INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will study the beginning of written literature in Nigeria. This unit links us with Introduction to Nigerian Literature 1, where we examined all aspects of orality that culminated in the rise of written literature in Nigeria. In the course preceding this we studied the types and the various influences that led to the emergence of Nigerian literature. Nigerian oral tradition carries the Nigerian storytelling tradition with it. It embodies the beliefs and general attitudes to life. They transmit and store the values of their experiences by telling the tales to the younger generations as guide. In this unit, we will look at the beginning of written Nigerian literature in all genres as influenced by the preceding oral traditions – forms like the folktales, fables, proverbs, clichés and idioms in order to establish the true development of Nigerian literature after the emergence of writing through colonial education.
3.1 General Overview
In the colonial period, some Nigerians exposed to English language began to write literatures in English. Nigerian writers in this period wrote both in Western language (notably English) and in traditional Nigerian languages. One interesting thing about these early works is the absorption of the oral arts in them. D.O. Fagunwa pioneered the Yoruba language novel. In 1938, Fagunwa wrote his Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Irunmale, the first novel written in the Yoruba language and one of the first to be written in any African language; Wole Soyinka translated the book into English in 1968 as The Forest of A Thousand Demons. Fagunwa's later works include Igbo Olodumare (The Forest of God, 1949), Ireke Onibudo (1949), Irinkerindo ninu Igbo Elegbeje (Expedition to the Mount of Thought, 1954), and Adiitu Olodumare (1961). Again, Fagunwa's novels draw heavily on folktale traditions and idioms, including many supernatural elements. His heroes are usually Yoruba hunters, who interact with kings, sages, and even gods in their quests. Thematically, his novels also explore the divide between the Christian beliefs of Nigeria's colonizers and the country’s traditional religions. Fagunwa remains the most widely-read Yorùbá -language author, and a major influence on such contemporary writers as Amos Tutuola. Amos Tutuola’s The Palm wine Drinkard was also written based on the style of African Orature. In Igbo area, Pita Nwana wrote Omenuko which is regarded as the first Igbo epic. The same occurred in the Hausa literature especially the works of Samanja Mazan Fama, and Karo-da-Goma. In all these early written literatures in Nigerian languages, we see the re-enactment of the oral narrative power of Nigerian. We see the mystical and the mundane intermingling in many ways. We see the supernatural forces determining the fate of humans, humans marrying strange beings and other mythical realities. Nigerian Orature is richly drawn from the people’s way of living and belief system which form the basis for the moral undertone of oral tales which are evident in the early written literatures. Western education enabled the African people the opportunity to put down their oral narratives into written words.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Explain how orature metamorphosed into literature in early Nigerian literature.
3.2 Nigerian Orature in Nigerian Literature
Nigerian oral literature, like other forms of popular culture, is not merely a form of entertainment but a medium for commenting on contemporary social and political events. It can also be a significant agent of change capable of storing the people’s historical experiences. This is how myths and legends emerged. Myths are stories of origin or creation. They are stories about the beginning of a people, a race or a community. Many communities attribute their greatness to their beginning. Legends are records of a community’s heroes. They are stories about those who founded a community and how brave they were. Ruth Finnegan (1980) expresses that myths and legend capture the most valued history of a people by tracing how they began and how their beginning affected their situation. It also traces the beginning of traditions, cultural rites, worship and the discovery of food, craft, and other lore. We also have different forms of myths and legends recounted in most African novels set in the rural backgrounds. Myths and legends are fictional but have traces of reality as each of them has a physical referent in the real world. This referent guides the members of the community in certain observances. Myths and legends help to store or preserve a people’s cultural beliefs about nature and their natural habitats. This is one of the sources of truly African novels as one of the earliest novels to have come out of Africa called The Palmwine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola which is truly an embodiment of African orature in the written form. Myths have often occurred in African novels such as the origin of Ulu in Arrow of God, the exploits of the great Umuofia men in Things Fall Apart, the story of Osu Caste in No Longer at Ease etc. It seemed impossible for the early Nigerian writers to extricate themselves from the clutches of Orature.
Folktales are animal stories. They are stories about select animals personified to carry certain human attributes in order to play out a needed role for moral lessons. In folktales, there are heroes and villains. The heroes are human or animals that play the major roles. A common type of Nigerian folktale is also called the "trickster" story, where a small animal uses its wits to survive encounters with larger creatures. Some animal tricksters include Ijàpá or Mbe, a tortoise in Yoruba or Igbo folklore of Nigeria. One interesting thing about the folktale is the manipulation of animals as humans playing out their political, sociological and cultural roles in a fictional community. We have seen the folktale forms occurring in African novels. In folktales the essence of poetic justice is expressed and this is a recurring feature in some African novels. D.O. Fagunwa’s My Life in a Forest of a Thousand
Demons is purely a written folktale, similar to the form in Amos Tutuola’s The Palmwine Drinkard. The form of the folktale has a great influence on the present form of the Nigerian novels. The folktale form is arranged in a manner that there is a beginning in a distant land with different wrongs being committed by a given animal at the end of which poetic justice occurs. This thematic form is often the structure of most African novels. The effects of oral narratives on the written literatures in Africa are mostly structural and thematic.
