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Beyond a Charted Identity
No full textNational identity is usually considered an important part of our human existence. Each of us lives in a specific geography and holds specific socio-historical memories; these memories could create a sense of belonging and as this sense of belonging grows and one’s nationalism becomes evident, it can cause conflict, war and violence against other human beings in the name of protection and upsurge of nation-states (many present conflicts around the world are the fruits of such belonging). Michael Ontajee’s The English Patient skillfully questions the reality and limitations of such imaginary sense of belonging. Following the life of the English patient as a survivor of the World War II, the novel longs for a cosmopolitan state where everyone free from restrictions and definitions of nation-state could live and die freely. War and violence in this sense become media that show us the vulnerability of our human condition and the impracticality and dangers of identification with nation-state and a geographical territory
Identity and Language Attitudes among Sierra Leonean Refugees in Oru Camp, Ogun State, Nigeria
No full textThe concern of this study is to investigate the language attitudes of Sierra Leonean refugees in Oru camp with respect to their indigenous languages and the language of the host community, Yoruba. This is with a view to ascertaining their identity patterns. A mixed method (qualitative and quantitative) was adopted and consequently questionnaires and interviews were used to elicit data from teenagers, young adults and full adults purposively drawn from each of the three ethnic groups sampled: Mende, Temne, Limba. The result indicated that a significant majority of teenagers and young adults positively evaluated their indigenous languages although their proficiency was very poor. The full adults expressed a high evaluation of their indigenous tongues and also reported a high proficiency in them. In terms of attitude towards Yoruba, the teenagers highly evaluated Yoruba and correspondingly had a high proficiency in it. The young and full adults negatively regarded Yoruba (as a result of the negative attitude of the host community towards them) and had a very poor proficiency in it. Refugees need to identify with their host community for purposes of inclusion and the benefits of diversity
The Salient Issues in the Yorùbá Indigenous Health-related Verbal Art
No full textThis paper addresses some important issues relating to how, in Yorùbá culture, one finds a socio-mythical approach in their health-related belief system. A combination of sociological theory and the mythological approach (e.g. Koiva and Vassiljeva, 1995) are thus contrapuntally explored in this study. This approach also benefits from the psycho-analytical perspectives (e.g. Guerin, et al, 1979:155), since it is sociologically related. The salient issues considered to be very paramount to an average Yorùbá man which we discuss are: childbearing, protection against malevolent spirits, roles of the benevolent spirits, longevity, wealth, culture/tradition, and death. It is found that Yoruba adopt these various inter-related divine-human belief systems to enhance their well-being and prolong their lives
Feasibility of Nigeria’s Future Membership of the “Francophonie”
No full textNigeria’s membership of the Francophonie, the theme of this paper presented at the Retreat organized by the NIIA and Nigeria’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee at Victoria Island, Lagos, tagged: “Charting a new Foreign Policy Thrust for Nigeria” (June 1-3, 2014), seeks to examine the urgency of, and the modalities for actualizing renewed ties of Nigeria with France and her former colonies the world over, who make up the “French Commonwealth”. The new French politico-cultural family called Francophonie came into being with the inauguration of the famous Agence de Coopération culturelle et technique (ACCT) on March 20, 1970, in Niamey, Niger Republic. Of what significance is the proposed future membership of the Francophonie to the foreign policy of Black Africa’s most populous Nation, which Capital, Abuja, serves as the permanent Secretariat of the 16-member sub-regional body, ECOWAS, dominated by French-speaking countries? Cameroun, one of Nigeria’s neighbors, although located in the Central African sub-region, is a permanent member of the Francophonie while still belonging to the British Commonwealth in line with her bilingual posture, and Ghana, a traditional member of the Commonwealth like Nigeria, became an Associate Member of the Francophonie in 2006. Desirable as the idea is, this writer opines that in view of Nigeria’s cultural and linguistic heterogeneity, and more importantly, in order to ensure that the cultural identity of the World’s most populous black Nation is not compromised, her future membership of the Francophonie, if approved by legislation, should be premised on a cultural agreement to be signed by Nigeria and France, compelling French and Frenchspeaking Nationals to study and research into Nigerian culture and either of her three major languages - Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa (WAZOBIA), while French becomes henceforth Nigeria’s second official language and a compulsory subject in WAEC examination
Content and Editorial
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Editorial This Issue of Lagos Notes and Records presents a range of scholarly contributions from established and early career researchers and scholars across key disciplines in the humanities. It is worthy of note that a couple of articles received from authors outside the traditional base of the journal confirm the reputation this journal has acquired over the years and its increasing national and international appeal.
In the first article, Decker re-examines the history of some early settlers and key actors in pre-modern Lagos. He specifically analyses Oshodi Tapa’s individuality and presents the factors that shape his role in the evolving colonial Lagos society of his time. The paper concludes that an underdog’s capability to affect society is derived from the opportunities presented by the society involved and those accessed and utilised by the individual.
Boumo and Gimba, in their historical mapping of settlement and intergroup relations among the Hausa and Central Delta region during the precolonial era in Nigeria, observe that the people of both regions lived and traded with one another peacefully from as early as the 16th century. They argue that this mutual and peaceful relationship has now been disrupted as a result of many sociopolitical conflicts and events in the last few years.
