HOW WRESTLING BECAME LEGENDARY IN IKWERRE LAND OF RIVERS STATE PORT HARCOURT IN NIGERIA 🇳🇬

Abstract Wrestling is one of the most celebrated cultures of the Ikwerre people, especially in Elimgbu community of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State of Nigeria. Wrestling is dialectically known as “Egelege” both in Elimgbu and Otah and other parts of the Ikwerre communities. It is one of the physical calisthenics that tend to foster unity amongst the people. The idea is to situate the (Egelege) wrestling contest as a typical traditional theatre. This work goes into the study of rituals and wrestling festival in Ikwerre land, but with a focus on the theatrical dimension in Elimgbu wrestling festival in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. The work looks at such relevant aspects as the performer and performing styles, dialogues, music, dance, movement, and performance area. The study identifies the problems and prospects of wrestling festival in Ikwerre clan and its attraction to tourists. The work concludes that there is a mutual relationship between ancestors and performers, and that ritual and performance are in harmony before metamorphosing into entertainment. Finally, it is recommended that the festival be given greater relevance as a tourist based project. 1. Introduction African communities are flooded and unique with several festivals and ceremonies which are tied to their cultural activities and their upbringing. These celebrations are fundamental aspects of the lives of the people, hence assimilated as a pattern of life which has informed a better part of the people. The thrust of this paper is to study the traditional indices of wrestling festival with a focus on rituals thereof. Wrestling is one of the most celebrated cultural activities of the Ikwerre people in Elimgbu community of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State of Nigeria. Wrestling is dialectically known as “Egelege” in Elimgbu and it is one of the physical calisthenics that tends to foster unity amongst the people. The aim of this research is to situate the (Egelege) wrestling contest as a typical traditional theatre. Africa, like other regions of the world, is not devoid of this collective expression of life which ignites a sense of communal existence and togetherness in Africa. Thus, there is a serious need for a definitive acknowledgment of the place of the cosmos in their lives and a sensitive expression of their will to communicate with the natural forces. The ritual, which can be seen as performance cannot be left out. This is a theatrical experience to serve as a reliable tool to project the people’s culture to the outside world. These activities are presented on stage, street, aquatic etc. Therefore, theatre in this regard is a place where theatrical activities take place. It is a vital institution of the human society which by its very nature means a place of communication. The theatre is not only the building but the presentation of artistic forms for edification and entertainment. It, therefore, presupposes the presence of four (4) elements or units. In this direction, there is the play. Also, the play in most cases is called drama and this is derived from the Greek word “dromenon” which means (doing). The play element has psychological and religious or magical functions. Simply put, man was first a farmer and a hunter reacting to his physical environment, he began to develop a religious disposition i.e. by becoming aware of certain virtual forces in his environment which provided his specific. Ayakoroma in Burn defines theatre thus: An arena in which it is possible to study manifestation of the social values, forms, and conventions of society, also the images of social reality, which people of different kinds at times have construed for themselves. (4) The basic objective of the arts is to typically present both outer and inner experience through speech and action. 2. Historical Background of Elimgbu Eze G.W. Uche, the Royal Highness of Uchecheolu community in Elimgbu clan in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, volunteers in an oral interview that Elimgbu is the last son of Igwe whose real name is Mgbumsulem. Mgbumsulem abbreviated his name as which remains till date as Mgbu. Mgbu afterward founded the community that was named after him which was later called Elimgbu, meaning Mgbu’s land towards the end of 17th century. He reveals that Mgbu is the son of Igwe, Igwe, son of Esara, Esara is the son of Evo, Evo, the son of Obio and Obio the son of Ihoruoha which was later nick named “Ikwerre”. The people of Elimgbu were predominantly farmers, fishermen, and hunters. These occupations have remained significant as basic means of livelihood in Elimgbu. The farmlands are located within the communities and apportioned among adults who have been initiated into age grades. The people basically earn their livelihood through agricultural produce. Human societies are satisfactorily characterized by one form of ritual activity or another, which can be further stressed as a theatrical activity or another. The main reason is to give a form of recreation and by extension preserve the people’s history and culture. 3. Theoretical Framework: Antonin Artaud’s The Theatre of Cruelty There are hodgepodges of classical and modern ritual theorists in history as postulated by different scholars. For instance, Victor Turner (1920-83) theorized Are There Universals of Performance in Myth, Ritual, and Drama?(1989), Peter Brook (b. 1925), The Holy Theatre: Happenings (1968), etc. This study adopts Antonin Artaud’s theory of The Theatre of Cruelty, (1932). In this theory, Artaud postulates that: We cannot go on prostituting the idea of the theatre, whose only value lies in its excruciating, magical connection with reality and danger. Stated this way, the question of the theatre must arouse general attention, since theatre, because of its physical aspect and because it requires expression in space (the only real expression, in fact), allows the magical means of art and speech to be practiced organically and as a whole, like renewed exorcisms…(89) (qtd. In George W. Brandt). 