


































CHAPTER THREE.cdr


The Place of Folklore in African Dramatic Literature: A 
Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi

Anthony Odikpo Nnalue
Department of Theatre Arts
COOU, Anambra State 

  Abstract
Folklore has projected the ideal life situations of folks and the 
cyclic continuity that links the past with the present to capture the 
attention of the world as it regards African dramatic literature. The 
Africans especially the African dramatists or critics need to 
explore the heritable traits of African traditions which are 
transferable to the modern stage with a view of inculcating value 
systems and educating the people. These heritable traits could 
manifest in the choice of words, and language in consonance with 
the people's traits, the technique or the structure of presentation, 
storytelling, character, characterization, and thematic 
preoccupation, to mention but a few. It is against this backdrop 
that this study sets out to interrogate the integration of communal 
experience using a stylized system of presentation called folk-
drama. The study looked at the transformation of folklore into 
modern dramatic literature and its impacts using Ukala's 
Akpakaland and JP Clark's Ozidi. The study discovered that the 
robust nature of African folktale performances yields easily to the 
transferable demands of modern and postmodern dramatic stages 
with a great transfer of value systems. The study concludes that 
this transformation will stamp African values system, worldview, 
culture, and belief in the sand of time and contribute immensely in 
nation building, and sustenance. 

Keywords: Folklore, Dramatic Literature, Akpakaland, Ozidi

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ingenious expression” (1). 
According to Olumide:

Folktale (folklore) as an oral tradition form is a story by 
word of mouth. Invariably, the African storyteller is a 
repository of knowledge, history, and experiences, whose 
position is fortified by his or her multiple mandates as a 
historian, entertainer, poet, musician, and educator who is 
duty-bound to transfer knowledge from one generation to 
another (23).

  These stories usually involve supernatural beings or 
forces, which have explanations or reasons, and justifications for 
what they do. This in other words includes but is not limited to 
cultural and sub-cultural heroes, legends, and myths, which form 
part of the existence of the folks. According to Roger Abraham, 
“Without transmission, these items are not folklore, they are just 
individual quirky tales and objects” transformed into modern 
dramatic literature (35). The myths, legends, and heroes deal with 
metaphysical issues of life, a sociological relationship with the 
unseen worlds, and pedagogical lessons. My times imbibe moral 
lessons with universal degrees in a communal experience.

The Folkloric Reading of Akpakaland
     Akpakaland was written by Sam Ukala as a way of 
transforming the Ika cultural folktale environment into modern 
dramatic literature with a major emphasis on the active 
participation of the audience needed during the storytelling 
session in Ika land.The play starts in the state house, “with the 
narrator leading the audience in the opening song for an Ika 
folktale performance” (10).  Through the song, the narrator 
creates an enabling environment for the performance by capturing 
the attention of the audience. Having captured and gotten the 
audience's approval to perform, the narrator proceeds with the 
introductory ritual, as Ukala explains: 

Introduction
 Folklore was first coined in 1846 by William John 
Thomas, an Englishman. He coined it as a replacement for old 
antiquities and he pushes it as a study of a “subset of the 
population: the rural, mostly illiterate peasantry” (Sims, et al: 23). 
Since then, it has been subjected to various scholarly dialectics 
and roles as regards the building and the development cultures, 
heritage, and its sustenance. At this point, the word 'folklore' 
becomes so cultural that you cannot talk about it without pegging 
your discussion on a particular culture or race and its artifacts 
usually through storytelling. This process starts with a hunger for 
preservation and thus, the necessary demand for transformation 
from oral narration to a dramatic presentation on stage in terms of 
themes, languages, music, character, characterizations, elaborate 
costumes, make-ups, scenery, etc. 

