MA AFA CULTURAL FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE IN ELUGWU EZIKE ENUGU STATE NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT

This study evaluates Ma fa Festival performance with particular reference to Elugwu Ezike. The main objective of the study is to highlight the elements of drama and examine the rituals in the festival, trace the history of the festival and show the impact of westernization on the performance of Ma afa festival in Elugwu Ezike. Infra-cultural model in Folklore analysis developed by Alembi which is an aspect of ethnopoetic theory is used in the analysis of data. The methodology employed for this study was fieldwork oriented. It involved participatory observation of the festivals, interviews, documentary analysis, audios, pictures as well as library materials were all used. Chapter one provides the general background to the study. It examines the research problem, research aim and objectives, purpose of the study, the scope and limitation of the study. Chapter two reviews  related  literatures,  theoretical  framework  and  summary  of  the  literatures reviewed. Chapter three presents the various methodologies employed in the study. Chapter four deals with the data presentation and analysis of the three stages of rituals involved in the festival: Ọgọ nne, Ọgo nna, Ọgọ chi, the dramatic elements embedded in the festival such as plot, characters, audience, and setting and the negative impacts of Westernisation on the performance of Ma afa festival in recent times. The findings of the study reveal that Ma afa is an annual festival that is used to venerate the ancestors of the land with new yams and other items. Therefore, the study suggests that there is urgent need for documentation of this cultural festival to avert its going into extinction.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.2  Background to the Study

Over the centuries, history has shown that certain days or periods in the life of man have been set aside either to commemorate, ritually celebrate or reenact certain events or seasons believed to be significant to man   and his community. Such days or periods generally have religious or ritual significance, which usually result in celebrations. These celebrations include sacred communal meals and it is from such meals that the idea of feasts or festival developed. Festivals are therefore celebrations involving eating or drinking or both in connection to specific kind of rites. Such rites include sacrificial rites, seasonal  rites  or  commemorative  observances  or  rites  celebrating  some  recorded victories. Festivals such as Ma afa, include not only feasting but also, dramatic and artistic displays. Depending on the central purpose of a festival, the celebration may be solemn or merry and festive. Having originated from man’s religious and historical past, these festivals are significantly rich in cultural values of the community. Festivals in this work are taken to mean dramas of their kind. It is pertinent to note here that the question of whether festival is drama or not should no longer arise because most references to the origin of drama have been the festivals of Dionysus, a Greek god and Osiris an Egyptian god. This is evident from the fact that in Egypt a ritual known as: “Abydos passion play” was performed from about 2500-550 BC enacting the death rites of the mythical figure Osiris.

Also recognizing the masquerade festival, there are however, certain dramatic and quasi-dramatic phenomena to be found in West Africa that many are of great interest in themselves. Particularly, perhaps the celebrated masquerade, of southern Nigeria.   There are abundant manifestations of theatrical and dramatic elements that are embedded in traditional performances of the people in all societies of the world. These elements of drama abound in traditional festivals, rituals, dances, songs, ceremonies, recitals, music, drumming, praise songs, incantations, and other traditional creative displays. These elements of drama are drawn from ever robust traditional heritages and are vital in the cultural development of a people.

However, Ogunbiyi (1981) points to the speculative origins of African traditional drama. Apart from the origin, which is largely linked to the struggle between the early African man and nature, the facts today have become profoundly, enormous on the existence of African drama.

Africa as a continent, over the years, has endured the epistemological and empirical restraints of the West. This has ranged from philosophy through other fields of study in humanities and into oral literature. The imperialists ensured that standards set through their ‘systematic’ processes became a universal syndrome, thereby denying the existence of rich and robust traditionally indigenous dramatic aesthetics in Africa. This generated reaction to the western hegemony in Africa and also led to domination and suppression of the cultural and traditional consciousness of Africans. African traditional drama over the years has received varying views from both Western and African literary critics. Scholars like, Ruth Finnegan (1970), Oyin Ogunba (1978), M.J.C Echeruo (1981), Ossie  Enekwe  (1981),  Wole  Soyinka  (1986)  have  viewed  African  traditional  drama

