Ihafa: A Journal of African Studies

Preliminaries and Content

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Ihafa: A Journal of African Studies

Volume 13 Number 1, June 2022

Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos

Akọka, Lagos, Nigeria

Website: http://ihafa.unilag.edu.ng/

http://journals.unilag.edu.ng/

ISSN: 1117-5257

A New Historicist Reading of Francis Imbuga’s "Betrayal in the City" and Tewfik Al-Hakim’s "Fate of a Cockroach"

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Various literary theories have been employed in the analyses of several African dramatic texts in previous studies on African drama. However, few of them have adopted New Historicism as theoretical framework despite the manifest presence of several tenets of New Historicism in many African dramatic texts. This paper is a New Historicist reading of two acclaimed African dramatic texts, Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City and Tewfik Al-Hakim’s Fate of a Cockroach. Foucault’s discourse theory and Stephen Greenblatt’s subversion-containment dialectic are adopted as analytical models for the study. The paper examines the power relations and power struggles among the characters in the selected texts, the subversive incidents and characters in the plays, and how the subversions are contained in the texts. The study highlights the prevalence of power struggles in every stratum of the African society and argues that New Historicism theory deserves a greater application on the analyses of African literary texts, especially African dramatic texts than presently obtains.

Negation as a Peculiar Grammatical Feature of Yorùbá Incantations

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The use of incantation (ọfọ̀) is very popular in Yorùbá culture. It is considered to be an essential ingredient in the practice of Yorùbá traditional medicine as its use is believed to have magical powers that can be employed to solve human problems. Grammatically, Yorùbá incantations are transformationally derived sentences. This paper examines the grammatical transformations used in the derivation of Yoruba incantations. It sourced data from three selected Yorùbá incantation books - Àyájọ́ Ìjìnlẹ̀ Ohùn Ifẹ̀ (Fabunmi, 1972), Ìjìnlẹ̀ Ọfọ̀, Ògèdè àti Àásán (Rájí, 1991), and Ewì Àwíṣẹ Atóyèbí (2012) – and employs the Principles and Parameters approach Government- Binding theory to analyse them. Findings show that negation is the most prominent grammatical feature used in the derivation of Yorùbá incantations. The negation marker kì í has the most frequent occurrence while kọ́ rarely occurs in the incantations.

A Critique of the Yorùbá Section in "Vocabulary of Primary Science and Mathematics in Nine Nigerian Languages"

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In response to the National Policy on Education which states that children should be taught in the first three years of education in the language of their immediate environment, NERDC (1980) published A Glossary of Technical Terminology for Primary Schools in Nigeria. The book is a glossary of terms in mathematics, science and technology in nine Nigerian languages, one of which is Yoruba. However, not only are the terminologies presented in the book insufficient for science terms in the lower primary, some of them are not precise enough to capture the notions and ideas encapsulated in the existing English terms. This paper takes a critical look at the aforementioned publication and propose adequate terms for the observed imprecisions. In addition to making reference to dictionary of science, teachers of science at the primary school level were consulted for opinions based on their teaching experiences on the definition of terms to formulate adequate and precise Yoruba language terms that will portray the exact meaning of the existing English terms. It is hoped that the proposed terms will serve as guides to teachers and learners of science subjects using Yoruba as the language of instruction.

The Origin of 'Orin ìbejì' in Yorùbáland

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The Yorùbá people of southwest Nigeria have shown a high prevalence of instances of multiple births, especially twins. This has, inadvertently, led to the development and adoption of a vibrant musical tradition known as orin ìbejì, which loosely translates as ‘twins songs’ in their society. In orin ìbejì, personality-themed songs are written and performed for twins. However, this tradition, which is a critical ethnomusicological element in the socio-cultural landscape of the Yorùbá, has not received adequate scholarly attention. This paper investigates the origin of the orin ìbejì tradition in Yorubaland using ethnographic and historical sources. It argues and conclude that Ifá corpus, a core trado-spiritual repository of Yorùbá history and spiritualism, clearly expressed canonical and philosophical bases that can be deductively regarded as the origin of the Yorùba orin ìbejì tradition.

