Oral Literary Traditions

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CHAPTER FOUR

NARRATIVE DISCOURSE AND AESTHETICS IN IBIBIO LIBATION TEXTS In any ritual drama theatre, performance constitutes the rich system of local folk aesthetics which is transformed by exaggeration and repetitive gaits. All the verbal references of libation texts and other direct foregrounding devices present during performances are geared towards presenting libation performances as a stage spectacle.

Libation texts performances among the Ibibio exhibit elaborate repetition and exaggeration. The performer adopts (though he may not know) certain stylistic devices in the process of relaying his performance. It is only in these performances that the aesthetics of these libation arts are manifested.

This chapter discusses the oral literary traditions prevalent in Ibibio libation text performances. More texts are analyzed here to highlight the stylistic rhetoric deployed by performers of libation. The aesthetic features that are inherent in each text are examined as well. The focus of this chapter therefore embodies the elucidating of the narrative, the stylistic and aesthetic properties that are available in Ibibio libation texts, among other related issues.

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text, much has been lost”. No amount of imagination and recollection by a writer is able to place a reader in the stead of the listeners to the actual one-on-one performance of oral arts. This implies that the context of performance is crucial to the understanding of literariness in oral texts.

While watching the performance of a libation text, the dramatic movements, gestures, voice quality that pitches high and low at some points of discourse, the facial manipulation of the priest which accompanies each excited honorific worship and invocation are never replaceable on printed pages. In Herskovits‟ (1961) view, African oral performance is dramatic in form. He affirms:

the presentation of a tale is a bit of acting in itself;

when the trickster is in a difficult situation, his whining plea for help is heard. So cleverly can the story-teller act out the part of the characters that the only way fully to convey how these stories are told would be to have a talking motion picture, which would capture the total setting of teller and audience, the gestures, the play of facial expression, and in total effect would not be very dissimilar from drama as we know it on the stage (454).

While written literature receives appreciation through what amount of literary features it musters on print, oral literature invites responses based on its oral context of performance and the human contributions (audience participation) it displays. This of course is manifest only in performance. The audience thus is another important feature of oral literary tradition.

Finnegan (1970) avers that “the way in which stories are dramatized, the narrator taking on the personalities of the various characters, acting out their dialogue, their facial expressions, even their gestures and reactions” all play important roles in explicating aesthetics, meaning and understanding of oral art (384). She observes that “a good narrator economically and subtly presents these with ease in performance” (384).

This implies that every verbal aspect of the creative life of the African people, their artistic traditions such as are “found in the tale, the proverbs and the riddle” as well as in the libation text performances, oratory and other verbal expressions of the African people, involve “acting” which is the hallmark of performance (Herskovits, 1961: 452).

This dramatic theme of African oral art form that Herskovits implies is apparent when the priest is performing a libation; his voice projects “a bit of acting” especially as he

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manipulates his voice to a “whining plea” tone which is meant to pacify the divinities and spirits that he is consulting.

In performance, the performer‟s ability to select appropriate words for his speech is highly commendable. This accounts for variation in texts of performance.

Finnegan (1970) substantiates that “even when he does not choose to elaborate any extremes of dramatization, the narrator can and does create vivid effects by variation and exaggerations of speed, volume, and tone” which in themselves are indices of

“acting” (384). For instance, in the libation texts performed in Ikono/Ini axis of Akwa Ibom State, there is a remarkable variation in the choice of words. The texts‟ content show a profuse use of proverbials which is meant to excite the deities addressed:

Performer: Ebò ké èté únèn aké ‟dia ké ìfìm, èkà únèn aké‟dia ké ìfìm, ǹdíín sító ìfìm ísítèkké únèn esit.

Translation: It is said that “the mother hen fed from the refuse dump, the father-hen fed from the refuse”. Therefore food from the refuse dump cannot cause nausea for the chick.

Performer: Ebò ké akananam ìkwọd ísí fèhéké ìnì uwem‟éyo íbọhọké abinne mkpọ, mme mkpọ abinne anyé.

Ifʌkkọ ínuèn akpon die yàk ńdúfúúd itiaba afid?

Ńnyin èdọñ ákpé dọọk ábód, íníññé uyio ámọ ánà akọọn.

