Ikponmwosa Osemwegie’s Ọrọ Epic and Translation: The Past and Prospects of Edo Literature
Uyilawa Usuanlele
This article originates from a book project on Ikponmwosa Osemwegie, an understudied Edo-language epic poet who started writing in the mid-twentieth century, which culminated in Macmillan’s publication of his collection of poetry, Poems in Bini, in 1965. In this article, I offer insights into the book project as a way of shedding light on the work of Osemwegie and the challenges of exploring some aspects of African literature in indigenous languages – with the Edo language of southern Nigeria as a case study.
Interestingly, it was the determination of concerned Edo people to preserve and transmit their language, history, and culture to their children (in the face of hostile Christian missionary work) in written forms that produced Ikponmwosa Osemwegie, his poems, including Ọrọ: An Epic of the Benin-Idah War, and plays in the Edo language. My interest goes beyond the English translation of Ọrọ and some other poems of Osemwegie; I’m also interested in bringing to the non-Edo or English readers the rich poetry, history, and culture of the Edo people, as well as the thoughts of Osemwegie. Apart from Nevadomsky’s introduction and description of Aikay as Nevadomsky used to call him, the book also republishes a long-forgotten review of Osemwegie’s Poems in Bini, done by one of his old acquaintances, Professor Dan Ben-Amos, in Nigeria Magazine in 1967. An addition is a long interview he granted me in 1997, published in the Benin Studies Newsletter of the Institute for Benin Studies. The interview provides a more detailed background to Osemwegie’s artistic career and his contributions to enriching the cultural life of the Edo people, which he spent his life documenting and promoting.
Apart from Osemwegie’s works, review, and interview, Nevadomsky also gives context to the subject matter of the Ọro epic by recounting some aspects of the Benin-Idah war. It ventures into an interpretation of the oral traditions of the war among the Benins, including the role of women in war, or what he called a hagiography of Iyoba (Queen Mother) Idia. The weaponry or armaments of Benin war-making are also given attention, while the art and ceremonial rites the war birthed in Benin culture are not left out. It concludes with an epilogue on poetry and social history in the imagination of social memory. This book, it is hoped, will be read with profit, reawaken interest in Edo literature, and open new vistas for future research.
HISTORICIZING THE TRAVAILS OF LITERATURE IN THE EDO LANGUAGE
ỌRỌ is the culmination of a long journey in the development of literature in the Edo language, which was already in decline when Osemwegie reversed its course in continuation of the effort of the Edo people to produce literature for their children. The development of literature in the Edo language was a product of necessity for the Edo people because of its neglect during much of the colonial era. The British colonization of Nigeria witnessed the patronage of some African languages, which were adopted by both the colonial administration (National Archives, Files BP 951/1914, BP 534) and the European Christian missionaries for both government communication and education (the language of instruction) and conversion purposes. Unlike some other ethnic groups, which received both colonial government patronage and Christian missionary intervention in the development of their languages, the Edo people were not so lucky with the development of written literature in their language under British colonial rule. Still, at that time, there were different efforts made by different functionaries in the colonial administration to produce written documents in the Edo language. The earliest government anthropologist Northcote Thomas made a small start by writing some words of the Edo language and documenting some of the stories in 1910; the District Officer, H.L.M. Butcher, compiled a small dictionary of Edo words in 1932; and the Forestry department similarly compiled names of some trees in Edo for official use in the 1930s. But nothing else is known to have been done for the development of the Edo language until the 1950s implementation of the Adult Education programme under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act.
The development of the written Edo language and literature was left to the whims of the Christian missionaries and patriotic individuals. The attitude of the Christian missionaries was not uniform over time. The Church Missionary Society (CMS), the first to arrive in Benin in 1901, swung between imposing and promoting the Yoruba language to adopting/committing to the Edo language (National Archives File BP 884/1914). In between the swings, the CMS commissioned J.E. Edegbe to undertake translations of a few books of the New Testament, and in the process, an orthography began to take shape in the 1910s. It was only after Rev. W.J. Payne complained about the failure of Yoruba language imposition in 1923 that it was jettisoned for the Edo language (National Archives Files CMS Y 2/2, 15). Alongside an influx of other Christian missionary denominations, the Edo language started to get some attention in the late 1920s. This development had come a little too late as the official English language employed in the transactions of the colonial administration was already upstaging the Edo language in many spheres, along with the more ubiquitous Pidgin or Broken English. Equally being decimated was the indigenous Edo culture and history, particularly in schools, separating the children from their culture by inculcating in them foreign Judeo-Christian cultural practices.
