Moonlight Games in Urhobo Culture as Creative Dramatics By Atiboroko Uyovbukerhi

Urhobo Historical Society

MOONLIGHT GAMES IN URHOBO CULTURE AS CREATIVE DRAMATICS

By Atiboroko Uyovbukerhi, Ph.D.
Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria

A paper prepared for presentation at the 5^th Annual Conference of Urhobo Historical Society held at PTI Conference Centre, Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria, and Ibru Centre, Agbarha-Otor, Nigeria, October 29-31, 2004.

The games that children play, unlike the games that adults play, are fun games. They are not designed to impress, to persuade, to deceive, or to annoy; they are played for the playing. And that, in a nutshell, is the difference between work and play: play is for no end but its own enjoyment. Work, on the other hand may consist of exactly the same activities as play, but it is engaged in not for the sake of pleasure but for what may be gained as a result. A game is not necessarily play and work is not necessarily work; but play is indeed play. (G. R. Lafrancois, Of Children: An Introduction to Child Development, page 261)

INTRODUCTION

Like children in other parts of Nigeria and elsewhere, Urhobo children play many games on moonlight nights. These games cover a wide spectrum of activities, including “hide and Seek,” “action songs,” “tongue twisters,” “breath control games,” “riddles,” and “puzzles.” It is not clear how and when these games originated but they seem to date back to the beginning of the Urhobos as a people and have survived till the present day. Until the arrival of Television and Radio, these games were played from early hours of the evening (between 6.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.) to around midnight when almost every person in the village or hamlet has gone to bed. These games take place, either in the courtyard of the family homestead (for tender children between five to eight years) or in the main street of the village (for children aged about nine to eighteen years). Wearing a pair of shorts or a skirt often with no shirt on top (in case of boys), or a small piece of wrapper around their waists, the children play these games under the leadership of the most aggressive or the most domineering child in their midst. Reporting on studies done on children’s games in other parts of Africa, Finnegan seems to share a similar view of these games when she writes:

The games are played on a moonlit night in the dry season and the singing, mostly in strophe and antistrophe, is led by one of the boys and accompanied by hand clapping, foot thumping or the action of the game. Often the words themselves count for little. Sometimes the meaning is almost slurred out of recognition… (316).<>

Until recent times these games flourished magnificently in rural communities in Urhoboland. Unfortunately they are fast disappearing from our villages and hamlets, thanks to the combined influence of Television, Radio and rural-urban migration. Unless some effort is made to arrest this threatened extinction of our moonlight games, they may not endure much longer and what is worse, our youths will grow up into adulthood without the benefit of the nurturing activities which have engineered and defined the Urhobo ethos in the past.

The purpose of this paper therefore is twofold: The first is to blaze a pre-cursive trail into the study and documentation of moonlight games in Uwherun clan, one of the twenty-two clans of the Urhobo nation. The second goal of this paper is to show that these moonlight games are an Urhobo version of “Creative Drama,” a valuable resource for the education of our youth and for stimulating the development of their creative talents. But before proceeding further, I find it necessary and appropriate to address some preliminary matters that will hopefully enlighten the ensuing discussion.

One of these preliminary matters is the need to clarify some ambiguities. For example the words “game” and “play” are highly ambiguous. Consequently some effort must be made to clarify their meanings before any meaningful discussion can be attempted. Now the words “game” and “play” ordinarily refer to activities done for fun by adults and children. In her book, Improvisation for the Theatre, Spolin seems to share this view of “game” which she defines as:

An accepted group activity which is limited by rules and group agreement, fun, spontaneity, enthusiasm, and joy accompany games; parallels the theatre experience; a set of rules that keeps a player playing (382)

In recent times, however, the meaning of “games” and “play” has expanded to include activities done for a living by professionals. Such games include football (soccer), basket ball, Lawn and Tables tennis and many others that people play for livelihood. For the purpose of this discussion, therefore, the definition that will be adopted is that proposed by Lowenfeld when she observes:

Children have played since the dawn of civilization, and descriptions of their games are to be found throughout the literature of mankind. Every civilization has handed on to its children, from one generation to another, traditional types of games. Moreover, in reference to children, it is in this sense that to the present day the word “play” is generally used.

