VOlUME 01 ISSUE 01 SEPTEMBER 2024
Dr. Ben-Fred Ohia
Department of English and Literary Studies, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Haracourt, Nigeria
ABSTRACT
Some major themes and styles in Ogba funeral song are discernible as the composers make use of conventional themes of the events in the society using unique features that mark them out as oral literature. Ogba funeral songs explore many thematic concerns and styles of rendition, which convey messages as prevalent forms of expression. They exist in various forms and are performed by both men and women respectively in an occasion of death and vigil night held in honour of the dead person. The themes encompass the aspects that eulogise the dead for their good attributes and achievements while alive and also for lamentation. The artist often may adopt two unique modes of expression: A deliberate exploitation of the resources of language and its functional and exaggerated rather than purely historical reference to social reality. The paper explores all these aspects in themes and styles of performance in Ogba funeral songs as sworn in the twelve songs rendered in this paper. The themes of Ogba funeral songs are categorised into five major groups namely anger/sorrow, bravery/heroism, praises/eulogies, expectation/endurance and motherhood/fatherhood. The paper discovers that death is condemned and the deceased is praised while the loss is wished away by the expectation of the deceased’s family. Consequentially, the paper concludes that Ogba funeral songs performs some therapeutic functions to console and encourage the bereaved family to brace up with life’s challenges orchestrated by the death of their family members and enjoined them to have their consolation in the fact that there is life thereafter as life itself is a continuum. The paper recommends the acceptance of the Ogba funeral song as a therapy for loss, anger, sorrow, and death, in its entire.
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