The Ozidi Saga is a choreographed
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
epic performed as part of the
oral history
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
of the
Ijaw Ijaw may refer to:
*Ijaw people
The Izon people or Izon Otu, otherwise known as the Ijaw people due to the historic mispronunciation of the name ''Izon'', are an ethnic group majorly found in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, with significant populatio ...
of the
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
Delta.
It is traditionally performed as a periodic festival honoring the
folk hero
A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore; an ...
Ozidi Ozidi is a folk hero among the Ijo of Nigeria, and the subject of The Ozidi Saga.
A Series Of Excerpts From The Oral Records Of The Ijo People
{{Cquote, Ozidi vomits his sword and battle outfit out of himself before each battle. He leads his ...
. The performance dramatizes key episodes in the myth danced in a
nonlinear
In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...
narrative, allowing a ritual officiant dressed in white and holding objects traditionally identified with the hero to solicit participation by acolytes and members of the audience. A performance in 1966 was filmed and later transcribed and translated by
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
John Pepper Clark.
References
*Okpewho, Isidore. 2014. ''Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology''. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. 279 pages.
*Okpewho, Isidore
The Art of The Ozidi Saga ''Research in African Literatures'' Volume 34, Number 3.
*Clark-Bekederemo J. P. (trans.) ''The Ozidi Saga''. Howard University Press 1991 .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozidi Saga
Nigerian culture
Epic poems