It was only in the 1930s that concerned individuals started to intervene to reverse the slide by writing, advocating, and implementing policies that would contribute to the further development of written Edo language and literature. Jacob U. Egharevba pioneered the writing and publishing of books of history (
Ekhere vb’Itan Edo, 1933) primers (
Ozedu, 1935 and
Agbedogbeyo), and collections of stories (
Okha Edo, 1937 and
Urodagbon, 1948) in the Edo language for school children. Egharevba’s efforts were boosted by Oba Akenzua II, who demanded from the Benin Divisional Council Education Committee the infusion of the Edo language and cultural values in the school curriculum, and he was challenged to produce the materials for the curriculum particularly by the Christian missionaries (National Archives File BP 41 Vol. IX). The outcome of this challenge by Oba Akenzua II was Egharevba’s establishment of Holy Aruosa in 1945, for which he wrote catechism and hymn books.
1 Holy Aruosa, although called a ‘Cathedral’, is a centre of indigenous Edo religious worship modelled on the Roman Catholic Church with its catechism, hymn books, and priesthood – based on indigenous beliefs. It was introduced by Oba Akenzua II (King of Benin Kingdom) in 1945 to counter Christian missionary preaching against Edo indigenous religion. He encouraged Edo people to worship there on Sundays, and he built schools that emphasized Edo culture, language, and religion in the Benin division, supervised by the Holy Aruosa religious establishment. He also built the Holy Aruosa group of schools (1946), which emphasized the Edo language and culture. It was in these schools that the seeds of written Edo literature blossomed, particularly written plays and poetry (Usuanlele ‘Ikponmwosa Osemwegie’s
Poems in Bini: A Critical Study’). Oba Akenzua’s policy intervention dovetailed into the colonial CDWA Adult Education programme of the period, which complemented it in the 1950s when other writers like S.O. Eguavon (
Ebe Edo I-IV 1956), E.O. Igodan (
Egui nei fo vb Okha I, 1958), etc. joined. These later writers were former schoolteachers and school managers who took advantage of the CDWA Adult Education programme to contribute to producing reading materials for schools and the Adult Education programme in the local vernacular as required by the CDWA.
THE RISE OF LITERATURE IN EDO AND THE MAKING OF IKPONMWOSA OSEMWEGIE
Although Oba Akenzua II’s Edo language and culture immersion school and the later CDWA Adult Education programme ran simultaneously, it was the former that produced Ikponmwosa Osemwegie. It was in Oba Akenzua II’s Holy Aruosa School that Osemwegie was grounded in Edo language and culture. His interest in poetry writing was ignited by his teacher Owen Ehondor whom he said was a ‘wizard’ of poetry writing. He not only taught them his Edo poems in school but also taught them to appreciate and write good poems in Edo. Osemwegie then proceeded to ‘Secondary Modern’ school in Benin before he dropped out because of financial difficulties. It was during this short stint of post-primary education that he was exposed to the works of William Shakespeare, whom he claimed was his other inspiration. His elder brother, Gabriel Osemwegie, who was already winning prizes in poetry in the English language, contributed to further honing his writing skills. Rather than follow his brother’s lead, he chose to write in the Edo language, employing the style of European poetry. His choice of the Edo language required him to expand his vocabulary of the language. At this time in the 1950s, there were still many elderly people whose knowledge of the language was not yet affected by the growing influence of the English language and its pidgin variant. He started to pick from the elderly people around him, particularly his grandmother, whom he said was an eloquent speaker. In addition was his acquaintance with the chants of his home village Evbokoi deity of Okhuaihe as well as his later work in the Oba’s palace, which brought him in close contact with the many old chiefs that regaled him with the language, history, and culture. With such exposure, his knowledge of the language and its word stock expanded enough to be used to craft his poems.
