ORE FESTIVAL AS INDIGENOUS THEATRE: PERFORMANCE AND RITUAL DRAMATURGY IN THE UWHERU KINGDOM OF NIGERIA

Abstract

African festivals are complex performance regimes that incorporate aspects of ritual, past memory, aesthetics, and social interaction. Ore Festival of Uwheru Kingdom in Delta State, Nigeria, is a theatrical tradition within the indigenous community, rooted in performance and ritual dramaturgy. This research is situated within the theoretical frameworks of ethnomethodology, African Total Theatre, and the Continuum of Ritual and Performance. The study uses a qualitative, performance-based research design that involves recording video footage of the Ore Festival 2023, participating in interviews with cultural custodians, and conducting textual analysis. According to the results, Ore is structured as a consistent dramaturgical unit with cyclical sequencing, mobile staging, symbolic costuming, music, dance, masquerade performance, and participatory spectatorship, all of which are hallmark characteristics of African indigenous theatre. Ore is a recreation of the Uwheru migratory past and a ritualisation of agricultural renewal through embodied performance rather than script-based performance. Ore turns social spaces into vibrant performance arenas. Despite pressures from Christianity and modernisation, the festival remains a performative system rooted in indigenous aesthetics and collective sense. Intensified theatrical critique and ethically executed video recordings are therefore key to legitimising African festivals as theatre and expanding the canon of African performance studies.