault of the Oba. One woman they called Iden told the Oba to drive `her' away. The palace chiefs got up and went to the house of the father of Isilua of Edo to appeal to him to allow Isilua come again to the palace of the Oba.

When they got there they told him, "please, please, appeal is what we have come to make to you to allow Isilua come to her husband's house in the palace. Isilua told them she earlier told her father that it was not the fault of the Oba, and that she would go. The father asked her, "will you go again?" She said "Yes". When the palace chiefs reached the palace they called the servant of Isilua to a meeting. They told the servant that they wanted Isilua to come back to this house. They told him that they wanted `you' to find a way to kill Iden, the bad person. At the time they planned this very matter, Isilua and the Oba did not know. The palace chiefs told the servant they want it to be that when Iden goes to urinate they would kill her. There is no how Iden would not say that she would go and urinate at night. They told the servant that any thing that came out of `this' matter they the palace chiefs would be behind "you".

Story-teller sings:

We say those who are spoiling the town should leave the town; Those who spoil the town are bad people.

The servant prepared, he waited for Iden at the back of the house as the palace chiefs told them. They waited for Iden to come out and urinate, twilight moved into darkness. When Iden came out to urinate she did not know that there were people who would kill her. The servant caught her and killed her. The servant ran away to sleep, as if to say, that nothing happened.

Story-teller sings:

Ukpoliovio the chief servant Dolima! A rat would not be so bold As to go and meet the pussy cat, Dolima!

The dead body of Iden was on the ground there. When it was daybreak, people went to tell the Oba that Iden was dead - that they killed her at the back of the house. They do not know who killed her. The Oba wanted to cry. The palace chiefs told him not to cry. If he cried, he would offend the law of the land because an Oba does not cry. They brought his mind down. The palace chiefs told the Oba that he could take another wife since Iden was dead. The Oba quickly adjusted himself, he believed the words that the palace chiefs said that he should never cry. The Oba told the

50 palace chiefs to cut four logs of `Ikhimin' tree; they should stand them in front of his house for him to mourn Iden, his wife.

They buried the dead body of Iden when it was day break. After burying her, one old woman came out, she pretended to be mourning the death of Iden when she saw where they buried her outside. Iyamanbhor the father of Isilua called Isilua. He told her that Iden had been killed. Isilua said to him, "It is not the fault of the Oba". That is why till this day, people take it as a name, `Oiyemoba' in Ishan land. At that time was when Isilua changed her mind and returned to the house of her husband, the Oba. It reigned everywhere. People started to dance.

Story-teller sings:

Isilua be patient A patient person finds wealth I tell you be patient A patient person finds wealth.

This became the dance of patience. Isilua became pregnant, she had a baby boy. After some time, she had a baby girl, she continued to have them like that. This is how far the story goes.

ILOBEKEMHEN

"Okhokha khare (three times) Onon guile khare, Onon bha gue khare, Okpeniku khare, uwanhen, Khare". "Okhokha o-o-o-o-o…khare

Once upon a time, a woman named Ilobekemhen was a very wealthy woman. She was a prominent trader. She was referred to as a woman of property and this could be noticed both in her home and her market stall where she sold her wares. Any goods you needed was there in her stall. This Ilobekemhen had a friend, a lady, called Azelu. They indeed were bossom friends. Azelu also had her own good friends. They were Omono and Oghoye, all ladies also. At dawn on one fateful

51 day Azelu's husband called her, "Azelu, Azelu". "See me here." The husband told Azelu not to be idle that morning, as was usual with her. He told his wife, Azelu, to take a cue from her friend who was very industrious.

Ilobekemhen apart from being a successful trader was also a money lender. You, as a faithful wife can also indulge in such trading so that the children can be trained. `I, your husband would always borrow money from Ilobekemhen to meet our family's demand for money', the husband said. Are you not a woman like this Ilobekemhen. You would not trade, you would not go to the farm. Why not do something to supplement the family's income? The husband queried Azelu. Azelu did not take kindly to this rebuke by the husband. Azelu merely retorted that she could not do any of the enumerated activities. "Go and marry Ilobekemhen as a wife so that all problems will be solved."

The husband then left for the farm, saying, "When I return from the farm, let me meet that those friends of yours you gossip together no longer visit this my house. They are idle folks like you," the husband said in anger. Oghoye and Omono knowing that Azelu's husband had gone to the farm came to visit Azelu. Omono and Oghoye met their friend Azelu grumbling. They inquired to know what went wrong. Azelu told her friends that her bad husband would not let her live in peace. Before he says one or two things he would talk about Ilobhekemhen. "My evil husband would not let me be because of constant nagging. He would not always let me say or do anything comfortably because of Ilobekemhen's success in business. He would always tell me that nearly everybody borrows money from Ilobekemhen. See me, a full house wife that must be ridiculed and castigated all because of Ilobekemhen, my friend. Omono and Azelu also related their experiences with their respective husbands.

The three women were unhappy about the constant reference to Ilobekemhen. "What do we do to this Ilobekemhen?" The three women were out to put a stop to the humiliating comparison between them and the said Ilobekemhen. Oghoye suggested that a solution to this menace from their husbands could be got in a herbalist's home. The name of the herbalist was Ikpotokin. He would be capable of providing solace for the three women so that they can be free from the threats from their husbands. The motive of the three women Azelu, Oghoye and Omono was to make sure that Ilobekemhen's business was liquidated so that their respective husbands would not have any reference point about their lazi-ness at home.

Meanwhile, Azelu suggested to the others to postpone the visit to the herbalist because her own husband would soon return from the farm. The following day, in the morning, was fixed for the visit to herbalist by the three women. Soon

52 after this the husband of Azelu really returned from the farm and the three women welcomed Azelu's husband with all pretended affection. Azelu's husband exclaimed at the sight of the other women and rebuked his wife thus: `So it has come to a point for you, Azelu, to be a friend to liars and gossips. Did I not tell you never to allow these women to enter my house?"

Azelu retorted that the husband would not be able to drive her friends away from her. "Instead of driving my friends away from this house I will leave this house." Azelu said angrily. The husband deferred any form of punishment for his wife until such a visit would be repeated by the friends. Azelu told Ogoye and Omonon never to mind her husband. Azelu told the other women that her husband was only boasting and that there was nothing in his threat. At dawn the following day the man took his cutlass and went to the farm. Omonon and Oghoye re-turned to Azelu's house to prepare for the herbalist's house. They quickly prepared and left for the herbalist's house. They met the herbalist at home.

The herbalist charged twenty-five pounds after the normal greeting and briefing. Azelu told the herbalist that the money was not the problem provided that Ilobekemhen's business was no more. Azelu quickly paid the money. The herbalist consulted his oracle. The native doctor told them, "you know when a woman is a trader he does not want to spoil her trade. He wanted to know the address of Ilobekemhen so that he would not harm a neighbour's wife. The three women in unison said that the woman lived in far away Igbo land. The herbalist inquired whether what they said was the truth and they all said, "yes."

The herbalist gave them reasons why he was asking them. His charm was capable of bringing the woman's business down totally to the extent that she cannot feed. This apart, the three women were never expected to reveal the secret to anybody. `I have told you all this so that you will not blame me at last', the herbalist told them. The women agreed that the lady who was their target lived very far away. The herbalist told them that the charm he would give them would be deposited at the market stall of Ilobekemhen. Instantly, Azelu offered to do that because Ilobekemhen was a bossom friend of hers. She knew all the nooks and crannies in the stall.

