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Ìgbò Enwē Ezè: Monarchical Power Vs The Democratic Ideal In Igbo Oral Narratives (Chapter 5), Chukwuma Azuonye

Chukwuma Azuonye

Azuonye sets out, through the representation of kings in Igbo tales, a picture on the one hand of legitimate authority and on the other of the abuse of power, two sides of the same coin. His discussion is directed along two lines. First, and most directly, he examines the nature of the picture of power relations painted in the tales insofar as it presents a 'democratic ideal'. Second, Azuonye sees the painting of that picture as part of the propagation of competing visions, 'the power of oral literature to sustain, through the selective process of mythic filtering, a particular type …