FACULTY OF ARTS
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://repository.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/259
Browse
15 results
Search Results
Item A STUDY OF VARIETIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH IN NIGERIA(1973-10) ADESANOYE, F. A.The study postulates three varieties of English performance in the writings of Nigerians, and examines these in detail for their "common core" features and their "indexical markers". In the Introduction is discussed the English in present-day Nigeria with a theoretical cline of the varieties erected, the pivot around which the investigations of the later chapters are hung. The second chapter examines specifically varieties three and two in the performance of Nigerian judges, while the third deals with the use of English in the Nigerian newspaper press. Chapter IV examines first-variety usage in Literary Nigerian English and the fifth chapter undertakes an examination of the language ability of the low grade workers of the University of Ibadan, exponents of the first variety. Chapter VI, the final chapter, summarizes the findings of the investigations, makes some concluding statements, and suggests four possibilities for further research into Nigerian English. In essence, the study identifies the linguistic features common to all the varieties examined, and their indexical markers. The study also suggests that, from the evidence of the thesis, third-variety performances in written English in Nigeria be regarded as Standard (Educated) written Nigerian English.Item A STUDY OF VARIETIES OF WRITTEN ENGLISH IN NIGERIA(1973-10) ADESANOYE, F. A.The study postulates three varieties of English performance in the writings of Nigerians, and examines these in detail for their "common core" features and their "indexical markers". In the Introduction is discussed the English in present-day Nigeria with a theoretical cline of the varieties erected, the pivot around which the investigations of the later chapters are hung. The second chapter examines specifically varieties three and two in the performance of Nigerian judges, while the third deals with the use of English in the Nigerian newspaper press. Chapter IV examines first-variety usage in Literary Nigerian English and the fifth chapter undertakes an examination of the language ability of the low grade workers of the University of Ibadan, exponents of the first variety. Chapter VI, the final chapter, summarizes the findings of the investigations, makes some concluding statements, and suggests four possibilities for further research into Nigerian English. In essence, the study identifies the linguistic features common to all the varieties examined, and their indexical markers. The study also suggests that, from the evidence of the thesis, third-variety performances in written English in Nigeria be regarded as Standard (Educated) written Nigerian English.Item A SOCIOLINGUISTIC FACTOR ANALYSIS OF YORUBA-ENGLISH BILINGUALISM AMONG FORM V PUPILS IN SECONDARY GRAMMAR SCHOOLS IN THE IBADAN AREA(1977-06) ADENIRAN, A.This study regards certain variable sociological and educational factors as determinants of a person's or a group's degree of bilingualism, and attempts to ascertain their role in the proficiency abilities of Yoruba-English bilinguals in the fifth form of the secondary grammar school. In Chapter I is an outline of the development of scholastic interest in the curious phenomenon of bilingualism. Some of the theories and research approaches to the study of bilingualism are explicated. The chapter concludes by indicating the descriptive sociolinguistic approach adopted for the study. Chapter II examines the relative role and Status of Yoruba and English among the Yoruba people in the colonial era and in Contemporary Nigeria. The Information and analysis in the chapter constitute a background against which proficiency attainments in the two languages may be understood. Chapter III is methodological. Certain assumptions as well as the objectives of the study are stated. A number of hypotheses of Yoruba-English bilingual proficiency are postulated and the procedure for verifying them described. This involves the use of a language background questionnaire, and tests of language proficiency. In Chapters IV to VI the hypotheses are tested by matching the achievements of the subjects in the tests of proficiency with specific items in the language background information which have been hypothesized as determinants of proficiency. The hypotheses tested in chapter IV deal with bilingual comprehension, in Chapter V with bilingual fluency, and in Chapter VI with bilingual choice and usage habits. In each case the results are stated and discussed. In the last chapter (Chapter VII) we overview the whole investigation, summarising the major findings as regards the nature of bilingual proficiency, and assessing the effectiveness of the instruments used in the investigation. We also consider some of the social implications of the differences in English achievements among subgroups in the category of bilinguals studied, and make some suggestions for avoiding their undesirable possible consequences. Finally, four of the sociolinguistic problems which bilingualism poses are suggested for future investigation.Item ISLAM IN OYO AND ITS DISTRICTS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY(1978-07) ADELOWO, E. D.This work describes the history and development of Islam in Oyo and its districts in the nineteenth Century. In short, the work is an attempt to see in what way Islam lad moulded the history of the people of Oyo and its districts in the nineteenth Century, The first chapter describes the beginnings of Islam in the area until the period when the religion became stagnant as a result of the fall of-the Old Oyo Empire, In this way, we are able to see the various difficulties militating against Islam in the area in the early period. In chapter two, we discuss the survival and growth of Islam in the area after the fall of the Old Oyo Empire, The forces, external and internal, responsible for this