The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta

ISBN-13: 9780367682880 / Angielski

Tanure Ojaide; Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega

Opis

This book examines the depiction of the Delta region of Nigeria through literature and other cultural art forms.

The Niger Delta has been thrust into the global limelight due to resource extraction and conflict, but it is also a region with a rich culture, environment, and heritage. The creative imagination of the area’s artists has been fuelled by the area’s pressing concerns of indigenous peoples, minority discourse, environmental degradation, climate change, multinational corporations' greed, dictatorship, and people’s struggle for control of their resources. Taking a holistic approach to the Niger Delta experience, this book showcases artistic responses from literature, visual arts, and performances (such as masquerades, dances, and festivals). Chapters cover authors, artists, and performers such as Ben Okri, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Isidore Okpewho, J.P. Clark, and Bruce Onobrakpeya, as well as topics like the famous Benin bronze figures and Urhobo Udje dance.

Affirming the wealth and diversity of the region which continues to inspire creative artistic productions, The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta will be of interest to researchers of African literature, arts, and other cultural productions.

Spis treści

The Background  1. Introduction  2. Towards a Bioregional, Politico-Historical, and Sociocultural Identity of the Niger Delta  Oratures and Traditional Festivals  3. Form and Content of Ibibiod Traditional Festivals: Ekpo, Ekpe and Mbopo  4. Traditional Ijo Poetry  5. The Cultural Aesthetics of Benin Traditional Festival Performances  6. Urhobo Udje: An Indigenous Satiric Genre  Visual Arts  7. Benin Art: Changes Through Time and Space  8. Urhobo Culture and Modernism: Configuring Mutual Reinforcements in the Art of Bruce Onobrakpeya  9. Art for Land and Water: Notes on Urhobo and Their Neighbors Popular Culture  10. Cosmopolitans at One with Homeland: Niger Delta Popular Musicians from Rex Lawson and Victor Uwaifo to Omawumi and Burna Boy  11. Explorations in Pidgin Poetry from the Niger Delta  12. "Warri No Dey Carry Last": The Niger Delta in Nigeria’s Stand-Up Comedy Imaginary  Environmentalism  13. Environmentalism in Modern Poetry of the Niger Delta  14. Nature’s Animism and its Appropriation in Niger Delta Poetry  15. Narrative Constructions of Eco-disharmony in Selected Niger Delta Novels  Conflict Literature  16. "The perfection of chaos": Heeding the nostalgic imperative in selected works by Ben Okri  17. From the Niger Delta’s Viewpoint: The Nigerian Civil War Literature  18. Bearing Witness: A Taxonomy of Dissent in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo’s Plays  19. Exploitation, Corruption and Agency in Three Niger Delta Movies Of Writers and Personages  20. Literature, Eco-activism and the Saro-Wiwa Imaginary  21. The Poetics of Place and the Niger Delta Minority Discourse in Festus Iyayi’s Fiction  22. Passivity and Agency: The Dilemma of Female Characters in Works of Zulu Sofola, Buchi Emecheta, and Tess Onwueme

O autorze

Tanure Ojaide is the Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA.

Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega is an Associate Professor of African Literature and Chair of the Department of English and Literary Studies at Delta State University, Nigeria.