Aesthetic Values of Masquerade Drama in Some Nigerian Cultural Communities

Abstract

Masquerade drama is part of the verbal communicative and performative traditions that are passed from one generation to another. These performances link people with their past and reinforce communal values. This study examines masquerade as an indigenous performance tradition in selected Nigerian cultural communities of Ogba, Yoruba, Igbo and Efik. This study investigates masquerade drama in these Nigerian cultural communities not merely as ritual or cultural display but as theatrical institution possessing identifiable dramatic elements such as characterisation, choreography, costume symbolism, musical coordination, performance sequencing and audience interaction. The study is motivated by the limited attention given to the dramatic and performative dimensions of Nigerian masquerade traditions despite their cultural significance. The study adopts a qualitative ethnographic research design. Data were collected through participant observation, oral interviews with performers, elders, and community members, as well as direct documentation of masquerade performances. The study employs thematic analysis to interpret field data, while theoretical interpretation is guided by Victor Turner’s Ritual Theory, Richard Schechner’s Performance Theory, Friedrich Schleiermachers’ Cultural Hermeneutic Theory and Dell Hymes, Ethnography of Communication Theory. The four theories together reveal how masquerade’s language embodies both artistic creativity and collective cultural consciousness. The findings of the study, through this lens, reveal that masquerade language is seen not just as artistic expression but as active tool for mediation and instruction and that which provides interpretive viewpoints that reconstitutes these oral texts in ways that restore their performative richness, values, and sociolinguistic depth which may be lost in transcription. The study recommends that the adaptation of masquerade drama as a genre of literature and that it should be given scholarly attention in Nigerian schools.