Research Review NS Vbl.4 No.1, 1968 THE AESTHETICS OF CREATIVE COMMUNICATION IN AFRICAN PERFORMANCE SITUATIONS tof i Qnmeleh Agovi This Since the appearance of Ruth Fimegan's Oral Literature in Africa, in part a decisive response to the misconceptions of the unwritten literature of Africa, no one seems to have really pursued the full aesthetic implications of her observations, although a 'Performance School1 of folklore researchers has emerged.4- Earlier scho- lars of this school, notably, Nketia (1964; 1970; 1971), Philip Noss (1970; 1984) and Harold Scheub (1970; 1965) focussed their writings almost exclusively on the relationship between the artist, his material and his tecrruques of expo- sition as he interacts with a live audience in the performance situation. approach was intended to underline the individuality of the traditional artist's creativity as well as his improvisational skills in the actual mcment of the perfor- mance. It also helped to consolidate views on the traditional artist's origi- nality, the comnal authorship or other- wise of the material and, equally signifi- cant, his relevance as a syntool of artistic and cultural continuity in his society. The complexity in unravelling such creative relationships in the total artistic product has been captured by Harold Scheub's apt description of the performance situation as a 'unique and evanescent phenomenon1.3 This paper, then, is concerned with the concept of 'performance1 in traditional African literary and dramatic contexts. It attempts to analyse it as a ccnplex, ccmiunicatiye event or a ccnplex creative phenomenon in which the artist establishes a creative relationship between his ima- gination, his message and his audience through the hanronisation of various rredia of expression. It will examine whether in this relationship there is a distinctive individuality to the overall process in a way which emphasises the existence of an original talent and vision of the artist. It will follow up with a discussion of intended reactions and critical evaluations of a target audience and cane to sane conclusions with regard to their aesthetic implications and relevance in the context of the performance situation. The development of 'performance tradi- tions' in several African societies which, according to Nketia, 'give scope to specia- lists to perform on their own, and on their own technical level1 lias also led to important studies that seek to emphasise art traditions and their institutional framework in African societies. Such contextual studies have revealed important relationships between social and cultural factors and performance, including espe- cially the effect of oral tradition on composition and transmission of artistic material. In the process, this has even- tually led to a 'new' perception of the organisation of the arts in relation to performance. Peggy Harper for example, has observed that 'within the range arts traditional to Nigeria's indigenous cultures, the visual, musical, kinetic and poetic arts do not merely relate, they 'inter-penetrate' to the point of merging into an inseparable whole as they meet their audience in the activity of performance".* In Richard Dorson's view, "the bard and the narrator facing their live audience enploy gestures, eye contact, intonation, pantomime, histrionics, acro- batics and sometimes costimes and props as the author of written words never does".7 In effect, writes Harold Scheub, "the drama of performance is an effort to capture both the ritual, the graphic images of transformation, and, more impor- tantly, the fierce focussing of venerable emotions on contemporary change".8 A major concern of this paper is to examine the inter-relation of performer, audience, setting and content material in stipulated occasions and, in particular, the inter- play of camuiication and aesthetics in the 'drama of performance1. In more recent developments, ten Ben-Arcs has argued in his seminal paper, "Toward a definition of folklore in context", that folklore is 'not an aggregate of things, but a process - a caimunicative process, to be exact1. It is not only 'an artistic action1, but it also involves 'creativity and aesthetic response, both of which converge in the art forms themselves'.