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PAPERBACK ISBN: 0-88258-108-2 $37.95 456 pages; 6 x 9 inches
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The Ozidi Saga: Collected and Translated from the Oral Ijo Version of Okabou Ojobolo by J.P. Clark-Bekederemo
According to Ijo tradition, the high priest of the god of the Tarakiri Clan was worshiping at the shrine one day when he fell into a trance and the story of Ozidi was revealed to him in a vision. As soon as he woke up from the trance, he began to enact the story. Subsequently, he took it from town to town. The epic was originally claimed by the Tarakiri Clan, but it has now become the property of all Ijo-speaking people in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Told over a period of seven nights to music, dance, and mime, the story of Ozidi is both epic and dramatic performance. It celebrates the exploits of Ozidi, a young warrior who sets out to avenge the murder of his father. Undergoing many trials, Ozidi is victorious because the gods favor him; but he offends the gods through his excess of violence. He is punished, and with his purification the social order is restored. In transcribing and translating The Ozidi Saga from the oral Ijo account of Okabou Ojobolo, J. P. Clark-Bekedermo has preserved the great oral epic of the Ijo people for future generations. In his critical introduction to The Ozidi Saga, Isidore Okpewho discusses the geographic and cultural origins of this traditional epic and compares its structure and content with other epics.
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