Authenticating Performance with Oral Forms: The Case of Uko Akpan Cultural Troupe

Abstract

A people are identified, to a large extent, by their language, cultural artefacts and the different literary outputs. Annang people are identified by their ancestral lineage, language and homogeneity in culture which include dance, songs, folktales, mode of dressing, food, occupation, marriage pattern, cultural displays and other literary expressions through which they express their personhood. In Africa, oral literature includes all creative imaginations which articulate dimensions of social experiences which tickle the imagination, feed the emotion and have the capacity to teach and to entertain. This paper explores the social relevance of indigenous musical body in authenticating performance in its domain. Data were gathered from Uko Akpan Cultural Troupe, Abak. Six performances covering funeral, marriage, traditional title taking, annual festival ceremony. Richard Schechner's Performance Theory is adopted for the literary analysis of these texts. The texts were transcribed and translated into English language for easy accessibility to audience. Two texts are reflected here as African oral arts are generally found to overlap each other in the course of performance.

Keywords: Performance, Audience, Songs, Cultural displays and Creative imaginations.