The herbalist warned that on no account must they disclose the secret to anybody. If any of you should disclose this secret in future the three of them, Azelu, Oghoye and Omonon would be mad instantly. It was at this point that Oghoye started to expresses fears about the whole business. This attracted the herbalist's attention who wanted to know what was happening. Azelu quickly cut in and said that they were dis-cussing the mode of transportation home. The other two ladies

53 gagged Oghoye's mouth and eventually took her home. At home this Azelu herself took the charm and went to the market.

Azelu met Ilobekemhen in her stall just returning from where she had gone to buy her wares for sale. The two women embraced each other. Azelu in this process rubbed a part of the charm on her friend, Ilobekemhen's body and again welcomed the trader. Ilobekemhen said `my friend this cloth you are wearing is old and dirty. You should have come to collect some clothes,' she told her friend Azelu. Azelu said, "my friend, do I even have money?"

Ilobekemhen retorted that her trade was on clothes and that Azelu should come to collect the clothes of her choice even without money. After all they were not just knowing themselves. At this point Azelu was able to rub the charm on all the clothes and other articles of trade in Ilobekemhen's stall. At this point Ilobekemhen called her child and asked, "how much have you sold for the day?" The child Eselegboria said that only one thousand pounds had been sold. Ilobekemhen, not knowing she came to spoil her stall told Azelu, her friend to help her count the money but Azelu declined saying that she did not learn how to count large sum of money. Ilobekemhen counted the money herself and put it away at the very place Azelu was.

Azelu at this point said she would have loved to buy something from her friend. Ilobekemhen her friend requested to know what that was. Azelu said it was a little cooler she would have loved to buy but there was none in the shop. She said that there was one left at home. She therefore called her child Eselegboria to go home and bring the cooler. The child was unable to get the cooler. Ilobekemhen told her friend, "sit down and wait for me, let me go and bring the cooler by myself. Ilobekemhen left for home herself making her friend Azelu to wait comfortably for her in the stall. Ilobekemhen's absence from the stall created ample chance to spread the charm all over the stall and put some under the chair on which Ilobekemhen usually sat on.

At home Ilobekemhen asked her child Eselegboria where the cooler she asked her to collect from home was. The child said she could not get it and the mother was able to locate it and went back to the market to give the cooler to her friend, Azelu. Azelu accepted that it was that type of cooler she wanted. Azelu therefore demanded to know the price. The friend told her that it was sold for five pounds only. Azelu said that there was no money on her, but her friend Ilobekemhen told her to take it away as a gift. Ilobekemhen was not aware that her friend Azelu had planted charms in her stall, inspite of her good will towards her friend Azelu. Azelu went out of the stall from the outlet behind in compliance with the herbalist's instruction.

On subsequent market days it was clear that her flourishing business of had fallen. Ilobekemhen could no longer feed herself and the family. She now dressed shabbily just like a lunatic. One day Ilobekemhen went to visit Oghoye, Omonon and Azelu. She met all of them. And she even asked Azelu "Don't you know me?”Azelu said, "I know you, I know you very well." She said, "I can no longer feed". Ilobekemhen then made a request. `Please give me a little money for food', Ilobekemhen announced confidentially.

The three women in unison said that they had not any money to give. Ilobekemhen went to Azelu's husband. She appealed to him. She told the man that feeding had become a problem to her and that any help he could render would be gladly accepted. Azelu's husband told Ilobekemhen that he had just finished talking about her before she entered. He had said that the sudden liquidation of the woman was not a normal happening, considering the enormous wealth and investment the woman had. It was sad, he said. He added, “If it is a person that is responsible for that loss of her wealth, may God Almighty expose such a person”. Azelu's husband said that in sympathy. Azelu his wife did not take kindly to these curses that were directed to the perpetrators of the wicked act.

“You must go out of this house to curse your suspects. Vengeance should be left in the hands of God,”she retorted. The husband insisted that he would personally be cursing the people responsible for Ilobekemhen's great loss in her business. He entered his room and brought some money out for Ilobekemhen in sympathy and said that `God knows that this is only what I have in the house'. Ilobekemhen thanked him and prayed that God would bless him abundantly. She left for her home.

With the visitor gone, Azelu's husband went into his room, leaving his wife Azelu and her two friends Oghoye and Omonon in the sitting room. There, he heard them singing joyously over what had happened. "I am very happy." Azelu's husband questioned their attitudes towards the woman Ilobekemhen, as follows: "Your friend was here begging for money. You all said that you had not any money and you started mocking her. You were aware of the great help she used to render to us in lending money to us with which we trained our own children. God certainly would expose and disgrace the people behind Ilobekemhen's liquidation." At this juncture Oghoye said that she was afraid of the eventual repercussion of their own actions. She said, “I want to reveal it ooo?

Omonon and Azelu quickly gagged Oghoye, "what are you saying?" Attempt by Azelu's husband to inquire into the secret failed at that point. Oghoye summed courage and called Azelu's husband and said,” I have finally decided to

55 tell you everything that happened.” She told him how they, the three women, went to a herbalist who prepared charms for them to bring Ilobekemhen's business down. Azelu's husband's surprise knew no bounds and he decided that he must tell the eldest man in the village. When he reaches here, the eldest man said that such a matter was for the entire community.

The herbalist was summoned to a meeting by the community. The herbalist came. And he was shown the three women who confessed all the atrocities they had committed. "They equally said that `you', the herbalist prepared the charms for them to use to ruin Ilobekemhen". All her children have stopped school. Those overseas no longer remember her. The herbalist greeted the elders and admitted that he really prepared the charms for the ladies. The ladies said that they came from a very far away village. The women confirmed the herbalist's statements. He, the herbalist, gave the ladies a condition that if any of them should reveal the secret they would become mad instantly. "You can all see the strange behaviour of the women". They invited Ilobekemhen and told her that her friend connived with others to bring her down. Azelu was unanimously condemned and the three women became mad. Ilobekemhen was most surprised about Azelu's conduct as a friend. The herbalist said that Ilobekemhen's wealth would be regained after the confession.

While this was going on the child of Ilobekemhen ran in to call the mother away from the crowd and informed her that the brothers over-seas had all come bringing everything one could imagine to their sister, Ilobekemhen. Ilobekemhen started life all over again on a greater scale. She became a great woman. Her friends and the herbalist were banished from the village. The story ended on this note.

Analysis of Esan Folktales

Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, the next and final section of my lecture will focus on analysis of Esan Folktales.

Language and Style of Esan Folktales

This section deals with some aspects of language and style in Esan Folktales. Some of these features have been examined elsewhere but more emphasis is being laid on them today because of their importance in the performance of Esan folktales. The aspects of language discussed today include diction, proverbs and symbolism. Imagery/figures of speech are also discussed. Other aspects of style discussed include themes and content, structure, characterization, performance (non-verbal techniques), songs, refrains, music and dance, repetition and audience participation. These features enhance the artistic and aesthetic beauty of African folktales of the Esan of Nigeria and make people eager to watch the performances of the tales.