The time Osemwegie delved into poetry and playwriting in the Edo language in the 1950s was the most propitious time for the thriving of creativity in colonial Nigeria. The British colonial government had in 1940 enacted the Colonial Development and Welfare Act (CDWA) to address the economic and social problems of its colonies, and implementation commenced gradually after the Second World War. The social welfare component of the CDWA included Community Development and Adult Education programmes (National Archives File BP 2305B). They were to address problems of illiteracy, juvenile delinquency, village reconstruction, and recreation, among other things. To this end, the programmes employed the patronage of writers to produce books in local vernacular languages for adult education, the establishment of the Boys and Girls Club, and the organization of festivals of arts and culture to engage young people. The promotion of vernacular youth clubs and festivals provided an outlet for the unleashing of creative abilities, particularly in vernacular languages.
It was in this milieu of opportunities for creative work that funding for Osemwegie’s schooling dried up. Lacking employment, he engaged in writing his poems and became an itinerant poetry reciter, for which he received applause and occasional cash gifts. His recitation paid off as it enabled him to attract attention and gather a following among young people, who thronged the Boys and Girls Club to participate in play-acting, poetry recitation and writing, singing, dancing, and engagement in visual arts. Similarly enamoured were the monarch Oba Akenzua II and some of the Benin elite. They patronized his plays and the tape-recorded versions facilitated by the British Council. His recitations in schools were the biggest draw that earned him the recommendation to Macmillan to publish his aforementioned Poems in Bini.
Poems in Bini as the first published book of Edo language poetry was an instant hit with the people. Some of the poems in the collection were already well known to many in Benin Division, Nigeria, as Osemwegie was an itinerant spoken word poet and dramatist who traversed the division, reciting his poems to children and playing tapes of his stage plays that held audiences spellbound. Osemwegie’s works were so well regarded that his poetry book received a good review from the renowned folklorist Professor Dan Ben-Amos in the Nigeria Magazine in 1967 (‘Ikponmwosa Osemwegie: A Young Bini Poet’ 250–52). But the man and his poetry gradually faded into oblivion as interest in the indigenous languages receded in many areas of Nigeria (Emovon, ‘Ikponmwosa Osemwegie’s Poems in Bini: A Critical Study’ 103–12), especially in the minority ethnic language areas. It was with the Centenary Commemoration of the British invasion of Benin in 1996 that Osemwegie resurfaced with the writing of a play in the Edo language titled Okuo Ebo, meaning ‘the war of Europeans’ (which was publicized but not eventually staged). Then the National Council for Arts and Culture organized a Poetry and Short Story writing competition in 1997, and his epic poem Ọrọ won. From there his fame was rekindled and held on until he died in 2010. Although his published plays and poetry have since vanished from the market, the recitation of his poems at social functions and social media keeps his memory alive as a writer of repute. Osemwegie had braved the odds against the English language, which had dwarfed the indigenous language among his peers and succeeding generations, to write in the Edo language. Although not a pioneer of poetry writing in the Edo language (Usuanlele 2), he popularized the genre, becoming the first published Edo-language poet and pioneer playwright.
Osemwegie’s choice of language at the time he started writing was like a hearkening to the plea of another pioneer writer, Chief Dr Jacob Uwadiae Egharevba, who had in 1949 lamented the increasing adoption of the English language by his Edo people in his article ‘A ma ze evbo mwan ta wiri’ (meaning ‘if one does not speak one’s language, one is lost’) in the local newspaper Benin Voice (Egharevba 3). The diminution of indigenous languages like Edo and the simultaneous popularization of English among the colonized people (National Archive Files BP 553/1915, BP 2294) was a development that did not take long to manifest among the Edo-speaking people as an ethnic minority group in colonial Nigeria. They needed the English language as a requirement for white-collar employment in both government and private sector, as it was their means of communication.
Just as his choice of language morphed with Egharevba’s call, so did Osemwegie’s venture into epic poetry. Although the writing of Ọrọ started before 1965, as the first two parts were published in Poems in Bini, it almost coincided with the debate on the existence or non-existence of the epic in Africa that was to rage in the 1970s. Since the writing of Ọrọ predated the debate, it is not, therefore, out of place to argue that Osemwegie might have been influenced by long poems of the English literature which were taught in post-primary schools in Nigeria when he was a student. Osemwegie’s admiration of Shakespeare further attests to the European literary influence on his work. But this does not exclude the likely influence of some African and indigenous oral tradition recitations that were lengthy, like the cult chants of Okuaihe during the Ukpoleki festival of his native Evbokoi village, the seat of the chief priest of the Okhuaihe cult.
