Between belief, spirituality and superstition: an ecocritical consideration of selected traditional Igala tales

Abstract

The traditional Igala society, akin to most African societies, is characterized by certain ethos, including beliefs, values, folklore, and taboos, propagated through traditional oral tales and avoidance rules. The evolvement of religions other than the African Traditional Religion (ATR), especially Christianity and Islam, and the wake of Western civilization witnessed the suppression of some of such tales and rules, contributing to their classification as primitive and superstitious. Hence, the efforts to replace them with new values and culture. Using Focus Group Discussions to collect and analyse data in a qualitative design, this article studies some of these traditional tales and avoidance rules from the prism of ecocriticism to show how they tacitly or implicitly encompass the world’s  future in their themes. Salient, in this regard, is the burning issue of environmentalism. Highlighting how the manner of their formulation and propagation might have affected acceptability, the article posits that the antiquated narratives were, on the contrary, futuristic from the onset. Therefore, further efforts at their re- presentation, especially in theatre performance, would open them to empirical and scientific approaches, thereby, positioning them as veritable cultural models for environmental conservation.