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ABUSE OF POWER AND RESISTANCE IN SELECTED POST-COLONIAL SUB-SAHARA AFRICAN NOVELS
(2014-08) ONYIJEN, KINGSTON ONYEMAEKI
ABSTRACT Abuse of power, an excessive use of authority in governance or homes; and resistance, the attempt to confront such abuses, have occupied a prominent position in socio-political discourses in African literature. Existing studies on sub-Sahara African novels written from the late 1980s have focused on thematic concerns such as gender issues, disillusionments and exploitation, without giving adequate attention to the issue of abuse of power and resistance. This study, therefore, examined the forms of abuse of public and domestic power, and forms of resistance to the abuses in the selected novels, with a view to establishing the features of the abuse of power and resistance. The study adopted subalternism, a variant of postcolonial theory which articulates the lopsided relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, and the strategies deployed by the latter to counter the excesses of the former. Five sub-Sahara African novels were selected based on their thematic affinity, relevance and period of study. The novels are Tiyambe Zeleza‟s Smouldering Charcoal (South Africa); Moses Isegawa‟s Snakepit (East Africa); Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‟s Purple Hibiscus, Amma Darko‟s Beyond the Horizon and Jude Dibia‟s Unbridled from West Africa where abuse of power and resistance is more prominent among novelists. The data were subjected to literary analysis. Two forms of abuse of power were identified: public and domestic. Public abuse of power is manifested in democratic and military tyranny. Domestic power abuse is demonstrated through benevolent dictatorship, physical and sexual violence. Four forms of resistance were identified: activism, dissent and exile, strategic operations, and strategic confrontations. Public abuse of power in South Africa is manifested in democratic tyranny in Smouldering Charcoal. The government uses „Youth Militia Group‟ to unleash terror on those who failed to obtain party cards, and unjustly arrests and detains unsuspecting citizens. This is resisted by the victims through political and trade union activism. In East Africa, Snakepit depicts military tyranny as General Bazooka uses his position to oppress the citizens, an act resisted by some members of the military through dissent, while others in the civil society go into exile. In West Africa, Purple Hibiscus dwells on domestic power abuse revealed through benevolent dictatorship in the home. The family head, though a generous man, brutalises members of his family. The victims resist through silence and poisoning him to death. While Beyond the Horizon captures domestic abuse of power in a Ghanaian family, as women are physically abused and raped, and they resist through secret service operations; Unbridled portrays abuse of power in terms of beatings, harassments and sexual abuses in the home. The victim resists through violent confrontations, and runs away. Abuse of power, with differing manifestations, such as tyranny, dictatorship, physical and sexual abuses occur in civil, military and home contexts; and resistance through activisms, dissent, strategic operations and violent physical confrontations in post-colonial sub-Sahara African novels. Key words: Post-colonial abuse of power and resistance, sub-Sahara African novels, Public power, Domestic power, Word count: 469
Abuse of Power and Resistance in Selected Post-Colonial Sub-Sahara African Novels
(2014) Onyijen, K. O.
Abuse of power, an excessive use of authority in governance or homes; and resistance, the attempt to confront such abuses, have occupied a prominent position in sociopolitical discourses in African literature. Existing studies on sub-Sahara African novels written from the late 1980s have focused on thematic concerns such as gender issues, disillusionments and exploitation, without giving adequate attention to the issue of abuse of power and resistance. This study, therefore, examined the forms of abuse of public and domestic power, and forms of resistance to the abuses in the selected novels, with a view to establishing the features of the abuse of power and resistance. The study adopted subalternism, a variant of postcolonial theory which articulates the lopsided relationship between the oppressor and the oppressed, and the strategies deployed by the latter to counter the excesses of the former. Five sub-Sahara African novels were selected based on their thematic affinity, relevance and period of study. The novels are Tiyambe Zeleza‟s Smouldering Charcoal (South Africa); Moses Isegawa‟s Snakepit (East Africa); Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie‟s Purple Hibiscus, Amma Darko‟s Beyond the Horizon and Jude Dibia‟s Unbridled from West Africa where abuse of power and resistance is more prominent among novelists. The data were subjected to literary analysis. Two forms of abuse of power were identified: public and domestic. Public abuse of power is manifested in democratic and military tyranny. Domestic power abuse is demonstrated through benevolent dictatorship, physical and sexual violence. Four forms of resistance were identified: activism, dissent and exile, strategic operations, and strategic confrontations. Public abuse of power in South Africa is manifested in democratic tyranny in Smouldering Charcoal. The government uses „Youth Militia Group‟ to unleash terror on those who failed to obtain party cards, and unjustly arrests and detains unsuspecting citizens. This is resisted by the victims through political and trade union activism. In East Africa, Snakepit depicts military tyranny as General Bazooka uses his position to oppress the citizens, an act resisted by some members of the military through dissent, while others in the civil society go into exile. In West Africa, Purple Hibiscus dwells on domestic power abuse revealed through benevolent dictatorship in the home. The family head, though a generous man, brutalises members of his family. The victims resist through silence and poisoning him to death. While Beyond the Horizon captures domestic abuse of power in a Ghanaian family, as women are physically abused and raped, and they resist through secret service operations; Unbridled portrays abuse of power in terms of beatings, harassments and sexual abuses in the home. The victim resists through violent confrontations, and runs away. Abuse of power, with differing manifestations, such as tyranny, dictatorship, physical and sexual abuses occur in civil, military and home contexts; and resistance through activisms, dissent, strategic operations and violent physical confrontations in postcolonial sub-Sahara African novels.
Active and passive voices/direct and indirect speech forms
(Ibadan University Press, Publishing House, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2019) Akinsete, C. T.