stage of Islamic growth are discussed in this chapter, Thus we are able to see a clear picture of how Islam surmounted the initial difficulties generated by the decline and fall of the Old Oyo Empire and how it eventually established itself strongly alongside the age-long traditional religion. Chapter three deals with the expansion of Islam during the increasing influx of Christian missionaries into Oyo and its districts. In this chapter, the difficulties facing the missionaries and their effects on the expansion of Christianity and Islam are discussed, Furthermore, the challenge of Christianity and the reaction of the Muslims to the challenge are examined. In this way, we are able to see why Islam became the dominant religion in the area in the nineteenth Century. In chapter four, we examine the status of Islam in the period when the area, known as Oyo and its districts, was brought within the web of Western civilization. In this way, we are able to see the influence of British rule on the expansion and development of Islam in the area in the period between 1894 and 1900. The religio-social significance of Islamic institutions in the area in the nineteenth Century is examined in chapter five. The influence of the institutions on the growth of Islam and how they provided a universal link with the Muslim world are clearly shown in this chapter. The people of Oyo and its districts had been greatly influenced by the traditional religion before the influx of Islam. Thus, in the last chapter, we turn our attention to examining the influence of Islam on the traditional background of the Muslim community. In this way, we are able to see the interaction of the traditional religion and Islam among the people of Oyo and its districts in the nineteenth Century. Since Islam constituted a strong force and became the dominant religion in Oyo and its districts in the nineteenth Century, we conclude by examining the extent of its success among the people of the area in this period.Item THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN IJESALAND (1860 - 1968)(1988-04) ADELEYE, M. O.Islam, like any other religion in the society is an all-pervading phenomenon transforming individual lives in the society. Therefore, I commence this thesis by examining the ethno-historical and geographical background of Ijesaland. I also survey the traditional religious beliefs of the Ijesa as well as the religious and social milieu which were in existence when Islam was accepted there. The thesis is mainly on the introduction, the development and growth of Islam in Ijesaland for a period of about one hundred years (1860-1968). I discuss the advent, spread and the propagation of Islam in Ijesaland with emphasis on the various factors that contributed to its spread. These, in my opinion, include the various Muslim festivals and Ijesa Muslims’ enviable activities during the ‘Id-ul-Fitr and ‘Id—ul-Adha. I also discuss developments that brought about a setback for Islam in the area. These include the death of the first five pilgrims in 1910, the ‘gaga’ epidemic of 1917/18, the Babalola-Babatope revival of 1930 and Mooko-Mooka, (ability to read and write) introduced by the Christian Missionaries. I also examine the subsequent activities of the Muslims which led to further spreading of the faith among the people. As to the introduction of Islam in Ijesaland, my main claim is that unlike other parts of Yorubaland where non-indigenes introduced Islam, Islam was introduced and spread in Ijesaland by Ijesa people themselves through their commercial activities. Lastly, I discuss the difficulties involved in writing the history of Islam in Ijesaland. I also make suggestions on how to improve Muslims activities in Ijesaland.Item THE ALARINJO THEATRE: (THE STUDY OF A YORUBA THEATRICAL ART FROM ITS EARLIEST BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT-TIMES)(1969) ADEDEJI, J. A.This study describes the art and development of the Alarinjo Theatre from its earliest beginnings to the present times. The origin and development of the theatre are traced to the descendants of the Oba, believed to be the autochthones of Yoruba- land and worshippers of Obatala, the Yoruba supreme divinity. By giving material existence to Obatala, they displayed an instinct for impersonation and ritualistic expression which leads to developmental drama. As a natural reaction to the deprivation which they suffered at the hands of their enemies (a party of immigrants), they had recourse to stratagems by which invariably, they developed the means of drama; namely, religion, art and disguise. The ‘masquerade’ was first used by the Igbo' followers of Obatala to terrorise and plunder the Ife city-state out of which they had been driven by a party of immigrants believed to have been led by Oduduwa. At a later period, the Nupe (supposedly under the influence of the descendants of the Oba who had sojourned in that country after the dispersal from Ife) used the 'masquerade' to prevail upon the Yoruba of Oyo. The Yoruba who at that time worshipped the ‘masquerade’ as ancestral spirit had believed that the Nupe soldier-masquerades were ancestors who had re-appeared on the side of their enemy. They therefore abandoned the Oyo city-state and went into exile. In a rapprochement that followed during the reign of Ofinran (c. 1544), it became clear that the descendants of Oba who had returned to the fold from the Nupe country, had knowledge of the secret of the 'masquerade'. The Egungun Society was formed as a conjoint association of two clans - the Oba (Yoruba indigenes) and the Igbori (Tapa extraction). With this association, both the worship of the ancestor as egungun (masquerade) and the use of the egungun for social action were brought together under a hierarchy. The theatre emerged from three developmental phases - ritual, festival and theatre. The process shows the treatment and use of the egungun for both ritual and secular occasions. It was Ologbin Ologbojo, a descendant of the Oba, who adopted the 'masquerade' for the purpose of furthering his duty as retainer and head of