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Theatrical Visual Languages in Duro Ladipo's Three Yoruba Plays

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Theatrical Visual Languages in Duro Ladipo's Three Yoruba Plays 1 CHAPTER ONE THE ORIGINS OF DURO LADIPO’S THEATRE Introduction There is no doubt that traditional Yoruba travelling theatre occupies a significant position in the sociocultural, political and religious milieu of the Yoruba people. This is because in most cases their ways of life, their world views and their being as a whole are commonly expressed through performance. This work seeks to investigate an aspect of Yoruba traditional theatre; this being the theatrical visual languages in the plays of Duro Ladipo - one of the most prominent of the 20th century Yoruba playwrights and actors. The need to embark on this work is motivated by the need to bring to light the intrinsic values contained in the visual theatrics of Duro Ladipo’s three Yoruba plays, namely Oba Koso,1 Oba Waja2 and Oba Moro3. The visual component of his plays takes one on a journey into understanding the aesthetics and expressions found in all aspects of Yoruba culture. It also explores the social, political and spiritual dynamics of Yoruba from an historical context and provides an extraordinary link into the life history of the avatars of Yoruba cosmology. The Eegun Alare (Alarinjo)4 theatre which is directly responsible for the birth of the Yoruba professional theatre, came out of the re-enactment of Yoruba legendary stories 1 Oba Koso means ‘the king did not hang’ in the Yoruba language, a term which refers to Sango, the legendary fourth king of Oyo and the Yoruba god of thunder and lightning. 2 Oba Waja is a term used for describing a deceased king in Yorubaland. 3 Oba Moro means ‘the king who caught ghosts’, a nick-name given to King Abipa, the fourth and last king to reign at Igboho as a result of an incident which occurred during his reign. 4 Alarinjo is a term used in describing the Yoruba traveling theatre, a performance tradition of masked actors which found its roots in the Yoruba aristocratic society of the late 15th century. 2 and myths such as the beliefs about egungun5 masquerades (i.e., the spirits of the ancestors coming back to visit the living). The writings of key artists such as Chief Daniel Orowole Fagunwa, the father and pioneer of Yoruba indigenous fictional stories, the theatre of Hubert Ogunde, one of the foremost pioneers of Yoruba theatre, and the theatre of Duro Ladipo and fellow impresarios like Kola Ogunmola cannot be fully explored without an understanding of the history, language and traditions of the Yoruba. Ogunde was the progenitor of Yoruba professional theatre. He was a born entertainer who started his career in a Christian school and went on to become one of the greatest dramatists that Yoruba theatre has produced. He was a playwright, director, composer, singer, entrepreneur and lead actor who used his business skills to create a new art form for the Yoruba popular theatre. He brought a new light to theatre by attracting new audiences and creating potential venues which subsequent groups were able to use for performances. His commitment and positive role modelling paved the way for great actors like Kola Ogunmola and Duro Ladipo. Ladipo was born in 1926. I will explore the factors surrounding his birth and life in the next chapter. His influence by the Eegun Alare tradition and how he was influenced by individuals and institutions will be considered in line with his inspirations. It will also be necessary to establish how his environment and his background contributed to his practice and general concerns. 5 Egungun is used in reference to masquerade or masque; face covered with mask, the human embodiment of spiritual beings who were once people, believed to maintain links with their earthly relatives. The egungun festival refers to a festival celebrated every year in Yorubaland. During this time, the ancestral dwellers of heaven are believed to be physically visiting their community of living relatives in the form of egungun. Egungun is used here in singular and plural terms. 3 In exploring his theatrical visual languages, his choice of plays, their significance and composition, I will bring to light the intrinsic qualities and the unspoken dialogues necessary for the accessibility and transformation of the art form in the 21st century. For instance, the significance of the sacred regalia of Sango in Oba Koso will be brought to bear to a universal audience as a relevant entity of Ladipo’s theatre. A general overview of the Yoruba culture, origin and politics is essential to this study because Ladipo and his above-mentioned comrades were all inspired by different aspects of Yoruba traditions. The thematic preoccupations of their theatrical visual expressions have their origin in the Yoruba myths and legends as well as customs and rituals. The theories adopted by writers such as Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan and Ola Rotimi were