How ‘Good People’ turn ‘Evil’ in Maik Nwosu's "Alpha Song": A Luciferian Analysis

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This paper seeks to understand through an analysis of Maik Nwosu's Alpha Song how good people turn evil. The paper is predicated on the need to reappraise the basis for the moral judgments that often lead individuals to being labelled as evil. It adopts a Luciferian framework (which engages with the idea of evil, situations that create it and the systems that birth it) for the analysis. The study establishes that self defense in reaction to certain stimuli is an attribute of human existence throughout the living world which is not limited or determined by time, space, culture, religion, sex, and species. It argues that pursuant to the circumstances of its occurrence, these reactions are not always societally acceptable and may often be termed evil. It claims that the transition processes in humans are patterned after a prototype which involves the manipulation of situations and that there is a general link in the wrongs which happen all around. While the centripetal motifs of vices are essentially one, particular situations take on immensities on greater or lesser scales depending on the immediacy of the situation, the exaction of force by the system, and the individual's resistance.

The Use of Modern Communication Technologies in "Oko Aga"

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Social events and situations are not static as modern communication technologies continue to witness rapid changes, which afford users better and optimal utilities. Literary writers being part of the society express their views on societal events and situations through the use of modern communication technologies in their works. This paper analyses the use of modern communication technologies in Oko Aga, a novel by Temitọpẹ Olumuyiwa. The study adopts sociological theory of literature and binary theory of complementarity for the analysis. Findings show that, given their quick access to news and information, there are various positive and negative uses of modern communication technologies, most especially the Global System for Mobile Telecommunication (GSM) and computer, by literary writers. The study recommends that the use of modern communication technologies should be increased in the fight against crime and criminality by law enforcement agents in their bid to secure and ensure socio-economic development of the society.

Making Meaning in Lamentation: A Cultural Appreciation of Death in Ìgbálá, an Ẹ̀gbá Funeral Lore

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Death is a universal phenomenon that signifies the expiration of life in any form and at any stage. For the Yoruba and indeed the È̩gbá people as captured in this study, death is a transcendental occurrence which aggregates communal, social and philosophical aspects of its meaning. However, this cultural knowledge is found to be increasingly diminishing over different generations thus creating concerns for cultural preservation. This paper highlights and examines the idea of death in È̩gbáland as portrayed in the traditional Ìgbálá funeral lore and dirges. The paper employs a philosophical approach as entrenched in hermeneutic phenomenology. It engages textual extrapolations underlying the literary and semiotic appreciation of death as an existential occurrence relatable at both universal and specific contexts of culture. As part of its findings, the paper offers a revisionist perspective for understanding and appreciating death for its culture-specific imports which implicate biological, folkloric, spiritual, existential and philosophical aspects of the human existence. It concludes that new understanding and appreciation of Ìgbálá funeral tradition reposition the folk practice and offers new grounds for its preservation and cultural sustainability.

A Comparative Study of Yoruba Traditional Religion and Morality Differentia

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Yoruba cultural notions such as ẹ̀sìn nìwà ìwà lẹ̀sìn ‘religion is morality, morality is religion’ often equate Yoruba traditional religion with morality, which may not necessarily be a truism. This paper reviews the reasons underlying such thinking using philosophical theology to provide concise clarifications on the interface between cultural and religious beliefs. Data for the study is sourced from Daramọla and Jẹjẹ (1975), Aderibigbe and Basua (1999), Adéoyè (1985), and other relevant textual materials. The paper does not argue that religion is superior to morality or vice versa. Rather, it argues that both concepts are not necessarily the same. It establishes that the two concepts can be independent of each other and can be used to proffer solutions to the challenges of multi-ethnic societies.