 Folklore is the lore (stories, customs beliefs) of a group of 
people that is transformed from generation to generation usually 
by mouth, unearths the occupational, religious, language, belief 
system, ritual, and culture of the folks and gives them strength to 
exist side by side with other folks. By implication, the word 
folklore covers traditional beliefs, stories, and customs. In a social 
definition of folklore, “… folklore supports a wider view of the 
material considered to be folklore artifacts. These include things 
people make with words (verbal lore) things they make with their 
hands (material lore), and things they make with their actions 
(customary lore)” (Wilson, 85). Ukala calls it, “any traditional oral 
narratives which are purely fictional or are based on factual 
history, which has however, been so embellished and distorted that 
it cannot be fruitfully subjected to any empirical proof or 
verification” (12). Nandra and Bukenya see folklore as: “those 
utterances, whether spoken, re-cited or song, whose composition 
and performance exhibited to an appreciable degree the artistic 
characteristic of accurate observation, vivid imagination and 

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Literature: A Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi



Members of The Audience: foolish people! So, you now support 
Fulama
Narrator: (re-appearing). What do you expect? When there's a 
dispute between the influential rich and the wretched poor, who 
supports the poor?

Member of the Audience: (dismally) No one! (33).
This audience's interjection proves their familiarity with the story. 
By asking questions, they justify and avoid being kept in 
unnecessary suspense.

          Fulama finally ate the plantain and consequently, became 
the one with the tail. The narrator re-appears to re-enact a mock 
scene of the transfer of the tail. At this point, the narrator turns into 
the artistic director and directs the play-within-the-play. Hears 
him: “You are Unata. You stand by this imaginary door and 
eavesdrop as Fulama and Lome battle with tail. Now Fulama and 
Lome get set as I count 1,2,3,” (41).

On D-day, the entire Akpakaland, from every area of life gathered, 
and one by one the wives of President, Akpaka began, starting 
with Iyebi, from the province of the poor. Each wife appears and 
sings in full view of the audience and then removes her clothes to 
prove that she is not the wife with a tail. When it gets to the turn of 
Fulama after other wives have denuded themselves, she refuses 
and is supported by her mother. Her reason is that of class and 
position of Fulama's family: 

Iya Fulama: (Tears her way to the center of the gathering) 
If the president chooses to serve the floor with the 
daughters of peasants and pretty contractors, he cannot do 
that with my daughter. Is human memory so short? Have 
you all forgotten who her father was? Danmali, the great.A 
field marshal… have you no fear? (50-51).

The storyteller seeks the blessing or the permission of the 
audience to perform, in Ika folktale performance practice 
for example, the storyteller metaphorically throws white 
chalk on the chest of the audience to obtain its blessing. He 
hails the audience, “eyem unu nzu” (I give you white 
chalk!) and it replies, “I gwo o rere”! (if you concoct, may 
it be efficacious)”. Having given its blessing, the audience 
obligates itself to collaborate or co-perform with the 
storyteller (3).

This introductory ritual is seen in Akpakaland;
Narrator: I give you white chalk!
Audience: if you concoct, may it be efficacious! (10).
The narrator goes ahead to introduce the story, “There was, there 
was Akpaka. The president of Akpakaland” (10).at this point, the 
narrator makes way for the characters to come alive on the stage 
and perform the tale.

         Fulama enters and announces to the president that his 
favorite wives have a tail. When asked to leave, she insisted that 
something be done about it. For her insistence, Akpaka, the 
president offered to investigate privately but was turned down by 
jealous Fulama. He then declares a  public unclad of the wives so 
the community will know who has the tail since he was not 
allowed to investigate it privately. As the wives are dismissed from 
the palace, Unata, the wife with the tail finds his way to a native 
doctor to avoid the public disgraced. Unata through Enwe, the 
native doctor was able to remove the tail and return it to the sender 
through a “diabolized plantain” (27). 

           The narrator continues involving the audience as it is in the 
original folktale performance of the Ika people. At this point, the 
audience admonishes Yeiye, and Seotu for pretending to be friends 
with Unata while at the back of their minds, they are not:

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Literature: A Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi



ritual is completed, he goes on to introduce the story and 
characters, “there was Akpaka, the president of Akpakaland…. 
there were his wives: Fulma, Yeiye, Seotu, Unata, and Iyebi” (10). 
Immediately after this is done, he leaves the stage to come back to 
tie and untie some loose ends.

