Abstract

The subject of health is evidently the most significant aspect of humanity, which is conveyed in all cultural expressions, including artistic traditions. By implication, the state of one‘s physical and mental wellbeing is pivotal to one‘s existence and productivity in the social domain. Given the import of human health in the general social function, literary arts — oral and written— have represented, at varying degrees, issues that border on illnesses and therapeutic relationships, the aim of which is to create awareness on the clinical symptoms and treatments for different pathological conditions that manifest in people. Existing studies on the representation of illnesses and diseases in African literature focus mainly on modern African literature with no significant attention on oral arts. Prior to the emergence of written literature in Africa, indigenous arts were used to convey the socio-cultural and economic realities of the people, including human health difficulties, cure and mortality. This article, therefore, examines images of physiological and mental health conditions and therapeutic process in Udje song-poetry of the Urhobo people. Five oral poems are purposively selected from the appendices of G. G. Darah‘s seminal work on Udje, Battles of Songs: Udje Tradition of the Urhobo and are subjected to literary analysis, highlighting episodes of illness and therapeutic strategies appropriated in them. The analysis of the selected song-poems, ‗Logbo‘, ‗Kikon‘, ‗Odile‘, ‗Yangbeyan‘ and ‗Edevo‘s Death‘, is anchored on pathotextualism which foregrounds the intersection of patho (illness and disease) and text (literary text) to show the interdisciplinary relationship between literature and medicine. The study reveals that Udje song-poetry conveys indigenous health philosophy of the Urhobo people.

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