* These ideas, in a way, seem to have greatly influenced Richard Batman in his study of Verbal Art as Performance.'0 in addition to his view of performance as 'artistic action* and 'artistic event ... involving performer, art form, audience and setting - both of which are basic to the developing performance approach1, he conceives of the performance situation as basically 'a mode of language, a way of speaking'. Although he limits the scope of his study to 'verbal, spoken art1, his overall insights are particularly relevant to the concerns of this paper in its multi-media approach to the problem of creative ccnmunication in performance contexts. First, is Batman's contention comnication assures the 'responsibility to an audience for a display of comnicative competence'. Second, it involves 'accountability on the part of a performer to an audience for the way in which conmuiication is carried out, above and beyond its referential content1. Third, f mn the point of view of the verbal that audience, the act of expression is 'subject to evaluation for the way it is done, for the relative skill and effectiveness of the performer's display of competence'. -And finally, performance is 'marked as available for the enhancement of expe- rience, through the present enjoyment of the intrinsic qualities of the act of expression itself. These considerations seem to have deci- sive implications for the artist's creati- vity, originality and transmission proce- sses. This will be a central concern of this paper. Moreover, there is now the need, as Batman has also pointed out, to expand 'the conceptual content of folkloric performance as a comtnicative phenomenon, beyond the general usage that has carried us up to this point1.11 It is in this regard that the following problems become important to the focus and analysis attempted in this paper: how do traditional African literary artists organise their material to establish camunication lir*s in performances? Are such comnication lines affected by aesthetic considerations or by considerations of function? How do Africans conceive of their creativity and originality in the performance situation? what is their idea of a good performance? How do they assess artistic events per- formed within a single location? The owners and creators of traditional African literature were never, in any doubt of the answers to these questions. African societies have always known that verbal expression, even in the most prosaic context, camunicates effectively when embellished by other forms of expression. They have also known that creative texts and utterances have no validity until they have been Made to conrnunicate in the performance situation. This is because it is the performance occasion which gives birth to me comnication idea, the situation, in which sound, .movement; words and visual.effects are harmonised* for men to relate to an integrated level, of ideas, thought and feeling at a given location or place. KIM3S OF P E R K H W CE SITUATIONS Three performance situations may be identified in terms of creative activity in African societies. There is first the performance situation which focuses atten- tion on the individual artist, allowing him to exhibit his skills and artistry completely on his own. He occupies the centre stage because he is the prime mover of the occasion, as for instance, in the performance of a Griot, story-teller, or a poet-drurmer. Second, on recreational and festive occasions a number of creative artists may perform togther as the focus of attention in the performance occasion. They may either perform independently of each other or groups of artists with related idioms of expression may find it necessary to pool resources together for an integrated performance. In this context, the performance occasion may permit the contextual organisation of related forms of expression which are then effectively integrated to express a cohe- rent set of ideas, thought and feeling for the benefit of the audience. Finally, a performance occasion may consist of a dominating central event such as a ritual or ceremonial occasion, whose primary motivation sMpported, highlighted or given additional expression by creative performances organised in relation to the central event. Creative performances in this context simultaneously become integral and ancillary events to the the performance. is subsequently occasion which motivates integrated In all these situations, a single, contiguous location or area is necessary. Such a location has the effect of prorating an audience response and reaction to the performance occasion. Where several performing groups find themselves in the same contiguous area, they are induced to be conscious of 'other1 groups thereby engendering a competitive spirit which may otherwise be absent in a single-artist performance. Another impor- tant characteristic of such performance situations is that a complex ccrmunication context is provoked in which composite expression becomes important. In other words, a central idea (to be expressed in a given form) is brought into creative harmony with other related forms of expre- ssion; these are in turn intended to reinforce the central idea in order to realise its full camunication potential in the performance situation. So, for ccrrposite expression to take place there is need for one single artistic form to interact with other related forms. The result of this process is the armunication