Bards and Novelisation of Societal Events The Chukwuemeka Ike Example

Abstract

Every society has some of her members endowed with the gift of storytelling. The individuals with such gifts are bards. As bards, they have sensitive memories for recalling experiences of the society. They relay events of the society to other members with oral narrative skills for tripartite purposes. In retelling the collected events, the bards reconstruct them into sagas. However, with the wave of western education and its attendant effects, bards have ceased to limit their activities of relaying events in oral sagas only. This is because with pen on paper the modern bards tell tales, unlike before when they did orally. Chukwuemeka Ike is an example of a modern bard who uses paper and pen. Consequent upon this, this essay looks at how he fits into the modern coterie of bard through a careful consideration of how he collects and novelizes events, using one of his novels, The Bottled Leopard, as an example.