The inter-relation of the arts in the performance of masquerades as an expression of oral tradition in Nigeria

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Periodical article

Title:	The inter-relation of the arts in the performance of masquerades as an expression of oral tradition in Nigeria
Author:	Harper, P.
Year:	1981
Periodical:	Black Orpheus: A Journal of African and Afro-American Literature
Volume:	4
Issue:	1
Pages:	1-6
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	Tiv Yoruba masquerades traditional festivals
Abstract:	Within the range of arts traditional to Nigeria's indigenous cultures, the visual, musical, kinetic and poetic arts do not merely relate, they 'interpenetrate', to the point of merging into an inseparable whole, as they meet their audience in the activity of the performance. The central formal element in which the arts meet is rhythm: the inner pulse of a central rhythmic experience from which visual, oral and kinetic patterns originate and in which they finally unite in performance. To prove this, the author describes the Gelede festival which she studied in the Western Yoruba village of Ijio in 1970, and the Kwagh-hir dramatized storytelling of the Tiv over the past ten years. The author doubts whether the interrelated complex of the arts centring in rhythm will continue as a basis for creativity in contemporary Nigerian theatre. Ref.