Using the Oloba ritual dance of Ado-Ekiti, in the Ekiti-Yorubd region of Nigeria as an example, this study examines the contextual shift in the visual realization of the African dance as evidence of transnationalism. The Oloba tradition, as old as the Ado-Ekiti town, is intended for cleansing the community to ward off evil. However, the visible matters that constitute the visual designs in the ritual process are gradually losing touch with the African tradition. Traditional props in the Oloba performance are now being replaced by factory-made accessories, making it a hybrid of transnational cultures. Recent studies have focused on the aesthetics of the Oloba dance, without paying adequate attention to the influence of transnationalism in the design elements. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that the traditional African dance, today, is faced with complex contemporary realities that tend to redefine it. Based on Roland Barthes’s intertextuality and a combination of case study and survey research designs, data was collected through in-depth and key informant interviews. Using content analysis, the study concludes that the survival of traditional African dance compels it to use material constituents that characterize it as a hybrid of multiple transnational cultures.
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INTRODUCTION
The Oloba ritual dance of Ado-Ekiti has a long history in the
annals of dance traditions in Ekiti land and in Yoruba land and Nigeria at
large. Theatre design, as a fundamental aspect of the Oloba ritual dance,
plays an important role that cannot be overemphasized. The Oloba is a royal
traditional ensemble, in charge of intervallic ritual cleansing of the
community, embedded in dance and processional performances, to ward off evil
spirits and promote biological and agricultural fertility. It involves
aerobic movements and acrobatic displays, publicly presented to the twi
(‘the King’) of Ado-Ekiti and the entire community, usually
annually and at other times, when it is necessary.
The Oloba makes use of masks, usually held as props, carried as
effigies or simply worn as costumes during their ritual performances.
However, the ritual content of this art of dance is sustained through its
visual accoutrements. Without relying on these visual plastic elements of
theatrical design and other external visual aesthetic fragments, the dance
would be reduced to mere choreographic vestiges. Therefore, it becomes
imperative to interrogate the contributions of external visual and technical
details that tend to aid the textual metamorphosis of the Oloba ritual as a
theatrical phenomenon. This is with a view to observing the rate at which it
is acceptable to its users–performers and audience, as being efficacious and
the changes in the level of this acceptability.
ADO-EKITI: A BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The Yoruba of south-west Nigeria includes seven subcultural groups
namely the Egba, Ekiti, Ife, Ijebu, Kabba, Ondo and Oyo. The Odni
(‘king’) of Ife is believed to be the spiritual head of all these
groups. The Ekiti-Yoruba people, who have a single ancestral source with the
Yoruba as the descendants of Oduduwa and inhabit the eastern region of the
Yorubaland in south-western Nigeria, are a part of this group. As a
homogenous ethnic Yoruba group, the Ekiti are identified by their persistent
adherence to some of the ancient traditions till today, which are already
extinct in most other Yoruba communities. Their occupation of a hilly area,
farther from the shores of the Atlantic into the South-west forests of
Nigeria, has also, in no small measure, aided the preservation of some of
their indigenous cultural forms. The origin of the name–‘Ekiti’,
which literally suggests ‘hilly terrains’ or
‘shores’–suggesting ‘not waterlogged’–probably has to
do with the physical topographic nature of their geographical location.
Historians and etymologists have attempted some literal
interpretations of the name ‘Ekiti’. While it is believed that the
name arose from linguistic concepts such as Ipakiti or Ipa’kiti or ipa
Ekiti and Ekiti (Adeoye 2016: 50), meaning ‘shore’,
‘ashore’, ‘on terra firma’ and ‘terra firma’,
respectively, another school of thought holds that Ekiti has a great deposit
of hills, mountains and, particularly, mounds, which means dkiti; hence, with
slight alteration over time, we have the name ‘Ekiti’. However, the
Adeoye school of thought appears to be more plausible because of the
reference made to some domestic expressions such as ‘”mo lo i
si’pa’kiti” or “mo lo i s’Ekiti”, meaning, I am
crossing to the hilly shores, ahead of water’ (Adeoye 2016: 50). It
therefore follows that ‘Ekiti’ is synonymous to terra firma,
landlocked, non-coastal interiors of the Yoruba nation. This also suggests
that the Ekiti’s physical occupation of solid ground, distant from the
sea, made them less receptive to colonial influences. It is often believed
that the Ekiti are among the least influenced by colonial tutelage, in
Nigeria. For this reason, some ancient cultural phenomena still abound,
intact till today, waiting to be explored.