idea, a coherent and compact entity which may then be impressed on the audience through a network of cormuiication symbols. Interestingly, two features of African languages seem to demonstrate a tendency towards 'composite meaning1 through their expression in specific contexts. These are the ideophone and the proverb. Accor- ding to Noss (1984), the semantic possi- bilities of the Gbaya ideophone in narra- tive sessions may include sensations of feeling, smell, touch, sight or emotion.12 Thus among the Nzema of South-west Ghana, if it is said that jcble aze tin - "he fell down tuu", or when in a folktale the narrator says ovandenle tafcba la are oLa aze tuu - "when he lifted spider (in anger) the latter fell down tuu", it reveals an ironic contrast between the weight, size and density of the object and the intensity and duration of its fall. The hunour which emerges is the result of the impact between two physical entities - the spider and the earth - whose densities are unequal. Associated with this physical impact are other visual images such as ease of fall and the expression of pain on the face of a mischievious character. These are intended to reinforce the central effect of hurour. Thus, while the ideo- phone itself is a verbalised sound unit, its total context of use may evoke non- verbal semantic units. The central idea embodied in a given sound is reinforced or amplified by physical, emotional and visual settings of meaning suggested by the context of use. In other words, a rrulti- pie non-verbal image is evoked to support an essentially verbal-centred sound unit. The same feature is shared by the pro- verb in African creative discourse. The African proverb always seems to evoke a central image in a given situation or context. The central image of laziness in the following Tiv proverb - a pregnant woman with a hoe is like a cow dinting a hill13 - becomes significant cnly because it gives rise to other ideas and values which strengthen or complement the total effect. While the central image is visual in character and is the result of a versa- tile verbal painting, the other reinfor- cing ideas that give it validity and depth of meaning belong to the realm of reflection, abstraction thought. Although the sarcasm of the Tiv proverb is as wry and painful as the physical act of movement in the proverb, a moral ques- tion is also evoked: is it right to expect a pregnant woman to work? A pregnant woman burdened with child is not only physically lazy but she is not expected, in that condition, to be hard at work on the farm, however necessary it may be to grow food. A moral evaluation therefore is clearly embodied in the visual image of laziness. Thus, as was argued in relation to the ideophone, a verbalised semantic unit may give rise to a "compo- site" pattern of meaning which involves visual and abstract entities as a major stylistic feature. and In performance situations where indivi- dual artists or groups of performing artists are the centre of attention, the concern is not with composite meaning. The emphasis is rather shifted to ccnpo- si|e expression as a process of realising an integrated conmunication idea. In the performance situation, the individual creative artist who constitutes the focus of attention, is faced with a carpit-ot network of relationships, attitudes and expectations that he has to resolve. He his to establish a distinctive control over his mediun of expression and evoke It is in credibility as an artist. fulfilment of these expectations that the idea of 'composite expression1 in the performance situation becomes perhaps the mast relevant and practical concept for the performing artist in traditional African society. CQJfOSITE EXPRESSION An awareness of the aggregate dmands of an artist's msdiLm is important. As Noss (1970) has indicated, it is impera- tive for the Qbaya narrator to combine and harmonise the skills of the dramatist, actor, public relations officer, dancer and musician in order to realise his' idea of a 'beautiful' or successful tale. 14 Similarly, for a dancer in the ring to respond to the challenge to dramatise, interpret and ccmanicate emotion and ideas simultaneously he has to combine movenant skills with an ear for nusic, a feel for acting, colour, costime and props and a live sensitivity to the mood of the audience,15 while 'eloquence' in song also imposes, in the performance situation, requirements of the skills of an actor, dancer, visual artist and public relations officer. These demands on the artist's perception of and sensitivity to his mediun lead to the creation of a camunication situation where the develop- ment of effective methods of ccmnunicating his intentions and vision beccmss nece- ssary. These methods necessarily involve a reliance on the integration of various other forms of artistic expression in complementary