Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

Various types of music, both vocal and instru mental. together with mime and dance
were intrinsi c to the earli est forms of African ritual . These elements continue to play a
vital role in modem Nigerian drama in combination with western dramatic art forms.
The prologue is also significant because it introduces the audience to Aderopo.
the character who replaces Sophocles' Creon . The purpose of this introduction is two-
fold: it shows the benevolence of Obarala, the god of creation . who consoles the
bereaved paren ts by granting them another son, Aderopo ; and secondl y. it presents
Aderopo as the righ tful heir and next in succession to the throne of Kutuje. Obatala
and Ogun are two of the important gods in the Yoruba pantheon ; however . Rotimi
chooses to have Odewale associate with Ogun. lust before killin g his father. Odewale
narrates the myth surrounding Ogun's anthropomorphic visit on earth during which he
mistakenly killed his own people:
ODEWALE: When Ogun, the god of iron.
was returning from Ire
his loincloth was
a hoop of
fire ,
Blood ••• the deep red stain
of victim's blood
his cloak. (48,49)
Rotimi intensifies the irony by Odewale relating Ogun 's erroneous slaughter of his
own people as he is about to make a similar mistake of killing his own father. Obatala
is associated with creation and the creative process among all living things; Ogun is
the god who is associated with war and the usc of weapons. OdewaJ.e reinforces the
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