Ado-Ekiti (or Ado-Ewi, as fondly called by the natives) is a
principal city among the Ekiti-Yoruba sub-ethnic group and the capital of the
present-day Ekiti State in Southwest Nigeria. It is made up of about four
hundred thousand people who are closely knitted together by cultural
affinities. The entire community is made up of major sub-communities, such as
Ijigbo, Odo-Ado, Oke-Ila, Okesa and Irona. The city is governed by the Ewi
and the Ewi–in–Council. Traditional prayers, rites and rituals are offered
at different times of the year through festivals such as
Alaponmi-Orisa-Oloba, Alaponmi-Orisa–Ojido, Ilase, Ade, Odede, Aeregbe,
Oitado, Ogun, Epa and Udiroko, which marks the beginning of the New Year
calendar in Ado-Ekiti. The Oloba shrine is located at Udofin in Odo-Ado.
Other shrines in the town include Orisa–Ojido, Uba ‘Lota, Ayoba,
Oke-Egbe, (now known as Oke-Ayunbo), Osun, Ose, Ogbese, Omi-Ajilosun, Isewese
and Omi-Atan.
OLOBA: ORIGIN AND MEANING
The Oloba, dance tradition originated from the Udofin community in
Ado–Ekiti. Research reveals that there is a legendary narrative around the
name of Oloba, which links it to Igbba or Oba-Ile, near Akure in the
neighbouring Odo State of Nigeria. Hence, the inclusion of the possessive
adjectival prefix: ‘O-ni’ or ‘O-li’ + Oba, which equals
Ol’dba and, therefore, the name OlOba, which means ‘of’,
‘about’ or ‘belonging to Oba. The legend in question also
holds that during primordial conquests and settlements an Ado-Ekiti indigene
migrated to Oba-Ile, near Akure in Ondo State and, while there, vied for a
chieftaincy position but was denied. Having become a priest of the Oloba at
the time, which was the tradition in the domain, within which he vied for the
chieftaincy position, he vowed, to avoid the stigma, to return to his home in
Ado-Ekiti. While he made good his vow, the Oloba dance thus came with him.
It has been stated by an erstwhile member of the Oloba troupe
that’the shrine of the Oloba is situated opposite the courtyard of the
present-day Aba’Dofin, the paramount ruler of Udofin community in
Ado-Ekiti’ (Mrs Ajari Adeyanju–Adeuyi, in an interview on 6 February
2013). ‘The shine of Oloba is supervised by the Eledan whose coiffeur is
adorned with a complex epaulet of a parrot’s plumages’ (Mrs Ajari
Adeyanju-Adeuyi, in an interview on 6 February 2013).
SEMIOTICS OF FORM AND CONTENT IN THE TRANSNATIONAL ELEMENTS OF
OLOBA DANCE
African arts, inclusive of dance and other performance modes, push
beneath the frontiers of aesthetic formalism. This is because art, with
respect to decoration, is not primary to the Africans. Therefore,
the significance of this tempo-spatial arrangement should be considered in relation to meaning. The moment of reckoning is not the moment of homage. The people's very existence is at stage. The metaphysical, rather than the physical space, is what matters. (Obafemi 1968: 27)
While it is correct to read the creative activities, that these
Africans engage in, as art, particularly from the perspectives of the West,
the original intent for which they have been created supersedes aesthetic,
decorative and entertainment values. In the fifth chapter of Ember and
Ember’s Cultural Anthropology, it is established that there is a
relationship between societies, culture and the artists, which goes beyond
their artistic connections (1993: 291-303). There is also an attestation to
the significance of the position occupied by traditional art forms such as
the Oloba, as creative forms, which have contents in addition to the physical
manifestation of their forms. In this particular respect, the visual arts,
music and other non-verbal means of artistic communication such as the
performing arts, especially dance, are more essential because of their
contents rather than their material configuration because the eyes of the
culture that have created them do not see them as art. Rather, they see them
beyond the context of art (Ember and Ember 1993: 291-303). Masquerading and
folklores, including all the myths, legends, folk tales, ballads, riddles,
proverbs and superstitions of a cultural group, are also noted as references
to the cultural peculiarities of this group (Ember and Ember 1993: 291-303).
Thus, as could be deduced from the foregoing, societies vary, with regard to
the designation of creative activities as arts, because of the variation in
their styles and cultural complexities.