relationship to each other. The total effect is to transform his performance into an act with a distinctive 'personality' of its own, as is indeed expected by the audience. The Yoruba dundun for example is primarily an instru- mental concept which is realised in a music occasion. However, when the perfor- mance starts, it quickly beccmss more than an instrumental concept; it becomes an act of public hcmage in praise, chant, dance, and historical narrative that raises the whole performance into a dis- tinctive form of political drama. Accor- ding to Akin Euba the Iyalu drun - the principal drun in the dundun orchestra - 'may be fittingly described as a dramatic "actor" combining with others to produce a show which has a more than musical interest1.16 The central message of hcmaqe is enhanced or reinforced by rela- ted ideas in dance, chant and spectacle. Similarly, an Apaee performance - an occasion for Executioners' poetry at the Court of the Asantehene - may be trans- formed from the basic motivation of praise and adulation into a dramatic act of political affirmation through mime, costune, dance and the use of props in ccmplementary roles to the primary verbal performance. In these contexts, distinctiveness finds expression in the total end-effect of a given perfor- mance. It is the result of a successful blending process of several artistic elements or forms stamped on the perfor- mance by the personality and ingenuity of the artist. historical and An interesting aspect of this situation is that these 'other forms' of expression are intended by the artist to add signifi- cant dimensions of meaning to the central message of the performance, particularly in terms of helping to create or shape appropriate moods, responses and attitudes to the central massage or idea. As Ktesi Yankah has indicated of an Akan Apaee performance, a reciter for example, ... may either stand idle in front of the Chief or stand a few meters away from .the Chief and move dramatically towards him as he recites. With a sword in his right hand the apace per- former (abrafb) gesticulates and mimes, makes faces, and forms such facial configurations as would depict (and shape) the mood of the poem he reci- tes...17 The use of gesture, poses, facial expre- ssions, colour and props, sometimes inter- laced with dance movements in a libation performance may suggest deliberate levity or seriousness, solemnity or laughter, intensity or dullness and in this way sharply define audience attitude to the core verbal message. Subsequently, an audience's instant and vocal evaluation of a performance - in the form of ulula- tions, honorific gestures and spontaneous participation - becomes important aesthe- tic expressions on the quality of the performance and the effectiveness of the composite ccmiunication process adopted by the artist. Mavertheless, for the literary artist to impose a distinctive personality on his performance, he has to be always in firm control of the perfor- influencing mance, audience participation reaction. For, in the final analysis, it is the artist's hidden intentions of levity, tumour, satire and/or moral earnestness which prevail, and it is through these dramatic elements ccmpositely formulated that those hidden intentions are revealed and conTnunicated to an inmsdiate audience. controlling and and 0>POSITE CCMiJNICATION An important encapsulation, on a rather panoramic scale, of the phenarenon of composite camunication is the ceremonial occasion in Africa. The installation of a chief, conferment of chieftaincy titles, durbar of chiefs, rituals of the tradi- tional state, and festivals are occasions for the display and performance of various forms of artistic activities. In effect, there is always a central event to the ceremonial occasion. This event usually takes place in one location very often in full view of the public either in the village square, in the chief's palace or any other place recognised by the society for ceremonial events. Normally, creative and dramatic activities are performed in support of the main event of the ceremo- nial occasion in the sense of dramatising values central to the occasion. A significant event in the Nzema Kundun - a festival of expiation and reconcilia- tion among the people of South West Ghana - is the performance of the Avudwene song contest. It is a performance intended to extol achievement and exorcise laziness, crime and evil frcm the society through the mediun of verbal insults, praise texts and dramatised postures IS Alongside this main event is the performance of drumiing and dancing as part of the Avudwene. Since the poetic contest and the drurming and dancing session take place simultaneously in one location, the performance context seems to insist on a fusion of these apparently 'separate' performances. In the minds of partici- pants, the music and dance