differently. Much of what is embedded in the view by Western-based Scholars on this subject has been dismissive of the fact of the existence of dramatic content in African traditional performances. Afro-centric writers started responding literarily in order to salvage the continent from collapse. This is in line with the submission by Mazrui (1996) who postulates that though the interplay of Africa’s indigenous cultures with Western civilization which had political and economic ramifications in fact, the final analysis. Shows  that  the  central  process  of  the  peoples’  heritage  has  been  cultural  and civilizational. Hence, there is need to give more attention to African traditional drama in the face of this civilizational challenge. Africa remains a continent to be deconstructed in order to salvage it from degradation of its traditional institutions, which once gave it life. This requires a deep understanding of its traditional festival drama which captures the indestructible worldview of Africa which is to a large extent different from those of other continents of the world.

Kafewo (2005) posits that festivals and rituals, as the greatest artistic institutions of Africa, have a strong religious base and that most are attached to supernatural beings or deified ancestors. This shows clearly how transcendental traditional African drama is in its form and content. And, obviously, one cannot subject it to the strict cannons or parameters of Western drama. This becomes clear that there is therefore need for an African cannon that should capture the essence of traditional African drama.

Asante (1996) contends that a discussion of an African canon ought to involve four   issues:   cosmological,   axiological,   epistemological   and   aesthetic   in   nature.

‘Cosmological’  involves  the  drama  of  life  and  death  which  engages  metaphysical

dimensions.  ‘Epistemological’  issue  looks  at  what  constitute  knowledge  in  Africa;

‘axiological’ is the value of truth, while ‘aesthetic’ question explores seven aspects which are polyrhythm, polycentrism, dimensional, repetition, curvilinear, epic-memory and wholism. This goes in line with what has been postulated by Wainaina (2002) on the need to avoid atomism in discussing African mythology. It should be looked at as a whole. These are the bases for a proposed African cannon of traditional drama. At a time when humanity drifts towards the compression of the frontiers of the world and the intensification of its consciousness as a whole which is synonymous with a senerio in which there is contestation of ideas, ideologies and philosophies. African dramatic festivals cannot be left out to suffer against the backdrop of established dramatic norms in the world.

However, Ogunba (1978) observes that there has developed in the continent in the last few years a conscious interest in the past, in dance festival, and in ritual ethnic groups. This has been directed towards understanding the nature, function and aesthetic values of indigenous dramatic practice, an appraisal which transcends turning such knowledge into an instrument for racial pride. This is not enough as the real substances are disappearing, thereby putting the traditions on a declining trend. “to build the case properly, it is important to capture the opinion of the West about traditional African indigenous  festival  drama.  Olaniyan  (2007)  reminds  us  that  African  performance traditions entered the orbit of European discourse and through language supplied operational terms ‘festival’, ‘ritual’ and ‘drama’ primarily, as negative examples. He continues by positing that this entrance was marked by condemnation, inferiorization, and general disregard. It was asserted by Western scholars and their African cohorts that blacks had no traditions of drama indigenous to them or had traditions which when

phenomena to be found in African traditional festivals compared with European and

Asian versions are mere ‘proto-dramatic’ or quasi-dramatic”.

The view above has been well echoed in Ruth Finnegan’s work which she argues that  how far one can  speak  of indigenous  drama in  Africa is  not  an  easy  question (Finnegan 1970), Wole Soyinka (1976), Oyin Ogunba (1978), J.P. Clark (1981), M.J.C. Echeruo (1981), Ossie Enekwe (1981), Abiola Irele (1990) and Kalu Uka (2002). This view received Support of African-European trained scholars who now belong to the evolutionary school of African drama. The above view has been countered by Afrocentric scholars who assert that African drama is fully dramatic and should not be judged strictly by using Western literary and aesthetic canons which were actually Aristotelian in nature.