         The narrator re-appears again as the voice of the playwright 
urging the people to examine and re-evaluate their position in 
society. Narrator: “by cultivating self-esteem and refusing to be 
bribed with crumbs from the oppressors' table. By being dedicated 
to the course of self-liberation and self-humanization. By looking 
among the poor for true and selfish leader…” (30).
The playwright folklorically and artistically assigned a dual role to 
him as the narrator and the director because the sustenance of the 
value system inherent in the story or dramatic text lies in him. The 
narrator acquires a s-eye view of the dramatic movement in both 
space and time; the drama bestows on the narrator the freedom to 
judge the characters or to act alongside the performers who may be 
trapped in a level of plot and communication with other 
characters. At this juncture, the narrator takes a separate role of its 
own.

On the other hand, the Members of the Audience are not passive 
but active and contribute to the progress of the story through their 
actions and responses. Frida Mbunda enumerates the functions 
and the position of the audience in folktale performances as 
follows: 

The audience of oral literature is often unrestricted. Some 
of the members of the audience are familiar with the 
contents and often just listen to the creative variations that 
may result from impersonations. Others offer to give 
moral support to the performers while others are the 
leaders of the community and have functions to perform 
during performances. The attitude expected of the 

The leaders compromised but the commoners, the masses did not, 
so they revolted against the decision and against the powers that 
be. They chant songs and charge the atmosphere for action. As 
soon as the atmosphere is tense, a young man swoops on Fulama 
and takes her to where she was killed. And the chants continued. 
Then the narrator comes to obey the closing formalities of the Ika 
storytelling session:
Narrator: from there I went, from there I returned to!
Audience: welcome ooo!
Narrator: (with a bow) E eee (88).

The Place of Folklore in African Dramatic Literature: An  
Akpakaland Example
         We have just seen how the play is folklorically structured on 
the platform of Traditional African performance demand. Having 
the audience intrude or interrupt the performance, multiple 
settings, call-and-response-technique, the storyteller's dual 
personality, the language embellished with traditional ornaments, 
the music, songs, and chants, etc. these traditional leitmotifs posits 
the preponderances of essentializing and unifying bond between 
the folks and their story generated and sustained through 
kinesthetic and material transformation of worldviews. 

The Storyteller and the Audience as the Transformers of 
Culture
         Generally, African folktales are told by people called the 
storytellers but the uniqueness of the roles of the storyteller is that 
he transforms into a dramatic character that the progress of the 
drama lays in his hands.  In dramatic literature, the narrator is 
exploited as a character and as a director who stimulates the 
response and reactions of the audience to some significant event as 
the play unfolds. For instance, in Akpakalnd, he introduces the 
play and seeks the permission of the audience to co-perform with 
him through his, “ilu n'ilu nwokoro” (10). As soon as this opening 

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Literature: A Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi



I thought as much
A rope of her threshold
She crossed it… (21).

The African patterned congruity and parallel syntactic formation 
are observed. The language suddenly changes from a mere 
conversation to a semi-metaphysical tone as the narrator depicts:

The plantain had begun to roast, half-ripe plantain, bathed 
in herbs from the land of the dead, had begun to roast. The 
poor must fight for themselves. the moon was full and 
golden. It was sweeping clean the earth. Time for swelling 
of spirit (37-38).

The speakers' use of the full moon depicts the traditional belief 
system of some Africans that when the moon is fully ripe, it 
becomes a sign and an enthusiastic moment for the presence of the 
supernatural. Fulams's, “I don't like the full moon” (30) becomes, 
on the contrary, the premonition of the danger that is to befall her. 
The plot which semantically and syntactically started as a mere 
gossip of a woman with a tail suddenly drifts into an advocacy for 
the women and the final revolution by the masses through the 
artistic use of suspense, imagery, characterization, etc..

 The Folkloric Reading of Ozidi
         As the play begins, we see the narrator dramatically 
pretending to be at a loss but artistically trying to capture the 
attention of the audience. He allows them to settle down. And then 
ask for seven virgins who will assist in carrying a ritual procession 
to the water spirits at the river bank. As soon as the narrator 
finishes with the selection of the cast, the orchestra and the chorus 
of actors emerge on stage, singing and dancing around the village 
square, thus, setting the pace for the performance.  The narrator 
directs and leads the procession. He once in a while acts out the 
powers and positions of the priests. As the chief priest, he prays 

audience is not one restricted by contemplative behavior 
as is the case with the audience of written literature but one 
of dramatic expulsion of feelings (127).