can neither be separated from the Avudwene performance nor can the Avudwene be meaningfully appreciated without regard to the music and dance at the other side of the perfor- mance arena. In this situation, the participant or observer is compelled to take account of all these performances at the sane tine in order to properly define his sense of the occasion. Similarly, among the Mbieri Ibo of Imo State, Nigeria, the Okorosha masquerade is an occasion for celebrating a sense of social proportion through the harmony of dance, music, song and spectacle. It emphasises a sense of beauty and leisure through a deliberate fusion of dramatic, verbal and non-verbal elements that are constituted into a coherent carmunication idea. At the performance itself, the ear, eye and mind of the audience are simultaenously and variously subjected to a kind of competition for attention and control. There is first a group of instnmentalists whose ensemble consist of talking drums, metal gongs and wooden percussives. They play complex and demanding rhythms whose verbal basis constitutes a world of meaning within the total performance. A short distance away, is an enclosure of women singers who clap, dance and ullulate in addition to what their songs have to say. Finally, when the different masquerades begin to appear and dance in the arena one by one, there is a flow of colour, costune and props which go with vigorous dance patterns, verbalisations expressions intended to reflect the character-interpretation of each mask. Movement and visual elements therefore carbine to make total demands on the attention and judge- ment of the audience. The diversity of performance elements seems to offer the audience the freedcm of choice as to what to watch, listen to or evaluate. However, this freedcm is constrained by the central focus of the performance - entertainment and moral education which insists on a unified and coherent caimunication idea or message. In this context, the audience is conpelled to take account of all these diverse elements together in order to derive a sense of a coherent idea or rressage of the performance. Sometimes the process of realising such an idea or rressage may be made less or more difficult for the audience depending on the scope and carplexity of a given occasion. At a recent chieftaincy - title conferment occasion in Isiekenesi in the Ideato Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria,20 the grandeur and spectacle of verbal, non-verbal and drama- tic performances, built on a corresponding design of repetition, gave rise to a carmunication situation whose complexity and elaborateness tended to confuse audience concentration. The central tenet of the occasion - praise and acknow- ledgement of personal achievement - was given simultaneous expression in several related performances. Praise, for exam- ple, was recited and enacted in song, on horns, dams and wooden instruments, it was also expressed in dance formations by wemen and male groups (often accompanied by songs and instrumental arrangements) or choreographed in stylised movements that dramatised values of bravery, courage and group discipline. There were instru- mental groups, song groups and groups which combined song and instrumentation, each enhancing the sense of dignity and achievement intended by the occasion. And finally, the wealth of information in colour, finery, decorations, props and regalia - principally in the form of beads, eagle feathers, caps, stools, fly whisks, bracelets and amulets - consti- tuted a 'spectacle of ideas' that also created its own demands on the attention of the audience. Given this panorama of seemingly 'isolated' performances, renters of the audience were kept in perpetual motion, moving from one performance to the other, in an apparent attempt to take in aspects of all the performances. The ccmpetition for audience attention and its continued retention therefore became more lively in this context and necessarily gave rise to the finest exhibition of competitive skills by all the groups, whe- ther the performance was visual, aural or kinetic, a certain degree of excellence was required to attract and keep an audience in search of its idea of a 'good' performance. Consequently although the incidence of audience mobility was high, the degree of audience participation at any of the performances was a good indica- tion of the kind of artistic excellence on display. In other words, a ccrmnication situation was brought into play which enabled participants to make carman compa- risons and cannon aesthetic judgements of all the performances. These judgements or standards necessarily had to be applied across the board, in a uniform manner and in a way which would psychologically reflect the unitary character of the total perfor- mance because to the audience, each of these creative events shared the ccrmon vision of the occasion. In such a situa- tion, the standards for judging 'a good performance1, even in the context of distinctive or related artistic forms may not be as varied as one would expect. Normal distinctions and creative standards associated with distinctive forms may, in a sense, be either suspended, compromised or relaxed in accordance with the expecta- tions of a given performance occasion. Where this happens, the success or strength of the ccnmunication idea becares a good indication of the quality of the fusion process which has taken place in support of the main theme of the occasion. 