Abstract
African traditional drama has been researched from several perspectives. But there are hardly studies fully focusing on the deployment of language to achieve performance goals in particular performances. This failure may have roots in the widely held assumption that verbal language (dialogue) is not a serious element of African traditional drama. Studying language in particular performances will show that there are instances of full and effective deployment of verbal communication in the African traditional drama. This article, therefore, studies language in ewa-ọma performances. Using basic literary appreciation and critical analysis methods, with a new historicist bias, the literary and rhetorical components of language are identified and analyzed according to their space-time relevance in two performances, to demonstrate the manner of realization of dialogue and (inter)weaving of literary and rhetorical strategies. Literary tropes and rhetorical devices are effectively deployed in well-developed dialogues to achieve a satirical goal in the performances.
Highlights
Ewa-ọma festival is an annual satirical event among the Nkporo, Edda, and Afikpo communities of South-East Nigeria
The article has analyzed the language of ewa-ọma performances of Nkporo, South-East Nigeria and brought out its literary and rhetorical qualities
The literary tropes and rhetorical devices identified in the performances are repetition, rhetorical questions, exaggeration, metaphor, synecdoche, simile, personification, apostrophe, comparison, irony, diminution, propaganda, and idiophone, among others
Summary
Ewa-ọma festival is an annual satirical event among the Nkporo, Edda, and Afikpo communities of South-East Nigeria. The word “originally” as used here suggests that the realization of ewa-ọma performances is wholly indigenous and not a result of copying from any external dramatic tradition The explanation for this is that drama, whether traditional African, Euro-American, or Asian, tells stories in many different ways, one of these being the re-enactment of experience by performers who are involved in role-playing. It bears clarifying that while we are away of the specific and general differences between theater, drama, play, and performance (Egwu, 2021, dwells on this), as has been made clear in scholarship, for example, in performance studies (PS), this article limits itself to the restricted understanding of all four terms as behaviors involving people or things in a role-playing business in a chosen location with audience participation. The terms, African traditional drama and African festival performances are used interchangeably on the same consideration
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