Traditional drama is rooted in the cosmology of ethnic peoples. Some of them dovetail with religion or ritual.  Modern Greek drama derives from the festival of Dionysus or Bacchus, a wine-god.  Sheldon Cheney remarks that choric groups performed singing and dancing; any group that won was given a goat as a prize.  The evolution of Greek drama and subsequently Modern Western drama has gone farther to add several other elements to the form – plot, characterisation, action, dialogue, suspense, foreshadowing, conflict, climax and resolution.  These started with the efforts of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

The Ijaw Ozidi Saga is an oral text which started from a vision of the Priest of Tarakiri in Orua.  He became restless until it was performed as drama.  It is a performance which is done for seven days and nights; performers sing and dance.  Dramatic action is developed through initial conflict in selecting a king; this develops through exposition to further crises of clan and family until cleansing is done and resolution takes place.  Okabou’s oral version has become popular through J.P.Clark’s research, documentation and publication .   The Ozidi story has become known through the efforts of Clark and Ganagana in their works Ozidi  and Ozidi Avenges.  It is  possible for other versions  to emerge in the future.

Greek and Ijaw experiences are traceable to religions of the peoples who through the inspirations given them by their gods evolved traditional plays for relaxation, entertainment and education of their peoples. Their consciousness is religious but it does not mean that other plays are rooted in religion; some have emerged from the efforts of various persons.

Ekpe festival is linked to the god of Njoku, yam-god, whom Ngwa  people of Ibo venerate.  The drama is linked to the plot of the season; its first stage is done after planting crops, the second stage is the ceremony of ‘yam-slicing’ and the third is the enactment of the drama.

J.N. Amankulor argues that Ekpe Festival transcends mere festival to drama.  People form choric groups and dance to honour ancestors.   They dance and move to the play ground backing the village shrine.  The first choric group is led by a chief actor as well as the second.  The second is given the role of decapitation of the head of a goat tied to a stake.  The actor watches it and waits for it to stretch its neck.  He is expected to strike it at that moment with one stroke of the machete.  His action is symbolic; if he succeeds it means prosperity and future bountiful harvest; if he fails it connotes inauspicious future and poor harvest.  This is religious consciousness of the people who pray to the god of yam for bountiful harvest.   Drummers, singers and dancers mime and utilise elements of drama to make the festival successful.

The Kalabari people believe in the dead and the existence of gods.  It is from this consciousness that Ekine society has evolved its drama which has been discussed by Janewari in ‘The Opongi  Maquerade Festival of Kalabari  Ekine’ and Horn in ‘Ikaki : The Tortoise Masquerade’.   These scholars have established the presence of traditional drama among the people.  The plays use characterisation, dialogue, action, symbolism and setting to convey cosmology, life and literature of the people; the actors entertain members of the clan, re-live their religious life;   their performances are a means of socialisation.  Aesthetics, entertainment, education, dance, song and drama are united in one breathe.

Mii Giaa festival of Barayonwa Dere people is a cultural performance that is done annually during the third quarter of the year.  Various masquerades are displayed during the festival: Gbaratela, Varasuube, Piirakpaige,Tuutuna, Erusake, Tekioko and Kpogba.  The masquerades play various roles during the festival.   Libation is poured to the gods in Baranyonwa Dere before the festival begins.

Gbaratela is the sport masker who chases people during the festival; they run away from him and try to avoid his hitting them with a shaven stem of plantain.   The runners hoot at him when he fails to reach them, establishing that they are better runners.  If he succeeds in hitting anyone, the people scatter in different directions and hail him.

Varasuube is the drama of existence in relation to labour, harvest and striving to succeed in life.  He leads the people to a plantain tree on which there is a ripe bunch; he touches it with the horn of the mask, symbol of authority used for delegating power  to the people to harvest it.  They rain blows on the trunk until it falls, not cutting the trunk down with a machete; it is a dramatic action of harvest.  When it falls down, they struggle over the fingers of the plantain.  Persons who get many are regarded to be stronger and luckier than others.

Piirakpaige is the sport of fencing.  Two persons engage in a duel fencing against one another with a referee standing by to separate them, when the game becomes dangerous; he ensures that no one  is wounded in course of the play.  One person carries a  pot of fire on his head while fencing against his opponent; he also puts a green leaf in his mouth – he neither talks nor greets anyone, he demonstrates the serious action of combat practically and facially.  The people watch the tense action anticipating the winner depending on the entrants into the competition because they are people they have known- their bravery, valour and competence.  These are the criteria they use in judging but a battle is never over until it is seen on the play ground; members of the audience are co-judges with the referee.  It is easy to know when one of the persons is always running away from the other or, he is the one who is always defending himself, while the other person is steady.

Kpogba mimes the action of motherhood.  The masker is pregnant with child, carries an old raffia basin used for carrying kitchen utensils to farm.  The masker is the symbol of mother heading to her farm to plant crops – a double role which the masker plays: mother of children, a means of procreation for the continuity of the race and, mother of the earth – earth being mother and a source of regeneration and fertility of crops.

Tekioko mimes the action of people exchanging fisticuffs.  He carries an empty stem of crustacean with which he defends himself against the opponent’s blows.  Any time the opponent attempts to hit him hard on any parts of his body, he wedges it off with the empty stem of crustacean.  He is also a comedian who makes humorous remarks but, everyone watches him carefully to avoid his wrath or jovial hard knocks which he often directs to the head.

Young persons who grow into the culture learn the consciousness through listening to the songs of Gbaratela, participating in the festival as drummers, singers, dancers, runners, maskers and audience.  It is a period of conviviality, re-union and relaxation of all interested persons from the community, who have not lost interest in the festival because of Christianity, education and urbanization.

Barine Saana Ngaage