1TC ARTIST'S CREATIVITY Performance occasion then is a crucial concept in the formulation, interpretation and evaluation of traditional literary and dramatic performances. Indeed, the ability of a performance occasion to evoke a dominant camunication idea or message fncm a multiplicity of related artistic forms has important consequences both for the literary artist and his audience. For the latter, it is an occa- sion that compels a unique form of ccmru- nication in which their1 sense of the beautiful is realised on a nutter of artistic levels. It is also a time for establishing a ccrrmunication situation in vjhich cherished ideas and values are enacted or affirmed, enabling each member of the audience to acknowledge and accept his essential relatedness to the corporate ccrrrnunity. For the literary artist, on the other hand, the performance occasion enables him to realise his creativity and celebrate his iimDrtality in the minds of his audience It is a framework for the flowering of the artist's creativity in terms of his commu- nication idea or vision. It provides the means for establishing a relationship between imagination and manipulation and is the occasion for arousing the audience to take note of important values of the imme- diate occasion. Thus the creative artist in the perfor- mance situation has to be aware of comple- mentary forms of expression that can help him realise his creative idea effectively. in addition, he has to acquire the basic skill to blend and integrate all the ccmplementing forms of expression into one coherent artistic product. Aid, it is in this formidable task of the moment - the process of creating harmony, compo- sing his vision through the careful selec- tion, deployment and integration of related forms - that his creativity and originality may be appreciated. The novelty of his massage and the distinc- tiveness of his vision depend to a large extent on this process of composition, of blending and harmonising in judicic ;s proportions, the artistic ingredients that ccnplement the demands of the specific medium, thus the ccnposition which takes place for exaiple in a story-telling session may not only be the narrator's cleverness with words or his ability to 'renew' a tale through an imaginative verbal painting or his ability to relate a tale to an audience. That of the singer or libator may not necessarily lie in the creative use of voice or the emotional sharpness of the verbal content. Composition, upon which the creativity and originality of the literary artist is judged in African socie- ties is the sun-total of a certain creative complex or essence arising out of tie artist's skill in deploying verbal and non- verbal elements appropriate to his chosen mediun and vision. For a literary work to be considered successful, beautiful or relevant, it ought to achieve a distinctive personality of its own, a personality which depends on a telling harmony between sound, movement, words and visual effects for man to relate to an integrated level of ideas, thought and feeling, as already observed. CONTBfl" OR FORK? This creative complex or essence is even suggested by the recognised names and titles that traditional society bestowed on its artists. The Kabyle Berbers of Algeria call their traditional poets Iferrahen - 'those who rejoice, who give joy to mankind and sing of universal experience1. The Court poets of Bini in Nigeria are known as Ugboron - 'men of Heavensgate' and the Griots of Senegal Gambia, Mali and Guinea are known as fyankala - 'the memory of mankind'. Similarly, the Nzema of South- west Ghana call their poet-cantors Eanen- leaa - 'the silent rememberers', while the appellation of the Atupan d am poet of the Akan of Ghana is Odbntana Kyerema - 'God's Tongue' or the 'Creator's Dormer'. These names and titles, few as they are here, are suggestive of the emphasis on the poet's message rather than on his primary mode of presentation. Since the traditional society shared the artist's profound concern with significant camuiication it recognised the artist by names that identified the artist with the creative content of his art. A system of recognition based on the significance of the artist's massage or carmtnication idea