The refreshing return of Kwagh-hir theatre

The return of the 2016 fiesta with the theme: “Celebration of Creativity” created no small excitement among spectators, participants and even sponsors of the event -Benue state government in collaboration with NEXIM bank. Once upon a time, the Kwagh-hir, translated to mean magic folktale, formed a major piece of tradition in Tivland with its six […]

The return of the 2016 fiesta with the theme: “Celebration of Creativity” created no small excitement among spectators, participants and even sponsors of the event -Benue state government in collaboration with NEXIM bank.
Once upon a time, the Kwagh-hir, translated to mean magic folktale, formed a major piece of tradition in Tivland with its six aspects  of story-telling art, poetry, puppetry art; music art; dance art and dramatization art intended to correct ills in the society and to teach morals.
Many years ago, precisely in the 70s, 80s and 90s, the Kwagh-hir puppet theatre troupe under the state Arts council, toured the world entertaining various audiences and holding them spell bound as a spectacle, while they tell stories using mime, costume, and scenery, to simply interpret the musical accompaniment usually composed for a particular occasion.
Antipas Tungo is a puppeteer of many years standing and belonged to the Aseer Kwagh-hir group, based in the Kastina-Ala local government area of the state.
He said  “I learnt the dance myself. It is a natural gift. There is nothing magical about it because my body is just flexible when I dance. I also teach people how to dance.”
Tungo added that the Kwagh-hir can be likened to a kind of sporting activity  because that is what it actually means, considering the art involved in the performance of the dance.
“It is just more than a dance because it is an aspect of sport,” he stressed.
President of the Aseer group, Aseer Udoo said that the group had existed for the past 13-years and had received no encouragement from any quarter, despite the huge cost of maintaining the troupe.
“Sponsorship is a big challenge. I use my money to sponsor the troupe, mostly during the dry season when local competitions are organized at Kastina Ala and Kwande local government areas, respectively.”
Collaborating Udoo, the secretary of the group, Thaddeus Apeala maintained that they had localized their performance in the past few years, due to lack of finance ,as the equipment and costume needed for each outing was usually obtained at a high cost.
He said the costumes and equipment were necessary to attract attention to the group, because the spectators believed that a troupes  performance could be better than the other due to the ‘supposed’ magical power contained in their outfits.
Interestingly, major events in the Tiv tradition such as the coronation of a new king or festivals, are usually not complete without the performance of the Kwagh-hir.
The state ministry of Arts, Culture and Tourism under the guidance of  Sekav  Iyortyom during the recent edition of the festival held at the Aper-Aku stadium in Makurdi, traced the origin of Kwagh-hir to pre-literate societies, adding that the art would continue to be shrouded in mystery and researchers’ subjectivity.
The ministry believed that a personality considered by many to be the originator or modifier of the Kwagh-hir theatre as it is practiced and performed today, is one Adikpo Songo from Akpagher, Mbatyav in the present Gboko local government area of the state.
Songo  was said to have brought the art-form to Tiv land in the form and style being practiced in modern times after he was tutored by the spirits (Adzov) when he fell into a trance on a certain night while traveling to his village from Gboko town.
But, the Dean of Students Affairs of the Benue State University (BSU) who was formally Head of the Theater Arts Department, Dr. Gowon Doki explained that the dance was discovered around the 1960s and became prominent because of government  patronage.
According to him, the fascinating art was first performed outside the state in Jos, Plateau state and Ibadan, Oyo State, and that former Governor Akwe Doma of Nasarawa state played a lead role in taking the art outside the shores of the country.
He said that the art used to be a yearly contest majorly facilitated by government when Professor Iyorwuese Hagher was in charge of the State Arts council, but that overtime, the art began to gradually drift into extinction due to some reasons.
Doki believes that several factors such as unfavourable  political climate was responsible for the decline of the once vibrant culture of the Benue people, not until the current administration of Governor Samuel Ortom stepped in to revive the festival.
“A situation where youths now prefer political thuggery than earning a responsible income has impacted negatively on the art. Most of the performers were the youth involved in the carving process. Unfortunately, you can’t point out any functional Kwagh-hir group these days due to its abandonment,” he said.
In Doki’s estimation, the Kwagh-hir puppet theatre is a popular art-form in Tiv land based on the dramatization of folktales, which can best be described as the injection of the breath of dramatic life into fictional characters ,and that there was nothing negative about it all.
He said that at a point the College of Education (COE), Kastina-Ala was doing the art when the state owned university, BSU became handicapped for lack of sponsorship, regretting that the viable cultural item alone could earn the country a lot in terms of  foreign reserve.
The university don recalled that in those days Kwagh-hir appeared on the  cover pages of London newspapers, as he noted that if the country had survived on oil for so long, it can generate revenue by returning to its rich cultural roots which is quite expensive.
Our correspondent gathered that the state government promoted the art-form both locally and internationally, starting the annual Kwagh-hir festival in 1981, before successive administrations  in the past few years relented on the idea.
However, in the face of the nation’s dwindling oil fortunes, the present administration of   Ortom has decided to return to the world of realism and fantasy, initiated and developed by the rural Tiv people.
Speaking during this year’s Kwagh-hir event, Alternate Permanent Secretary of the state Culture ministry, Godwin Obogo Shaibu posited that the extremely ethereal world of the art-form is composite in nature, and therefore requires community participation in its conception and presentation.
“Our world is one in which the human mingles and fraternizes  with nature, with spirits, with gods and the ancestors. It is indeed a depiction of the world-view of the African society in activities like hunting, farming, worship, love, dancing and many others. The artists involved are naturally gifted in the areas of wood carving, painting, drumming, mimicry, dancing, singing and manipulation,” Shaibu stated as he enjoined the audiences to expect to be captivated, frightened, but most especially to be entertained.