The non-restrictions of behavior and 'dramatic expulsion of 
feelings' is dramatically transformed from the oral to the stage by 
creating a specific character called 'members of the audience'. This 
creation divides the audience into immediate and remote 
audiences. The immediate audience is regarded as those active and 
responsive audiences who are willing to co-perform or are joint 
performers while the remote audience is those passive observers 
without a meaningful contribution to the success of the play.

 The Language as an Element of Cultural Transformation in 
Akpakaland
       Akwanya in Discourse Analysis and Dramatic Literature, 
sees language as “the chief means of revealing thought…” (182). 
In the play under study, the language does not only reveal thoughts 
but also employs a heightened tone and then garnished with 
traditional African innuendoes, projecting Ika cultural 
background:

Idemudia: “…don't hesitate further, my daughter, it is our 
costume that one drinks the cup of wine out of which 
libation was poured on one's behalf.”  She continues with 
the explanation “Your mother's blessing is in here. If you 
drink it, then she will absorb it” (36).

Aside from the meaning of the dialogues, the linguistic maturity of 
the speaker, which delineates his age, the linguistic foregrounding 
is exceptional:
The child that starves her mother of sleep will, all night, slumber in 
wakefulness…
A man sits in his own house
 And crushes his scrotum in the process
…The rope

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never joined them because he knew the implication of the brother's 
action. The new king demanded homage and his brother Ozidi 
protested. As a result of Ozidi's protest, they made a cunning 
arrangement and lure Ozidi into a supposed hunt and murdered 
him there, serving his head to the brother as homage. Meanwhile, 
Ozidi's wife, Orea has a child in her womb which she spirited to 
her mother, Odadama, a powerful old witch.

         The storyteller comes to prepare the ground for the revenge. 
He announces the birth of Ozidi in the town of Ododama. He also 
depicts the uncanny attitudes and natural phenomena of the day 
Ozidi was born. The child was named after the dead father, Ozidi. 
Thus, Ozidi be got Ozidi. Ozidi grows up with an unusual physical 
strength and so domineering amongst his mates. And the mother 
becomes worried but the grandmother, Orea never cares because 
she is aware of the power that lies in the hands of the society, 
mindful of the cause of their exile.

         When Ozidi returned from exile, those who murdered his 
father, Ofe, The Short, Azezabife, the Skeleton Man, Oguaran, 
The Giant, Agbodidi, and The Nude, greet him with fear. By act 
four, Ozidi has avenged his father's death as Orea says to her son, 
“Your father is fully avenged/ and after the second burial, sleeps 
well in company / of his compeers” (90). But Ozidi's rigorous 
preparation for his mission has marked him in ways he cannot 
easily throw away. Violence gives birth to violence. Weary with 
killings, Ozidi must nevertheless murder Tebesonoma's sister and 
the child for whom she has waited so long. Then Orea sees the 
need for purification of the house polluted bloodshed. The play 
ends as the players dance and sing around with the storyteller in a 
long processional dance.

 The Place of Folklore in Dramatic Literature: Ozidi example
In the place of folklore in dramatic literature, the verbal evocation 

and invokes the water spirits to accept their offerings thus: 
People of the sea, people of the sea, two times, three times I 
call upon you. Members of our community, in all their 
numbers and from all quarters, sinking here their quarrels 
and washing themselves of all colors and taint tonight, 
bring to you in all belly sweetness seven huge pots of food, 
each properly brought to you by a girl still untouched by 
man… here is biscuits, here is sugar, here is wine, all that is 
sweet to you. And now that you have taken of our food and 
drinks, please give us good wives, give us good children, 
and give us good money… (4).

After the rituals, the virgins were relieved of their duties and they 
went back to the audience. Then the old women emerge and sweep 
away malign influences, spirits whose no sacrifice will gladden 
their hearts. She sweeps and concocts the spirits, “they have ears 
but their drums beat back words of prayer…let them go off 
now…in great speed… for do not speak to please them” (5).  
When she finishes her sales, the narrator chases her away for men 
to have an important discussion to make in the arena. And 
immediately the council of Orua is formed among the dancers and 
the actors including the storyteller. Quickly, palm wine was served 
and distributed. Hardly had it finished when the meeting started. 
There is a pressing need for a king.