Themes and Content of Esan Folktales

“Okha” Folktale Tradition has a wide range of subject matters and themes which are revealed through the interplay of different characters, such as supernatural beings, human beings, members of the animal kingdom, vegetable kingdom, some magical objects, as well as inanimate objects which are personified in the folktales. Folktales from Esanland recount activities of some characters who live in the imaginary world, where human beings, animals, trees and other creatures interact freely; they speak to one another and maintain a code of living, which when violated brings some catastrophic consequences. The narratives, though set in the imaginary world, actually symbolize man and the human society.

Folktales answer to the people's need for an avenue for expression. They show the people's yearning for a society where people are expected to live in peace and harmony and where justice and fair play are also expected to reign. The folktales are a sum total of the history and culture of the Esan people. They provide artistic and aesthetic pleasure during performance which often includes songs, music and dance. The tales provide a connection between the past, the present and the future lives of the characters who are often a cross section of the society of the folktales. They include the supernatural, kings, queens, princes, princesses, young men and young women, old men and old women, boys, girls, babies (born and unborn), fathers, mothers, step mothers, pregnant women, orphans and other less privileged members of the society, animals, plants and inanimate objects. 57

Folktales constitute part of the complex communication system of the Esan people. Although the tales exist within their own imaginary world, they nevertheless mirror, to some extent the lives of the Esan people. They reveal some themes such as poverty, oppression and subjugation of women and men, injustice, fraud, discrimination, pride, lonesomeness, jealousy, distrust, scape goat, marginalization of the minority group, pretence and so on. Other themes in the tales epitomise the virtues the society desires. These include the virtues of patience, charity, sincerity, commitment, loyalty, vision, industry, self-reliance, magnanimity, bravery, obedience and faith in God's providence. The theme of the omnipresent supernatural presence pervades most tales, especially the tales where victims are saved from near death experiences.

The marginalised male and female characters manifest as orphans, poor wretches, hated wives and scape goats. Some times with supernatural assistance some characters who have humble beginning become rich, extraordinary human beings and warriors. There are several sub-themes in Esan folktales. These include: the sub-themes of man's quest for family relationship and care, man's quest for some items that are vital to life, food, shelter, water, clothing and the quest for a wife. The moral/didactic and aetiological statements that are found at the end of some tales express the sub-themes of friendship, the uselessness of suspicion, injustice and superstition, the need to be kind, faithful and committed as well as the need for restitution of wrongfully acquired items and privileges to the rightful owners.

The society's concept of what is good and what is evil permeates all the tales. In the folktales. There are male characters as well as four categories of women. Women who assert themselves and are economically independent appear to be admired by members of the society. Some women who are patient, kind, humble and charitable are applauded; while women who dominate other women and men are disliked and humiliated in the end. Some rulers and men who oppress other people and interfere with people's effort to make progress in life are condemned.

In the various performances of Esan folktales the characters are given the opportunity to choose between what is good and what is evil. Moreover, metaphysical presence dominates most performances. Some characters use metaphysical means to do good works, while others use metaphysical means to do evil. In Esan folktales human vices and desires cause conflicts and disharmony in human society. Resolutions as shown in “Okha” Folktale Tradition of the Esan People signify end to social disharmony and disruption. Undesirable character traits are done away with, while hunger and all types of quests are sometimes satisfied. People who evince the desired character traits carry on living with favour. The tale “Ilobhekemen” illustrates this point very well.

The society's yearning for a fair and just society where people are expected to co-exist in peace and harmony reveals itself through an indication to go back to the standards of the past, as contained in the traditions and customs of the people. In the folktales. For example women who liberate them-selves within the bounds of their environment and do things according to the traditions and customs of the society gain much recognition. The society approves of their activities. The society admires them and uses them as reference points and people direct other women to imitate them. Thematically, the yearning for the ideal society underlies most tales. As a result, sometimes, the society at the beginning of some tales appears corrupt and unjust.

As the tales unfold and move to resolution the desired cultural values and ethos unfold. The evil doers who spoil the society are often destroyed and the society is often purged thoroughly clean and healthy. Thus, the narrators of Esan folktales portray the imperfect society of the present; they bring out the lost ideals of the past life of the society of the folktale, and project the future society they yearn for. Every force at the disposal of the society, be it human or metaphysical, is employed to sanitize the society and restore harmony, justice and fair play, as well as proper conduct by the members of the society to some extent. In the tale, “Ilobhekemen”, for an example, the supernatural intervenes in the affairs of “Ilobhekemen” a generous woman with uncommon blessings, while it exposes, arrests and disgraces out her ungrateful and jealous adversaries.

The Structure of Esan Folktales

The term "Structure" has been defined in different ways by many scholars. Inegbeboh (2009) agrees with Pierre Maranda and Elli Köngas Maranda, that structure is "the internal relationship through which constituent elements of a whole are organised" (16).

Esan Folktales have a surface movement of events as well as an underlying deep structural level of symbols and images. At the surface, lineal, chronological and sequential level of analysis the tales generally move from the conventional opening formula to the beginning, then they move to the body of narration down to the end and the conventional closing formula mark the end of the performances of the tales. These are explained simply as follows:

The Conventional Opening Formula

Most performances of Esan folktales begin with the artists chanting the formula, "okha okha" to which the audience replies, "Khare". Some other tales begin

59 with the formula, "gbido", to which the audience replies "aloo". Some story tellers open their performances by playing some music and singing. The audience claps and warms up and sings with the narrators. The audience urges the artist to proceed to tell the tales. A response like "Khare/ Tell us", means "Tell us without further delay". In the tale "Ilobhekemen" as in most Esan folktales the opening formula gives the artist and the audience the opportunity to cocreate the folktale. The story teller chants and the audience replies as follows:

(Esan Text) "Okhokha khare (three times) Onon guile khare, Onon bha gue khare, Okpeniku khare, uwanhen, Khare". "Okhokha o-o-o-o-o…khare

(English Translation)

Story teller: Story, story, Audience: Tell us Story teller: Story, story, Audience: Tell us Story teller: Those who know Audience: Tell us Story teller: Those who do not know Audience: Tell us Story teller: Dust bin Audience: Tell us Story teller: Broom Audience: Tell us Story teller: Story, story, Audience: Tell us

The audience tells the story teller, "khare," meaning "tell us", thus urging the narrator and propping him on to go ahead with the story without further delay. Whenever a person hears a performer and an audience intoning and responding,

60 as above, a story follows. The story teller and the audience warm up for an exciting and thrilling session of creation and co-creation of an Esan prose narrative.

Chief Umobuarie, in the story, "Isilua”, starts off by playing a tune on his stringed instrument and singing. He is known for his ability to put the audience in the mood of the occasion and to get the support of the audience by the way he opens his story telling sessions. He starts off his performance by mentioning the names of the characters in the tales after which he goes to acknowledge the presence of some dignitaries and visitors in the audience. For example in the tale, "Isilua the Daughter of the Entire Edo People”, he starts off his performance by playing a tune and announcing:

It was played in honour of Isilua, it was played for the young girl called Iden; It was played in honour of the Oba of Edo, it was played in honour of Iyamanbho; It was played in honour of Oba's servants; It was played in honour of one woman called Ibharentiyi. The word we are saying, it was in Edo land it happened.