The reason for choosing the Benin-Idah war of the sixteenth century from among the many epochal events in Benin is unclear. However, it should be noted that the story of Benin-Idah is very popular in Benin folklore. It is also significant as the first major war in which Benin City, the kingdom’s capital, was almost taken for the first time, and the first Benin Iyoba (Queen Mother) Idia went to war, inspiring a popular song. In addition, the victory of Benin in the war brought some new customary practices to Benin, such Ahiamwen Oro (the Bird of Prophecy), the Ema Ighan (mother drum), and Ekassa dance, which are now part of the annual Ugie (festivals), royal coronation, and funeral rites.
ỌRỌ EPIC, NEVADOMSKY’S TRANSLATION AND POPULARIZATION OF EDO HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
The Ọrọ epic, although first published in parts before the debate on the epic tradition in Africa in the 1970s (Johnson, ‘Yes, Virginia, There is an Epic in Africa’ 308–26), it was only published full length in 2008 when the debate had lost steam. But it still adds to the increasing corpus of African epic literature. It is only different by not being part of the traditional oral epic in the tradition of Shaka, Sundiata, etc. that have been transcribed into European languages. This is rather a new composition, inspired by the desire to do for Edo culture what the Europeans have done for their literature with long poems. Apart from its value as a work of literature, it is also about the Benin Kingdom’s military exploits and conduct of the war against Idah. It provides a rich mine of historical information on this war, which was collected from the oral traditions and old people that he was privileged to work with in the Oba’s palace. There have been a few works on Benin’s military history, but the Benin-Idah war, despite its significance in Benin history and culture, is yet to receive well-deserved attention from scholars on the Benin and Igala sides or from foreign scholars. Having personally listened to Osemwengie perform the story of the Benin-Idia war over two days, for over fifteen hours, I can confirm that Ọrọ helps to make the detailed story available to the public while the translation brings it to the English-speaking reading audience through the painstaking efforts of Joseph Nevadomsky.
It is unclear when and how Osemwengie and Nevadomsky first crossed paths. Nevadomsky, a young American graduate of English, history, and philosophy, had come to Nigeria in 1964 on the United States of America Government’s Peace Corps Program. The school poetry recitation trips frequently undertaken by Osemwengie in the 1960s are known to have taken him to Benin Provincial Teachers College, Abudu, where the young Nevadomsky was on a teaching assignment. It is unknown if they met during these visits, but Nevadomsky already showed some interest in Edo culture then, as he claimed to have dabbled in the Owegbe cult (Nevadomsky, ‘The Owegbe Cult’ 187). He returned to the US for graduate studies and later took up teaching employment at the University of Lagos, where Osemwegie was now a research assistant. Their friendship and intellectual collaboration appear to have blossomed there. The relocation of Nevadomsky and his Edo wife, Professor Rebecca Agheyisi, a linguist, to the University of Benin in 1975 brought them and Osemwegie together. Osemwegie had retired to his hometown, Benin, where he was doing some teaching and research consultancy for scholars researching Edo culture. About this time in the early 1980s, Nevadomsky, who had specialized as an anthropologist, had started looking into Benin studies, a field in which Osemwegie’s renowned expertise was very useful to him.
Two major developments – the introduction of Edo language studies at the University of Benin (where his wife was teaching Linguistics and Edo Language)
2 Nevadomsky’s wife, Professor Rebecca Agheyisi was working on her Edo-English Dictionary, which was published by Ethiope Publishing Corporation, Benin City, 1980. and College of Education, Ekiadolor and the coronation of Oba Erediauwa (King of Benin r.1979–2017) would have increased Nevadomsky’s interest in Benin history and culture during this period of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Nevadomsky became involved in many of the activities relating to Benin studies at this time, such as the Centre for Social, Cultural and Economic Research (CENSER), which provided ample opportunities for research and publications into Edo culture, along with the
Benin Series founded by late Aghama Omoruyi-Osula to which he contributed articles (Nevadomsky, ‘Edo Orthography and the Spelling of Ama’). He was later involved in the documentation of the Royal Coronation ceremonies, which he photographed. This brought him in contact with many people, including chiefs, priests, craftsmen, and cultural knowledge producers.