African proverbial sayings: a paremilogical reading of Achebe's arrow of God
(Ife Centre for Psychological Studies, 2012-09) Aguoru, D.
Africans are a culturally deep and psychologically peculiar people. Proverbs constitute a major form of collective consciousness through which Africans communicate ideas and opinions. Several studies reveal that thought patterns, attitudes and psyche of peoples are comprehensible through paremiology, the study of proverbs. Nigeria's Chinua Achebe has carved out a niche for himself as an African Proverbialist. This article examines the psycho-cultural value of proverbial sayings in his work. The application of this linguistic form as a dominant tool in the narrative technique and in the portraiture of the themes and characters is the focus of this study which takes as reference, Arrow of God, a work that concretizes the African psycho- cultural crisis. It examines the psychological, philosophical and cultural values embedded in the African proverbial folio.
Afrocentricism and resistance in roots: a synergy of counter- hegemonic thrust
(Department of English, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2013) Akinsete, C.
Roots, by Alex Haley, one of the most famous African American slave narratives, has, over time, been critiqued more as a historical text than a literary and creative extension of the African American people. In addition, the tenet of Afrocentricism in the novel has been grossly misrepresented. This research examines the inherent exegesis of Afrocentricism vis-a-vis the notion of Resistance, which constitutes a core thematic preoccupation in the novel and which expurgates the nuances of extremist Afrocentricism. Premised on two sub-tenets of postcolonialism, Afrocentricism and Resistance, this study addresses the complexity of identity construction in the novel. It demonstrates that Afrocentricism and Resistance foreground the sure-fire import of Roots among other collective bodies of African American literature that aply respond to die theme of slavery, its aftermaths, and identity reconstruction. It reaffirms the position of Roots as a canonical literary text whiichi also explicitly projects the tune of liberal Afrocentrism as a crucial step towards identity reconstruction among Africans and people from African descent; the debate of liberal Afrocentricism as a viable roadmap to self-discovery’ among people of African descent; and a physical and psychological rebirth that accentuates the success tale of African American people. It contends that the total emancipation of the African and African American societies lies mainly in the consistent search for both individual and collective identity through a continuous introspect into their past. It concludes that liberal Afrocentricism remains the rational roadmap to understanding Roots, against the backdrop of critics that have misrepresented as well as undermined the legendary import of the novel as a classic African American literan canon.
Autobiography and national experience: a study of Wole Soyinka’s selected writings
(Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University,Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, 2004) Aguoru, D.
Autobiography through the exile paradigm: the Olaudah Equiano story
(African Cultural Institute, Lagos, 2004) Aguoru, D.
This paper examines the relevance of biographical works in literary studies. Using Oluadah Equiano’s story, the essay treats thematic issues with regard to the slave trade and its consequences on Africans. It posits that what led to the success of the story as a historical document is its effectiveness as a tool in the anti-slavery campaign.
A BIBLIO-TEXTUAL STUDY AND EDITION OF THE POEMS OF ANDREW MARVELL
(1970-06) ABOYADE, B. O.
The introduction of recent bibliographic techniques into editorial practice raised hopes of finally finding objective solutions to many seemingly insoluble textual problems. Yet as the eminent bibliographer Fredson Bowers points out (Bibliography and Textual Criticism, 1964) such hopes - either because the techniques are still not completely developed, or because of their inherent limitations - have not been fully realised. Walter Greg, another pioneer in the field, had earlier warned that the new techniques could not be expected to carry the textual critic the whole way to perfection (Bibliography - An Apologia, 1932). The present thesis represents an attempt to apply the techniques to, and to overcome their limitation in, the editing of Marvell’s poems - with what success the sequel will show. Chapter 1 considers the circumstances surrounding the first printing of most of Marvell’s poems in 1681 at the instance or with the connivance of that Mary Palmer who falsely claimed to be his widow. It is shown that certain items intended for inclusion in the Miscellaneous Poems were cancelled because o£ the political upheavals of the year; that these cancelled poems deal with Cromwell and would have been likely to mind the public at the Civil war and the Regicide at a time when repetition of both catastrophes had been narrowly averted; that because the cancellations, the 1681 edition actually survives in three states. It is further suggested that the volume was printed by ‘casting-ort’ the copy, that, during printing, other materials not supplied by Mary Palmer were added, and that none of those directly concerned with the printing can be expected to have exercised salutary control over the process of publication. Chapter 2 discussed the various theories of textual criticism evolving from editorial practices in the fields of Biblical, Classical, and Modern Bibliographical scholarship. The objective common to all three is the determining of the text closest to the author's original by tracing the descent of surving copies through the use of various methods: by Dom Quentin's theory of intermediaries, by Paul Maas’s system of stemmatics, by Walter Greg’s calculus of variants and the like. For Marvell, with only one edition to be followed, the common problem of preferring one of a series of early editions does not exist; the real difficulty is to ascertain the poet’s own intention whenever there is a cause for doubt, always bearing in mind the not-too-favourable ambiences of poems either published posthumously or circulated anonymously. In addition to the problem of establishing Marvell’s intention in authenticated poems attributed to his authorship. The conclusion is that because of the peculiarities of transmission and survival, an edition of