POETIC AESTHETICS IN KIRIJI OF ILAJE-ETIKAN, ONDO STATE SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Kiriji is the royal rite of passage and it is an indispensable aspect of
the folklore of Etikan Kingdom in Ilaje Local Government Area of
the present-day Ondo State, Nigeria. Royal funerary rites and the
aesthetics in them have enjoyed a lot of investigative attention in
multidisciplinary research. However, the poetic aesthetics in Kiriji of
Etikan Kingdom had not been adequately examined. This is the
thrust of this paper. Data gathered from primary sources through
direct participation and oral interviews were subjected to qualitative,
critical analysis, and secondary sources such as textbooks and
electronic books through the theoretical prism of Karl Heider's, David
Hayano's, and Carolyn Ellis' brand of auto-ethnography. Autoethnography is the theory which sees the researcher's experience and
practice as both a performer and researcher as a potent way of
advancing folkloric knowledge. The study found that a lot of aesthetic
features typical of indigenous oral poetry such as prayers, curses,
libations, songs, chants, dirges, obeisance, and invocations are
innately embedded in Kiriji. The study also found that these
indigenous oral forms are revelatory of the belief system of Etikan
Kingdom in the power of the spoken word as a tool for piety,
devotion, and human fraternization with the world around and
beyond. The study found that these oral forms have the same artistic
beauty, serve the same thematic purpose, and exert similar aesthetic
appeal as Western poetic arts on the minds of global audience who
might be alien to the tradition of Etikan people. The study concluded
by recommending the perpetuation of the oral forms as tools for
education, edification, social and spiritual cohesion. This
propagation, technologisation and transmission will guarantee the
survival of the oral forms through the instrumentality of the digital
media. This will further engender globalisation and the eventual 

globalectics will, in turn, project the image of Etikan Kingdom on the
cyberspace.