There seems to be the impossibility of discussing the African story without a link at the traditional values. These values are stored in the various tales: myths, legend, oral narratives of different sorts, songs and acts. The early African writers attempt in various ways to blend these oral values in the written contexts. It seemed to work. This is because it helps in marking out a true African literary tradition where the written absorbs the unwritten values in the quest for making literatures the totality of the people’s rites of passage.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
How does the folktale tradition influence the writing of African novels?
3.3 Orature in/as Early Nigerian Literature
Orature occurs in various ways in early Nigerian literatures. Unlike the western literature, African literature contains the oral heritage of the African people. In Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, we have various oral heritage of the Igbos in the novel. There is the form of drama which manifested in the form of wrestling and the Egwugwu Masquerade group. We also see the belief in the existence of changelings as revealed in Ezinma’s search for her iyiuwa. There are sessions where folktales are narrated and various songs are rendered according to the required circumstance. These are oral narratives manifesting in the written literature. The same occurred in other novels especially in novels set in rural background in Africa. In Achebe’s Arrow of God, we see the tradition of religious worship, how gods are created and how poetic justice prevails in a community. Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine presents a typical eastern Nigerian village with all their arts: stories, songs and dances. There is the typical exposition of the traditional belief regarding the intermingling of humans and the supernatural forces.
Considering the root of the Nigerian writers first as Nigerians brought up in the Nigerian society and secondly as the fortunate recipients of western education, they can not avoid expressing their art forms in their new found form of expressing art. The resultant effect is that they represent the Nigerian personality and culture. Some of them who could write in their native languages using English alphabetic forms attempted original works in their first languages as can be seen in Fagunwa and Nwana. Although, English served as the only language that could make their message reach wider audience, the writers tried as much as possible to incorporate the oral literary forms in their works. It is not surprising though that the early literatures in Nigeria are mostly works generated from the oral tradition of the people. We see this strongly in the works of Fagunwa, Tutuola, Amadi, Achebe and Soyinka, among others.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
Explain how oral traditions manifested in and as early Nigerian literature
4.0 CONCLUSION
It is clear that Nigeria has a rich oral tradition. Besides, there are patterned literary forms akin to the western types in Africa. The difference is that African literature then was oral. Western education marked the rise of African literature. There was a smooth transition
from orature to literature. Africans did not hear of literature for the first time from the Europeans. The three genres of literature also manifest in African orature in various forms. The epic and legends of Africa have often occurred in the written literature. The other forms like songs, masquerades, rituals, incantations, folktale narration, the application of proverbs and anecdotes amongst other African oral heritage have become a regular form in African novels. All these reflect the influence of the oral tradition in the Nigerian literature. In the beginning, after the encounter with western education, the early Nigerian writers began with the writing of orature as literature. The works of Fagunwa, Tutuola, and Achebe among others reveal a leaning towards the oral art as an expression of a true Nigerian literature. The application of these forms has been tagged ‘local colour tradition’ by critics of Nigerian literature. They are local colour because they capture the original oral art in its entirety in the written form. We notice today that Nigerian literature is identified mainly by the oral forms and inherent lore. There are elements of orature in most genres of Nigerian literature and Nigerian literature embodies all the genres as the storyteller uses every means to reach out to his immediate audience.
5.0 SUMMARY
Orature is African heritage in storytelling, songs and masquerades. It is the most significant way of transmitting the cultural values and belief systems of the people. Orature like literature has several genres. These genres manifest in various forms. African writers imbibe the oral tradition in the writing of literature. Early novels began as a revisit of the African tradition. This is evident in the works of the early Nigerian writers like Fagunwa, Tutuola, Achebe and Amadi among others. They reflect the African oral tradition in their works. It is thoroughly evident that Nigerian literature began from the oral literary tradition of the Africans. We have the application Nigerian myths and legends, folktale forms, fable forms, proverbs, idioms, dance, songs, incantations and masquerade forms in African novels. This is because a writer is a product of his environment and reflects that in his works. Western education only prepared the African writer for the task of transmitting his cultural values to a wider audience beyond his immediate environment. Quite often, not surprising though, the Nigerian literature still reflects the Nigerian orature in various forms to reflect a true Nigerian literature.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Answer these questions carefully:
1) Explain the various effects of orature in Nigerian literature.
2) How does Nigerian orature manifest in Nigerian literature?
3) Explain why orature has been termed ‘local colour tradition’ .
4) Must Nigerian literature be written in Nigerian languages?
5) Discuss the link between orature and literature in Nigerian.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Finnegan, Ruth (1980). Oral Literature in Africa. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Finnegan, Ruth. (2007). The Oral and Beyond. Doing Things with Words in Africa. Oxford: James Currey.
Obiechina, Emmanuel (1975). Culture, Tradition and Society in the West AfricanNovel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Okuta, Ahmad. (2013). “Nigerian Drama in Arabic: Between
Inidigenisation and Performance.” Journal of the Literary Society of Nigeria: JLSN, 5, 181-190.
Taiwo, Oladele (1976). Culture and the Nigerian Novel. London: Macmillan.
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