Marvell’s poem must necessarily be based not upon one but upon several methods of approach. Chapter 3 examines the background and technique of the ‘copy-text|’, the use of which is made obligatory by the repeated successes of the bibliographic school of textual critics in its application to earlier English works. Where only one copy of questionable superiority can be singled out, no one need quarrel with this technique; difficulties begin to arise when there are several copies of comparable authority available. To insist upon a ‘copy-text’ even in this case is justified by what Greg calls the ‘accidentals’ of a text (i.e. the spelling modes, the punctuation system, etc.). It is even more justified when it ensures that a modern edition retains significant ‘accidentals’, whatever they be, to the point where all linguistic traits of the author’s period, all significant indications of linguistics and philological peculiarities, whether temporal, or social, or private, should be transmitted through the text. In case of Marvell, the setting-up of a ‘copy-text’ without thorough exploration of ‘accidentals’ is scarcely feasible. That completed, the final question is the degree to which the results of the exploration, the resolutions of the difficulties it reveals, must be followed. Chapter 4 considers many of the peculiarities of the English language in Marvell’s time, particularly those (consequent upon the tangle of vowel-shifts known as the Great Sound Shift) which have immediate effectiveness for the ‘copy-text’ technique. Thanks to research by philologist-linguists like Luich, Sweet, Wyld, Whitehall, Dobson, Nist, Trager- Smith, et al., the overall pattern of Early Modern English, particularly that of the sonantal system, emerges with some clarity. Here, the results are schematized on a phonetic basis, and the confusions that might confront an editor, especially those reflected on spellings and rhymes, are broadly charted. From this exercise emerge several linguistic guide-lines to be followed, or at least considered in editing Marvell. Chapter 5 attempts to demonstrate how the study of para-linguistic factors of metre, rhythm, rhyme, and repetitive sound-patterning facilitates the editorial task, especially for rhymed verse. Here the metre and rhythms of Marvell’s verse are analysed in some detail and from several point of view. The most obvious prosodic feature is the maintenance of a strict syllable count- so strict that any apparent violation can be attributed to an error of transmission. In the octosyllabic couplet, his favourite form, Marvell not only makes good use of traditionally accepted variations, modulations, and metrical equivalences but is also able to absorb into his verse the principles of the ‘Classical plain style,’ the so-called sermo. In him, this is not merely a matter of achieving post-Elizabethan elegance and colloquial ease of diction and syntax; it also, and more importantly, involves the natural ordering of syntactic units in such a fashion that the pauses bordering segmenting them can be varied as freely and unaffectedly in verse as they normally are in prose and speech- all these within the strict metrical framework of syllable count. As a result, there is remarkable free positioning of the ‘caesuras’, which fall at various places in a line after odd- as well as even-numbered syllables and not- as advocated by certain Elizabethan posts and authorities- in a fixed medial position. Following the method of Ants Oras (Pause Patterns in Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama, 1960), an attempt is made to graph pause distribution profiles for the two famous poems “To His Coy Mistress” and “AN Horatian Ode” on the basis of both printed punctuation and syntactic analysis of actual readings. Chapter 6 brings forward the argument that capitalization is a device employed to indicate emphasis- particularly in stress bearing words of a poem- and is therefore an important ‘accidental’ to be reckoned with in editing verse. This fact is revealed in the analysis of Marvell’s On a Drop of Dew, and is confirmed by the practice of contemporary poets, by printing practice, and by statements of primers at tile time. What emerges is that this poem as printed in 1681 (and probably some other poem), seems to have fewer printed capitalized words than appeared in the original manuscript. In editing the poems, while it may not be possible to restore all the capitalization that Marvell intended, it is at least possi1ble to detect words wrongly capitalized, if they destroy what seems to be the intended rhythm and sense. Chapters 7 to 9 deal with the problem of attributing to Marvell some poems written anonymously. In Chapter 7 the various methods of determining the authorship of disputed works are reviewed. These fall into two main groups: internal evidence of style and ideas, the external evidence of direct statements by the author or his contemporaries, or statements from letters, diaries, and so forth. For Marvell external evidence is found to be rather weak – sometimes a contradictory. Internal stylistic evidence is relatively unhelpful mainly because the characteristic styles of the lyrical poems are different from those of the political poems. On the other hand, evidence from ideas seems important because of the feasible comparison between the views expressed in his prose written and those in the political poems. For this purpose, Marvell’s activities and attitudes as a politician are examined in Chapter 8. The picture given is that of a loyal citizen with a deep reverence for law and the constitution and a strong belief in the providential guidance of affairs of state. In a mixed constitution such as that of England at the time when the political poems were written, Marvell was determined to support equally the prerogatives of the King and the privileges of Parliament; and rejected any section – from parliament or King - that might upset the balance. -Finally, in Chapter 9, the political poems attributed to Marvell are re-examined individually. After this consideration, only four of the sixteen poems printed by Margoliouth - The Last Instructions, The Loyall Scott, Bludius et Corona and Scaevola Scoto-Brittannus –are found to be fully acceptable as Marvell’s. Four others – Clarendon’s House-Warming, Britannia and Rawleigh, and the Second and Third Advices are probably his. All the others, it appears, have been wrongly ascribed to him.
Blogging as A Space for Rhetorical Posturing on Israeli-Hezbollah War
(2012) Jimoh, R.
