The Form and Content of Ogele: Ijaw War Poetry

A handful of works done so far on the Ijaw has been mainly of anthropological and ethno-historical significance apart from J. P. Clark’s documentation translation and literary review of the oral Ijaw epic Ozidi as performed by Okabou Ojobolo. This present work particularly explores the performance of Ogele Ijaw oral war poetry in terms of its literary ideological cultural and artistic orientations of a people. Using the Formalist and Functionalist theoretic/analytic principles the book identifies the formal/structural features of the war chants showing how they are aesthetically blended to achieve meaning. It also assesses the moral psychological historical and ritualistic significance of their content within the Ijaw society. The book will essentially draw the attention of all Ijaw at home and in diaspora to their core socio-cultural and artistic values and identity. It will be highly useful for both young and veteran scholars who are interested in traditional African poetry and particularly in the heroic or war genre.