By Ezesinachi, Juliet Ngozika
This research concerns the Dramatic Elements in the Onunu festival of Okpuje, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu state. The research was confined to the eight communities that make up Okpuje, the work was necessitated by the need to examine the impact of Christianity and development on the promotion of this festival and to counter the evolutionist school of thought on the non-existence of Igbo drama. The objectives of the study are among others to demonstrate that the Onunu Okpuje Festival is a form of traditional drama. To accomplish this, a historical research was conducted. Data were sourced from both primary and secondary sources. It was found out that quite a number of scholars, both Nigerians and others, have studied mmonwu as a form of traditional drama. The relativist school of thought holds the view that there exists traditional drama and so the Onunu Okpuje festival is a form of African traditional drama. The entire people of Okpuje (especially the youths) are urged to participate actively in the festival so that the festival will be livelier. Other researchers are called upon to carry out researches in other aspects of the festival.The government and non-governmental organizations are also called upon to fund researches on the Onunu Okpuje so that its culture will be preserved.