         The council concludes that it is the turn of Ozidi to produce 
the next king which was found on the rotary system. Ozidi rejects 
the kingship for the sole reason that the throng is an enigma of 
death. And that all his family members are dead except him and his 
elder brother who is a drunkard.   Despite Ozidi's protest, the 
council insists that the Ozidi family should produce the next king 
for the Orua Kingdom. Ironically the elder brother, Temugedege, 
“dribbling with drinks” (10) and accepts the kingship. The crowd 
carried him on the high shoulder and danced around but Ozidi 

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Literature: A Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi



         These songs or sacrifices signify the invitation of new 
growth and an optimistically anticipated birth of a new year. And 
thus, becomes a celebratory song and a communicative element.  
Moreover, during the fight between Ozidi and his father's 
murderers, the song changes to a praise-singing song by striking 
up personal tones to each fighter each time there is an attempt to 
defeat the opponent. The playwright artistically transforms the 
song to serve as an interlude, an entertainment that ushers in 
another action(s).

The breakthrough of Clark's transformation of language to the 
stage is the retention and the mark of the identity of Ijaw people, 
clothed in Ijaw traditional speaking mannerism of half English 
mixed with pidgin English as we see in the script thus:

An' he no leaf any property at all? I dey ask sake of all them 
big big people way dey say dem dey service public no day 
forget to pull plenty plenty insi' e dem own pocket. Dem 
style like small girl way day give pikin food: dem give 
baby small dem chop the rest (65).

         The language is also seen as being poetical both in the 
manner of speaking and the interlocutory forms. This is 
necessitated as a result of the intrinsic features of the saga adapted 
to the stage. This dramatic poetry is possessive in the dramatic 
quality of the narration, the ritual elements, and the atmosphere of 
the supernatural. The repetitive and recitative nature of the saga 
transformed to the stage suggests the seriousness and the needed 
emphasis on some of the words. Thus, adding melody and beauty 
to the tone and voice of the actors. The soliloquy of the foolish 
king with a chewing stick in his mouth is laughable but ironic. The 
language becomes a vehicle for the transfer of wisdom and social 
values. 

of oral lore and the various elements of the theatre are transformed 
into the modern stage. Toperform this lore is to theatricalize 
through movement, costumes, make-ups, scenery, and props in 
consonance with traditional African theatre demand. According to 
Uwa, 

The artist/performer, we are told employs various gestures 
of both body and verbal communication, aided by the 
compelling and catalytic influence of music and rhythm as a 
binding force, harmonizing with the rhythmic beat of nature 
that balances all forces (38).

From the foregoing, it is clear that folklore in dramatic literature 
has experienced multi-media experience, the structure of the 
folktales is no longer limited to narration but with presentation in 
theatrical forms. This theatrical form usurers in the use of 
language characterized by the clarity of diction, and all kinds of 
lyricism of forms and concrete images derived from the 
immediate community.

The Language as an Element of Cultural Transformation in 
Ozidi
         The songs in the play are accompanied by orchestration and 
hand-clapping by the members of the audience. In the play, the 
pool of players, including the orchestra and chorus of actors came 
from the audience to accompany the procession of the virgins. 
They sang “Beni yo-yo, beni yo-yo as they moved to the imagined 
river. As soon as the priest finishes in the river, the song filters in as 
stage directions read: 

Now the orchestra and chorus break into song, the fast 
jogging air of Beni Owou mu ne yo. The group forms again 
in the same other as before… at the same time, the chorus 
of actors and dancers fall apart, flanking their leader who is 
cheered on by the master- drummer. The song leader 
immediately raises the group's praise song… (4-5).

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Literature: A Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi



becomes a celebratory song and a communicative element.  
Moreover, during the fight between Ozidi and his father's 
murderers, the song changes to a praise-singing song by striking 
up personal tones to each fighter each time there is an attempt to 
defeat the opponent. The playwright artistically transforms the 
song to serve as an interlude, an entertainment that ushers in 
another action(s).

