Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

In the legend, against the advice of the Oracle Ifa, Obatala, on his way
to Sbango , the God of Thunder , relieves Emu, the God of Mischief.
here disguisedas an old woman. of a pot " f oil . The pot breaks in the
processwith an effect like a sacred vessel breaking .•. • Th us Obatala.
his white dress all dripping with oil . arrives at the court of the King
Shangoat Oyo, and since nobody recognizes the God. he is thrown into
jail when he protests at the ill-ueattnent of a horse . As a result. drou ght
and famine befall the earth . And it is not until King Sango consul ts the
oracle and is told be must make repararioo.to an innocen t man wrongly
punished in his kingdom that the general curse is lifted (18- 79) .
These common elements, such as plagues , oracles and divine anthropomorphic
disguises make for easy transformation from Greek to African drama. In Myth ,
Literature and tneAfrican World, Wale Soyinlca describes the re-enacted drama , the
ritual of Obatala, as a "moving celebration whose nearest equivalent in the European
idiom is the Passion play.· Obatala is "captured, confined and ransomed- (1S2).
While African ritual drama is a phenomenon of pre-colonial Africa. western
dramatic forms and metapbors provide an idiom for making the work: accessible to a
Europeanaudience . Ironically. the develop ment of modem sub-Saharan African drama
has been greatl y influenced by the western tradition. In "lbe Drama in African Ritual
Display; Rotimi defines drama in Aristotelian terms as "an imitation of an action ...
or of a person or persons in actioe" (17) which hasa -PI.QT, with its implied vitals
of SUSPENSE and CONFLICT- (79) . He suggests that while the series of "abeoe "
dance processio ns of the Edi festival of Ile-Ife cannot be called drama, the mock-duel
scenes staged on the second day of the ObaIaIa festival are certainly dramatic in form
and content:
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