The artist in the society assumes a meaning-making position with
particular reference to his or her personality and products, which people
view as art. However, the semiotic constitution of these products compels
some aesthetic coding and configuration in relation to physicality and
materiality, which designate them peremptorily within the context of the
arts. Therefore, there is the need to give primary consideration to the
viewpoints of the culture of those (artists) who have produced the pieces (of
art) such as dance. The primary intent for which these pieces have been
created should also be given attention. The possibility that the word
‘art’ may be missing in some societies has also been carefully
illustrated, whereas these societies carry out the practical activities that
have come to be known as art, without even having a word for it.
‘Perhaps this is because art, particularly in societies with relatively
little specialisation (little focus on external commercial clientele or
patronage), is often an integral part of religious, social and political
life’ (Ember and Ember 1993: 291-303). The Oloba is not an exception in
this respect, particularly given its cultural tenacity to religion and
spiritual efficacy.
Although the context of efficacy, which constitutes the
traditional intent of the Oloba ritual, is primary to the process in which it
elicits meaning, efficacy is only ethereal and non-substantial in the sense
that it does not have a physical body. It is neither physical, palpable,
stable nor distinct, but it has existence. Therefore, it is an abstract
conception, which has a metaphysical existence. The efficacious contact with
the audience, as the objective of the dance, defines its liminal stretch and
ultimate reality. It suffices to state that the Oloba dance tradition has
evolved from the need to translate and substantiate or transmute man’s
liminal essence, spiritual existence and religious efficacy in visual,
material and plastic forms. Research has shown that the nature and process of
the Oloba ritual dance thus necessitate a palpable body, an apparent
performance or material spectacle, within the physical context of time and
space, to lend expression to man’s non-physical essence. This
efficacious essence is often designed with the aid of visual symbols and
codes and geared towards a particular target audience, for which it is
consciously constructed.
TRANSNATIONAL HYBRIDITY IN OLOBA DANCE
The Oloba dance has been gradually extricated from its ritual
context because of heavy reliance on factory-made and imported matters used
in the configuration of visual designs of the dance. The use of these
contemporary elements, rather than objects that are culturally produced
through traditional crafts and indigenous technology, now seems popularly
accepted. While this development is the reality of the African, today, as a
hybrid of diverse transnational cultures, it must be borne in mind that the
same development is not without dire consequences as it has widened the
cultural distance between the Oloba dance and its immediate stakeholders.
This has been succinctly analysed; thus,
dance has been studied as a communication process, where messages are sent between co-dancers or from the performer to the audience. All dance components (the movements, music, costumes, etc.) may change according to the relations and physical or cultural distance between the sender and the receiver. (Kapper 2013: 76)
From its origin, the Oloba performance, in addition to its
choreographic designs, has been accompanied by certain composite aesthetic
paraphernalia made from local vegetable and mineral origins. These were used
as costume, body pigments and theatrical properties. Observation from the
field has also shown that the owners of this dance tradition, the Ado-Ekiti
people, have had tenacious attachment to their culture and they derive
meaning from their traditional arts such as the Oloba dance, beyond mere
aesthetic spectacle. According the Priest of the Oloba, changes appeared
gradually from the post-colonial era, when traditional African performances
sought new clientele who would give them commissions of entertainment beyond
their immediate ritual performances for the members of the troupe to meet up
the challenges of the modern environment and provide their necessities of
life. Hence, as times changed, the themes, tools and material theatrical
properties and costumes of the traditional performance were gradually
adjusted to the taste of the foreign clients or entirely replaced with
imported or factory-made materials. With this development, the original
ritual audience are gradually disengaging, believing that the contemporary
adulteration could restrain the flow of spiritual efficacy of the dance,
which was the primary mission of the dance.
TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
While the technical aspects such as costumes, for which palm
fronds were used initially, have long been replaced with more modern types of
woven fabrics, aspects of theatrical props such as the wooden sculptural
effigies still retain their initial traditional modes, even though the
effigies too are sometimes stained with either imported or factory-made
enamels. Sometimes these effigies also carry illegibly inscribed graphics as
labels. This is because the local carvers have started receiving foreign
tutelage at this time and, beyond the ritual contents, these carved
performance masks were extricated into exhibition and entertainment contexts.
