The profs and their proteges on Ibadan mountains

By OKOFU UBAKA.

One issue towered above others in the just concluded conference on oral literature in Nigeria organized by Nigerian Oral Literature Association (NORA). “No fieldwork no oral literature”, this was Prof. G.G. Darah’s ‘Oriki’ all through the duration of the conference.

Darah’s description of the writers’ festival as a dance of the forest was not uncommon. Trainee researchers had the rare privilege of watching the literary sways of the generals that took turns to do what professors were known for. The echoing and chaotic clattering of the forest was too fierce for any Akaraogun. Yet, the literary trainees survived the intellectual rumblings of the generals.

From the presentations of Profs Darah, Wanjala, Ogwude, Nkem Okoh, Chinyere, Adekoya, Adebola Dasylva to Dr. Otiono, Dr. Awhefeada and Dr. Linda Onwuka, none of it left the audience in doubt as to the appropriateness of the theme of Documentation and Safeguarding of Nigerian Oral Literatures and Traditions.

Expectedly, taking a flight to the very summit of the Iroko to feast with literary generals and their PhD lieutenants demand plenty of fluffs. Perhaps,  the reason these trainees were able to make it to the Iroko top was their abilities to have attained impeccable feats in their various university colonies. Literary staying unyielding on top of the Iroko was another kettle of fish.

True to the strength of their minds, all of the trainees survived the literary warfare of the ‘seven mountains’ of Ibadan. Particularly outstanding in their presentations were Alex Roy-Omoni, Peter Omoko, Eyituoyo Maltida Ovie-Jack, Ojaruega Enajite Eseoghene, Ejovi, Agadi, Okunwaye Uche, Toremi Stella, Peter Omoko, Moses Darah and Okofu Ubaka. In his presentation, Okofu Ubaka attempted to illuminate on  how creative stories could be woven around myth and historical events.

At NOLA 2013 Conference, the issue Okofu Ubaka provoked with his paper entitled, ANALYSIS: MYTH AND HISTORY IN THE DRAMA AND THEATRE OF FRED AGBEYEGBE was that, whether Fred Agbeyegbe is accepted or not as one of the  new voices (third generation writers) in the Nigerian dramatic scene, the fact that he recorded success in adapting and altering historical events of the Itsekiri people in his creative essence could not be argued.

Agboyegbe uses his plays to interrogate the leadership structure of the Itsekiri people and by extension the Nigerian nation. To the playwright, a writer enjoys the poetic license to modify myth so as to legitimatized certain tradition of his people. To this end, Agbeyegbe uses his man-woman riddle play (The King Must Dance Naked) to concretize the forbiddance of a woman coming close to the kingship stool of the Itsekiri kingdom.

One of the low points of the 2nd edition of NOLA, 2013 was the clash between the event at Ibadan and Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa Lecture which was held the same period NOLA conference was in session (August 7th to 9th). Most of the guests expected to grace the Ibadan event were at Akure, the capital of Fagunwa’s ‘Okelangbodo’.

One of such guests that was caught stiff by Agbako in between Ibadan and Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Iru Mole was Prof. Karin Ajinke Barber, a professor of oral poetry at OAU, Ife. Karin is British, yet speaks Yoruba more fluently than many owners of the language. Like Karin Ajinke Barber, Tanure Ojaide’s absence was felt at the event. However, it was not the Daniel Fagunwa’s Akaraogun that held Ojaide prisoner in his hunter’s goatskin bag, but the US Embassy which needed the services of Tanure to clean up credential issues of certain Nigerians on scholarship visit to America.

Conversely, the unveiling of NOLA’s journal which was a compilation of papers presented in the Warri’s median edition of NOLA, and edited by Prof. Segun Adekoya, was one of the highpoints of the Ibadan event. Darah affirmed that the association will survive on the oxygen of a lone edition of its journal annually. Stressing the importance of an annual journal, Darah revealed that the American Folklore Society (AFS) was 125 years old and had not for once failed or relented in her effort in maintaining a consistent tradition of churning out a minimum of  4 issues annually even at the most  precarious times of  both the first and second world wars.

To steer the affairs of the association for another eight months, a 20-member executive was put in place to ensure a smooth conference at Yenagoa in 2014. The body is made up of  Darah (DELSU), Olusegun Adekoya (OUA), Nkem Okoh(UNIPORT), Micahel Nobofa (NDU), Sophia Ogwude (UNIABUJA), Chinyeren Nwahunanya (ASU,Uturu), Ademola Dasylva (UI), Obodike Oha (UI), Okey Okwechime (UNIBEN), Mark Osama Ighile (RUN, Mowe), Sunny Awhefeada (Delsu), Nereus Yerima Tadi (GSU, Gombe), Leticia Maever Nyitse (BSU, Makurdi), Asabe Kabir Yusuf (UDU, Sokoto), Felicia Ohwovoriole (UNILAG), Enajite Ojaruega (Delsu), Alfred Mulade (WDU), Peter Omoko (DESCOPEM), Okofu Ubaka (Alema College, Abigborodo), Evelyn Osagie (The Nation Newspapers, Lagos), Chris Wanjala (Univ. of  Nairobi, Kenya), Taban Lo Liyong (Univ of Juba, South Sudan ) and Nduka Otiono (Carleton, Canada).