 Conclusion
       Ellwood maintains that “culture includes man's entire 
material    civilization, tools, weapons, clothing, shelters, 
machines and even system of industry” (cited in Sorrel,2015:9) 
this definition expands culture as the people's way of daily 
activities, their value system, their likes and dislikes, their habits 
of life, and the root of their civilization. This is a kind of standard 
mark of identification of the people. Thus, folklore becomes one's 
mark or medium of transformation and transposition of the 
identity of the people from generation to generation.

        Since there is a social factor and contextual dimension of 
every artistic phenomenal use of language, there must be a factor 
that propels the kind of results achieved.  Thus, the contextual 
dimension of the artistic work transformed to the stage exhibits a 
direct relationship with the original just as we have seen in the 
folktales and the embedded message of value and virtues to the 
people. The influences the folktales have on the stage sustain the 
stage implied social and cultural behavioral change and 
awareness. The infusion of various traditional elements into a 
performative whole is explored as a strategic way of repositioning 
and enriching African culture, and cosmology, and directed 
towards community progress and effective means of cultural 
sustenance.

The Storyteller as a Transformer of Culture
         The technique of transforming the narrator to the modern 
stage or into dramatic literature In Ozidi, just like the sage, he 
obeys the entire liturgical manner in which the story was told and 
all the ritual observances to gain divine guidance and inspiration 
in the process of telling the tale. This assertion was made obvious 
during the procession where he directs and offers libation and 
appropriation for the community in the river, serving as their 
mouthpiece. 

Furthermore, as an actor, he plays the major roles of Ozidi Senior 
and Ozidi Junior. If not for other characters, the play would have 
been called a mono-drama as a result of the multiple roles that are 
assigned to the storyteller on stage. Thus, it becomes a community 
participatory act in the closing style of the Ijaw folktale 
performance session by dancing in a long processional dance form 
in which everyone is involved. 
 
The significance of the Songs and the Incantations
         The songs in the play are accompanied by orchestration and 
hand-clapping by the members of the audience. In the play, the 
pool of players, including the orchestra and chorus of actors came 
from the audience to accompany the procession of the virgins. 
They sang “Beni yo-yo, beni yo-yo as they moved to the imagined 
river. As soon as the priest finishes in the river, the song filters in as 
stage directions read: 

Now the orchestra and chorus break into song, the fast 
jogging air of Beni Owou mu ne yo. The group forms again 
in the same other as before… at the same time, the chorus 
of actors and dancers fall apart, flanking their leader who is 
cheered on by the master- drummer. The song leader 
immediately raises the group's praise song… (4-5).

These songs or sacrifices signify the invitation of new growth and 
an optimistically anticipated birth of a new year. And thus, 

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Literature: A Study of Akpakaland and Ozidi



         Thus, folklore in dramatic literature using these plays posits 
folk plays as a participatory learning medium and so, awakens 
cognitive skills and human development. According to Blatner 
folk-plays: …integrating the realms of language, emotions, 
imaginations, and profound feelings of the body in action and 
doing rather than just passively watching and hearing…fostering 
healthier communication and improving their critical thinking (4).  
It focuses on cultural transmutation and as a tool for preserving 
value systems, worldviews, and arts which are one of the greatest 
assets of a people. It becomes a means of re-asserting communal 
selfhood, and ideology through experiential roles and community 
interrogations, thus, stamping African arts in the sand of time. 
These will usher in a new and healthy partnership among African 
arts, Theatre, and Technology in a futuristic perspective. 

                                       Works Cited
Akwanya, Nicholas.   Verbal Structures: Studies in the Nature 

ndand Organizational Patterns of Literary Language: 2  
Edition. Enugu: Acena Pub, 2004.

Blatner, A. “Considering the Underlying Rationale for Using 
Interactive and Improvisational Drama”..Accessed 10.23. 
2023.

Clark, John Pepper. Ozidi. London: Oxford University Press, 
1996. 

Enita, Godfrey, “Ukala, Folkism and The Laws of 
Aesthetics Response”. Sam Ukala” His Works at Sixty. Ed, 
Austine Asagba. Ibadan Kraft Books Ltd, 2008: 142-148.

Kirshenblatt-Gimblett etel.“Folklore Crisis” The Journal of 
American Folklore, Vol.111. No.441, Folklore: What's in a 

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