Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology

The Ozidi Saga is one of Africa’s best known prosimetric epics, set in the Delta region of Nigeria. Blood on the Tides examines the epic – a tale of a warrior and his sorcerer grandmother’s revenge upon the assassins who killed her son – both as an example of oral literature and as a reflection of the specific social and political concerns of the Nigerian Delta and the country as a whole. In addition the book considers various iterations ofthe saga, including a performance of the entire saga in 1963 in Ibadan by the folk artist Okabou Okobolo, which was subsequently transcribed, translated, and edited by the renowned Nigerian poet, playwright, and scholar John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo. The study concludes with a look at the work of contemporary Nigerian creative writers and their connection to the powerful literary and historical currents of the Ozidi story.

Isidore Okpewho is Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies, English, and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University (SUNY). He is the author of The Epic in Africa, Myth in Africa, African Oral Literature, and Once Upona Kingdom. An award-winning novelist, he has published four titles: The Victims, The Last Duty, Tides, and Call Me By My Rightful Name.