THE TRICKSTER-ARCHETYPE AND TRICKERY IN IGALA ORAL NARRATIVES: IMPLICATIONS FOR CONTEMPORARY IGALA SOCIETY

Abstract

Trickster tales are copious and exist in variegated forms among the Igala of North Central 
Nigeria. They constitute an integral part of the Igala oral narrative tradition. Intrinsically, the 
trickster archetype which is one of the major characters in Igala traditional tales, employs guile 
and intelligence to break law and order, and takes advantage of his victims despite his relatively 
small size. The roles of the trickster are culture-bound. This paper examined the Igala tricksterarchetype and trickery in Igala oral narratives with close cursory look at the contemporary Igala 
society. Aṅẹjẹ, the Igala trickster as an epitome of the people’s guile and crafty behaviours. 
Since the trickster tales are rampart among Igala, it therefore implies that their daily activities are 
characterized by deception and treachery for sustenance of life and continual survival in a hostile 
and highly competitive world. The objectives of the study among others are: to ascertain the 
frequency of trickster tale performance among the Igala people and to determine the importance 
of the trickster tales and the correlation with the people’s social, cultural and psychological 
patterns. The study employed the survey design, gathering data from fieldwork which used 
random selection of oral narrators (two males and one female) from Idah, Otobo-Ajaka and 
Ogane-Enugwu towns in Kogi East Senatorial District. The archetypal theory of Carl Jung was 
engaged to determine the trickster figure as an embodiment of the people’s collective 
unconscious and as an archetype of deception and crafty behaviour. The paper, among others, 
revealed that trickery is a means of survival employed by small and witty animals to outweigh 
other animals in the mist of scarce resources. The paper also found that the trickster tales are a 
mode of reaction from the social and psychological impulses of the people. The work 
recommended that for everyone to successfully cope with the social and psychological order of 
things, a bit of wit and intelligence should be employed in order to cope in the present social 
realities. The paper, therefore, concluded that the trickster archetype constitutes the core 
proportion of Igala mythology and folklore tradition, hence its relevance in contemporary society 
cannot be over emphasized.