The modern-day government also began to market traditional performances, and
the then Ondo State, government, out of which Ekiti State, which owns the
Oloba, was later carved, showed particular interests in showcasing the Oloba
at national, international art competitions, festivals, carnivals and
performance. For instance, the Oloba represented Nigeria in the 1970s and
thereafter performed in many other places.
The Oloba effigies (Figures 1 and 2) are some of the most
prominent theatrical properties that now represent Ekiti State at cultural
fora such as Abuja Carnival in Nigeria and others beyond the shores of
Nigeria. Elaborately carved in non-naturalistic aesthetics, these images
symbolize spiritual power and uprightness. Their postures (kneeling as if in
supplication to the Divine) justify the use to which they are originally put.
The trophy-like attachment to their hands suggests offerings in atonement to
some forces beyond man’s ordinary consciousness. White and ochre red are
important to the Oloba rituals. The choice of red and white is appropriate
because these colours symbolize power and life. The appropriateness of the
colours presents these masks as masterpieces, particularly coupled with the
evidence of professional intelligence with which their anonymous traditional
carvers seem to have worked on the carving. For instance, the risk of
fragility has been greatly reduced by the introduction of the trophy-like
containers and by allowing them to be part of the torsos of the figures, with
no part of the slim portions left to hang out in the air. If the hands of the
figures are allowed to hang out, they could accidentally cut away and damage
the artistic balance of mask.
The carving style, however, revealed slight workshop stint,
similar to the tradition that had been established by master carvers, around
the Ekiti-Yoruba areas, such as Lamidi Fakeye and Bamidele Al’ogbon
l’uku b’Oyinbo (one, like the white man, whose loin is fertile with
wisdom), who also had tutorial briefs under Reverend Father Kevin Carrol and
his assistant, Sean O’ Mahoney, at the Oye-Ekiti art workshop of 1947.
(The Oye-Ekiti art workshop was established as a result the papal declaration
that missionary messages and, particularly, homilies of the Catholic Church
should be propagated through the use of the converts’ local cultural
elements, such as the art of wood carving). In addition to staining these
figures with imported enamel, the style is also slightly dissimilar to the
purely traditional carving of the precolonial generation of the likes of
Olowe of Ise and Samuel Ol’Orisa-usi (‘Custodian-priest to the God
of fame’).
Contemporary professionalism is almost apparent on the carved
images of the Oloba. This is because apart from the intricate carving
depicting coiffeur on the heads of the figures, most other parts are left
plain, devoid of textures. This is, possibly, to create textural varieties
and to afford the eyes of the viewers some rest in the plain area after
wandering away from the busy and textured parts. While this technique may not
be actually contemporary, it is clearly observable that the costume styles,
which complement the entire design, are neither made of palm fronds nor
raffia fibres. Instead, they are made of woven cloths.
Aesthetic contents of traditional Ado-Ekiti rituals such the Oloba
dance represent pictorial demonstrations of–and reference to–the
traditional social script of people, which evolved over a long time and which
is perceived to have informed the social model upon which the society is
based. ‘It is easy to see why scripts are crucial to the give and take
of everyday cultural life such as functioning institutions, the performance
of rituals […]’ (Nisbett and Norenzayan 2002: 6). For instance, the
secondary image of the fowl, borne in the hands of each of the carved
figures, is often perceived in traditional parlance, to elicit sacredness and
sacrificial significance. In the tradition of Ado-Ekiti, ‘sacrificial
victims are compensated as heroes or martyrs in the form of social elevation
of their name, because they are believed to be volunteers who have cleansed
the town at the expense of their lives’ (Adeoye 2017: 156). This means
that the image of the fowl is often interpreted as a symbol of atonement,
although earlier versions of the figure might not have been stained in
enamel.
Research has, therefore, shown that the rapidity of the changes in
most African traditional forms coincides with the degree of restraint
expressed by the local audience towards the social acceptance of the content
of the Oloba dance. In other words, the audience who laid stronger emphasis
on the efficacious content of the dance now find little or no spiritual
meaning in the dance, especially nowadays, when the emphasis has shifted to
the aesthetic form or materiality rather than the message components.
