Ritual of İbálé' (Virginity) at the Footpath of Fate in Nigerian Films: Gender Issues in Tunde Kelani's Film The Narrow Path'

This paper is a study on gender attributes possessed by women despite the general notion in a society in which men hold primary power and dominant roles of political headship, social privileges and moral authority in countries like Nigeria especially the Yorubá society as represented in video-films. Primarily, this paper is to examine the exemplary heroism exhibited by the female character, thereby challenging the Yoruba cultural beliefs concerning nitual of İbilé (Virginity) as a passport to marriage at the footpath of fate as portrayed in video-film. Is losing a ritual of İbálé (virginity) before marriage a disqualification to marriage? How relevance is the ritual of İbálé (Virginity) in this present day Yoruba society? These are parts of the crucial questions this paper sets out to answer. Thus, this paper examined selected videa-film of Túndé Kèlání (TK), a renowned Yoruba filmmaker, with the aim of ascertaining and understanding the place of women at the footpath of fate in the face of marriage as an existing type of Yoruba cultural element, focusing on symbolic action - ritual of lbálé (Virginity) in the video-film. One of TK's video-films with Yoruba cultural elements and settings was purposively selected and content analysed within semiotic theory to extract cultural content depictions: The Narrow Path. The data extracted were qualitatively discussed within the purview of this paper. The study reveals that the ritual of ihálé virginity in today's society is no longer cultural subjectivity, rather, the practice of occult arts for money ritual among others.