Blogging, as a social medium, serves as a platform for individuals and organisations to produce rhetorical discourses that deserve scholarly attention. This rhetorical outlook of blogging features significantly in Middle East conflicts, as instanced in the Mideast blogs that cast their focus on the Israeli-Hezbollah war of 2006. Existing studies on blogging as a social practice seem to concentrate mainly on its social roles without paying much attention to its rhetorical outlook. This study explored the ideological nature of rhetoric in blog posts in order to establish how a comprehension of such rhetoric helps to create a better understanding of the role of blogging in the social process, especially in the context of conflict. A combination of socio-linguistic, semiotic and discourse analytic approaches, as expounded by M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, Teun van Dijk’s Triangulated Approach to discourse and Charles Sander Pierce’s semiotic theory, was adapted as the theoretical framework for the study. Ten Mideast weblogs, characterised by personal, collaborative and corporate blogs, which address the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, and seven hundred and fifty posts, with two hundred and fifty readers’ comments, evenly distributed between the blog types, were purposively selected. The data, which are in three modes of signification -language, pictures and cartoons - were content-analysed. Bloggers employed three discourse structures - surface, schematic and dialogic – to pursue Zionist, anti-Semitic and Arab nationalistic ideologies in the posts. These three structures were arranged in a manner that got the blog readers into believing that they had made appropriate choices of response to the postings read, whereas their behaviours and opinions had been controlled through rhetorical strategies such as overstatement, understatement, metonymy, euphemism, mitigation and repetition, which all have a closer relation to underlying ideologies and belief systems of the bloggers. The surface structure contained nationalistic ideologies that were not overtly expressed but located in the linguistic and non-linguistic expressions that characterised the surface structure. The schematic structure defined the canonical order of the discourse through which topics were organised by conventional schemata such that subordinate topics were upgraded by assigning more prominence to them as headlines. The dialogic structure engaged the blog readers in imagined conversation, in which they were assigned passive role as mere commentators, whereas readers’ support was required for the credibility of the published news stories. The pattern of rhetoric in the posts was such that blog readers were made to tilt their views in support of the opinions expressed by the significations in the posts through the discourse strategies, a situation that made most comments in the posts align more with the viewpoints expressed by the bloggers. The nature of rhetoric in the Mideast posts indicates that bloggers conceal their opinions in various significations in an attempt to create strong persuasion for ideological support. The study has therefore provided the ground for establishing the Mideast blog posts as a site for readers’ manipulation in political communication, which is realised through rhetorical strategies embedded in the discourse.
Bridging the gap between the sciences and the humanities in Nigeria; the Wale Okediran example
(Faculty of Arts, Lagos State University, Lagos, 2008-09) Aguoru, D.
Contemporary studies in humanistic traditions have revealed that there are certain negative attitudes to humanistic studies in third world countries. The relevance of the humanities, especially literature, to the socio - political and economic challenges of the 21st century remain controversial. The assumption is that literature and indeed other disciplines in the humanities should be classified as ‘recreational studies’. This article examines the place of the humanities, especially literature, within the humanistic tradition. The works of Wale Okediran, a physician, politician and novelist are selected for this study. Okediran’s writings are exemplary in that they are marked with a distinct quality of having been produced by a completely humanized mind.
Child character, sexual trauma and postmodern realities in Toni Kan's nights of the creaking bed
(Faculty of Arts, University of Jos, Nigeria, 2023-06) Akinsete, C. T.
This paper critiques the interface between child character and sexual trauma in Toni Kan’s Night of a Creaking Bed. The book, which is a collection of short stories, accentuates sexual realities of child characters in a postmodern African milieu. The depiction of abrasive sexual reactions in these stories defies sex as morally exclusive, as practised in pre-colonial and early modern African societies. The aim of this paper is foregrounded in sexual trauma and its effects on child characters in short stories that appraise postmodern Nigerian society. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis serves as theoretical base for this paper, with pinpoint focus on Jean Laplanche’s theory of general seduction. Using the qualitative research as methodology, this research examines five selected short stories in Toni Kan’s collection, which captures postmodernist version of sexual realities experienced by child characters. This paper therefore pontificates on societal intricacies and consequences of sexually traumatised child characters, within the purview of Nigerian environs, as a result of (direct or indirect) exposure to sex and/or sex related activities at a tender age.
A comparative analysis of Japanese and Nigerian operatic theatre
(Department of English, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2012) Aguoru, D.
Several studies in Nigeria and in Japanese theatrical traditions have centred on various elements of either of the two dramatic and theatrical traditions. None so far has comparatively examined the two traditions with the intent of establishing distinct national identities, which are concealed in the theatres of peoples, neither has there been an attempt to comparatively institute universality, conformity or unorthodoxy or lack of it in both theatrical traditions. The interest and explorations, by critics of other far more developed national literatures into Japanese dramatic and theatrical tradition, is an indication that this research effort is pertinent. Most transnational and transcontinental comparative studies on Japanese literary have also not yet ventured beyond the Western world. This pretermits, in the usual manner, the depth and value of African and indeed Nigerian theatrical traditions which are arguably and inextricably rich in comparatives such as trends and forms, elements which have also been globally acclaimed in the international communities. This paper is a comparative examination of Alarinjo and Noh, the operatic theatres of Nigeria and Japan. This analogy is carried out by contrasts; distinguishing the specific features of the forms by comparing differences and is essentially written in counterpoint. This study of the oldest documented professional forms of theatre in Nigeria and Japan seeks to fill some yawing gaps of scholarship in comparative literature, and engage the age long theory of comparative literature as a suitable hypothesis and approach for establishing taxonomies in carrying out this study and other similar studies. It examines how national theatres reflect social, cultural and political issues and also explore the ancient operatic forms to highlight the value of evolving from cultural platforms that are supported by practices that preserve cultural and national identity. This comparatistic inquiry examines movements and trends, motif-types and themes and genre and forms in the operatic theatre of Nigeria and Japan.
Contexts and Functions of Proverbs in Selected Plays of Ola Rotimi
(2013) Sonde, S. O.
