Tanure Ojaide: African Battle Traditions of Insult

The essays in this book thus delineate the battle traditions of insult through verbal arts, songs/poetry, and performance from their presence in Africa, espe­cially the Udje and Halo of the Urhobo and Ewe respectively and other African variants, their transportation to the Americas and the Caribbean region during the slave trade period, and their modern and contemporary manifestations as Battle Rap, Yabis, or other forms of popular music in Africa. Almost everywhere there are contemporary manifestations of the more traditional older genres. The study affirms the vast geography of a diaspora in its dispersion of the Mother Continent’s cultural practices to other lands far away. In this case, the United States, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, and Brazil, among others, are new lands in the practice of these artistic confrontational contests. It is instructive to know from this study that cultural practices do not only move from the Mother Continent into the diaspora but transformations and syncretizations of these artistic prac­tices also go back from the diaspora to Africa and back again to the dias­pora.

The essays will reveal that these performances enable not just a sense of group solidarity but also a sense of individual and community competition. Having a sense of belonging and a competitive spirit are important values to the African.

So, what is glaring about the battle tradition of insults through verbal exchange, song-poetry composition, and performance of Africa and the African diaspora is one cultural phenomenon undergoing varieties of transformations and drawing on new realities and experiences to be defined for what it is—a battle of poetry/songs and performance of the African world. And, as will be expected, what are the ongoing new forms of these traditional artistic forms? There is no doubt that a diaspora involves carried-over practices that entrench the cultural identity of its people and this artistic tradition of songs and performance does that for Africa and its diaspora.

Both Halo and Udje, from their respective histories, trace the origin of the artistic battle traditions to social and human efforts to channel their anger, rivalry, competitiveness, and hostilities from the physical to the artistic. Instead of rivalry to be exhibited physically, they surmised it would be better done artistically. The sparring of partners through the resources of the imagination ennobles the two sides in their pursuit of artistic excel­lence and entertainment. Which of the parties is more quick-witted, poetic, humorous, and performative? The audience always seems to know the rules of the artistic practice and adjudges one side winner of the two-side contest.

The objectives of the founders of this tradition is to use it as a peace-building mechanism to manage the many conflicts that beset them at vari­ous levels of social habitation such as individual personalities, quarters of the same town, villages, and even towns. Thus, the tradition is a conflict resolution and peace maintenance mechanism because without it there would be a lot of physical conflicts that undermine the stability and peace of society. In the infinite wisdom of the old in traditional African societies, they devised a means to avoid bloodshed which had depleted many of their communities and worsened the chaotic state during the slave-raiding period for an agreed-upon novel way of settling scores—not by physical fighting but verbal/poetic shots that would bring out the best in their imagination, entertain them, and, in fact, bring them together on occa­sions, and laugh at each other, and reflect on their own lives. Masculinity was no longer a macho thing of physical prowess of fighting or wrestling, violent undertakings, but an artistic contest of the most imaginative, poetic, witty, humorous, and artistically superior.

Similarly, the battle traditions of insult in the diaspora play a role in the societies. For example, the Dozens is a rite of passage for young blacks. “The Dozens trains a participant in the art of self-control; to remain calm and unfazed when a form of violence is being enacted upon you. Participants learn the value of self-respect and self-love; they learn the value of a sharp mind in order to defend themselves as well as how to dis­guise their vulnerability and insecurities. The engagement in the verbal game readies the participants to the experiences that are inherent in the oppressive society in which they live.” The Greek Step Show, Calypso, and Jongo also teach discipline and self-control in the face of pressure.

For peace to be kept the founding fathers (and mothers) knew that the people, community, and audience must gain something to make turning away from violence worth it. The artistic verbal arts are almost always couched in laughter. As the Urhobo say, laughter is “sweet”. The practitioners of these artistic battles expect intellectual and physical forms of delight in the witty and poetic verbal arts and also their sheer humor. Wit and humor are thus essential parts of the tradition. After each performance, the audience/spectators share their responses to the beauty and wit of the songs and performance. They relish the images and stunning tropes deployed to sing about a person. Highly imaginative met­aphors are used to describe opponents to elicit laughter in these insults especially in Udje, the Dozens, Jongo, Calypso, and Yabis. As already noted, there is fabrication of materials to meet the demand for humor. A performance of these battle arts without humor is dubbed a failure. It is not surprising about the stretch of facts and the imagination in Calypso, Udje, Halo, the Dozens, and Capoeira and Jongo to deploy so much that would make the audience or spectators to burst out laughing. No wonder, too, many of these practices take place during festivals when folks are expected to be relaxing and having holidays. Laughter, after all, is a good communal medicine to avert physical and violent confrontations.
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A lot of mediations have entered these battle traditions of verbal arts, song-poetry, and performance. As would be expected of diasporic tradi­tions, diverse experiences of history, geography, environment, social adap­tations, and innovations have diversified the unique African tradition. Even within the African homeland, colonialism, modernity, and globaliza­tion have transformed things to change within the indigenous languages and local settings of verbal and artistic practices. These transformations are foregrounded in foreign languages such as English and Portuguese. In the diaspora, many languages used by blacks are creole or patois and so bear Africanisms especially of Bantu languages and terms in the European languages.

This unique tradition that exists in Africa and its diaspora in various forms affirms artistic excellence in the verbal arts, poetry, song, and per­formance. Its practice raises the stakes in its competitive nature to always heighten the tempo. In that way, there is increasing intensity as each side sharpens its wit for maximum impact of attack and counter-attack. The objective of each rival side’s words is to either wound the opponent’s psyche or ego or provoke and challenge so brazenly to elicit a sharp hostile response. Duels such as between Ekakpamre rivals and also between Oloya of Iwhrekan and Memerume of Edjophe in the Udje practice show the dialogic nature of this artistic practice. The same nature of combative rivalry is exhibited among the Anlo and Aja Ewe people of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. The composers of the poems or verbal forays are insistent on not using the same images twice but always keeping their words fresh, poetic, and memorable.

There is an enduring contemporaneity to this tradition of insults. What is significant is using artistic, verbal, and performance resources of the past to address contemporary challenges. Writers integrate these traditions into their artistic works to give a cultural identity from subtle to more brazen patterns.