Ábód ányin idọọkkọ mí ányọọñ ikàn ńnyìn. Adò anam ǹnyìn itua

Translation: It is said that “the toad does not run in the broad daylight unless it is after something or something is after it”.

How big is the lap of the skylark (bird) that it should be infected by seven dangerous boils?

If a lamb climbs a hill, its sweet voice goes hoarse‟‟.

The hill we are now climbing is too high for us. That is why we are crying.

(Text 4: lines: 23-33; Text 7: lines 28-30).

The appearance of this stretch of proverbs in one performance contradicts what we have in the performances of libators from Uyo or any of the other urban settings:

Performer: Àníé ídʌñ as‟tʌmmọ ńdèm ídʌñ amọ.

Translation: It is the owner of the land that appeases the deities of his land.

(Text 5: lines 9-10).

Performer: Ndiọọñ ádọkkọ òdùbѐ íduѐhѐ úsᴧñ.

Translation: The flood that enters the pit does not mistake the way.

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The variation in the choice of words as shown in the profuse combinations of persuasive element above also affects the length of the texts from the different locations. The Ikono/Ini texts are longer than those from the urban. As the instrument of the deities, the libator‟s choice (of linguistic codes) is highly “different and unique to him, [and this] ...

has to do with his control and mastery of his environment”, and as such, it is different from the mundane speeches of ordinary men (Etuk, 2002: 18). The urban Ibibio speakers of Uyo, including Oku, Etoi, and Nsit Ubium, use more common, down-to- earth proverbs in their wording to show their competence at performance.

The above examples confirm Finnegan‟s (1970) assertion that “each literary culture has its own stock figures whose characteristics are immediately brought into the listeners‟ minds by their mere mention” so that even in tale narration, names of characters are not given but stocks like “a certain man, a chief, a woman, etc” refer to the characters accordingly as these are understood by the audience of the narration event (Finnegan, 1970: 361). In the libation texts‟ performance, each locality (audience composition) expects to hear the names of their deities and ancestors mentioned in the cause of the performance. The compliance by the performer quickly retains the audience‟s attention throughout the entire performance as this confirms that he performs each stage of the art “according to the local conventions” (Finnegan, 1970: 374). The nuances of first and foremost naming the deities and ancestors of each locality accounts for the high level of variation in the content of the libation texts accessed.

Any valid appreciation of an oral art therefore is measured in the context of performance where all para/extralinguistic features are manifest as “no written version ... could hope to reproduce the real atmosphere of the actual narration” (Finneg an, 1970: 383). In a written text, the facial expression of the performer, the limb movements of gestures, his spatial location as he demonstrates and his voice modulation are lost on the page that the work is written on. One cannot therefore comprehend, on paper, the expression of sorrow and anguish on the faces of the audience or libator‟s while he laments the pains of losing youths at quick succession in the outbreak of cholera which informs the performance of Text 4.

The society sometimes places “conventions about the age and sex of the narrator” (Finnegan, 1970: 375). While a large number of them may appear to grant freedom to any skilled master story teller, quite a number too seem to have “a definite emphasis on one or another category as being most suitable one for a story teller (Finnegan, 1970: 375).

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Fig. 20. The researcher with a mixed group discussing libation performance.

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For instance, some society prefer older women as most dignified and gifted, yet others believe men to be more expert, especially in more serious narration such as myths and legend. Animal stories are usually generally left for women and children.

In issues of libation text however, though there is no clear-cut barrier between the choice of its performers, the most severe and solemn libations are, in spite of this flexibility, performed by the priest and custodian of the tradition. For instance, when a suitor approaches a family to request for a hand in marriage to a daughter of that family (nkọñ udọk), a libation is performed by the oldest member of that family (who may decline for obvious reason of “Christianity”) to intimate the ancestors of the would-be union. Here, the performer need not be a priest or the okuidem of the family. Rather, what is obtains here is that the family head delegates another person to do the performance on behalf of the family. In oral literary tradition, the audience constitute a major importance and “could be crucial for the assessment of the social and literary significance of the texts” (Finnegan, 1970: 376). In the above, both the visible and non- visible audience are present during the performance.