also born of the practices inherited from the Eegun Alare itinerant performance tradition. This theatre is usually meant for entertainment, but it is also educative. The forms of this theatre are diverse in nature. For instance, some practitioners stage plays about evils in society, but they also celebrate the culture and the Yoruba deities through their re-enactment of the traditions. Aim/Purpose of study The aims of this study therefore, are in threefold: The first is to investigate the origin, background and context of Duro Ladipo’s theatre in line with his influences, theatrical developments and visual languages. The second is to explore the importance and context of his dramaturgy in Oba Moro, Oba Koso and Oba Waja. The study will also examine the importance of his visual languages, their philosophical implications in the Yoruba matrix, how audiences have responded to them and the need to bring them to light in the 21st century. 4 Plate 1 cover picture from THE RETURN OF SHANGO (Beier, 1994) Duro Ladipo and Abiodun Ladipo in a performance of Oba Koso in Lagos (Photo: Jackie Phillips.) Given these aims, the study will attempt to answer the following research questions: Research Questions 1. What are the significances of Ladipo’s theatrical visual languages? 2. In what ways are theatrical visual languages in the Eegun Alare theatre different from the modern Yoruba professional theatre? 5 3. What are the effects of these differences in the promotion and sustenance of Yoruba cultures especially among the youth? 4. How are costumes, props, backdrops, accessories, motifs, sculptures and colours used in Ladipo’s theatre to depict the pantheon of gods and goddesses? It is expected that this study will bring to light the values and significance of this theatre in the 21st century. In this chapter, I seek to validate the root of Duro Ladipo’s theatrical visual languages through an assessment of the context of his background. As a Yoruba descendant who was completely influenced by his environment, Ladipo’s theatre explored the myths and legends, rituals, festivals, history and the socio-political dynamics of his people. For the purpose of clarity, this chapter of the thesis is divided into four parts: The Yoruba race and history; archaeology, social and political structures; the Eegun Alare performance tradition, and the Yoruba professional travelling theatre. The first part is sub-divided into two sections which accounts for the origin and history of the Yoruba. The first section defines who the Yoruba are. The second section explains the history and the various versions of the Yoruba ancestral story. The second part explores the findings of the different archaeologists who excavated Yorubaland in order to establish a link between Ladipo’s theatrical composition, Yoruba history and the remains of archaeology. The third part is sub-divided into four sections. The first section narrates the history of the government of early Yoruba society. The second delves into the various theories ascribed to the government of Yorubaland. The third describes the concept of power and the government structure of the Yoruba and the fourth is an explanation of the Yoruba 6 marriage system, the role of women and historical socio-development. The fourth part is sub-divided into two sections which explores a chronological account of the evolution of the Yoruba performance tradition. The first section traces back the history of the Eegun Alare tradition and its performance styles. The last section describes the birth and context of the Yoruba professional travelling theatre. The Yoruba Race The Yoruba as a group of people from the south-western part of Nigeria share a border with the Republic of Benin, a country which is also an extension of the Yoruba home by virtue of their shared history. The descendants of the Yoruba can also be found in the diaspora, namely Sierra Leone, Ghana, the Gambia, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti and the Americas as a result of the displacement caused by the trans-Atlantic slave trade promoted by European imperialist enterprise. They have been estimated to have a worldwide population ‘of over forty million’ (Ka ma Baa Gbagbe, 2003: 8). They are united by a common language, Yoruba, which can be spoken in many dialects (see Johnson, 1921; Akinjogbin, 2002 and Ajayi, 1987: 174-214). For many decades the Yoruba nation has been a subject of interest to scholars. Academics in the field of history, language, archaeology, anthropology, visual arts and theatre studies have researched different aspects of the Yoruba and expressed different opinions, guesses and conclusions based on their findings. Because of the inconsistencies associated with the records kept about the possible origin of the Yoruba, it is imperative to address the difficulties linked with the various suggestions in order to determine the 7 probable origin of the Yoruba and create a rational platform for the discussion of Ladipo’s theatrical visual languages.
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