made content rather than form a mare important consideration in the creative process of the traditional artist. Mareover, in the irmediate context of performance the artist beccmes more concerned with caimunication as a system of effective ways and means than anything else because he is compelled to enter into a dialogue with an inmediate audience that attaches inportance to content expression in literary performances. In addition it is also a means of acknowledging the artist's alle- giance to ccnmnication as an expressive tool of his creativity. The artist and those who assess him regard comnicaticn as a process of effective selection, delibe- ration and integration towards the emergence of a coherent message. Since quality of the message depends on a 'blending process', the concept of composite structuring becomes important. It enables the artist to free his vision from an obsession with form in order to concentrate on a cohesive percep- tion of a creative process that stresses the relationship between ear, eye and mind. CQHUJSICN Consequently a primary aesthetic consi- deration in traditional African society is a belief in the integration of the senses as a prerequisite for total creative inter- course. The literary artist realises his creativity and vision only in the perfor- mance situation where irrespective of his chosen mediun, he stretches skill and imagination to deploy verbal and non-verbal elements in one sustained attempt to appeal to the 'total man1 in terms of his ear, eye, feelings and mind all at the same time. A caimitment to a composite realisa- tion of art in the performance situation therefore is, in effect, a coirnentary on the literary artist's profound awareness of 8 the need to appeal to the total man thrccgri a creative process in which there is a progressive ordering and integration of man's senses and perceptions towards meaning and relevance. and 3. • Florida: African Studies Association, p.3. S. Dan Ben-Amos, 1975- Toward a defini- tion of folklore in context, in Toward law Perspectives ia Folklore. American Folklore Society, p.9-10. NOTES 1. This paper was first presented at the Yaounde Conference on Oral Litera- ture organised by Project Guelp, University of Yaounde, Cameroon from 28th January - 1st February, 1985- Both the title and text of the paper have been modified in this version. 2. Ruth Finnegan, 1970. O nl Literature ia Africa. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 2-3. 3. Harold Scheub, 1970. The technique of the expansible image in xhosa ntsomi - performances, in Research ia African Vol.1, No.2. litarataras, %. J.H. Kwabena Nketia, 1979. African traditions of folklore, in Iater- natioitala Gssallschaft fir Irhebe- rracfct, Band %, Austria: Manzsche Verlags. pp. 223-%. 5. See Nketia, 1963, Dramming in Akan Coamaities. Edinburgh, Thomas Nelson and Sons; 1966, Music ia Africaa Cultures- University of Ghana, Legon. p. 22-32; 1970, The Creative Arts and the Community, in Proceedings of tk« Gfc*aa Acadeay of Arts aad Sciaceas, Vol. VIII., Accra. 6. Peggy Harper, 1981. The inter- relation of the arts in the perfor- mance of masqueraders as an expre- ssion of oral tradition in Nigeria, in Hack Orpheus, Vol.%, No.1. p.1. 7. Richard M. Oorson, ed. 1972. Africaa Folklore. New York, p.11. 8. Harold Scheub, 1985- African oral tradition and literature, in Tat Africaa Stadias laviaw Vol.28, No.2 10. Richard Baunan, 1977. Verbal Art as Performance. Massachusetts: Newbury House Publishers Inc., pp. 4-11. 11. R. Bauman, op.cit. p.%. 12. Philip Noss, 198%. The ideophone in Bible translation: child or step- child? Paper presented at the United Bible Societies Translation Workshop in Stuttgart, p.5. 13. Personal Communication from one of my students in the University of Cala- bar, Nigeria in 1983. 1%. Philip Noss, 1970. The performance of the Gbaya tale, in Research ia Africaa Literature*. Vol.1, No.1. pp. %5-%8. 15- Kofi Agovi, 197%. aesthetics the Africaa literature. tute of African Studies, p. 10. Observations oa traditioaal of Legon, Insti- 16. Olatunji Akin Euba, 197%. Dundun Music of the Yoruba. Vol.1. Ph.D. thesis, University of Ghana, Insti- tute of African Studies, p. 530. 17. Kwesi Yankah, 1983. To praise or not to praise the King: The Akan ApaeE in the context of referential poetry, in Research ia Africaa Litarataras Vol. 1%, No.3, p. 385- 18. See Kofi Agovi, 1979. Koadaai: Festival Dram* Aaoag the Ahamta-Nzam of South-Vest Gaaaa, Ph.D. Thesis. University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies, p.206. 19. The result of field research conducted in the area in December, 1983. 20. Part of field research conducted in August, 198%. 21. Quoted from Kofi Agovi, The Poet's Politics in African society. Paper presented at the Conference of New Writing in Africa, Commonwealth Institute, London, 1st %th November, 198%. pp.7-8. -