Aesthetics of Oral Performance in Akeem Lasisi and Niyi Osundare’s Poetry: An Appraisal of Onarebu (Proce) and Not in my Season of Songs
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Date
2024
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Abstract
Poetry occupies a predominant position in Yoruba oral performance tradition and continually manifests in distinctively changing forms. One such distinct form is performance poetry, which, due to its highly adaptive nature, yields to diverse oral performative presentations. Earlier works done on this characteristically oral manifestation of poetry have concentrated on themes and aesthetics, with little attention paid to processes of the oral delivery itself, particularly as deployed by individual poets. This study is, therefore, designed to examine oral performance processes by two Yoruba poets, Niyi Osundare and Akeem Lasisi, with a view to determining how their approaches have changed the Yoruba oral performance’s poetic tradition and constituted important means of its continuity. The interpretive design is utilised. One poem each of Niyi Osundare and Akeem Lasisi is purposively selected based on their richness in Yoruba oral performance characteristics. Data are subjected to literary analysis. Niyi Osundare and Akeem Lasisi’s poetic compositions are basically characterised by a strong musical ambiance which often manifests in songs, dance with the accompaniment of various musical instruments, notably, Yoruba drums. Other performance-oriented characteristics common to both poets are performer-audience interaction, call-and-response strategies, chanting, code-switching, witticisms, as well as uniquely inventive Yoruba-inspired English neologisms.