Proverbs describe, classify and judge a given situation with emphasis on moral/ethical recommendations. They also point to the life patterns of the society from which they are derived. Many studies have been undertaken on classification and definition of proverbs from various cultures and disciplines. Much attention has also been drawn to Ola Rotimi‘s proverbs from the point of view of pragmatics and sociolinguistics, but enough scholarly attention has not been given to the contexts in which the proverbs have been used to develop characters. Therefore, this study investigates the contexts in which proverbs have been used and how they have helped to develop dramatic characters in selected plays of Ola Rotimi. Aspects of Troike‘s Ethnography of Communication served as the theoretical framework. Three plays of Ola Rotimi which have abundant proverbs and which exhibit thematic and stylistic similarities were purposively selected. These are The Gods Are Not to Blame, Kurunmi, and Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. One hundred and fifty-six proverbs were identified and selected from the three texts. The proverbs were subjected to content analysis and percentages. Proverbs in the selected plays of Ola Rotimi are used in psychological and socio-cultural contexts. The psychological contexts are characterised by philosophical, religious and crisis-induced proverbs while the socio-cultural contexts are marked by political, moral/ethical and ideological proverbs. Philosophical proverbs are peculiar to major characters in the three texts while minor characters use more of moral/ethical proverbs. Philosophical and crisis-induced proverbs point out the major characters‘ submission to fate in the face of grave socio-political challenges. Ideological proverbs point to predestination and asymmetrical relations reflected in the Yoruba social structure and gender perspectives. Moral/ethical proverbs describe minor characters‘ submission to the influence and manipulation of major characters over social, physical and psychosomatic conditions. In all the three texts, the major characters employ more proverbs than any of the other characters. Traditional title holders, warlords, and political leaders (major characters) employ more proverbs than women, servants and ordinary citizens (minor characters). Out of the 67 proverbs in The Gods Are not to Blame, 38 (56.7%) are cited by Odewale, the king of Kutuje land. Kurunmi cites 36 (53.7%) out of the 67 proverbs used in Kurunmi, while Lejoka Brown alone cites 10 (45.5%) out of the 22 proverbs used in Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. The predominant speech acts of proverbs include promising, acknowledging (in socio-cultural contexts); denying, criticising and advising (in psychological contexts), respectively performed by major characters and minor characters. Proverbs, used in psychological and socio-cultural contexts, serve to delineate characters in the selected plays of Ola Rotimi. They, thus, add profound meanings to the texts and define their socio-cultural settings. Future studies could compare the character-development potential of proverbs as demonstrated in this study with that of other major Nigerian playwrights in their major plays.
Crime and Punishment in Selected Modern African Novels
(2014) Eruaga, A. O.
Crime, an act that contravenes societal values, and punishment, the penalty attracted by such act, are issues that abound in modern African novels. Previous studies on these novels have often examined the authors‟ thematic pre-occupations such as poor governance and political disillusionment, without adequate attention to the novelists‟ depiction of criminal acts and the consequent punishment. This study, therefore, examined the portrayal of these crimes and the punishment they attract in selected novels in order to portray the nature of crime and the corresponding punishment in different regions of Africa. Emile Durkheim‟s Deviance and Freud‟s Psychoanalytic theories were adopted due to their concern with the affirmation of cultural values and the motivation behind perpetration of crimes. Eight novels, representing four distinct regions of the continent were selected based on their thematic affinity and relevance to the study. They are: Ouologuem‟s Bound to Violence (BV), Achebe‟s Anthills of the Savannah (AS), Emecheta‟s The Joys of Motherhood (TJM), Ndibe‟s Arrows of Rain (AR) (West Africa), Salih‟s Season of Migration to the North (SMN), Mahfouz‟s The Thief and the Dogs (TTD) (North Africa), La Guma‟s A Walk in the Night (AWN) (South Africa) and Ngugi‟s The River Between (TRB) (East Africa). Four and two novels were respectively chosen from West and North Africa because they reveal more instances of crime and punishment. The data were subjected to literary analysis. Political, moral, gender, cultural, racial and religious crimes are perpetrated in the four regions of Africa. These crimes attract varying natural, judicial and extra-judicial punishments depending on the region and status of perpetrator. Political and moral crimes cut across the regions. Gender and moral crimes are common to North and West Africa, but while they are punished in West Africa, punishment is lopsided in North Africa due to their Islamic/patriarchal beliefs. In SMN, women are destroyed for challenging unequal marital choices. In TTD, judicial punishment is lopsidedly imposed; one of the three moral criminals is punished while others escape punishment. In West Africa, natural justice is meted to moral and cultural criminals in AR and TJM respectively. In AR, BV and AS while two political criminals escape punishment, judicial punishment is imposed on one. Racial crime is peculiar to South Africa where crimes are punished discriminatingly due to the segregated nature of the society. In AWN, crimes perpetrated by blacks attract judicial punishment while those committed by their white counterparts go unpunished. Religious crimes are peculiar to East Africa where the harsh Christianisation and land appropriation divide the community on religious affiliations. Supporters of western religion, attract extra judicial punishment by Kiama, a local group that upholds communal ways (TRB). In modern African novels, crimes identified and punished in Northern and Eastern Africa are those which relate to the dominant religion, but in the more westernised South and West African regions, political and moral crimes attract punishments due to their cultural, religious and educational similarities. Therefore, cultural, political and religious beliefs of particular regions of Africa determine the kind of punishments imposed on crimes
A Critique of the Postmodern Episteme in Selected Contemporary Nigerian Novels
(2012) Olaniyi, A. O.