He dances, then proceeds to tell the story. This is the style of the artist in his subsequent tales. Chief Umobuarie's performances are modernised and elaborate, so he wears uniform with his performing troupe and they sing and play music, using some known musical equipment. On the contrary, a woman telling her children folktales at home may not need to wear uniform or sing and play music to open the performance of her tales.

The Introduction

The introduction of the tales consists in some introductory statements like: "Once upon a time there was famine in the land", "There lived a certain woman" or "A certain wicked king once lived" and so on. The introduction reveals the plot or plots. The introduction also reveals the source of conflict and provides the setting of any performance.

The Body

The body of the tales contains the drama of the various plots and conflicts. The actions of the characters move from conflict situations to resolutions that are sometimes obtained somewhere in the metaphysical world. Some other structural elements found in the body of Esan folktales include interjections and anecdotes

61 from members of the performing group or from the members of audience, music, songs and dance. Some members of the audience make side comments of approval or disapproval, following their agreement with the authenticity of the performances and the conviviality of the occasions, depending on the motivation of the audience and the amount of alcohol consumed.

Some overzealous members of the performing group or the audience take over the narration particularly when the artists allude to some incidents by way of digression. They tell the anecdotes and stop when they make their points to allow the performances continue. The narrators and their audience co-create Esan folktales. They sing and dance to the rhythm of the folk songs and folk music, shaking their hands, their waist and their legs while they gesticulate. There is pressure on the narrators to dance well, sing well, and tell out their stories vividly and smartly. The audience provides the background singing, clapping and cheering.

The relationship between the characters is revealed in the body of the folktales through the interaction of the various characters. The audience approves of some events and applauds them, while some actions of some characters give rise to shock and surprise. Characters are often revealed through what they do and what they say. They are also revealed through what people say about them.

The End

The end of the tales contains the resolutions of the conflicts. Some moral/didactic or aetiological statements mark the end of Esan folktales. These include some statements like "a patient person gains wealth", "It is good to be good", "this is why the bush dog cries in the bush till today"; and "that is why the sky is up and very high", and so on. Some tales may have both didactic and aetiological statements and tags at the end, while other tales may have only didactic statement or an aetiological statement at the end.

The Conventional Closing Formula

After the end the narrators generally announce the closing of the performances as follows: “Eria Okha men se, eileghe monobor, eileghe moe”, meaning, “this is how far my story goes, it will not paralyse my hand, it will not paralyse my leg”. Audience: Ise Audience: Amen.

Chief Umobuarie's closing formula is simple. He announces that his tale has come to an end and stops. In the tale "Isilua," for example, Umuobuarie ends by saying, "this is how far the story goes," and stops.

The foregoing shows that Esan folktales have a surface lineal, chronological, sequential order of events, as well as an underlying deep structural (paradigmatic) level of symbols and images. Esan folktales have sets of images that point to some themes and centre on oppositions between "life/death"; "lonesomeness/company"; "husband/wife"; "poverty/riches"; "filth/cleanliness"; "lie/truth"; "demand/supply"; "justice/injustice"; "magic/reality"; "sorrow/joy"; "revenge/forgiveness"; "loss/gain"; "neglect/care"; “kindness/unkindness"; "love/hate" and so on. Gesticulations, mimicry and ideophones are used for emphasis and descriptions.

The supernatural intervenes in the lives of individuals to ameliorate them or aggravate hardship, depending on whether the individuals obey or contravene the laws of the land. Many self-assertive women succeed in keeping afloat with the assistance of the supernatural. The journeys of the characters to rivers, markets or the spirit world or the land of the dead become their odyssey during which they learn important lessons that help liberate them from their predicaments. The characters, especially the women manifest as symbols and icons of goodness, patience, bravery, industry, strength, marginalization, oppression and evil.

Characterization in Esan Folktales

Artists in Esan folktales create any kind of image of any character, depending on what they hope to achieve. The characters in Esan Folktales imitate characters in human society. The different characters include: supernatural beings, human beings, members of the animal kingdom and the vegetable world, some magical objects, as well as inanimate objects are personified in the folktales. Esan Folktales recount activities of some characters that live in an imaginary world, where human beings, animals, trees, and other creatures interact freely.

They speak to one another and maintain a code of living, which when violated leads to some catastrophic consequences. The tales are a sum total of the history and culture of the Esan people and they provide aesthetic satisfaction during performance which often includes song, music and dance. The tales provide a connection between the past, the present and future lives of the characters.

The types of characters, for example, the passive characters they create may not be as passive as they seem in real life. The wicked and aggressive female characters they create attract much ridicule to themselves when their actions are compared to the gentle and innocent actions of the passive women. The characters

63 the artists try to run down are given roles that belittle them and make them lose self- confidence.

Esan folktales have a very strong sense of family, which is made up of a man, his wive/wives and other members of the extended family. Most disruptions or misfortunes in the family are almost always attributed to the wicked plans of some wicked women. In most of the folktales, some women and their co-wives fight "life and death" battles out of rivalry and envy. Some women maltreat the children of their co-wives and in some cases they actually kill them.

Characters in Esan folktales are often confronted with one problem or the other and they solve the problems in their own way. For example, the female characters have the problem of rivalry with their co-wives, they have the problem of bareness, poverty and the problem of oppression by the domineering men. Their peculiar ways of solving these problems carve out their positions among the various categories of women identifiable in the folktales, such as the self-actualized women who live above oppression; women who dominate other women, or women who are oppressed and remain passive or women who are oppressed and resist.

Characterization in folktales involves verbal descriptions and name calling of the characters. The characters are also revealed by what they do and say and through physical gestures and mimicry. For example, the story-teller assumes the roles of the characters in the tales. He imitates their mannerisms and their method of speech as well as the way they walk. Thus, characters in Esan folktales are iconic. They are the symbolic mimers or imitators of the ideals, the virtues or vices they express. They act out one role and act that role till the end. They do not change; and they do not develop into rounded characters. They are iconic characters. They ac as signs and symbols that leads the audience to associate and link them with the people they represent in the Esan society.

The female characters in Esan folktales consist in a spectrum of women, the characterization of which follows the normal kinds of characterization of women found in Esan society. These include the old women, mothers, young women, daughters, house-helps, the neglected women, the beloved women, house-wives, the barren women, women in polygamous homes, hardworking women, and "female husbands" (Odo Okhuo), lazy women, traders, market women, traditional dancers, traditional birth attendants, healers, weavers of traditional cloth, spiritually endowed women, princesses and queens. Women in Esan folktales are always recognized in any situation they appear, as wives, or mothers whose preoccupations are their interest in their children, child care and the care of their husbands. They represent the values positive or negative inherent in Esan Folktales and the real Esan society.

For example, in any tale where the character Alohen appears the audience expects evil actions and high-handed wickedness. Another point is that the favourite daughters of the kings in Esan folktales are usually daughters of the wicked favourite wives. As a result, they are arrogant and disdainful like their mothers. However, they are usually humiliated at the end of the stories. Anytime the character Alukhor or Uhumun (the hated wife) appears in tales, the audience recognises the meek and privated personality who is also highly vulnerable to attacks.

The character Ogiso/Oba on the other hand, whenever he appears in any tale, demonstrates the character of a dictator, an inconsiderate, wicked and self- seeking perverted patriarch. It is significant to note that some characters symbolize very bad character traits which repel people. As a result, the narrators hate to identify with them, therefore when the story tellers report the speech of such characters they replace the pronoun "I" with "he/she"; they replace the pronoun "me" with "him/her."

