Offa Community Panegyric: Texture of Environment and Aesthetics

This paper analyses Offa Community panegyric usually referred to as Offa Praise Anthem with a close attention to its form and content. As an oral text, the study focuses on the aesthetic thrust and eco-flavour of the praise anthem which define the community’s environmental design, agricultural endowment and ethical guide. The objective of the study is to explore the mythic text that rarely combines chants and narratives as rich oral repertoire. Cultural materialism was deployed for the analysis of the anthem. Offa praise anthem was sourced both from oral and written sources. Thus recordings, transcription and translation formed the bulk of materials used as data. The finding of the study is that Offa panegyric is not just rich, mythic and artistic, it constitutes a community’s environmental manual, economic and cultural heritage. It is recommended that Offa praise anthem be preserved as an oral monument and as an inspirational guide through translation and memorization.