Western postmodern approach to literary interpretation has, arguably, misinterpreted the cultural and ideological meanings of African literary texts. This has been a critical scholarly problem since the emergence of African literature. Although African literature derives its form and style from Western alternatives, its cultural and ideological contents differ considerably from those of the West. Even though several scholars have variously enunciated the need to jettison Africa‟s reliance on Western modes of interpretation, no extensive research has practically detailed the historical, contextual and futuristic implications of the problem. This study, therefore, investigates the implications and consequences of applying Western critical standards to the interpretation of non-Western societies. It also suggests a possible way out of this problem in African literary research. The study employs the Afrocentric worldview, as propounded by Cheikh Anta Diop and expounded by Molefi Asante. This approach provides the African mind the epistemological polemic to critique postmodern literary theory. The choice of texts is informed by the thematic contiguity of contemporary Nigerian novels like Bandele-Thomas‟s The Sympathetic Undertaker and The Man Who Came in From the Back of Beyond; Okediran‟s Boys at the Border, Dreams Die at Twilight and Tenants of the House; Onwordi‟s Ballad of Rage; Adichie‟s Half of a Yellow Sun; Marinho‟s The Epidemic; Arthur-Worrey‟s The Diaries of Mr. Michael; and Mowah‟s Eating by the Flesh. The method of analysis is a probe into the internal arbitrariness in the texts to reveal the repressed meanings. This deconstructive analytical procedure gives credence to the assertion that the Western literary canon is inadequate to provide a development-driven theoretical standpoint for Nigerian literature. The texts reveal the contradiction in employing the Euro-American postmodern method for the analysis of African literature. The exploration of „traditionally forbidden‟ themes of sex, promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, moral laxity and corruption in these texts underscores the need for a value conscious African alternative. The innovation of disjointed style undermines the quest for cosmic harmony to the consternation of development-seeking African critics. The hermeneutic differences between Africa and the West are apparent in the different interpretations the two societies ascribe to symbols, totems, motifs, and rituals. The “basic principles” in Africa‟s relative cultural homogeneity are seen in the promotion and sustenance of her history, philosophy, religion, oral and written traditions, languages, ethics, values and cosmogony, tendencies which researchers can advance in their quest for an African theory. However, these “basic principles” cannot be extracted from a Western source. They can only be arrived at through a sustained investigation of African history, culture and tradition. Africa has not yet evolved a fine-tuned “mega theory” which, in evolution and practice, is comparable to the standard now attained by the West. If an Afrocentric theory of reading literature must be formulated, African scholars must be much more grounded in African epistemology. A fuller understanding of the core tenets of African epistemology would show that her system of knowledge is a credible alternative to Western methods of inquiry. This would invariably translate to the reconstruction of knowledge to suit the African need
Discourse Devices and Communicative Functions in Doctorpatient Verbal Interactions in Two Federal Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria
(2016) Ayeloja, A. K.
Discourse devices are the linguistic tools employed to address inherent problems in conversation for health purposes. Doctor-patient verbal interactions face major problems in clinical discourse due to differences in linguistic, sociolinguistic, cultural backgrounds as well as professional and communicative styles of doctors and patients. Pragmatic and sociolinguistic studies on doctor-patient verbal interactions have observed relevant socio-psychological and contextual factors, but with little attention on the deployment of discourse devices aimed at solving specific communication problems in this setting. This study, therefore, explored language use in doctor-patient interactions with a view to discovering specific discourse devices deployed to enhance diagnostic communication at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan and University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Ilorin. The study adopted a synthesis of Brown and Levinson‟s politeness and M.A.K Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics as framework. One hundred tape recordings of doctor-out-patient interactions were made at UCH, Ibadan and UITH, Ilorin in 2013. The two hospitals were selected because they are the leading hospitals in the study locations (South-West and North-Central geo-political zones of Nigeria). Fifty of them were purposively sampled based on their strategic content (twenty-five from each hospital). The texts were transcribed, the discourse devices there-in were identified and the data were subjected to discourse analysis. Twelve discourse devices were dominant in the data. Doctors employed phatic communion for opening consultations; direct questions and indirect questions for diagnosis; face-threatening acts for presenting diagnosis politely; language switch for explicitness, informativity and mutuality; rapport expressions, for cordiality, solidarity and open communication; and religious belief for encouragement and solidarity. Counselling was employed to guide the patients on how best to handle their health. The patients employed answering for response to queries; closing of conversations for terminating consultations; repetition for emphasis; and circumlocution for communicating medical information. Interrogatives were employed for eliciting information (“Why did you come this morning?”). Declaratives were employed for providing information (“I have a problem with my teeth”). Language switch, realised by alternate use of English and Yoruba, was employed for clarity (“E ti wa tele ni Monday”), meaning: „You came here on Monday‟. Rapport expressions, realised by social questions, were deployed for cordiality (“What names do your friends call you?”). „Sorry‟ is a culture-bound expression used for empathy and sympathy. Imperatives were employed for giving directives (“Buy these drugs”). Some of the observable problems exhibited the possibility of doctors upsetting patients who engaged in injurious health practices. There are insignificant differences in the frequency of occurrence of the discourse devices employed at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. For instance, UCH doctors employed rapport expressions 101 times (7.2%), while those of UITH employed them 92 times (6.63%). Discourse devices were deployed for addressing specific communication and health problems during diagnosis at the University College Hospital, Ibadan and University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin. Awareness of these, therefore, is important for a better understanding of diagnostic discourse in doctor-patient verbal interactions in the Nigerian context.
Discourse Functions of Rhetorical Devices in Selected Roman Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letters in Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province, Nigeria
(2014) Okafor, V. C.
