African Poetry and The Masquerade Tradition: A Study of Ezenwa-Ohaeto`s The Voice of The Night Masquerade

Abstract

Literary production in black Africa have shown that the oral traditions can be use imaginatively to produce text which have great aesthetic appeals even when translated into the medium of the English language. masquerade in Nigeria are of different types and they varies in performance. among the Nigeria masquerade we have Egugun Eyo, Gelede, Epa, Agbekijo, Ijele, Umuye, Ndakogboya, e.t.c The image of Nights masquerade by Ezenwa Ohaeto`s is therefore and environmental image of what the masquerade functions as within the community. The sound of the voice is the voice of the ancestors of the people which must be obeyed. Hence, aside the representation of the ancestors by the masquerade with music and dance as suggested by Ruth Finnegan 1968 ``This research examines the poetry of Ezenwa Ohaeto inline with the tradition of the people for whom the masqueraders lines are written. And this is part of the findings of this research.