This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The Ozidi Saga is a choreographed folklore epic performed as part of the oral history of the Ijaw of the Niger River Delta.
It is traditionally performed as a periodic festival honoring the folk hero Ozidi. The performance dramatizes key episodes in the myth danced in a nonlinear narrative, allowing a ritual officiant dressed in white and holding objects traditionally identified with the hero to solicit participation by acolytes and members of the audience. A performance in 1966 was filmed and later transcribed and translated by playwright and poet John Pepper Clark.
References
- Okpewho, Isidore. 2014. Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology. Rochester: University of Rochester Press. 279 pages. ISBN 978-1580464871
- Okpewho, Isidore. The Art of The Ozidi Saga. Research in African Literatures Volume 34, Number 3.
- Clark-Bekederemo J. P. (trans.) The Ozidi Saga. Howard University Press 1991 ISBN 0-88258-108-2.