Ibibio Drama

Abstract

Opening ParagraphIn one of the few essays on drama in non-literate societies, Melville J. Herskovits pointed out that the subject had been little studied, and what we knew must ‘be gleaned from ethnographic accounts of rituals and dances of various sorts, descriptions whose primary intent is to explain other phenomena’ (Herskovits, 1944, p. 685). To Herskovits, as to most other anthropologists, drama among primitives was manifested only in religious ceremonialism—‘ritual drama’—and the formal recitation of prose narratives—‘secular drama’. It may be admitted that theatre in our sense appears to be rare in the non-literate world, but it is found among the Ibibio-speaking peoples of south-eastern Nigeria, where the ‘arena theatre’ (Brockett, 1969, pp. 470-4), professional actors, plots with memorized dialogues, rehearsals prior to public presentation, and props, costumes, and make-up are present.