“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.

BY

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)

2
“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.

BY

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.

3
 “OKHA”: FOLKTALE TRADITION OF THE ESAN PEOPLE AND AFRICAN
ORAL LITERATURE

Copyright 2016. Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or by any
means, photocopying, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise without the
prior permission of Samuel Adegboyega University, Ogwa/Publishers.

ISBN:

Published in 2016 by:

SAMUEL ADEGBOYEGA UNIVERSITY,
OGWA, EDO STATE,
NIGERIA.

Printed by:

4
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;

8
 (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.

9
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:

15
 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)

17
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

18
 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

21
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

22
 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.

23
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.

24
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.

27
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);

28
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.

31
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.

32
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.

34
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.

35
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

37
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.

38
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?

39
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".

40
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.

41
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.

42
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.

44
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

46
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 `Ohankin' that Isilua
drank was not genuine `Ohankin', 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 `ogheghe'

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.

47
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 `Ohankin" native doctor, again, gave `Ohankin' 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
`Ohankin', 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.

49
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.

54
 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.

56
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.

58
 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

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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.

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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

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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.

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 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,

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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,

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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,
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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)

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 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
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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.

75
 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:

76
 “…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.

78
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.

79
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.

80
 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.

81
 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.

82
 I appreciate all His Royal majesties and their Chiefs who answer all our
questions on Esan culture and literature.

83
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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.

92