Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2022 - 33

" Ogrinye is performed to commemorate
members of the Igede community who
are successful in their life endeavors, "
such as
graduates,
business
people,
those who got a new job, and retirees.
Edwin Oduma adds another reason for
performing Ogrinye as an honor for those
who returned successful from a hunting
expedition. " When brave men of the
community went hunting and successfully
killed a big animal like Ube, Ugebe,
Ihi, and Eha, community people came
together and celebrate such a brave person. "
However, while the dance steps of
Ogrinye are the same in both the earlier
ritual context and the contemporary social
performance context, the songs and
the ritual acts differ. In the ritual performance
of Ogrinye, songs of war and
chaos are sung, combined with beheading
a chicken. In the social performance
context, songs of praise and elevation are
sung instead.
Following this transformation from
ritual to social performance, Ogrinye
became liberated, and thus can be performed
beyond the boundaries of Igede.
According to Ode Sylvester, " Ogrinye
is performed in other places than the
immediate Igede environment, including
Otukpo and Ado Local Government
Areas of Benue State. " " In these places
of performance, bonfire is used as the
source of illumination. This is because
they cannot be Ogrinye performance
without bonfire, " according to Sylvester.
Ogrinye is highly functional to the
Igede people because this performance
form grew out of the yearning and aspirations
of the Igede people. According to
Joseph Eka " Ogrinye socializes the Igede
people. As people come from across
Igede communities to honor one of their
heroes, they are [eager] to meet each other
and share pleasantries, [which leads
to] peace in the community. " Ogrinye
makes use of sunlight and bonfire as
sources of illumination, with performances
usually beginning in the evening and
lasting until the early morning hours of
the next day. Traditionally, bamboo sticks
(lla'ny'ukungo) and Ochacha were also
placed and lit at the corner of the performing
space by the corner of a thatch
house to illuminate the performance. As
the performance developed, firewood
was introduced and placed center stage.
While the daylight provides ample illumination,
the bonfire produces low intensity
" ...the more
we performed
it, the more
we became
creative with
it. Kwagh-hir is
a performance
that brings
our people
together and
fosters unity
among us. "
-Msugh Hembewua
and visibility, so the aesthetics are potentially
lost to its new audience.
With its re-contextualization, Ogrinye
can also be performed in the daytime for
purely social use. Eka Emmanuel, however,
notes that the bonfire is intrinsic to
the performance to the extent that it is deployed
when Ogrinye is performed in the
day time. Abina Emmanuel adds that " the
bonfire was introduced because when a
member of the Ogrinye group went on a
hunting expedition and killed an animal,
he brought the animal along with yams
to the arena, which were roasted in the
bonfire and consumed by community
members present at the arena. " Once the
woods are lit, they cannot be put off until
the end of the performance. " In addition,
cigarette smokers also lit their cigarette
in the bonfire. The bonfire emits yellow
light and its intensity is controlled by
withdrawing or adding more wood to the
flame. Even in this social performance instance
where sunlight is used, the bonfire
forms a core part of the lighting system
because it holds meaning within the performance
matrix.
Kwagh-hir performances: Kwagh-hir
is a popular and well-cherished performance
culture of the Tiv people. Kende
Kaase maintains that " Kwgh-hir is like a
play. It started as a narrative and metamorphosed
into performance as a result
of growing interests, demands, and innovations.
[This] led to the incorporation
of dance, songs, and other artistry into
the Kwagh-hir " (oral Interview). Kaase
Ayaka adds that " Kwagh-hir is like a play.
It started long time ago when we used to
knit cam wood, say stories, and celebrate
in the process. From this stage it developed
into a form of art. Our children inherited
it and developed it into the form
it took today " (oral interview). Msugh
Hembewua says:
" Kwagh-hir is a beautiful and
wonderful art form. In our community,
like others too, we started it as a
storytelling activity, developed it into
a dance, and the more we performed
it, the more we became creative with
it. Kwagh-hir is a performance that
brings our people together and fosters
unity among us " (oral interview).
In the same vein, Tyohila maintains
that " Kwagh-hir is a play, but one that
uses creative displays in a manner that
is mysterious to the audience " (oral
interview).
On the question of what gave birth to
the Kwagh-hir, Kaase Ayaka says:
" Kwagh-hir began as a form of
storytelling. When we were young,
our parents made us sit under the
bright light of the moon and they told
us stories of brave lions and heirs.
Our Kwagh-hir group, called Kende
Kaase Kwagh-hir, transformed these
stories into dance movements and
dramatization. Subsequently, we
introduced puppetry into the performance,
thus making the different
components of Kwagh-hir such
as animation, masquerades, spirits,
and puppetry " (oral interview).
Tyoapine says that prior to the formation
of the Kende Kaase Kwagh-hir
group, there was no unity, no love, no socialization
among members of Mbatierev
community. " Though it was rough at the
beginning, gradually, things began to
fall in place, " he says. " Our elders would
encourage us to remain positive. We
would carve the puppets and animations
as a family with joy and pride. The performance
brought back the social and
peaceful life we had in the past. "
" Kwagh-hir is a performance that
unites us as a people; it brings us together
in both bad and good times, " says
SUMMER 2022 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY | 33
Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2022

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