court-entertainers. With these court-masques, therefore, the third and final phase in the development of the theatre from religious dramatic roots was reached. By about the second half of the sixteenth century, the theatre had been born. The theatre flourished extensively during the eighteenth century but mostly within Court circles and participated in the annual egungun festivals. With Esa Ogbin (who adopted the title 'Ologbojo' for his professional role) leading a band of costumed-players, the theatre extended its operations outside of the Court and throughout the Oyo empire. Other professional masque-drama-turgs followed in his footsteps. The fall of the empire during the early part of the nineteenth century did not adversely affect the fortunes of the theatre; on the contrary, it contributed to its artistic development and professional growth. The troupes travelled far beyond the Oyo areas and into the new Ibadan sphere of influence where they became - popularly known as the 'AlArlnjd'. Towards the end of the century and thenceforward, however, the corroding influence of Islam and Christianity on the structure of the Yoruba society questioned the continued existence of the theatre. The form and style of the theatre arise from the generalised concept of Yoruba art, namely, that the artist proceeds by induction rather than by deduction. Although the artist, normally, operates within a transcendental frame of mind that inspires him to accomplish his objective, the results of his work seem superficial to the casual observer. The substance of what the masque-drama turg wishes to communicate or share with his audience is revealed in the material of his creation which also underlines his main pre-occupations, namely, religion and human situations. Thus, in the theatrical 'repertoire', there are two types of masques - the spectacles and the revues. While the former are designed to meet religious objectives, the latter are sketched out as comments on happenings in the society. Although the spectacles are serious drama in intent, yet they are sometimes given satirical turns; but the revues are always comical. The root-elements of the theatre are the mask, the chant, and the dance; but a performance is the sum total of all of these and the unified product of gesture and costume. The theatre has specific obligations to the audience with idiom it communicates. Its functions over and above divertissement include education and edification. Bat the art of the theatre can be better appreciated only within the framework of Yoruba aesthetics and the sensibilities of the people. During the height of its influence, the theatre provided s gainful employment for many people outside the original lineage that first developed the art. As time went on, however, it could not escape being affected by the forces of change which had been at work in the Yoruba society from about the middle of the nineteenth century. With the introductions into the Yoruba society of other forms of entertainment based on European models towards the end of the nineteenth century, the Alarinjo Theatre faced a gloomy prospect. Traces of its influence have been found in the 'new theatres'. While it yet thrives by appealing to the taste of the uneducated masses, its means have failed to attract the rising generation of western-educated and acculturated people who patronise the 'new theatres'. With the increasing popularity of the 'new theatres' therefore, the Alarinjo Theatre is bound to fade out of existence. It will, however, leave behind its own undying influence on the new forms.Item CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND THE MARINE OF NIGERIA 1841 - 1891(1958-07) ADE-AJAYI, J. F.It is the contribution of various missionary societies in shifting the frontier of European influences from the coast where it had remained after three centuries of European trade connections into the interior of Nigeria in the half century before the establishment of British rule in the country that is the subject of this thesis. For, in their anxiety to deepen and widen Christian European influences in the country, the missionaries were laying the social and economic foundations of Nigeria, particularly Southern Nigeria. Struck by the high rate of European mortality in West Africa, and haunted by the memory that Christianity had once been introduced into West Africa and had been wiped out, the missionaries were anxious to leave a permanent mark on the country that the eventual withdrawal of European missionaries, whether sudden or gradual, could not efface. They wished to raise a large indigenous clergy, they wished to introduce not only the Bible but also the art to read and the art to make the Bible, in short, something of the technological civilisation of contemporary Europe. Central to this programme was the creation of a Middle Class of mission-educated Africans. The emigrants returning from Sierra Leone, Cuba and Brazil provided the nucleus of such a class with them, the missionaries embarked on a programme of practical education in trades and industry. They tried to gather the emigrants together in particular centres round the Mission House, in little mission villages to which Individual converts from the old town, physically or spiritually, attached themselves. This new society it was hoped would grow and replace the antiquated ways of the old town. Things did not always work out as the missionaries planned. Their resources were inadequate. They were dependent on traders whose objectives were different from theirs. The society of the old town did not crumble as readily as was expected. The missionaries saw the power of the African rulers on the coast passing to the consul and the traders, not to the educated Africans whom the traders and some of the missionaries on the spot as well regarded as rivals. Nevertheless, a class of Africa was rising, as clergymen in the church, agents of European firms or independent merchants on their own. The most notable of them was Crowther who was made a Bishop and who used an all- African staff to establish churches on the