Performance (Non-Verbal Techniques)

Performance includes various types of physical gestures, hand movement and vocal dramatics. These non-verbal aspects are integrated into the verbal, which consist in the use of language. Scholars emphasise the need to perform oral narratives. Inegeboh (2010) agree with Bronislaw Malinowski that:

The text, of course, is extremely important, but without the context it remains lifeless… The performance, again, has to be placed in its proper time setting, the hour of the day, and the season, with the background of the sprouting gardens awaiting future work, and slightly influenced by the magic of the fairy tales.

Inegbeboh (2009) and Malinowski, thus emphasise performance of oral narratives instead of merely recording them on paper. Performance involves the use and study of the proper social setting of storytelling, with a view to enhancing meaning. Malinowksi thus demonstrates how tales are realized through performance.

Body Movement and Gesticulations

The narrators of Esan folktales do a lot of body movement, facial gestures and mimicry. The artists do much of dramatic performance. Apart from the movement involved in the dances the artists move to dramatize some aspects of their performance. Sometimes they move through the audience to involve some

65 members of the audience in their displays. An artist like Chief Umobuarie Igberaese moves to dramatize "Iden's entry in the Oba's palace in tale "Isilua".

The artists move their faces a lot during story telling sessions. This is not possible to record on paper. The artists contort their faces into different shapes to express different emotions. For example, they raise their eye brows and open their eyes very wide to express excitement, surprise and sometimes fear. They wink their eyes to imply treachery and complicity in some secret deals, an appeal to cover up something or an appeal to agree with what they say. Nose twisted and mouth pouted signifies disdain or disapproval and annoyance.

Songs, Refrains, Music and Dance

The performers of Esan folktales employ songs, refrains, music and dance to captivate the fundamental tendency in human nature. That is the inclination and attraction to rhythmic songs, good drum music and dance. The aesthetic enjoyment of the tales is achieved through multiplicity of excitement, moments of respite and joyful exercising of the body, particularly the hands, legs, back, waist area and the voice. In the folktales told by Chief Umobuarie Igberaese, for example, the audience is thrilled to music produced by locally made musical equipment like the harp, afan, the small band called samba, the big and small gongs, the box drum, the three-in- one set of drums, the flute the bottle and the clapping of hands by the audience.

In the tale, "Isilua: the Daughter of the Entire Edo People", for example, there are about fifty songs. The artist weaves these songs around the sensibilities of the Esan people and the audience. Members of the group supply the music. The artist dances and invites the wives of the members of the group and the audience to join the dance. He dances and demonstrates much. He composes some songs on the spur of the moment. He even sings some songs in honour of present lecturer and invites her and her daughter, Benedicta, of blessed memory to dance. Most of the songs entertain and sometimes satirize some members of the society who do things contrary to the rules and norms of the society. Some of the songs are poetic and proverbial. Some throw light on the activities at the different stages of the narration. Examples of the songs include:

A new wife does not sweep, a new wife does not scrub; Inegbeboh o-o-o-o! a new wife does not sweep, a new wife does not scrub.

We are treading,

66 gege gege gege When a monkey finishes dancing it goes on top of a tree, We are treading, gege gege gege

The child of the Entire Edo People Isilua o o o. The child of the Entire Edo People, Isilua o o o.

The songs are pleasing to hear. The language is simple and rhythmical. They signify meaning. For example, in the first song, "A new wife does not sweep" signifies that a new wife is well taken care of. In the second song, "we are treading" signifies that life is lived like a baby learning to walk. The songs become more appealing when they have refrains like the examples above. The audience participates enthusiastically in the singing of refrains. The artists use refrains to give music and structure to their performance. Refrains separate one group of lines from another. They mark the end of stanzas in the songs.

Repetition Repetition is very important for thematic unfolding of oral narration. It brings out the structure of the folktales; it is nemonic devices that aid memory and help the audience remember the stories. It enhances the aesthetic enjoyment of the folktales. Esan folktales contain many instances of repetition. Sometimes the artists repeat whole ideas from time to time in order to drive their messages home to the audience. The artist, Chief Umobuarie Igberaese, for example repeats the idea that the inten-sive meditation on the past, the present and the future, particularly during some unpleasant situations makes a person cry. He says and sings many times in almost all his stories.

(Esan Text) Okhole bharia eria, elolo igbamevie Okhole bharia eria, elolo igbamevie Okhole bharia eria, elolo igbamevie

(English Translation) If the mind does not think a thought, the eyes do not make tears,

If the mind does not think a thought, the eyes do not make tears. If the mind does not think a thought, the eyes do not make tears.

Sometimes the artists repeat single words in order to give a sense of a heightened feeling about the idea they are trying to express. Repetition also involves the alternation or variation and kills boredom. It makes for rhythm. It makes for the organization of musical beauty in the songs in the folktales. Most of the songs in the various tales are repeated after each segment or different stages of the narration. Repetition helps the audience remember the story. For example, in the tale, “Isilua”, the artist and members of his group (M.O.G) sing and repeat lines of the songs in the tales. Most repeated lines are refrains.

Audience Participation

The audience participates in two ways. First, the people form the crowd that stay as audience and appraise, they admire and watch the performance of the tales. Secondly they act as joint creators with the artist. They take over some parts of the narration where they feel the artist leaves out some details. Inegbeboh (2013) agree with Melville and Frances Herskovits that;

one usage that is as common to discursive speech as to narrative is the interpolated explanation from listener, or listeners. So important is it for narrative tempo that in the absence of an audience, or where the interjection is too long delayed, the narrator himself pauses to exclaim, `Good'. While this pause serves stylistic ends in narration - to introduce a transition, as a memory aid, or to heighten suspense, among others - it is but part of the traditional complex of patterned responses from the listener, demanded by the canons of taste. (137)

In some Esan folktales, members of the performing group and audience interpolate and take over various aspects of the narration. They participate in clapping, singing and dancing. They prop up the narrator to carry on the story to a successful end. They remind him whatever he forgets to include, during the narration

Language of Esan Folktales

Diction

The language of Esan folktales is the normal everyday language of the Esan people. The diction is simple, but highly figurative. It is full of images and symbols. Some abstract ideas, values and emotions are symbolised by the use of certain emblems and images. Proverbs and sometimes anecdotes are used to allude to certain incidents. Some animals, plants and some inanimate objects are personified and used to symbolize some actions and emphasise those elements that help to describe the entire nature of the good the characters do or the evil they perpetrate. The following conversation between Iyamanbho and the four palace chiefs in the tale "Isilua" illustrates the simple diction of Esan folktales: Iyamanbho greeted them; he asked them, "Is it quite alright?" They told him, "it is alright, one matter is there: `their' master has no wife; that is why 'they' have come to your house now.” They" heard that one of your children is there that is really beautiful that fits the Oba as a wife, that your daughter called Isilua."

Story teller sings:

The child of the entire Edo people, Isilua o The child of the entire Edo people, Isilua o o o.

Iyamanbho asked them, "Is this why you have come to my house? They replied, "yes, yes". He told them that he had no child called Isilua. The chiefs said to him, "please do not tell lies to us." Iyamanbho was laughing.

