THE PERFORMER AS HEALER IN ORAL LITERATURE

Abstract

This study is an examination of the Performer as Healer in Oral Select masquerade Songs in Ijaw. It is a literature of performance through word of mouth and enhanced by its utilitarian values. It isposited in the words of Okpewho (2003) that, “a performance-centred conception of verbal art” (6). The care giver of every oral art is the performer. The concept of Performer as Healer in Oral Literature has received tremendous attention but not enough has been done from a scholarly point of view, and that is the focus of this study. The performer takes different strategies as the arouser, and interpreter of emotions, situations to transport the audience to different spheres. Both physical, psychological and so on, by healing individuals of stress and boredom. This endues the performer as healer in oral literature. The study uses Victor Turner’s strand of “Performance theoretical” approach and psycho-analysis as a
concept in the analysis of selected Ijaw masquerade songs as sample,showing therapeutic effects in oral literature. The methodology is analytical since the data will be subject to critical evaluation. The study concludes that the performer as healer in oral literature helps in
treating psycho-pathetic and emotional situations, just as the Physician, Nurse, Councilor,alike. The performer is a healer of society of social ills through oral literature (performance).