However, Africa has continued to face daunting challenges of the decline in the attention given to indigenous oral performances that should be the comparative advantage in today’s globalized world. Right from the period of colonialism, Africans have become increasingly attached to the education and values of European culture, thereby simultaneously alienating themselves from traditional values in traditional African performances and customs. These western influences have resulted in the decline of some oral performances, which were before now, regarded as channels for moral value acquisition, instruction, stability and cultural development of the people in Africa. For example,  in  Elugwu  Ezike,  performances  such  as  Ma  afa,  Ẹgbachukwu,  and  Ẹgba Ọmabe, are gradually threatened out of existence. Now it has become evident that what we are witnessing is not evolution or rise of traditional performance modes rather a wholesale supplanting of these indigenous forms with the metropolitan performance poetics of the West and the Middle East (Nwaozuzu, 2009). This has been signposted by

changes championed by the advancement of technology, religion and modernity which are the attendant features of imperial symbols in Africa. Today, the significance and structure of traditional performances are markedly changed. The indigenous aesthetic features have been eroded to a large extent as a consequence of infiltration, imposition, distortation, disconnection and also as a result of lack of its documentation. The people of Elugwu Ezike have refused to learn and propagate the philosophy of the oral art of Ma afa which is an annual festival and to carry on with what their fathers and fore-fathers started. For instance, the emergence and advancement of the movie industry in Nigeria and Africa at large, which would have served to advance and propagate Africa’s indigenous aesthetics, is not doing so. Again, the lack luster attitudes of parents and their children today, on dramatic issues of traditional extraction, are gradually and systematically forcing dependence on traditional performances to diminish. This is a picture that depicts the same discounting character of a modern youth of Elugwu Ezike towards traditional oral performances. There is therefore need to analyze the festival from a theatrical point of view in order to draw more attention to its vitality and potentials for other artistic productions. The study has paid attention to rituals and dramatic elements in Ma afa festival which comprises dance, music/song, setting/arena, costumes, character, spectacle,  rhythm,  etc.  The  researcher  has  identified  and  analyzed  these  dramatic elements in order to give relevance to them.

Ma  afa  festival  is  one  of  the  festivals  celebrated  annually  in  Elugwu  Ezike culture. It is normally celebrated between the months of July-August in different communities in Elugwu Ezike to welcome the new yam. The festival is properly known as Ẹgba Ọnwa Ishii and Ọnwa Esaa as the case may be according to the Igbo calendar.

To the people of Elugwu Ezike, Ma afa is a sacred festival through which the entire people of the land express utmost appreciation to their ancestors and deities for guidance and protection granted to them from the beginning of the year through the end. They also acknowledge the ancestors for the new yam, as they celebrate the arrival of new yams. During Ma afa festival, many rituals are performed. The main objective of this study is to contribute towards the understanding and appreciation of Elugwu Ezike cultural values through the analysis of Elugwu Ezike traditional cultural festival ‘Ma afa”. This study covers four main areas. They are: an attempt to trace the history of Ma afa festival, examining the rituals associated with the festival in order to bring out their cultural values, highlighting the dramatic elements in the ceremony in order to bring out the artistic qualities, and the impact of modernization and Western life style on the performance of this festival. Ma afa festival is an oral tradition that is meant to be transmitted orally from generation to generation. This dramatic performance is fast disappearing in Elugwu Ezike. The need for documenting, analyzing and encouraging the youths to go into the rituals and dramatic performances of Ma afa festival so as to ensure continuity of this festival in Elugwu Ezike motivated the move into this research.

1.2 Statement of Problem

African traditional dramatic festivals which are supposed to be one of the pillars of unique and artistic production in Africa have not been will appreciated and understood. Their dramatic status has been challenged by Western cultural and anthropological scholars  with  their  African  sympathizers.  Despite  the  rich  dramatic  elements  of traditional African festivals, have suffered from total or partial denial because they have been subjected to strict assessment using Western dramatic cannons. There is therefore

need  for  African  cannons  that  should  look  at  issues  of  cosmology,  epistemology, axiology and aesthetics, in order to give primacy to traditional African theatre within a complex world of today.