Proverbs Narrators of Esan folktales use proverbs to enliven their stories and make the audience think along with them. They use proverbs as terse and concise ways of expressing their thoughts and describing the actions of the characters. Proverbs consist in the wise sayings and the experiences of the elders following the culture and the geographical disposition of the people. Some examples of proverbs in the tale, “Isilua” include: "Iroko does not grow straight leaves" This proverb means that there is no truth in a wicked and cunning person. It is used to refer to Iden, a deceitful character in the story.

Another example of proverb in the tale mentioned above is "the elephant and the hunter are going to meet. The hunter should not run from the elephant". The proverb emphasises the need to be courageous. It underscores the fierce crisis

Iden, the intruding home breaker causes for Isilua. The narrator wants Isilua to summon courage and fight to save her home. Proverbs are, from the foregoing, witty sayings. They may be humorous, but they are food for thought. They instruct and at the same time entertain the audience.

Many parables symbolise actions in the real Esan tales. For example, Chief Umobuarie Igberaese, in the tale "Isilua: the Daughter of the Entire Edo," makes many parables like: "The na-tive doctor that plays oracle for the fowl told the fowl, `do not bulge eyes'. When bulging of eyes kills the fowl, it will then re-member the native doctor". This signifies that an obstinate person suffers. Another good parable is, "The elephant and the hunter are going to meet. The hunter should not run from the elephant. Tell the hunter to wait and fight with the elephant". The above parable symbolises the titanic fight that takes place between Isilua and Iden.

Imagery/ Figures of Speech

Esan folktales contain many words that help the audience imagine and have a mental picture of what the story tellers are talking about in the various tales. The mind of the audience is tuned to visualize in visible and invisible things, a situation near what the artists think, experience or feel. This is usually accomplished by likening one thing or idea to another. This is also done by attributing to things, ideas or qualities they do not normally possess, by using materials associated with persons or objects to represent them. Another way of doing this is by representing thoughts, feelings and objects without mentioning them. To achieve all of the above the artists use many figures of speech such as metaphors, simile, hyperbole and ideophones. The artists also use symbolism, sometimes. Inegbeboh and Osakue (2008) agree with Bran, Robert and Norman that symbolism is “representation of something generally invisible or abstract, as an idea, emotion, quality, or material object”.

Metaphor The story tellers use many metaphors during performances of Esan folktales. For example, in the tale "Isilua" (the man Ailemen is called "the palm tree in the street". This is a metaphor. The audience imagines that Ailemen must be a very tall person that goes everywhere. Similarly, in the same tale, the heroine, Isilua is called "the fruit of Ogheghe tree". The fruit of Ogheghe tree, when ripe is very beautiful, succulent and yellow. Isilua is so beautiful that she is likened to this fruit and she is called the fruit itself. This makes the audience visualize her as a person who is very light complexioned, beautiful and amiable.

Simile The artists use many similes Esan folktales. These are straight forward comparisons, where the comparison of one object to the other is made, using the words `as' or `like'. For example, in the tale, "Isilua the Daughter of the Entire Edo People", the artist sings:

If you see the pounded yam that Aminetu cooked, if they put fingers inside, it is like they put fingers into thorns.

The pounded yam is compared to thorns. The pounded yam is like piercing thorns. This is a good example of simile. It signifies that Aminetu is a bad cook.

Hyperbole

This is an exaggerated use of language. It is a type of over-statement of facts. Examples of this abound in Esan folktales. For example, Isilua is called "Isilua: the child of the Entire Edo People". This is an exaggerated way of saying that Isilua was loved by everybody. Exaggerated account of events like the above add humour to the tales. These make them entertaining and pleasurable.

Personification

Esan folktale performers represent inanimate objects or ideas as living beings.

Synecdoche

The performers of Esan folktales also strike the audience by the way they employ the figure of speech, synechdoche to make their statement concise, but weighty. Examples abound where performers of Esan folktales use part of a thing or a being to represent the whole or use the whole for the part.

Ideophones Ideophones emphasise certain words and ideas. The narrators of Esan folktales make much use of ideophones. These are rhetorical forms of expression

71 which by themselves mean nothing but whose sound-forms convey realistically intended meanings.

The ideophones are numerous. They add colour to performance and enhance an understanding of Esan folktales. Performers of Esan folktales employ various narrative devices such as the examples given in this chapter to unfold the themes and content of Isilua: African Folktales of the Esan of Nigeria. They are used to realize the structure of the tales; and at the same time, they are used to describe the characters and make them recognizable every time they appear. A thrilling experience of the performance of Esan folktales is realized through the totality of the proper blending and handling of the language and style of the folktales.

My work on “Oral Dramatic Performance of Esan Folktales” (2010) is in line with the work of these scholars of aesthetics. Interestingly, I found that the artistic entertainment of performance consists in the effective manipulation of the performance situation; the ability of the artist to strive for immediacy of effect; applying the correct conventional opening and closing formula; using the appropriate diction; sustaining the audience attention; as well as creating the conducive setting. Many recent scholars are now beginning to prefer using the performance approach to study folktales, instead of using the text-centred approach. However, my experiment with Esan folktales is constrained by the dearth of literature on performance of folktales at present, definitely none on performance of Esan folktales.

My works on Esan folktales (2013, 2014 & 2015) therefore, are very essential, as they stand in the gap between little or no work on performance of folktales and the present where many scholars are now beginning to see the need for performance and dramatization of folktales. For example, the playwright, Sam Ukala, through his principle of “folkism” creates beautiful dramatic pieces from Ika folktales. Esan folktales, which are called ‘Okha’ are stored in the memories of the artists who perform them whenever occasion warrants them to. They vary the tales, as they tell them on different occasions. They add to them or subtract from them depending on their mood and motivation.

Women and Gender in Esan Folktales

My commitment to the study of women in Esan folktales from the feminist perspective is the most important aspect of my scholarship. I worked with all my might to unravel how women are represented in Esan Folktales. Gender connotes the social and historical constructions of masculine and feminine roles, behaviours, 72 attributes and ideologies which refer to the biological male sex or female sex. It is the positioning of men and woman in the society, including the oral society, were folktales are told for entertainment, as well as for the instruction of the younger generations. Esan folktales contain the belief system of the Esan people, as well as other iconic cultural resources. The men’s position in the folktales tends to mirror what obtains in the traditional Esan society. Considering gender from the angle of positive feminists, all women are oppressed. However, they are expected to emancipate themselves from traditional bondage and assert themselves. Some women in Esan folktales evince qualities of being self-assertive.

Some occasions arise in Esan folktales where women resist oppression with every power at their disposal. These women assert themselves and demand to be heard. They fight back, sometimes to the point of wanting to eliminate the whole world, in return for any injustice done to them. These women shock patriarchal and traditional apologists into a sudden awareness by their self- confidence. They shock people by their strength of character and will power. They surprise by their intellectual-physical actions. They astonish by their language and gender politics, by their independent mindedness; and they amaze by their self- assertion. They teach that women who resist oppression and assert themselves win recognition in the society.