Writing on some of these cultural and historical issues required expert knowledge, which would have taken Nevadomsky to Osemwegie. Osemwegie was not only an informant but also a creative writer/artist, which greatly interested Nevadomsky, who had at one time engaged in some debates about Edo word spellings. Discovering the manuscripts and works of Osemwegie, which had no publishing outlet because of the increasing disinterest in the Edo language, might have made Nevadomsky decide to make these works available in the English language to a wider reading audience. Thus began the translation of the poetry work of Osemwegie by Nevadomsky.
Although Nevadomsky was not a speaker of the Edo language, he sat many long hours with Osemwegie, listening to his translation and trying to make sense of it and finding the English words that best captured the translation in a poetic form. In trying to translate Ọrọ, the problem would have been Osemwegie’s insistence on getting an equally poetic translation. It is not known if the collaborators were ever able to attain the translation desired by Osemwegie. More frustrating was how to get the final version of Ọrọ from Osemwegie, who was never tired of rewriting it in his efforts to achieve poetic perfection. In between getting around these problems, Nevadomsky also translated Osemwegie’s other published poems in his Poems in Bini. He also benefited from the assistance of his wife, Rebecca Agheyisi. It is not known if these translations were completed when Osemwegie passed on. This did not deter Nevadomsky, who continued with the work until he passed away in January 2020.
Since 1996 when Nevadomsky and I discovered each other through our writings, we had been communicating and sharing our passion for Benin studies. Both Nevadomsky and Osemwegie had told me about the translation work since 2000 and had shared snippets of Ọrọ and translations with me; although not involved in the work, I was interested in its outcome. But in a fateful turn of events, a few months before his sudden demise, Nevadomsky contacted me and decided to share the entire work with me. Before I could even examine the manuscript, he requested that I find out how to publish the work in Nigeria, where it would be most appreciated. While I was yet to start on the project seriously, death struck. So, I became entrusted with sharing the creative and scholarly labour of Osemwegie and Nevadomsky, who had been determined to share the richness of Edo literary culture and history with the world.
Nevadomsky has done for Benin studies and the world a great service in translating some of Osemwegie’s published poems, most importantly, Ọrọ, the epic poem that won the First Prize in the National Council for Arts and Culture Edo language Poetry competition of 1997. Apart from showcasing Osemwegie’s poetry, which was unknown to non-Edo readers, the poems, particularly Ọrọ, are a mine of information on the Benin-Idah war of the seventeenth century. Whereas in Benin, the war has been the subject of both oral and written history and the inspiration for other literary works – particularly plays like Jacob U. Egharevba’s The Murder of Imaguero and the Tragedy of Idah War (1950), Emwima Ogieriaxi’s Imaguero (1972), Pedro Agbonifo Obaseki’s Idia and Irene Oronsaye-Agunloye’s Idia: The Warrior Queen (2009) – as Nevadomsky points out, this event, which is much remembered in Benin history, hardly gets any mention in Igala’s written history. It is hoped that with this translation, the history of Igala will be further enriched with their access to this once-inaccessible aspect.
CONCLUSION
This article draws attention to the 2024 publication of Ikponmwosa Osemwegie’s Ọrọ: An Epic of the Benin-Idah War (of the sixteenth century) in both Edo and the translation and exegesis in the English language by Joseph Nevadomsky. It also examines and historicizes the development of literature in the Edo language and shows that it was the local people rather than the colonial government and European Christian missionaries that drove it forward against a background of state indifference and missionaries’ indecision. The local Native Authority’s establishment of the Holy Aruosa schools geared towards local cultural immersion provided the training and creative environment for the emergence of Ikponmwosa Osamwegie, who, at a time of increasing English-language ascendancy and dominance, altered the course of literature in Edo by writing and publishing poetry and plays in the language. It concludes that Osemwegie’s intervention with his poetry and plays in the 1950s inspired and influenced the growth of literature in indigenous languages, and it is hoped that his Ọrọ epic with translation will further engender similar growth.
WORKS CITED
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Egharevba, Jacob U. A ma ze evbo mwan ta wiri. Benin City: Olowoilara Press, 1956.
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Johnson, John William. ‘Yes, Virginia, There is an Epic in Africa’. Research in African Literatures Vol. 11, No. 3, 1980: 308–26.
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