Since all the activities of children, other than eating and sleeping, seem to the watching adult to have no serious purpose, a description of them as play appears apt and fitting and to draw a line rigidly, for example, between the play of an individual playing alone and games which are played in groups, seems the act of a purist (Hodgson 46).

In addition to the words “game” and “play” another ambiguous word that needs elucidation is “child”. On the surface, the meaning of the “child” seems quite transparent. It would seem to refer to a living human being within the age bracket of between one to eighteen years or between one to twenty years. But a closer look reveals complex and even unexpected connotations. A child’s status is not always defined only by its chronological age. It can also be defined -- and is sometimes defined -- by other parameters often diametrically opposed to diachronic methods of determining age. Finnegan makes this point quite clearly when she states:

It is common for a ceremonial initiation to mark a clear dividing line between childhood and maturity, often taking place at around the age of puberty, but in some societies (or with some individuals) this may be much earlier or much later. In some cases initiation may be as young as, say, seven or eight years old, and the special initiation songs which are so often a feature of this ceremony might seem to parallel songs sung by similar age-groups in other societies (Finnegan, 304)

It is quite clear from the above statement then, that the definition of the word “child” varies from one community or ethnic group to the other. There might even be variations from clan to clan within a single ethnic group. However, it must be noted that since the advent of Western education in Urhoboland and other parts of Nigeria, the definition of the word “child” has been considerably modified by Western notions of “school children” and “school age”, the idea being that a person attending a primary school or a secondary school is automatically classified as a child regardless of his individual status or classification within his home community. On this note, we may turn to the discussion of moonlight games.

EGBO (MOONLIGHT GAMES): CONTEXT AND NATURE

Moonlight games in Uwherun clan of Urhobo land are fun games. They are played by children on moonlit nights, during the dry season. They are a recreational activity. To be sure there are other games or similar activities that take place on moonlight nights and such games include abo emuo (wrestling) eha egbe (dancing) and esia erhoho or esia egbe (story-telling drama performances) But these games or game-like activities that also take place on moonlight nights are not the focus of this paper and therefore need not detain us any further. The moonlight games, here discussed, are those referred to as “Egbo” These games are characterized by songs, rhymes and movement (realized as gesture, dance and mime) performed “on the principle of the circle, the arch and the line” (Finnegan 313). The songs and chants usually take a “call and response” pattern. For example, the “egbo” games in Uwheru often begin with a call by the leader to all children in the neighbourhood to come forth and form a circle. The call is often couched in coercive language. Here is an example.

URHOBO TRANSLATION

Call: Wayarhe aheha Call: Everybody come forth let’s play

Response: Ayi she riuwovwu Response: They are sitting at home

Call: Ode tobawhare Call: When it comes to farm work

Response: Aye mevworebe Response: They will demolish the weeds

Call: Okro ghogho Call: Their waists are stiffened

Response: Ukei! Response: Like stone!

This opening song calls forth the children from their various homes. Then the invitation to form a circle follows thus:

URHOBO TRANSLATION

Call: Omo r’osiusi-i Call: The child who doesn’t form a circle

Response: Omomwo duvwo karidje! Response: May (the omwa) fish pierce him permanently.

As this song is rendered the children keep trooping out of their homes and joining the circle being formed. It is important to note here that the above song is integral to and simultaneous with the action of using the soles of their bare feet to draw a circle on the ground. Immediately after forming the circle, the children stand around the circle with one foot outside it and the other foot inside. Scooping up a handful of dirt in one hand, the children begin a song as follows:

URHOBO TRANSLATION

<>Leader: Ovo! Leader: One!