Niger. But just as such Africans, were beginning to be given responsibility and, among other things, were proceeding to make the Church less of an alien community in society, the new wave of European interest in the country made European change their attitude to Africans, and the old policy of advancing educated Africans was overturned, Even Bishop Crowther was ousted from his post and with his resignation in 1891, this period of missionary work came to an end.Item POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE PALWO 1400-1911(1973) ADEFUYE, A. I.The Palwo are a branch of the Lwo who settled on the northern part of Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom. Their history is essentially that of rivalry between two ethnic groups, the Lwo and the Bantu, vying for supremacy in the empire of Bunyoro-Kitara, Originating from the Sudan, the Lwo settled in the hitherto exclusively Bantu inhabited empire, overthrew the ruling dynasty, and set up a new one. While intermarrying with the majority Bantu population, the Lwo kings ensured that only sons born to them by their Lwo wives (full-blooded Lwo) succeeded them. It was an attempt by the Lwo to make the throne their exclusive preserve. When one of the Lwo kings found himself compelled by circumstances to bypass convention and chose one of his children born by a Bantu woman to succeed him, the Lwo protested. They attempted to undermine the authority of this Bantu king who had no other alternative than to wage a war to 'crush the rebellion'. Henceforth children bom by Bantu women ascended the throne. The period of the rule of the Lwo appeared to have ended. While taking refuge from the war which crushed their rebellion, a good number of the Lwo left Bunyoro-Kitara and established their hegemony in the neighbouring areas. But some of them later came back and with the coming of more Lwo from the Sudan and Northern Uganda, the Lwo population in Bunyoro-Kitara a century after their rebellion was back to nearly what it was before the war. But the memory of their clash with the Bantu king was not forgotten by the Lwo. To them, it was humiliating to be deprived of a throne which for centuries had been occupied by their own people. Taking the Northern extreme of present day Bunyoro district as their base, the Lwo directed their activities for the following two centuries towards regaining their lost privileged position in Bunyoro-Kitara empire. However, in spite of their success in undermining the authority of some Bantu kings and launching series of military attacks on them, in spite of their economic boom caused by the activities of foreign traders, and which the Lwo attempted to turn into military advantage, they never succeeded in winning back the throne of Bunyoro-Kitara. Kabalega, a Bantu king, permanently converted them into an insignificant minority in the empire.Item SOMALI ARABIC POETS - SELECTED CASE STUDIES(1981-02) ADAM, A. A.This study contains representative selection of Somali Arabic poetry, which gives a clear idea of the quantity and quality of Somali Arabic poetry as well as its literary standard, its themes, its contents and its forms. Entitled "Somali Arabic Poets - Selected Case Studies", it comprises two parts: "Background Survey" and "Selected Somali Arabic Poets". "Part One" contains three Sections, the first of which is devoted to a brief study of Somalia - geographically, historically and politically. The second is devoted to a study of the place and importance of Somali poetry (in Somali language) in the Somali Culture, and the last is devoted to a study of the emergence and development of Arabic and its literature in the Somali Peninsula. "Part Two" also contains three section s, The first of these is devoted to a study of the life and works of the eminent poet, “zaylaci”, the second is devoted to a study of the life and literary production of the prolific poet, "Hajj Sufi", and the last is devoted to a study of the life, scholarship and Arabic works of the remarkable leader and the famous bilingual poet "the Sayyid". This study ends with concluding remarks, which sum up the findings of this research.Item A HISTORY OF WESTERN EDUCATION AMONG THE KIKUYU, 1898-1952(1978-01) ADEBOLA, A. S.The response of most Kikuyu to Western education was initially negative. This was due In part to the nature of their Indigenous system of education which was intimately related to their political, social and economic set-up, and partly due to their reaction against the initial impact of colonialism on their society. This attitude was abandoned largely as a re stilt of the First World War when colonial demands became intensified and many people were forced to leave their homes to work as carriers. Their experience of meeting others, in camps and during journeys, from societies so such different from their own, suddenly opened up a new world of experience that the indigenous educational precepts could not fully explain or cater for. Their hope after the war that the missionaries would assist then to obtain an education which would enable then to play roles other than serving the white settlers as labourers did not materialise, neither was the government anxious to take over responsibility for African education from the mission societies. This in turn forced the Kikuyu to look for alternative means of securing a type of education which would not be preoccupied with either vocational training or proselytization. The ‘independent’ schools which became widespread in Kikuyu from the 1920s; the 'Githunguri Scheme’; the willingness of the people during the Second World War to devote a substantial amount of money they got through the war to education; the dispute between the AIM and their Kikuyu adherents in Muranga district which led to the establishment of yet another independent educational body; and the rejection of the Beecher Commission on African Education, which in turn led to the closure of all the schools that would not accept its recommendations; were all part of the efforts of the Kikuyu to make their education relevant to the needs of their society.