A CONVERSATION WITH AN AFRICAN LITERARY ICON, GABRIEL OKARA*

Ebinyo Ogbowei, Bernard Otonye Stephen and Sunday Abraye March 30, 2023 Vol. 13, No. 1 Pages 127-140

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17318768

Keywords: CONVERSATION AFRICAN LITERARY ICON GABRIEL OKARA*

Abstract

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Stephen, E.O.B.O. & Abraye, S. (2023), "A CONVERSATION WITH AN AFRICAN LITERARY ICON, GABRIEL OKARA*", in Niger Delta Research Digest Vol. 13, No. 1, pp127-140, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17318768.

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OCCUPATIONS AND INDUSTRY IN THE NIGER DELTA: A STUDY OF KUGBO KINGDOM FROM PRE-COLONIAL TIMES TO 1940

Brian Etire

The Assistant District Officers, Sir S.P.L. Beaumont on his Intelligence Report, he presented in 1940 about the Odual (Isaka) Clan in Degema Division in Owerri Province had asserted that people of Kugbo were lazy and care free. This paper re-evaluates this assertion with redressing the erroneous claims by investigating into the occupations and industry of the Kugbo people from Pre-colonial Periods and 1940and secondary sources. This study reveals that contrary to the Eurocentric assertion, the people of Kugbo were quite industrious as they engaged in numerous subsistence economic activities from the Pre-colonial times before the advent of European ‘intruders’, These economic and agricultural activities includefarming fishing, trading, craftsmanship, palm-oil production, and blacksmithing, among others. The significance of this research lies in the vivid exposition of the agricultural and economic enterprises of the Niger Delta peoples as a rebuttal to erroneous Eurocentric documentation.

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MYTHOLOGY AND RITUAL PREFORMANCE IN THE IGBASOLO RITE OF PASSAGE OF IGBEDI

Tarikiye Ebikinei Angaye

Izon oral literature is replete with sacred stories about myth, creation and supernatural traditional beliefs down the generation. Stories of ancient historical traditions of origin of peoples and issues of life and death have provided source materials for writers in different climes but the IgbediIgbasolo myth have suffered neglect over time. This study therefore examines the literary aesthetics of ritual performance in one of the greatest cultural phenomena in Izon oral literature, IgbediIgbasolo myth which is a cultural signification that shapes the perception of identity and relationships, not only with the living but also with the supernatural worlds. The objective of this study is to explore the ritualistic performances surrounding the IgbediIgbasolo myth. The study is analytical, and the myth is subjected to critical evaluation. The theoretical framework of the study hinges on Edmund Husserl’s strand of Phenomenological theory and it is a philosophical enquiry into thought system on issues of cosmic forces in nature’s order. The study is not only the revival of interest in Izon oral literature but the documentation and preservation of Izon cultural heritage from extinction