The pastoral letter, an open letter addressed by a bishop to members of his diocese for the purpose of promoting faith and good Christian living, constitutes a persuasive religious discourse characterised by numerous rhetorical devices. Previous studies on Christian religious languagehave concentrated mainly on sermons, liturgy, prayers, theology, scriptures, hymns, and songs to the exclusion of the persuasive power of pastoral letters. This study, therefore, examined themes and rhetorical devices in selected Roman Catholic bishops‘ pastoral letters in the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province, with a view to determining their persuasive discourse functions. Aristotelian Rhetoric, which emphasises persuasion through three main rhetorical appeals: logos,pathos,andethos was adopted as the framework.Data were drawn from 10 pastoral letters of five Roman Catholic bishops in five dioceses (two letters from each) where pastoral letters are published regularly, out of the seven in Onitsha Province. These were Onitsha, Nnewi, Awka, Enugu, and Awgudioceses. The letters, published between 2000 and 2010 and ranging between 20 and 104 pages, were purposively selected based on consistency, thematic preoccupations, and rhetorical content. Data were subjected to discourse analysis. Four major themes: faith, repentance, love, and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church were identified. There were three categories of rhetorical devices: logos-based (logic), pathos-based (emotions), and ethos-based (character). There were 10 logos-based devices: use of testimonial reference functioning as authority to validate messages; deductive and inductive reasoningappealing to the rationality of the audience; definitions establishing a common ground for arguments; comparison (analogy/metaphor) for explanations to ensure comprehension; nominalisation and passivisation objectifying the validity of ideas; syntactic parallelism and antithesis emphasising ideas for easy grasp; and obligation/necessity modals appealing to the audience‘s sense of responsibility and moral duty. Eight pathos-based deviceswere used: Igbo language expressing solidarity with the audience; prayersinspiring them; inclusive pronoun (we) creating a feeling of belonging, collectivism and oneness; rhetorical questions (RQs) appealing to denominational sentiments; sarcasm, segregation pronoun (they), and negative emotion-laden words referring to non- Catholic groups to create distaste for non-Catholic faith; feminine pronoun (she) and positive emotion-laden words referring to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to keep the audience emotionally attached to it.Finally, seven devices characterised ethos: use of firstiii person singular pronoun (I), declaratives, and imperatives invoking the authority of the bishops‘ office; Latinisms showing learnedness; greetings and appreciation expressing goodwill; and exemplary Biblical characters as models of faith, repentance, and love. All the devices in the three categories related to the four themes except RQs, the pronouns they, she, and emotion-laden words, relating to loyalty. Comparatively, logos-based devices preponderated over pathos- and ethos-based ones reflecting emphasis of the RCC on reason as the basis for faith. Roman Catholic bishops‘ pastoral letters in the Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province were characterised by a preponderance of logos-based rhetorical devices, and a widespread use of pathos- and ethos-based ones,designed to communicate messages of faith, repentance, love, and loyalty, and persuade the audience to live accordingly.The rhetorical devices, therefore, establish the pastorals as a significant form of persuasive religious discourse
THE DISCOURSE OF GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCE IN SELECTED NOVELS OF MAYA ANGELOU AND TERRY MCMILLAN
(2014-01) UDOETTE, MONICA SYLVANUS
African American literature has been predominantly a male-preserve in the task of narrating the experience of slavery and its relics of denigration before the advent of reactionary literature by black female writers. Studies on female-authored African American literary works have concentrated on responding to male-authored representations of the tensions of racism, internal crisis of man-woman relationships and the challenges of empowering the black female character. Little attention has been paid to African American female writings across generations and gender categories. This study, therefore, investigates the narrative thrusts of selected works of Maya Angelou and Terry McMillan to determine the dimensions of divergence across generations of African American female writers. The study adopts Alice Walker‘s womanist theory and bell hooks‘ feminist theory which account for differences in the construction of black women consciousness. Six novels – Maya Angelou‘s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), Gather Together in my Name (1974), and The Heart of a Woman (1981), and Terry McMillan‘s Waiting to Exhale (1992), A Day Late and a Dollar Short (2001) and The Interruption of Everything (2005) – were purposively selected. The texts are subjected to literary and comparative analyses. From the first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to the last The Heart of a Woman, Angelou offers detailed testimony on the effects of displacement on the individual psyche and the black community. Maya Angelou‘s selected novels reveal the creation of a collective communal memory through the use of the autobiographical prose form. Angelou‘s narratives reveal her understanding of history, her reverence for memory of collective black folk tradition and represent the Black Arts era. In contrast, Terry McMillan‘s Waiting to Exhale, A Day Late and a Dollar Short and The Interruption of Everything reveal a paradigm shift from the communal experience to the individual, the internal crisis among individuals in the family and aspiration of specific sentiments as she projects the female character as ambitious and daring. McMillan‘s fiction stands out in several ways. She revises and borrows recognisable literary conventions to project the changing roles of women to reinforce her radical perspective. However, the choice of professionally successful black women as characters in her novels relates to the drastic increase in the population of working class women in the 1990s and reflexive of the post-womanist tradition. Her works accentuate the quest for personal liberty, romance and intimate relationships as the central conflicts facing black female protagonists. Although two decades separate Angelou‘s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Terry McMillan‘s Waiting to Exhale, a close reading of the novels reveals that the texts derive qualitative interpretations from the unique difference in ideas and aesthetics represented by Alice Walker, bell hooks and other Black feminists. While Maya Angelou‘s novels keep within the womanist tradition, those by Terry McMillan are radically feminist and modernist in orientation. Thus, the two writers exemplify the Black Arts era and post-womanist literary generation respectively and differently situate the novels within specific historical, socio-political, economic, gendered and literary contexts. Key words: Generational difference, Womanism, African American literature, Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan. Word count: 498
Discourse Strategies and the Evocation of Solidarity in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels
(2017) Gajir, T. H.
