Magic Poetry: A Study Of Arugba Invocation In Osun Osogbo Festival

 Oral literature is an unwritten relation that encapsulates African values and aspiration through which their philosophy, customs, beliefs, history etc. are preserved and transmitted from one generation to another by word of mouth. The critical examination of festivals in Nigeria presents highly Aesthetics performances, debunking the Euro Centric assertion that Africans have no literature. The focus of this research work is to attempt/investigate the aesthetic value of Osun festival celebrated by the osun people through the invocation rendered during the festival, which makes it magical in nature. This falls under the category of Religious poetry.

Title Page          i  

Certification          ii

Dedication          iii

Acknowledgement        iv

Abstracts          v

Table of contents         vi

CHAPTER ONE

1.1. Introduction        1

1.2. History of Osogbo       2

1.3. Osun Osogbo annual festival       3

1.4. Purpose of study         11

1.5. Justification         11

1.6. Scope and delimitation        11

1.7. Methodology         12

     END NOTES        12

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction to Oral literature       14

2.2. Forms of oral poetry        17 

2.2.1 Proverbs         18

2.2.2 Praise poetry                 19

2.2.5 Funeral poetry        20

2.2.6 Religious poetry        21

               END NOTES       24

CHAPTER THREE 

3.1. Aesthetics of Osun Osogbo festival                                 26  

3.2. Invocation poem in Osun Osogbo festival     28 

3.3. Analysis of the magical poetry in Osun Osogbo festival    30

      END NOTES        37

        

CHAPTER FOUR

4.1. Findings          38  

4.2. Recommendations       39

4.3. Summary and Conclusion        40

      END NOTES         41

      BIBLIOGRAPHY        42

 

 

It is said that literature reflects life, whether in oral or written works of art. The Eurocentric scholars believe that African is with neither culture nor history which leads this research into some scholar’s definition of culture 

Harris (1971, p1) says “culture refers to the learned, socially acquired traditions of thought and behaviors found in human societies “

Taylor (1871:1) holds the view that culture:

… Taken in its wide ethnographic sense is that

complex whole which includes knowledge, Believe,

 arts, morals, law, customers, and any other Capabilities

 and habits acquired by man as a member of 

 society.                                                      (Taylor 1) 

 The beauty of our culture can never be underestimated because; it is part of what makes up literature. African literature is classified into two parts; the traditional or oral literature and written literature. Oral literature, which is the focus of this study can further be classified into three parts; oral prose, drama and poetry. The oral poetry, the main focus of this study, is forms which are either chanted on sung. There are different forms of oral poetry; praise poetry, religious poetry, occupational, Lullaby, public funeral, poetry. Invocation is one of the sub-parts of religious poetry, which is the focus of this research work on the Osun Osogbo festival.