The feminist perspective is the positive representations of womanhood which try to counter the preconceived prejudices in male writings about womanhood and challenge the status quo. The feminist perspective applauds a situation where men and women unite and contribute their roles effectively to build up the human society. Feminists demonstrate the fact that women and men complement one another. They address the problem of the exploitation of women and men by society. The African feminist, who is not necessarily a woman, tries to bring about social equilibrium. Davies and Graves assert that:

genuine African feminism recognizes a common struggle with African men for the removal of the yokes of foreign domination and European/American exploitations. It is not antagonistic to African men, but it challenges them to be aware of certain salient aspects of women’s subjugation which differ from generalized oppression of all African peoples. (9)

The African men and women struggle side by side to liberate the African continent from the chains of colonialism. Yet men turn around to marginalize and oppress women. However, some women have managed to stay afloat, and they attract the attention of feminist writers. The feminist perspective, therefore, highlights the negative experiences of women, as well as their unique and positive experiences. Feminist writers do not only pay attention to the victimization and helplessness of women in the hands of male and female oppressors; they strongly throw light on the effort women make to assert themselves; they emphasize what women do to actualize themselves, liberate themselves and get fulfilled in life. Moreover, the feminist writers expose whatever is evil and unacceptable in the lives of women, especially in their relationship with other women and men, with a view to correcting them.

The early feminists were extremist civil right fighters who, following their experiences in their environment fought the way they did to enhance the dignity of womanhood (Wollstonecraft 1975), (DuBois 1979), (Hartsock 1979), (Rowbotham 1992), (Stiles 1996). They fought against oppressive systems. African feminist writers and researchers today raise fundamental questions and challenges about the way some male writers present women and men and life in their novels, dramas, poetry and even films. Male writers in particular marginalize and paint very negative images of the African woman as a scorn and a butt. They describe the African woman as somebody who is eternally oppressed and subjugated; they portray her as somebody entangled by a very intricate predicament she can never extricate herself from. Feminist studies have identified three categories of women. Manuh reveals that:

Initially, three kinds of women appeared as the obvious candidates: prominent women social scientists; women who contributed to the public life the social scientists were studying, such as queens and powerful women; and women victims of the worst forms of male dominance. (72)

In my over four decades of research on Esan folktales I have discovered that there are many things women in Esan traditional society have done to make them socially, economically, and politically relevant. Self-assertion and self-reliance for Esan women today and women generally are topical. Moreover, some women in Esan folktales dominate other women and men. The exposure of the activities of this category of women serves to deter potential female culprits; and they serve as 74 an eye opener to other women and men. From the forgoing, it is expedient to recognize and extend the list of the feminist categories of women to include: women who are oppressed and remain passive, the oppressed women who resist oppression, the unoppressed women and women who dominate other women and men.

The Concept of Female Resistance and Self-Assertion

Women who resist oppression as well as assert and actualize themselves are feminists. They defend their right to survive. They also defend their interest in their children, in a society that recognizes a woman only as a married female who is the mother of children. Feminists correct whatever is not in the interest of women in the society. In their interaction with men and their fellow women, the feminists prune off and change whatever is detrimental to the interest of women. Sometimes some people misunderstand the women who resist oppression. They call them rebels. Such women are aware of their capabilities and the influence they have over other people. They defend their right to exist and live a fulfilled life.

Chukwuma (1994) affirms that,

“in female assertion, two main factors come to play: first, the woman herself, her acumen and disposition which make her fight for herself. Second, is the environment where she operates in.”(ix)

Women who resist oppression strive to make themselves well recognized and highly honoured. They pitch camp and fight their adversaries. They do not run away from problems, instead they face them and find solution to them. The resistant women are proud to be women. They wish the society to recognize them for what they can do and what they want to do and not what the society feels they should be doing.

There are various forms of feminism such as: radical feminism, bourgeois feminism, cultural feminism, Marxist feminism, black feminism and lesbian feminism. (Evwierthoma 41), but we are more concerned with the cultural aspect of feminism as it relates to Esan folktales performance art. Essentially, folktales derive from folklore. Okpara (88) asserts that folklore is the traditional art, literature, knowledge and practice that are disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioural example.

Ibagere (2010) agrees with him to the extent that folklore constitutes a part of the Esan traditional communication system. This system generally involves the transmission and reception of information, ideas and attitude among individuals in society. In Esan folktales women manifest basically as wives, mothers and daughters, while men manifest as husbands (who are either inconsiderate or supportive), elders and sons. In most cases the men try to hurt the women. The men tend to dominate and intimidate the women. They ridicule and blackmail them in order to lower their self-esteem.

They hoodwink women to feel inferior. However, some women resist all forms of oppression (Igbinovia 107). Such women emphasize that it is worthy to resist oppression as feminists. Female resistance, which is self-assertion, is synonymous with self-actualization by women. In this regard, Ezeigbo (1996) observes that:

It is a historical fact that, sometimes, a situation in the life of an individual or a people demands that such as individual or a people take steps to assert their humanity or even their right to existence. Some people have had to struggle to establish an identity and safeguard their inalienable right to be treated decently as human beings.

Women have been undervalued and marginalized for so long that they are now beginning to fight back and resist. Evwiertioma (2002) informs that:

Different women groups like the Women Liberation Movement fought in the 1960s and 1970s to demand for women’s right and achieved a lot of successes. Some other female organizations such as the National Council of Women Societies, the National Association of Women in Academics, the National Association of Women Journalists, Women in Development and other women associations in the various communities now unite and cooperate to fight the cause of women. They project the interest of women and encourage women to be engaged in money-making ventures and vie for elective political positions. Women thereby resist by their unity and their numerical strength. (36)

They use their intelligence, their awareness and their economic power to resist all types of oppression, especially patriarchal dominance. Ezeigbo states that proper female resistance implies that:

“…women should strive to get all the education they can; get involved in income-generating activities to increase their economic power; and also form and sustain organizations or cooperatives through which they can unite and articulate their needs and mobilize forces to satisfy them” (63).

When women are enlightened they become bold and self-confident. When they are economically balanced their men respect them and take them seriously in decision-making. They are then able to articulate their needs and the needs of other women and work positively to satisfy the needs.

Concerning gender roles in Esan Folktales it can be deduced that traditional society of the folktales attaches more importance to men’s roles. This might reflect on what happens in the traditional Nigerian society generally and the Esan traditional society specifically. The men are seen as the superior achievers, while the women are expected to spend all their lives bearing children doing menial jobs and not aspire high. The men have the superior role attributed to them in marriage, family and society. Women are excluded from governance, development and decision-making.

This derogates from the industrialized societies, developed countries, urban areas and capital cities like Abuja and Lagos, where women are expected to aspire high and achieve like men. In short, some female writers, like Chukuruma Helen (1989), Manuh Takywaa (1992), Mama Amina (1995), Akachi Ezigbo (1996), Strungaru (2004), and Bridget Inegbeboh (2015) express the view that there is much discrimination against women in the Nigerian society in general and the traditional societies in particular. It has been proved that women can achieve great heights if they are given the opportunity to do so.

I researched into the role of women in Esan folktale tradition to verify how the women in Esan traditional society can achieve like the men. Some of them surmount all cultural barriers to achieve great heights. Some of the barriers are expressed mostly in the daily oral communications of the people in form of proverbs. I got interested also in the study of Nigerian proverbs, especially proverbs from Esanland and discovered that they are ubiquitous, versatile, and resilient. I discovered very interestingly that there are, gender roles in Nigerian proverbs and

77 that derogatory proverbs on women abound. However, proverbs are used to instruct and entertain, like the folktales are used.

