The epic musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama, staged on Saturday, November 25 and Sunday, November 26, at the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, re-echoed the several years of armed struggles and stiff confrontation by the black population in apartheid South Africa in the cause of fighting to liberate themselves from the shackles of oppression imposed upon them by the white minority.
 Thus, amid reminiscence, anxiety, and invocation of revolt, the theatrical audience that watched the tension-filled performance shared the feeling that it represented the true picture of the prevailed circumstances that surrounded the captivated black Africans in a world principally governed by the superiority of the whites.  

 A Feast of Return is, proverbially, a traditional Bantu ceremony in which the dead return to the communal square to narrate significant experiences in their lives. As a matter of ritual, the exiles, ex-prisoners, guerilla fighters, and stay-at-homes follow the ancient format. They have come to navigate the riddles of existence and the changing fortunes of the king and commoners, warrior and pacifist, migrant worker and nationalist, in the history of Southern African - from the era of Dingiswayo and Shaka Zulu to the era of the anti-apartheid struggle and the round-table that gave South Africa the benefit of the Rainbow Coalition in the last decade of the 20th century.

 The unspoken ambition of the historic musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama, as Odia would recall, is bridge two productions. The first, under African skies, which came in 1990, at Sadlers’ Well, in poems and pastiches actualized in musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance to present African story after Nelson Mandela’s release from Robben Island. The second, Siye Goli (A Feast of Return), took place in 1992, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, as Europe celebrated the fifth centennial of Columbus’ discovery of the New World.

These productions sponsored by the Arts Council of Great Britain not only received upbeat reviews in all the major newspapers across Europe, but also received accolade across the world given its theatrical  ingredients and chronicling of the trembling story of the South African people. But, unfortunately as it were, several years after it was staged in London, no director or choreographer, either in Britain or in Nigeria could take up the challenge to re-create the work owing to the technical demands of the musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama until recently, when Felix Okolo, a celebrated Nigerian play director and teacher of theatre stepped forward to bearing the cost. 

Deploying Nigerian songs and musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dances from across the nationalities, Felix brings South Africa’s story alive as it has never been told on stage before. He realizes the simple ambition to create archetypal images of the African struggle for freedom and unity. His performance is a symbolic triumph of the struggles of  people over the inevitable suppression of a superior might. The performance presents the marvelous tale of a proud people determined to building a common morality that unites diverse nationalities and racial and ethnic fractions. It is equally “a musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama of renewal and national and continental re-direction.”

 Under Felix’s directorial zeal and Abel Utuedo’s sharp-witted choreography, the musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance in the drama did not only become a display of high voltage, but also highly stylized pastiches flavoured by lyrical poetry of a very accessible kind that turns an evening out into the experience of a lifetime. The drama in the musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance, which was merely adapted and only teasingly integrated in the London performances appeared upgraded into the centrepiece of the current production.

With the employment of a large casts to realizing the substance of the musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama, the director injected new literary skills into the performance. And again, the epic performance has a lot of glowing merits. First, is the dramatic opening where music, musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance, mime and choreography are welded into one moving pageant as the scene is being set for later action.  Next, in the word of Matthew Umukoro, is the attempt to capturing the spirit and rhythm of the African struggle for liberation, while the prolific use of arms confrontations is everywhere in evidence.

The production is said to have fallen within the context of Odia Ofeimun’s return to publishing after a seeming self restriction. But this is not lost to the fact that, A Feast of Return, draws attention to the need to nurture high artistic standards as well as creating the right political and economic setting for national creativity. The primary case it makes is that the arts constitutes an energizer of rather than a mere sponge or leech on the national economy.

 On the production, Felix Okolo said, “I am trying to extend the poetry, the message to a wider locale than South Africa, using West Africa, as a starting point. Later, we can inject, East and North Africa. The message is not just South Africa. The names, yes. But it is an African story in which the poet uses South Africa to tell an African story and I am trying to extend the locale to West Africa and I 've not done enough. Later, I will extend it to eastern and northern Africa. But the poet had to start from somewhere,  hence his using South African names.”

 While appreciating the dramatic relevance of  his work, Odia Ofeimun described the musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama as not being the “easiest form of poetry but rather, the most accessible poetry to those who are genuinely interested in the history of Africa.”  He, however, revealed that initially, he did not set out to write a musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama. 

 According to him, based on his invitation by Adzido, the Pan-African Dance Ensemble, to make a performance that would be staged during the European celebration of fifth centennial of Columbus’ discovery of the New World, he was left with no choice than chronicling the African story in a poetic genre.

“I don’t think that we need to realize our history in order to make it accessible to all. I believe that through building cultural awareness, we can build our nation on stage. Through the adoption of our cultures, and musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dances, the actors/actresses on stage have been able to retell the South African story without damaging the complexities.”

 From all indications, as the nation is currently  searching for a  constitutional end to the  problems of transition and succession, a musical forms or genres." target=_blank>dance drama of this nature not only presents a moral fable from which to learn from the immense experiences of history, but importantly provides a bitter lesson for the power drunk political class.