The Nigerian theatre has its roots in the cultural heritage of the past and the competing realities of the present. This is manifested in the many confluences of theatre traditions that are underscored by the ethnic diversity of the country. For years, interest in Nigerian theatre has been restricted to that of the larger ethno-linguistic groups (Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa-Fulani) and few minority ethnic entities. Interestingly, the Edo festivals are given tangential mention as part of Edo theatre with little attention to the seminal contributions by playwrights Emwinma Ogie (Ogieiriaixi), who emerged in the 1960s and has to his credit quite a corpus of published plays and indeed scholarly essays on Edo arts and culture, or better still the pioneering efforts of D. U. Emokpae (Adesuwa, 1933) and Jacob U. Egharevba (Imaguero and the Tragedy of Idah War, 1950. Importantly, these plays were performed extensively in Benin, Warri and Lagos.
Against this backdrop, this special issue is a deliberate attempt to not only calibrate the contributions of these Edo playwrights but also to situate the major contributions of an emerging crop of writers with glocal outlook. These three Edo playwrights take the lead: Irene Salami-Agunloye, Pedro Agbonifo-Obaseki, and Ossa Earliece; their stature resonates more in engaging their craft within the precinct of performance while thoroughly aggregating the robust elements of ritual, dance, music and mobile dialogue in the corpus of their works. In several instances, their works critically present with the imagery of the Edo worldview while from another prism, their dramatic oeuvre demonstrates the fine arts of play, performance, cultural actants, Edo semiotics, philosophies and the lingo-conversational propinquity which bridges the idioms of the past and present in being Edo. A close reading in their works universalise the Edo concept of Ododo — a nativist philosophy rooted in the Edo understanding of s/heroism and s/heroics.
This troika of writers represents a generation of writers with strong theatre-making skills who approximate a blend of ensemble playing in alignment with a uniquely African performance culture. What they bring to Nigerian theatre practice is reflective of the many layers of our competing realities in our contemporary space. Perhaps, more interesting is their artistic mandate to converge the apparent dis/connection between traditional and modern theatres.
These writers in their works reinforce with a global allusion, Edo cherished heritage, politico-cultural and psycho-social deficits and realign them in such a way that it makes meaningless cumbersome. This is obviously because the language of their works is couched in the basic idioms of the multiple strata of the Nigerian socio-demographic landscape. In some of their plays, they encourage a certain vibrancy amongst young people as they clearly render a youthful narrative and assume a performative conversation.
Importantly, these playwrights present a unique spatial cadence about Benin in the Nigerian theatre that has encouraged an army of other Benin writers and creatives. Instructively, their vocation as writers or theatre makers or academics underscores their glocal dexterity. Indeed, their practical engagements, glocal corpus of literary drama and avowed dedication in reinforcing Benin performance tradition inspire and philosophize this special issue. More importantly, this special issue underscores the contributions of other Benin/Edo playwrights and the corpus of other writers who have imaged or re/presented Benin/Edo in their literary engagements.
In this vein, we seek contributions that might interrogate the works of Ogieiriakhi Emwinma (Ogieiraixi Evinma) and Esosa Kabat Egbon or a host of other playwrights who have imagined Benin/Edo in their playwriting like Ola Rotimi, Ahmed Yerima and Sam Ukala. Contributors are invited to submit essays that might offer comparative positions where imperative. They might want to question the multiple layers of departures in historicizing Benin s/heroes in contemporary Nigeria dramaturgy. Contributors might want to explore the binary mentions of gods and obas (kings) and the conflicts that might arise thereof? They are encouraged to critically situate Benin/Edo performance traditions or storytelling techniques and how they resonate in contemporary theatre. Furthermore, we are interested in contributions that engage with these questions: How might the Benin/Edo writer mark their stature in the glocal landscape or perhaps internationalize her/her craft? How do these writers represent the Benin/Edo Woman and is the representation considered narrow when she is not a royal? What other possibilities can we thematize within the Benin/Edo dramatic narratives with an especial consideration of the moment or the present times? How have existing traditional tropes countered emerging dramatic narratives of understanding? Can we describe some of these works as mere festivalisations taking into cognizance the idioms of dance and music? If not, can we provide and propose a radical framing for their unique presence?
This special issue will be edited by Israel Meriomame Wekpe. Essays for consideration must be between 5,000-6,000 words (including references) which include a 150-word abstract. Deadline for submission is Sunday, 31st October 2021.
Special Issue/Guest Editor: Israel Meriomame Wekpe
Special Issue for 2021
Source: www.networks.h-net.org
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