Based on his charge and addresses of several other dignitaries, the stage for this year’s performance had commenced with a typical Kwagh-hir group comprising of drummers, dancers, musicians, manipulators and performers who in combination narrated a story through the “Dagbera” (puppet on platform), Adzov (masquerade), “Nyam” (animals) “Eev” (magical display of miniatures: items such as buildings, vehicles and other items) and ever ubiquitous light carriers who directed the performers as they move around the arena, and the narrators who introduce  items as they come to stage.
At least seven Kwagh-hir groups which performed in the three-day  all night event included: Zaki Kende Kasse of Gboko, Mhiive Aie of Gboko, Ayange Gwer of Gboko, Anande Chieshe from Ushongo, Zaki Gbungu Ati of Gwer East, Zaki Kor Dodo from Vandeikya and Ayegh Gugu of Tarka local government areas respectively.
It is worthy to mention that all the items used by the performers usually involves weeks or months of painstaking work by sculptors, carpenters, tailors, blacksmiths and painters to produce. The items are specially prepared to convince any doubter of its magical power and ability to do the impossible.
However, Hagher (2003), a leading scholar on kwagh-hir  has alluded to the difficulties in the search for provenance, maintaining that whatever the outcome of this controversy may eventually prove, one important fact is that kwagh-hir is a product of the creative originality of the Tiv people, and that it is buried inside the inner bowels of their traditions, culture, and mores.
He averred that its intrinsic utility is predicated on Tiv spiritualism, stressing that no one can set up a successful Kwagh-hir troupe without the imprimatur of the clan.
While he added that each kwagh-hir group is named after the founding artistic director and that the art-form can be divided into four sections, namely, the main arena, the chorus position, back stage and the auditorium.
“The main arena is the domain where the performance takes place. The chorus position is occupied by singers and dancers. The back stage is where all the puppets are located and from where they proceed to the main arena.
The auditorium is the place where the audience occupies,” Hagher stated.
During this recent festival, each episode was preceded by a narrator, called Orshuwa in Tiv language, he announced the arrival of a particular episode,  and narrates the story line to the audience, while the women sang and danced in complement of the dramatization, based on the theme of the folktale and the exploits of the fictional characters, just as the puppeteer enters from below and manipulates the puppet to demonstrate the tale.
Expectedly, at the end of this year’s episode, the Chieshe Kwagh-hir group of Ushongo emerged the overall best performer ,while the Kende Kasse group of Gboko took the second position, and Ayange Gwer group of Gboko went home with the third prize for the contest.
Kasse who won N200, 000 cash as the second best performer at the occasion, told Daily Trust that he was very happy that his efforts  were after all not in vain.
Although, he had to spend a total of N350,000 to prepare and convey his team from Gboko to the state capital, Makurdi for the exercise, however, he was glad at the outcome of the festival.
His words: “I’m very excited that my team performed well. I danced too. It was an exciting moment for me, Kwagh-hir has come to stay and there is nothing  unpleasant  about it. It’s only a craft.”
Also, a spectator at the event and the ministry’s Director of Tourism, Mrs. Dooter Ajoko expressed delight over the performances of the troupes, describing it as a, “captivating experience.”
She said: “Everyone needs to watch this performance; it is depicting real life situations.”
Meanwhile, Iyortyom in his address has assured that the state government would do more to encourage the art-form, now that there is a shift to the non-oil sector to build the economy.
“Kwagh-hir could be organized into a money spinner, especially if it is exported to bring in the much needed dollars. Kwagh-hir shall be packaged to go on tours abroad,” he assured.

Iyortyom further appealed to the private sector, corporate  bodies and individuals to emulate the notable Tiv son, Roberts Orya, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of NEXIM bank who solely sponsored the 2016 edition.
Earlier in his goodwill message, the NEXIM boss said that the festival was an avenue not only for entertainment and education, but to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the Tiv nation.
He said that the creative industry of the country over the years had grown to become a major economic activity, contributing significantly to export revenues, adding that even during the global financial recession of 2008, the creative economy continued to thrive, as people constantly went to cinema and museums, listen to music, watch videos, television shows and play video games.
“It is against the background of the foregoing, coupled  with the high ranking of the creative and entertainment industry in Nigeria, that NEXIM took a strategic decision to increase intervention in the sector under its export of services programme.
“NEXIM’s intervention in the creative industry is through funding and developmental support, such as sponsoring of film festivals and other events, aimed at showcasing Nigeria’s creative talent and developing our human capital,” Orya recapped.
The Managing Director therefore expressed the bank’s pleasure in sponsoring the festival as part of its effort to promote the creative sector, and developing the sector to generate more jobs and increase foreign earnings for the country.
Indeed, the return of Kwagh-hir has not only brought back pleasant memories of yester-years, but it may just be another way out of the economic doldrums bedeviling the  state.