YORUBA CULTURAL ETHOS AND LIMINAL DRAMATURGY: A DIRECTORIAL TOOL IN AHMED YERIMA’S KUTELU AND IKUDETI

Abstract

African playwrights, relishing on the creative and artistic embellishments in their writings, have used creative ingenuity to present the cultural ethos of Yoruba people to the global world, especially those who are alien to cultural cosmology of the Yoruba people. In the same direction, play directors have also used the tools to bring to the fore of theatre audiences; entertainment, education and enlightenment. In this direction, the creative adventure of Ahmed Yerima, which captures some of these cultural mainframes are identified in the selected play-texts, Kutelu and Ikudeti (2020). This is with a view to showcasing the cultural ethos and the liminal dramaturgy of the Yoruba culture and their relevance to the existence of man in their terrestrial space. Arnold Berleant (2005) theory of cultural aesthetics is used in the paper to explicate the Yoruba ethos and liminal dramaturgy as exploited by Ahmed Yerima in the selected play-texts and how he has through the literary works construct the link that exists between reality and imagination of the cultural philosophy of the Yoruba people. The paper concludes that cultural ethos and liminal dramaturgy are tools that play directors can use to seamlessly articulate African dramatic expressions. Consequently, playwrights are encouraged to explore more cultural ethos and symbolic extractions to showcase African rich cultural heritage.