Unity in Diversity: A Stylistic Analysis of Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s The Voice of the Night Masquerade and Niyi Osundare’s The Word is an Egga

Abstract

This paper aims at foregrounding the parallels in the styles of Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s The Voice of the Night Masquerade and Niyi Osundare’s The Word Is an Egg. Both writers draw a lot from their respective oral traditions, a   phenomenon that is greatly manifested in the works under study. Thus, this paper holds that the striking similarities in the styles of the two anthologies, which invariably shows the similarities in the oratures of the authors’ respective ethnic groups (Igbo and Yoruba), should be seen as an element unifying the two ethnic groups. And this realization should engender a more cordial relationship among members of these ethnic groups and indeed other ethnic groups in Nigeria who should see themselves as one people in spite of their surface heterogeneous characters.

Keywords: stylistics, orature, Nigerian poetry,