Consequently,  these  denial  and  lack  of  clear  understanding  of  the  unique existence of viable traditional drama in Africa have been aggravated by issues arising from the terrain of indeterminant in artistic production today. These issues which include syncretism, consumerism and impact of new media have further affected the prominence of traditional African drama which ought to be the pride of Africa. This implies that at this stage, what is gained or lost about Ma afa cultural festival performance as a result of the present state of indeterminacy and the complex scenario of artistic productions is not known.

Hence this study is an attempt at tracing the history, analyzing the rituals and dramatic aspects of Ma afa festival of Elugwu Ezike people of Igbo Eze North Local Government Area as a way of restoring and preserving their historical and cultural glory.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The specific objectives of this study are to:

i.         attempt to trace the history of Ma afa;

ii.        examine the rituals associated with Ma afa festival performance;

iii.       highlight the elements of drama in Ma afa cultural festival performance; and

iv.        examine the negative impact of Westernisation on Ma afa cultural festival performance of Elugwu Ezike Igbo people.

1.4 Research Questions

The study is guided by the following questions:

i.         What is the origin of Ma afa festival performance?

ii.         To   what   extent   are   rituals   associated   with   Ma   afa   cultural   festival performance in Elugwu Ezike Igbo?

iii.       What are the elements of drama in Ma afa cultural festival performance in

Elugwu Ezike Igbo?

iv.       What negative impact do Westernisation have on the tradition of Ma afa

cultural festival performance in Elugwu Ezike?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study falls under the oral performances of the Elugwu Ezike Igbo people and its of great significance for so many reasons:

The study will help to keep our memories fresh about the seemingly forgotten importance of Maafa festival.

The study will equally help in sensitizing the youths on the importance of the rituals associated with this festival so they could consider Ma afa festival as an art form that should be appreciated and have confidence in the good aspects of their cultural values as basis for sustaining and unifying the society.

The study also reveals the existing dramatic elements embedded in the festival of Ma afa in Elugwu Ezike and how they add aesthetic values and artistic qualities to traditional African dramatic festival.

The study also has interesting implications in documenting the rituals and elements of drama associated with the Ma afa dramatic festival performance in Elugwu Ezike Igbo for future generation to read so that this knowledge is not lost completely.

The study also provides the basis for adopting an aspect of ethno poetic theory known as infra-cultural model of oral analysis developed by Alembi (2002) for the analysis of this study as well as the justification for the use of oral interview, tape recorder camera and unstructured questionnaire as methods of data collection.

The study  will  also  serve as  a  research  aid  to  future researchers who  will  want  to investigate other cultural aspects of the Elugwu Ezike Igbo people.

1.6 Scope of the study

The study is primarily focused on the analysis of rituals and dramatic elements in Ma afa cultural festival performance of Elugwu Ezike Igbo. The study is restricted to Ma afa cultural festival performance of Elugwu Ezike Igbo. The history, structure, rituals and elements of drama in the festival were assessed.

Also discussed is the negative impact of westernisation on the performances of Ma afa cultural festival performance and in doing this we must rely on existing literature to make a successful study.

1.7 Limitations of the study

The  researcher  had  a  problem  of  lack  of  mutual  cooperation  from  the  informants especially on issues that pertain to secrecy. In this study, some of the respondents were not cooperative; some were suspicious of the aim of the research while some of them

thought it was a waste of time undergoing such educational exercise. They were afraid to disclose some facts about the myths that surround the festival, for fear of divulging secrets. This resulted to charging money exorbitantly to release some pieces of information. To counter this problem, the informants where made to understand the danger that looms if this aspect of the culture is not documented. The use of electronic equipments such as photo camera and cassette recorder in most occasions, frightened the respondents. Photo camera was used to capture the para linguistic features of the festival performance while the cassette recorder was used to capture almost all the information the respondents were supplying to the researcher. To counter this problem, of the use of electronic equipment, the researcher explained to the informants that the purpose of using the electronic gadgets was to enable the researcher capture most of the information they were supplying to the researcher and nothing more Despite all these setbacks,  considerable data were  elicited and analysed in this study. Though the research period was hectic, time consuming and expensive, it was worth the while.

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