Many African countries that were colonised imbibed the coloniser’s language as their own and used them as their national language. The local languages have mostly been relegated to domestic communication. There have been however, recent debates to introduce local languages as national language and to be used as medium of instruction in schools. This paper contributes to these debates and proposes the use of drama in the teaching and learning of local languages. It argues that drama uses dialogue, gestures, movements, props and can integrate music and dances which are created in context for selective and appropriate language and culture. Drama becomes even more potent in aiding the learning of language when it is written in multilingual dialogue as in the plays of Mohammed Ben Abdallah. The paper employs conceptual analysis to discuss Abdallah’s The Witch of Mopti in which he uses bilingual dialogue as a model that could aid the learning of a local language.

Akwa-Ocha which connotes white cloth is basically an indigenous hand-woven cloth that is produced by the Aniocha people of Delta state. The cloth which contains surface decorative motifs and symbols is used for various festive occasions among the people. Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols and their functions reveal the people’s history or past events, religion and social behaviours. Nigerian traditional elements such as the Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols feature in the changing landscape in the design of fashion accessories in Nigeria. Thus, contemporary trend in global fashion conciseness has influenced Akwa-Ocha in its application of fashion accessories. Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols function as carriers of cultural heritage and identity of the Aniocha people. This paper therefore focuses on the use of Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols for the design of fashion accessories using available local materials. The exploration of Akwa-Ocha motifs and symbols for the design of fashion accessories for obvious reasons include creating an identity, checking the emphasis already placed on foreign fashion accessories, creating awareness and projecting one of Nigeria’s rich cultural heritages.