Colonialism and Transformations in Yoruba Traditional Attires: The Lagos Experience

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The place of dress in human society has continued to arouse research-based interests, as a social issue. While some scholars have written on traditional attires and other social aspects of Lagos life, little has been documented on the impact of colonialism on traditional attires. This study focuses on the history of dresses in Lagos, especially the transformations in traditional attires synonymous with the city during the colonial period. The paper adopts historical narrative and multidisciplinary approaches to argue that the coming of the British influenced Lagos to a significant degree with the large number of repatriates from Sierra Leone, Brazil, and Cuba. As such, colonial Lagos witnessed a flirtation of varied dress cultures and transformations which at some point even threatened Yoruba traditional attires, given the introduction of western parse-garments, hats, makeup, shoes and other accessories; up to the point that Lagosians then, mostly youths, were wearing clothes more for the purpose of fashion rather than for covering. In all, the study is a revisit on Yoruba traditional attires in the context of the transformations which almost wipe them off in colonial Lagos.

A Comparative Study of Adjectives in English, Russian, and Yoruba

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There exist a lot of literature on the form and functions of adjectives in English, Russian, and Yoruba, but, to the best of our knowledge, none of them employed trilingual comparative/contrastive approaches to study adjectives in the three languages. This paper examines the structure, usage, and meanings of English, Russian, and Yoruba adjectives by comparing and contrasting them. It employs contrastive linguistics and transfer theory to highlight the similarities and differences in the forms, functions, and contextual usages of adjectives in the three languages. The data employed were elicited from relevant textbooks. Findings show the existence of a significant degree of differences in the nature and grammatical status of adjectives in the three languages. The paper concludes that a proper comprehension of the status, existence, and usage of adjectives in the teaching and learning of these languages can increase learners' overall communicative competence.

Features of Nigerian English as Tools for Humour in Funke Akindele’s Jenifa’s Diary

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This study examines some characteristics of Nigerian English used as tools for humour in Funke Akindele’s television comedy series titled ‘Jenifa’s Diary’. Seasons one and two of the series were selected for analysis. The conversations analysed were gathered via downloaded videos of the play. Descriptive linguistic and sociolinguistic methods are used to investigate the phonological, syntactic, and lexico-semantic features of the English language used in the soap opera. The study reveals that features of Nigerian English used as elements of humour in ‘Jenifa’s Diary’ include idioms, proverbs, semantic extension, semantic shift, euphemism, calquing, code-switching, coinages and malapropism. Other features include substitution of consonant sounds, wrong stress placement, lack of word class distinction, inability to distinguish between count and non-count nouns, omission and wrong use of articles, poor knowledge of rules of concord and wrong conjugation of the progressive form in sentence constructions. The study concludes that the use of English in the Nigerian movie industry is a representation of the way the language is used in the society at large.

John Magufuli and Tanzania’s Rebirth: Any Lessons for Africa?

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Until the five-year rule of John Magufuli in Tanzania, which is tantamount to a rebirth, revolution and redirection of the African nation, the international community may not have imagined that Africa could upstage a visionary leader that has the capacity to change the African leadership narratives of corruption, ineptitude, and sit-tight syndrome. Magufuli set Tanzania on a path of emotional and psychological decolonization: from uncommon flagrant rejection of a $10b loan from China to practical reconstruction of Tanzania and leadership by example, Magufuli derailed from the corruption and visionless leadership associated with African leaders. Although he was one of Africa's most prominent corona virus (Covid-19) sceptics, it was obvious that his focus was to look inward and depend less on the west for any form of solutions to African challenges. To Magufuli, no imperial power is tormenting Africa; thus, a properly managed remnant of the colonial relics can be explored and developed to regurgitate the African economy to achieve African dreams. Using media reports, interviews, and commentaries, especially those of historians and journalists, as well as secondary sources such as journal articles, this study examines the argument that Africa has the capability to throw up visionary leaders and the capacity to govern with results that will decimate the onslaught of corruption and ineptitude in African polity.