Abstract

BOLARINWA, Abidemi Olusola. Orality in Yoruba films: A study of selected films of Akinwumi Isola. Tydskr. letterkd. [online]. 2023, vol.60, n.3, pp.66-74. ISSN 2309-9070.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/tl.v60i3.14418.

Despite technological innovations, orality still forms one of the aesthetic elements in the new media such as home video films as a result of the unending interface between orality and the literacy tradition. Using intertextuality as an approach, in this article I examine orality in selected films of Akinwumi Jsola, with a view to showing how he uses verbal arts as a powerful tool for the transmission of cultural values. The selected films are Saworoide (1999), Agogo Eewo (2002) and.Efunsetan Aniwura (2005). The films were selected based on their preponderant featuring of oral narratives. My findings reveal that folktales, legends, songs, Ifa corpus, drumbeats, incantations, and panegyric are the Yoruba oral genres that Akinwumi Jsola incorporates into his films. One can infer from Jsola's films that there is an overlap between his oral culture and his creative work because culture is the active force that energises and drives the creative work. I conclude that Jsola uses his creative ingenuity to re-awake and preserve Yoruba oral tradition in his films, which points to the fact that oral literature has a continued vitality for contemporary society.

Keywords : oral culture; preservation; intertextuality; Akinwumi Jsola; film.

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