Conclusion

On the whole, it is expedient to state that this my lecture demonstrates the following:

1. The performance of every Esan folktale is a significant and interesting moment of artistic experience enjoyed and shared by both the artist and the audience. The narration of a folktale in Esanland is a total human experience that involves dramatizing the tale, uniting its aesthetics and sociology; and its work of art. The tales are a rich form of cultural heritage which mirrors and transmits Esan culture from generation to generation. They give the Esan people a sense of belonging and a feeling of self-pride.

2. Generally, feminist writers have always portrayed women as being oppressed, but significantly my study of the ‘Okha’ folktale tradition of the Esan people and African Oral Literature reveals that there exists a category of women who are not only unoppressed but who are also very powerful. It is convenient to call this latter group of women traditional feminists. They have the lesson of perseverance, love, courage, industry, self-reliance, economic and spiritual empowerment to teach the younger generation of Esan women in particular and women all over the world in general.

Recommendation

Mr Vice-Chancellor Sir, from our examination and analysis of tales in the “Okha Folktales Tradition of the Esanland People”, we recommend that the following should please be done:

1. Nigerian Oral Literature, for example, Folk Tales from Esanland and other parts of Nigeria should be made compulsory part of the curriculum at the various levels of education to bring out the beauty and virtue of our diversified culture.

2. When women were women in Esanland, as portrayed in the four folktales of the Esan people, they met the requirements for successful, self-actualized women, according to the feminist standard for measuring success in the society. The women folk in real life situation, particularly in Nigeria should therefore, draw on these examples or models to build their own characters and contribute their quotas to the development of the Nigeria society and develop the world and change the world.

3. Grants should be made available by stakeholders, including philanthropic sons and daughters of Esanland; Federal and State Governments; Research Centres in Nigeria and abroad, for the collection, documentation and dissemination of Esan Oral Literature (Okha FolktaleTradition) to boost the indigenous knowledge base of the people.

4. Agreeing with Omo-Ojugo (2004), I recommend that the Esan people “should set a day apart every year for the people of Esan to come together and celebrate what binds the Esan people together. In this regard, there would be the need for symposia, lectures, performances of folktales, drama and poetry; and cultural dances to be organised”.

Really, I believe very strongly, Mr Vice- Chancellor Sir that; at this juncture you will agree with me that the “Okha” Folktale Tradition of the Esan people has much to offer humanity. It is already being studied and referred to as contributing to knowledge in places like United States of America, Canada, Germany, Britain, India, South Africa and here in Nigeria, to mention but a few, where some of works have been published. The Folktales link the different communities in Esanland. They link the Esan people with other ethnic groups in Nigeria. They link Nigeria with other countries in Africa. Essentially, they link Africa with other continents in our globalized world.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Vice-Chancellor, Sir, please permit me to acknowledge and appreciate all those who have impacted on my life and achievements that have paved way for this great event of today: First, I appreciate the Almighty God for creating me, packaging me the way He does, loving me, protecting me and making me write the first Inaugural Lecture of Samuel Adegboyega University (SAU). I honour and cherish my late parents: Mr Matthias Ekugum Hopeman Okoh and Mrs Ruby Onyekosor Okoh, for giving me a very happy childhood, and fighting relentlessly to get me educated, at the time Girl – Child Education was not allowed in my home town. In short, my father was ordered, by his relations, to withdraw me from school, Anglican Girls Grammar School Ughelli, or face ostracism from his community. Yet, my father chose to educate me and be ostracized by his people. Where ever he is now, I know he must be very happy with my success, achievements, and the fact that I have not let him down. May his noble soul and my mother’s gentle soul rest in peace. My profound gratitude goes to my husband, Honourable David S. Inegbeboh and his people, the Udo community, who received me very well into their family and cared for me like their own daughter. I was delighted to find out that my husband also has very keen interest in my education. He would tell me: “Read to any height you like, but wherever you reach tell people you are “Mrs Inegbeboh”. I was an NCE teacher when I married him. He nurtured me, encouraged me and developed me to this position of Professor, delivering the first Inaugural Lecture. He taught me to value hard work, integrity and the fear of God. Please help me thank him. May God bless him. I appreciate my children Barrister (Mrs) Isimhen Ekpen, Barrister Davidson Odia Inegbeboh, Benedicta Inegbeboh d. 1995; Barrister Eugene Ojie Inegbeboh, Dr Jude Oriarewho Inegbeboh for being good children; for tolerating my long absences from home, doing all my researches; and praying that I should succeed. I thank their spouses: Mr Sylvester Ekpen, Barrister (Mrs) Eseoghene, Barrister (Mrs) Josephine and Mrs Christiana Inegbeboh for taking care of my children and giving us peace. I thank all my grandchildren for co-operating with me, showing me much love, and telling me that they are proud of me.

I appreciate my brothers, sisters and other relations for standing by me and praying for me. I appreciate immensely my immediate junior sister, Professor (Mrs) Norah Omoregie of Benson Idahosa University; Mr. Mathias Sunday Okoh, Mrs Fanny Jatto-Ederion, Mrs Stella Oseghae, and others. I appreciate all my teachers right from my primary school days to my secondary school. I thank all my lecturers in College of Education, Abraka. I honour and cherish all my lecturers in the various Universities I attended; University of Benin, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, as well as The Nigeria Law School, Abuja. I thank you for receiving me, teaching me and awarding me the numerous degrees attached to my name. Please permit me to thank very profoundly, Dr Okpure O. Obuke, who thought me Oral Literature in the University of Benin. He is in the USA celebrating with me, as I deliver this Inaugural Lecture, today. I thank my academic and professional colleagues in Benson Idahosa University; members of the Nigerian Bar Association, Benin Branch and Ekpoma Branch; and the staff and Management of Samuel Adegboyega University. I thank Professors Ben Egede, C. Korich, Charles Aluede, Nkem Onyekpe, dr Osakwe Omoera and others for supporting and encouraging me throughout the period I did my researches. I thank members of Staff of College of Humanities especially the Staff of the Department of Language: Mr Adeleke Ogunfeyimi’ Mr John Babayemi, Ms Janet Adeboye, Omon Dawodu. I appreciate my students. I thank Mr Peter Enajite Samuel and Mr Ezekiel Olabiyi for typing and structuring the manuscript and presentation. I thank Dr Osakwe Omoera, Prof Nkem Onyekpe, Prof B. Egede for peer- reviewing the work. Vice-Chancellor Sir, very grateful to you and the management of SAU for giving me the opportunity to work and achieve great height academically. I thank you very much, Mr Vice-Chancellor, Sir for your discipline and ability to teach me to be the best in all I do, as a professor. I am foevr grateful to the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Councl, Elder Bisi Ogunjobi and members of the Governing Council, for giving me the opportunity to be elevated to the position of Professor of English and Literature, as well as other Principal members of the University administration who are helping to develop this great university into a world-class university.

I appreciate all His Royal majesties and their Chiefs who answer all our questions on Esan culture and literature.

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Mr Vice- Chancellor Sir, Chairman and Members of Governing Council of Samuel Adegboyega University, Distinguished Guests, my Colleagues, my Students, Ladies and Gentlement, I am done! Thank you very much for listening to me.