3.1. Historical Overview The theatre is also the offshoot of the people’s festival from every civilization in the world, the theatre is said to have originated from ritual worship-festivals. In fact, Greek dramatic developments were found in connection with festivals in honour of Dionysus in Greek mythology, was the god of wine and vegetation who showed mortals how to cultivate grapevines and male wine. The worship of Dionysus probably originated in Assyria of Thrace (in the near east or Asia mirror). Oga submits that: It is the festival of the city Dionysus that drama was first presented in an organized in 534 BC. It is an important one because it marks the beginning of a real organization that developed drama into theatrical phenomena. (6) In African context, theatre and drama are likewise claimed to have been originated from ritual worship, which Rozik has observed that the Cambridge school of anthropology as represented by such scholars as Jane Harrison, Gilbert Murray and Francis McDonald Comfort uphold that ancient Greek drama originated from ritual worship, citing the Dionysian propitiatory rites of the sixth century B.C. Obuh asserts that: Beyond the reference to the Dionysian ritual originating theatre, the Cambridge school, perhaps, due to the assumption that ritual is tied to primitive worship, the shamanist theory to demonstrate the transitional route of ritual to drama. (112) Therefore, the school claims that it is only when Sherman’s rite loses its religious/spiritual potency that the act becomes an art. Put differently, it is only when a communal performance de-emphasizes or discards its propitiatory content that it can evolve into the theatre. By assuming this critical position, the Cambridge school is clearly concerned with extricating the so-called sophisticated European culture as embedded in their theatre from primitive happenings’ presumably encoded in rituals. To corroborate these theories, Brockett states that: Primitive rituals contain gems of drama because music, song dance, masks, and costumes were almost always Ritual Contents in Ikwerre Wrestling Festival-Azunwo & Chigozirim 209 used. A suitable site had to be provided for the performance of such rites and when the whole tribe did not partake in the performance, it's clear division was normally made between the actual performers and the gendered community. In addition, the actual performers were necessary, since mistakes were to be avoided in the enactment of rites so as not to invite the wrath of the gods. These early performers were the priest’s attendants who wore masks, imitated men, animals, supernatural beings and mind the designed effects. (58) African traditional theatre evolved from ritual festivals. It is an expression of the people, institution and experience of the communal society. Therefore, African theatre like the Greek theatre is a creation of man’s social and historic experience that attempts to explain the relationship between man, gods and the environment. Wrestling is a form of theatrical experience in Ikwerre context. It is in its totality a traditional festival that unites the people together. Wrestling contributes to the high level of social interaction that exists amongst the people. It is, therefore, one of the vibrant forms of Ikwerre culture and by extension Elimgbu festivals that entertain, inform and educate its audience. Simply put, wrestling is a sport in which two opponents try to pin each other’s shoulder to the floor. The performers use maneuvering techniques called holds to grip their opponents and control their movements. However, successful wrestling demands strength, speed, accuracy, coordination, balance, physical conditioning and knowledge of the body movements. Furthermore, whenever a traditional wrestling festival is organised in Elimgbu, there often exist myths which link it and its innovator to a stage in the people’s history and development. In different parts of Ikwerre, various versions of the same myth are told from one village to another Also, in areas where no origin myth exists, noteworthy ancient events which help to explain the evaluation of the people’s world are recalled, reconstructed and retold as stories and even passed on from one generation to another. Obuh reveals that: In places like Omagwa, Diobu, Ogbakiri, Elele and environs where this research was undertaken two creation myths are common and popular. The first has a hunter as the founder of traditional wrestling. The hunter is said to have encountered a gorilla (the totem animal of these communities) during his expedition. When the hunter dares to shoot the gorilla, the gorilla latter signaled frantically to stop the hunter. In return for sparing its life, the gorilla promised to teach the hunter an art of self-defense (46). In the wrestling context that ensured between the gorilla and the hunter, the hunter was felled three times by the gorilla. In the fourth round, however, the hunter hurled the gorilla down having learned the technique of wrestling from experience. The gorilla exhorted the hunter to teach the act of wrestling to others. That injunction was obeyed and this signaled the spread of wrestling to other areas. According to Obuh, the second myth seems to be the invention of people in the border areas of Ikwerre which are constantly raided by marauders, especially during the notorious slave trade which occurred between the 16th and 18th centuries in the West Coast of Africa. This second myth links the development of wrestling to the needs to train people who could ward off the incessant raids at the community(s) borders. Elechi Amadi’s Isiburu is a dramatization of Ikwerre wrestling festival. In the play, he creates a powerful protagonist in place of Isiburu Eperito Ritual Contents in Ikwerre Wrestling Festival-Azunwo & Chigozirim 211 portray the most powerful wrestler in the society of the play. In the play, Isiburu Eperi, the crab, who swings across Obaji (the ocean) is the greatest wrestler in Ikwerre Ochichi for six years, who has beaten all his rivals – Ota Achara of Aluu, Okpokolebe of Igwuruta, Azo Dimgba of Isiopko and Osimiri of Ibaa and needs to beat them again in the seventh year in order to be declared the indisputable champion of Ikwerre Ochichi. While Njoku is of the opinion that: “Wrestling contest involves rhythm and harmony, singing, drumming, dancing and vocalization etc. spent in.