Solidarity within social groups is a prominent thematic preoccupation in contemporary African literary works. Previous studies on Adichie’s three novels: Purple Hibiscus (PH), Half of a Yellow Sun (HOAYS) and AMERiCANAH (AH), have examined textual aspects such as language, context, style, and themes with little attention on discourse strategies as they evoke social solidarity in the novels. This study, therefore, examined discourse strategies in relation to how they evoked social solidarity and textual cohesion with a view to deepening the understanding of the texts. The study adopted M.A.K. Halliday’s model of Systemic Functional Linguistics as framework, complemented with Fairclough’s model of Critical Discourse Analysis and Durkheim’s concept of solidarity. The data consisted of 152 extracts from the three novels: 42 from PH, 61 from HOAYS and 49 from AH. These extracts, selected on the basis of their relevance to the evocation of social solidarity and textual cohesion, were subjected to discourse analysis. Discourse strategies such as referential, perspectivation, intensification and mitigation were the major tools for the construction of social solidarity. The referential strategy, a process of constructing and representing social actors by membership categorisation, was exhibited in the form of nominal groups like ‘‘my brother’’(PH),‘‘our family’’(PH),‘‘my man’’(HOAYS), ‘‘Northerners’’(HOAYS),‘‘Black British’’(AH), ‘‘Non-American Blacks’’(AH), and was used to construct characters’ social identities, with the aim of specifying the nature of their social solidarity. Perspectivation, in terms of the narrative point of view, was realised in the form of personal pronouns (I/we/us/they/them) which were used to articulate characters’ perspectives and commitment to social solidarity. Intensification, which implies explicit expressions of qualifying/modifying the epistemic status of propositions, was realised in the use of modal auxiliary ‘‘will’’. For example, ‘‘we will take care of the baby; we will protect him’’ (PH). Similarly, the expression ‘‘Try and make friends with our African American brothers and sisters in a spirit of true pan- Africanism’’ (AH) was a form of explicit intensification, and signified cross-national solidarity. Mitigation, an implicit reference to social solidarity, was realised in expressions like ‘‘There’s no American nonsense in that house’’ (AH) which showed preference for African over American culture. While these discourse strategies enhance mostly familial and kinship solidarities in PH and HOAYS, cross-national solidarity was realised in AH. Expressions with lexical sense relations such as hyponymy (‘‘Kano/North’’ in HOAYS), and meronymy (‘‘black locals/Black Americans’’ in AH), as well as reiteration and collocation amplified social solidarity and enhanced lexical cohesion in Adichie’s texts. In most cases the use of conjunctions, substitutions, and elliptical structures intensified communication of intentions that augmented social solidarity and reinforced grammatical cohesion. Discourse strategies evoked aspects of social solidarity such as collectivism, cooperation, group loyalty and textual cohesion in Adichie’s novels. These provide insights into meaningful and profound interpretations of Adichie’s works.
Dislocation and Strategies for Belonging in Selected Short Stories of Nigerian Migrant Writers
(2016) Nwiyi, J. I.
The dislocation of individuals from homeland and attempts to belong in transnational spaces in contemporary times have become significant aspects of Nigerian migrant prose fiction. This prose fiction has gained prominence following the re-invention of the homeland irrespective of the migrant status of its writers. Studies of these writings have examined the novel genre and the reinvention of socio-political realities, with little attention to the short story genre and its concerns with dislocation and belonging. This study, therefore, examined the creative impulses of five writers for articulating dislocation and how strategies for belonging in transnational spaces in the selected short stories are negotiated. Postcolonial literary theory and aspects of the Freudian Psychoanalytic literary theory were adopted. Thirty three stories were selected from five short story collections based on the writers‘ migrant perspective and significant preoccupation with dislocation and strategies for belonging. The texts were: A Life Elsewhere (ten stories) by Segun Afolabi, Voice of America (six stories) by E. C. Osondu, News from Home (six stories) by Sefi Atta, The Thing around your Neck (six stories) by Chimamanda Adichie and Short Stories (five stories) by Chika Unigwe. The stories were subjected to critical and literary analyses. Migration and its corollaries were significant aspects of these writers‘ creative thrust and sensibilities. Identifiable perspectives that attested to the writers‘ dislocation were prominent in the stories. Dislocation and the strategies adopted in order to belong were projected textually. Thus, the narratives were versatile in oscillating between different locations. Afolabi‘s stories projected a narrative style fixated with conveying the psychological effects of dislocation, and the dilemma of dual consciousness and belongingz that attends this. He emphasised the internal crises of characters by employing the technique of interior monologue. Osondu focalised socio-cultural dislocation and problematised the existential complexities that circumscribe living in Nigeria or the diaspora. His creative strategy sustained dystopic images from Nigeria as a rationale for transnational existence, stereotyping his narrative approach and preoccupation. In Atta‘s narrative approach, survival was imperative. She strategised the survival of her characters and highlighted the human condition in national and transnational territories. However, she maintained a critical stance in interrogating the homeland. Critical socio-cultural realities attested to Unigwe‘s involvement in the re-invented spaces that were negotiated. She explicably mediated the realities of two spaces through the use of juxtaposition, flashback and digression. Adichie problematised the characters‘ perceptions of transnational existence. These stories developed as subtle narratives that emphasised an awareness of the realities she re-invented. Nigerian migrant short stories displayed fluctuating literary focus between homeland and diaspora, and the literary approach of the writers functioned as an imperative for interacting, surviving and belonging in transnational spaces. These stories were critical in understanding transnational interaction and its complex implication in contemporary times