Toward the Classifications of Idoma Oral Traditional Lyric Poetry

Toward the Classifications of Idoma Oral Traditional Lyric Poetry

This study is a classification of Idoma oral traditional lyric poetry. It analyzes the different components that constitute the oral lyric poetry genre of Idoma oral literature. It defines and explains the various units of the classification, it describes its main facets or dimensions, and it also offers detailed explanations of the context and content of performance of all the components of the classification for purposes of communicating meaning. 

The study adopts survey design. It makes use of primary and secondary sources of information. Interview and observant-participation constitute the primary sources of data collection. Secondary data are sourced from oral performance-related literature, academic research reports in journals and periodicals and books from libraries and internet sources. Analysis is based on New Historicism of Stephen Greenblatt and Michael Foucault. It concludes that Idoma oral lyric poetry is classified into three taxonomical domains such as funeral song (elegy / dirge), song of praise to the king (Ode), and invocation to the gods (incantatory & religious poetry). Subsequently, it was discovered that the texts of Idoma oral poetry are products of a historical context through which the people's cultural and intellectual histories are comprehensively understood.

The study further exposes certain vital functions of oral performances among the people such as entertainment, awareness, socialization, language skills, and political as well as religious-cultural values.

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