Oral Tradition and the Contemporary Theater in Nigeria
1971; Indiana University Press; Volume: 2; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1527-2044
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research
ResumoOral tradition is that complex corpus of verbal or spoken art created as a means of recalling the past and based on the ideas, beliefs, symbols, assumptions, attitudes and sentiments of peoples. It is acquired through a process of learning or initiation and its purpose is to condition social action and foster social interaction. The theater is a product of man's imitative and creative instincts interacting with his language, art and religion. To this extent, the theater is a product of tradition and culture. The theater has a long tradition in Nigeria. The Nigerian contemporary theater is exemplified in this paper as the product of two theatrical developments which originated in the communities of the Yoruba peoples of southwestern Nigeria. The theater in Yoruba language is the folk theater which originated from the society of masqueraders around the middle of the sixteenth century.1 This theater, however, succumbed to the inroads of Islam and Christianity during the nineteenth century. Out of its dying embers and the traditional love for music, dance, and ritual, a new theatrical form emerged, the Yoruba Operatic Theater, developing from the native and cantatas which enlivened the operations of the Separatist Church Movement (the African Churches and later the Aladura or Apostolic Churches) in Lagos during the first decade of the twentieth century. By the forties and fifties, this theater had developed into the popular theater of Nigeria. As professional, itinerant or travelling theaters, the troupes perform in halls, town halls and on improvised stages out of doors in many parts of the country. The other theatrical development is the theater in English language which is variously referred to as the formal, literary or intellectual theater. It is the product of Western educational movement and acculturation in Nigeria and developed from the school play. Towards the end of the fifties some university-educated Nigerians started writing dramas in English not only for and amateur productions but also for general reading as literature. The plays bear the marks of European and
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