ARGUMENT
Findings have shown that the nature and form of the dance at the
early stage incorporated form–body design and paraphernalia–with
content–spiritual efficacy. However, the weight of the spiritual message
rested on the materiality of the dance–body design and paraphernalia. It is
the body design and paraphernalia that connect the audience across the
liminal frontier between the dance and its efficacious content. While, today,
the dance is still made up of form and content (spiritual efficacy and body
design and paraphernalia), the meanings that they carry have changed. This is
because, initially, the visible physical matters that constituted design and
dance paraphernalia were those that had cultural connections with the
audience and reminded them of their roots. These historical and cultural
connections are missing in the contemporary template of the dance, and,
therefore, it is made up of form, with no emphasis on content. Art, design or
the material essence, which constitutes the exhibition value of the dance,
can stand alone, even though the content of any particular dance cannot
travel to the audience without being packaged in art, design or material
essence. In other words the efficacious element or context of a dance
basically points to its content or its original and primary intention.
Intention, if not communicated, is not known and it thus requires
three-dimensional physical presence in the context of time and place-form.
THE VALUE OF DESIGN
Efficacy cannot be communicated alone; it must be housed in a form
as an essential cultural and liminal extension from the tangible, known and
experiential state to the intangible metaphysical state. It is the material
or visual design that invites the audience to the content. Therefore,
dance is concerned with the use of body gesture, body movements and other dance elements for expression. The elements being referred to here are: rhythm, time, space, dynamics, costume, props, make-up, music, drama and so on. Dance messages are communicated using the elements mentioned above and through signs and symbols to impact on the life of the people. (Damisa 2014: 468)
The content, of its own accord, has no firm foothold, or pedestal
from which to project to its audience unless it assumes the performance space
in physical form and is experienced by the audience because
‘Concreteness is important, because it is specially necessary to have
examples before our mind’ (Reid 1969: 114). In the context of efficacy,
the essence of dance must be translated before the very eyes of the audience
in terms of colour, shape, mass, structure, balance, rhythm and movements
compressed and governed in the compositional contexts. Hence, there is a
strong ‘tension in […] art between psychological or
“dramatic” interest on the one hand and plastic interest on the
other hand’ (Reid 1969: 117). In further description of the content of
the artistic phenomenon as ‘psychological’ in contrast to the form,
which is often described as ‘plastic’,’it now seems to me
possible by a more searching analysis of our experiences in front of a work
of art to disentangle our reaction to pure form from our reaction to implied
associated ideas’ (Reid 1969: 117). A significant observation has also
been made on the need to realize ‘the abiding principle which informs
the adaptive and transformational character of ritual in the context of
recreational myth’ (Olorunyomi 2005: 133). With particular respect to
Drewal’s opinion on the subject of ritual and myth, ‘[…]
improvisation can transform ritual through psychic transformations or, of
esoteric verses turned into narratives, spontaneous interpretations,
recontextualization, drumming, dancing, chanting, parody, ruses,
reconstruction of conventions and individual interventions into the ritual
event’ (Olorunyomi 2005: 133). The intrinsic value of art as a form of
language is represented by the nature of its form while the contents
constitute the esoteric ingredients physically portrayed by the form. This is
also because the transformation of the artistic content into a pictorial form
is hinged on certain principles that are often universal. Hence,
if art occurs as it does, in one form or another in all societies, one is prompted to ask what its principles are. One may also want to know if such principles are universal and whether it is possible to obtain data from all cultures that will allow the laying down of principles applicable to the art of all cultures. The main objective of traditional art, therefore, rests solely on symbolic impressions and the meanings they make to their given audience. The enabling of meanings which forms the bedrock of the communication process cannot be divorced from traditional art and its cross-cultural tendencies. (Adeoye 2010: 35)
The artistic form is often a functional representation, created in
tandem with the content. These are layered and interdependent paradigms,
without any of which artistic communication can take place.
Visible designs in theatrical and ritual presentations reveal the
evidence of the audience’s hopes, supplications, prayers, atonement and
other spiritual dimensions in the form of a physical performance stage,
colour pigments, polymeric plastics, ductile metals and fabric materials. The
efficacious contents of dance are therefore appreciated in architectural and
sculptural terms.
