Introduction

Popular culture finds its expression in the mass circulation of items from seemingly diverse fields such as drama, poetry, music, and fashion. Drama and poetry have played significant roles in the presentation and representation of human experiences among the Yorùbá of southwestern Nigeria. In the traditional society, popular arts like drama and poetry are used to reveal contemporary issues. For example, during festivals and ritual performances, the alárìnjó (itinerant) theater satirizes and makes mockery of social and political ills. Through popular poetry, the itinerant theater groups are able to run commentaries against political leaders and expose their wrongs without fear of retribution. Royal poetry like yùngbà provides a way to critique monarchs without incurring their wrath. While the popular arts are still in existence, the aurality of the popular Yorùbá arts is now partially supplanted by text and audiovisual technology. These popular media have extended the reach and enhanced the effectiveness of the traditional Yorùbá arts. For instance, the traditional itinerant performers are no longer limited to live performances in village squares as they travel from one city to another. They supplement these live performances by recording their plays in studios and broadcasting them through radio, television, the cinema, home videos, and photo-play. Poetry and praise songs (orìkí) are now also relayed through these outlets as well as by compact discs, records, and printed texts.