ABSTRACT
The Tiv of North Central Nigeria is presently witnessing the shifting of texts and contexts of performance of jokes as a result of the cross-cultural experiences, interactions and identities resulting from urbanization and postmodern value configurations. This chapter examines the moments of the traditional and the modern as periods that differ and offer society contexts and texts of jokes of the time. The old time joke-performer in Tiv, though captured in performance versions and perspectives, may wonder at the expanding horizons of joke discourse and joke's power for communication and to bridge boundaries of class relationship. The artistic narrative prowess of the Tiv was recorded by Leo Frebonius, a German merchant, who in 1912 affirmed that the Tiv are "The Best storytellers in Africa". Keil, an anthropologist, admitted that "all visitors to Tiv land agree that storytelling can be a very dramatic event".