TEXT, TEXTUALITY AND INTERTEXTUALITY: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS
This study is mainly based on Roland Barthes’s
intertextuality, a theory that ascribes to the text the attitude of being
read from multiple dimensions. Further, this study relies on Barthes’s
intertextuality and holds the notion that an artistic phenomenon, such as the
Oloba dance, has subjective relativity. This, therefore, implies that
meanings can be distilled from it as a text, from various contemporary points
of view. Therefore,
a text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation, but there is one place where this multiplicity is focused and that place is the reader, not, as was hitherto said, the author. The reader is the space on which all the quotations that make-up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost; a text's unity lies not in its origin but in its destination. (Barthes 1977: 148)
This theory thus becomes appropriate in dealing with the dance
phenomenon and bringing its theatrical characteristics to the fore. This
theory has also provided the opportunity to use semiotic principles to
analyse the design elements available in the Oloba dance. The Oloba ritual
dance is thus deconstructed here with a view to understanding the strong
influences of design elements such as costumes, ritual mask, effigies,
hand-held props and body paintings as textual perspectives from which the
ritual audiences of the dance read the vagaries of multiculturalism in the
communication process. The multicultural influence of the dance often becomes
clear in the process of reading meanings by analysing the various elements of
design available in it. The study thus contends that the Oloba dance, in its
contemporary state, lacks the capability to engender such meanings that are
completely and unequivocally rooted in African rituals. This is because the
visible matters in its costumes, masks, and theatrical properties now have
multiple cultural affiliations,. Change, metamorphosis or catalysis, which is
expected to ensue between the readers or audience of the dance performance,
is often missing in the contemporary performances, unlike the case in the
early stage of the performance. Therefore, retrieval of meaning from ritual
as a text depends on the interdisciplinary collaboration of the various
theatrical design ensembles and the efficacious depth of the ritual depends
on how much the paraphernalia of design carries the cultural import of the
users and audience of the dance.
The in-depth and key informant interviews, which informed the data
in this study, largely underpin the conclusion of this article. However, it
is intended that the qualitative contents of the mentioned interviews will be
published in a future article.
CONCLUSION
Traditional African dance, like other African performance modes,
in their original context, pushes beneath the corridors of aesthetic
formalism because art, with particular reference to entertainment and
decoration, is not its main focus at that level.
Ritual contents are germane to African traditional performances.
Even though the Oloba dance is sustained through visual plastic designs such
as theatrical props and other external aesthetic accoutrements, without which
the dance would be reduced to mere choreographic vestiges, these design
elements were once natural connections between the dance and the culture of
the users and audience of the dance. Over the years, there has been a growing
distance in the technical overlap between the artistic elements and the
cultural contents of dance. Although the Oloba makes use of masks, effigies
and costumes during their ritual performances, the dance is now reduced to
its aesthetic vestiges, having lost its traditional efficacy, which is the
evidence of cultural connection informing the social model, upon which the
immediate society of the dance is based.
However, the Oloba dance has been extricated from its ritual
context as a result of reliance on factory-made and imported matters that now
constitute the visual designs of the dance. The contemporary application of
these transnational elements rather than the culturally produced graphic arts
and crafts has engendered a shift in the nature and process of the Oloba
dance. Therefore, the widened cultural gap between the Oloba dance and its
immediate community of audience is the dire consequence of the contemporary
transnational reality of African dance today.
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SUGGESTED CITATION
Adeoye, M. A. (2018), ‘Old wine, new bottle: Theatre design
and transnational hybridity in Oloba dance of Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria’,
Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, 5:2, pp. 207-18, doi:
10.1386/dmas.5.2.207_1
CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS
Michael Aderemi Adeoye, Ph.D., is a sculptor, painter, poet,
novelist, playwright, theatre designer and scholar. He currently teaches
stagecraft at the Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Federal University,
Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria. His creative works reflect his research interests; the
interdisciplinary, multidis-ciplinary and semiotic intercourse of the arts;
plastic, dramatic and theatrical. His recent play, Inferno and the Deity of
Herbs, which, apart from being one of the four nominations, got the third
place in the 2018 SONTA-Olu Obafemi Playwriting Competition, suggests how
performance and visible matters capture the Nigerian political environment in
which bad leaders and bad politicians engage in corrupt practices,
particularly illicit financial inducement of the electoral process, to attain
political offices, without respect and appreciation for the electorates who
are often taken for granted, deceived and cheated, even though they truly
deserve and demand equity, justice and good governance. Adeoye’s current
scholarship focuses on the visual, technical and scientific processes, in
which meaning and cognition are socially engaged in the contexts of art and
performance.
Contact: Department of Theatre and Media Arts, Federal University,
Oye–Ekiti, Nigeria.
E-mail: michael.adeoye@fuoye.edu.ng; michaeladeoye@gmail.com
[iD] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0531-5736
Michael Aderemi Adeoye has asserted his right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in
the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.
MICHAEL ADEREMIADEOYE
Federal University, Oye-Ekiti
doi: 10.1386/dmas.5.2.207_1