Isidore Okpewho’s book, Blood on the Tides, offers an analysis of a version of the Ozidi saga and epic that John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo collected and transcribed based on the performance by the skilled narrator, Okabou Ojobolo, in Ibadan, away from its original Ijo area of production. The legendary Ijo storyteller, Atazi, is reported to have received it via an oneiric experience. Clark-Bekederemon massively collected three versions of the epic of Ozidi, picking Okabou’s rendition, which he deemed highly superior in quality and depth. This version’s last edition was published by Howard University Press in 2008. In this book, Okpewho, who passed away in 2016, examines the genius of the narrator and his consciousness of the broader contextual realities, as well as how he responds to his audience’s demands, a move that corrects an often-neglected aspect of African epic scholarship. Going beyond the artistic quality and structure of the epic, Okepwho further tackles the significance and relevance of the text in the contemporary Ijo and Nigerian society of the 1960s. He argues that the performance of a tale, despite its remote origin, is always indexical of, and reframes, the current social environment in which the narrator lives.
The book is a critical appreciation of one of the richest African epics committed to paper. The Ozidi hero differs from other epic heroes in most West African epic texts. Egged on by his grandmother, Oreame, Ozidi junior does not effectuate travels, but confronts the enemies that assassinated his father, who would be king, and other fighters who wanted to defy his invincibility. Recounted for seven nights, the performance is traditionally accompanied by a ritual event in the Ijo community. The interest of the version under scrutiny here is that it is decontextualized from its natural setting and performed in a foreign territory, in Ibadan, and attended by some Ijo expatriates and non-Ijo audience members. The cosmopolitan composition of the audience and the broader social and political frame of the recontextualized performance begged for a few readjustments on the part of the skilled narrator, indicating how the mythical tale is made relevant and meaningful to participants.
The book has seven chapters. Chapter 1 and chapter 7 document the history, culture, and environment of Ijo, with the view of helping the reader construe the backdrop against which the performance was produced. In chapter 1, Okepwho reviews the belief system of the Ijo, based on the mythical figure of seven, structuring the internal plot of the epic. However, chapter 7 is rather designed to demonstrate how the epic text’s recontextualization in a foreign context reflects the political tension that influences the narrator’s immediate experience. The epic is argued to be in conversation with other works written to address similar ontological tensions in Nigeria. Chapter 2 is an instance where Okpewho accords credit to Okabou’s creativity with the Ur text of the Ozidi Saga, since it is one version among others of inferior caliber. This analysis is further elaborated in chapter 3 where Okpewho emphasizes the audience’s cooperation and critical intervention in the performance, and how the narrator copes with such constraints to recreate the epic text in accordance with the recontextualization needs. Okpewho lauds the smart ethnopoetic approaches utilized by Clark-Bekederemo in trying to integrate the aural quality of the performance into the transcribed text, for instance, through idiophonic inscriptions.
Chapter 4 fleshes out the ability of the performer to handle contingences incurred by the differential agendas that transpire due to the diverse audience. Chapter 5 is a logical continuation of chapter 4 as it examines how songs serve to maintain the episodic sequences of the story, and how the playful nature of the performance contrasts with the compelling ritual frame typical of the Ozidi Saga’s original performance setting. Chapter 6 provides room for the author to demonstrate what he thinks makes the Ozidi Saga a work of art, especially through its musical accompaniment and the interluding thematic songs. He argues that music production and chorus responses are an integral component in African epic because they heighten “the appeal and value of the performance” and aid in the organization of the epic plot.
Once again, in this monumental work, Isidore Okpewho has proven that he was one of the major authorities in African folkloristics. His theoretical work, Epic in Africa, finds a compelling analytical application in this book, paving the way for further critical appreciation of the great bulk of transcribed and translated epic texts. One of the strengths of the book lies in the linkages Okpewho establishes between the epic tradition and the contemporary social exigencies in the society in which it is performed. This confirms the claim that African oral traditions are not severed from the ontological questions facing Africans in today’s world. Knowledge production about Africa should also be derived from people like Okabou Ojobolo. Although an illiterate narrator, he managed to reproduce an oral epic without neglecting the social and political struggles of the cosmopolitan community he evolves in. While Clark-Bekederemon should be credited for committing this text to written English, by paying attention to the contextual elements of the performance aura, Okpewho has brought it into academic discourse in a forceful manner.
Unfortunately, as Okpewho acknowledges, little information is given regarding the narrator, his background, or how the text was transmitted to him. If you know that African epic texts are generally taught through highly regimented institutions, it may be sad to notice that hardly any analysis is provided in this book to that aspect. However, reading this work can only be rewarding, because Okpewho is one of the most authoritative voices, if not the most, in African oral literature today. This is largely demonstrated in this easy-to-read but extremely dense book. Any scholar interested in oral literature, especially in African epic, must have this book as a guide for analyzing other African verbal performances, and of course, all epic texts.
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[Review length: 979 words • Review posted on May 15, 2018]