1st Edition

The Literature and Arts of the Niger Delta

Edited By Tanure Ojaide, Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega Copyright 2021
294 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

294 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

294 Pages 15 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book examines the depiction of the Delta region of Nigeria through literature and other cultural art forms. The Niger Delta has been thrust into the global limelight due to resource extraction and conflict, but it is also a region with a rich culture, environment, and heritage. The creative imagination of the area’s artists has been fuelled by the area’s pressing concerns of... Read more

The Background

1. Introduction
Tanure Ojaide and Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega

2. Towards a Bioregional, Politico-Historical, and Sociocultural Identity of the Niger Delta
Tanure Ojaide

Oratures and Traditional Festivals

3. Form and Content of Ibibio Traditional Festivals: Ekpo, Ekpe and Mbopo
Effiok Bassey Uwatt

4. Traditional Ijo Poetry
Imomotimi Armstrong

5. The Cultural Aesthetics of Benin Traditional Festival Performances
Josephine Ebiuwa Abbe

6. Urhobo Udje: An Indigenous Satiric Genre
Tanure Ojaide

Visual Arts

7. Benin Art: Changes Through Time and Space
Ndubuisi C. Ezeluomba

8. Urhobo Culture and Modernism: Configuring Mutual Reinforcements in the Art of Bruce Onobrakpeya
dele jegede

9. Art for Land and Water: Notes on Urhobo and Their Neighbors

Perkins Foss

Popular Culture

10. Cosmopolitans at One with Homeland: Niger Delta Popular Musicians from Rex Lawson and Victor Uwaifo to Omawumi and Burna Boy
Senayon Olaoluwa

11. Explorations in Pidgin Poetry from the Niger Delta
Sunny Awhefeada

12. "Warri No Dey Carry Last": The Niger Delta in Nigeria’s Stand-Up Comedy Imaginary
James Tar Tsaaior

Environmentalism

13. Environmentalism in Modern Poetry of the Niger Delta
Onyemaechi Udumukwu

14. Nature’s Animism and its Appropriation in Niger Delta Poetry
Reuben Kehinde Akano

15. Narrative Constructions of Eco-disharmony in Selected Niger Delta Novels
Saeedat Bolajoko Aliyu

Conflict Literature

16. "The perfection of chaos": Heeding the nostalgic imperative in selected works by Ben Okri
Rosemary Gray

17. From the Niger Delta’s Viewpoint: The Nigerian Civil War Literature
Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega

18. Bearing Witness: A Taxonomy of Dissent in J.P. Clark-Bekederemo’s Plays
Mabel I. E. Evwierhoma

19. Exploitation, Corruption and Agency in Three Niger Delta Movies
Gloria Chimeziem Ernest-Samuel

Of Writers and Personages

20. Literature, Eco-activism and the Saro-Wiwa Imaginary
Sule Emmanuel Egya

21. The Poetics of Place and the Niger Delta Minority Discourse in Festus Iyayi’s Fiction
Mathias Iroro Orhero

22. Passivity and Agency: The Dilemma of Female Characters in Works of Zulu Sofola, Buchi Emecheta, and Tess Onwueme
Asabe Usman Kabir

Biography

Tanure Ojaide is the Frank Porter Graham Professor of Africana Studies at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA.

Enajite Eseoghene Ojaruega is an Associate Professor of African Literature and Chair of the Department of English and Literary Studies at Delta State University, Nigeria.