Florence Nweke discusses phases of earning in music. The study emphasises the phases that lead to the acquisition of musical skills in children using the principles by Gordon and Gardner. The implication of the findings is that knowledge of students’ musical aptitude would assist in the selection of musical materials, their content and teaching strategies appropriate for each student.
Onipede examines the role of visual art critics in helping to improve the work done within that sub-discipline. Art critics and criticism are said to be crucial to the growth of art practice because they serve as chaperons to art through the feedback they give on the practice, trend and quality of artworks. The paper laments the low number and quality of art critics in Nigeria and their unprofessional practices. It proffers recommendations on how art critics and criticism can be improved.
Ofuafo’s contribution also toes the path of visual art by showing how Bruce Onobrakpeya’s works document and integrate the Urhobo concept of Akpo in contemporary visual arts. Using Umberto Eco’s semiotic theory, the paper shows how pictures possess signs and statements signifying cultural and religious values. She submits that Bruce Onobrakpeya synthesises and extends the Urhobo traditional mythology on Akpo in his artworks to create an interface between the Urhobo people and their belief system.
Jegede (lately of blessed memory), in the article on globalising inequality, contends that connectivity, cooperation and interdependence of the states and peoples of the world cannot be successful where there is a glaring inequality of status. The paper challenges African countries to work hard towards developing their nations before embracing globalisation. It concludes by arguing that globalising at this stage of underdevelopment puts African states at a disadvantage, except the developed world decides to trade its development for underdevelopment.
Paméssou explores the theme of gender, sexual identities and morality in the post-modern world as depicted in Caryl Churchill’s comic play titled Cloud Nine. The paper uses psycholanalytic theory and aspect of feminism to highlight the phenomenon of gender orientation and sexual reassignment in the play. It shows how characters in the play act out the complex nature and characteristics of sex and gender identities in contemporary society.
Oral performance constitutes the focus of Anya Egwu’s paper, ‘Towards a Type Classification of Ẹwa-ọma Festival Performances of Nkporo, South-Eastern Nigeria’. He attempts a pioneering initiative to systematically observe, describe, document and classify individual festival performances in an Igbo community in the South-East of Nigeria. Fifty-two (52) Ẹwa-ọma performances recorded in an audiovisual device during the 2000, 2001 and 2002 editions of the festival are used for type classification. Four types of Ẹwa-ọma performances are identified and described in this study. Alimi investigates the issues of American multiculturalism. He uses Kushner’s Angels in America (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) to demonstrate how Americans' desires to express multiculturalism is complicated by their participations in the politics of its acceptance and rejection simultaneously. The paper examines the challenges facing Americans' acceptance of multiculturalism and the politics of "group differentiated rights" that problematise the choice or choices individuals and groups make in the process of acquiring the American identity.
Azumuruna discusses the dimensions of the sociopsychological (sociological and psychological) alienation of the African American as portrayed in James Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain (Mountain) and Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place (TWBP). The paper demonstrates how the two novelists simultaneously engage as well as reformulate the Marxist concept of alienation/estrangement within the framework of the racial experience of the African American in America.
Sobola and Agboola in their article analyse the syntactic representation of structural patterns in the conceptual metaphors and also the meaning mechanism involved in the interpretation of metaphorical structures found in two Nollywood movies: Aya wa ni (Yoruba) and He Goat (English). Types and categories of metaphors in the two are identified, described and interpreted based on their sociocultural meanings.
In the last paper in this volume, Peter Oni examines the relationship between language and development. He challenges African scholars to address the problems of (under) development by utilising resources in African languages. He submits that lack of writings in African languages is one of the major obstacles to development.
It is my considered opinion that this volume has served the academic and research communities locally and globally with some thoughtprovoking scholalrly debates and findings. Pertinent and contemporary issues within the disciplines in the humanities have been thrown up and addressed, and findings from the studies will definitely provoke further debates and deepen the impact of our works on the larger society. Muyiwa Falaiye, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
Editor-in-Chie
Music Semiotics in Tanure Ojaide and Niyi Osundare’s Poetry: a Piercean Interpretation
Get PDFA critical semiotic exploration of patterns of semiosis in Niyi Osundare and Tanure Ojaide‟s poetry would reveal the representation of music as a core ingredient of signification; one that underlies the aesthetic and ideological foundations of their works. Specifically, the paper appraises the engagement of music as an instrument of art in selected poems of Osundare and Ojaide, with focus on how semiotic connotations constitute a complex framework of significations and project diverse implications of creativity, thoughts and ideas. Essentially, the paper, in line with the Peircean triadic principles, analyses the semiotisation of music in the poets‟ works and reveals how music semiosis functions as a signature device of the poets‟ art; and how through it they philosophise and engage meaning. The analysis also points out how musical elements, features, attributes, influences, and even connotations activate poetic profundity in the works. From the perspective of general semiosis - representation and ideation– music tends to act as a preeminent device for cultivating message and essence. In other words, music, in addition to being a core component of semiosis, significantly enunciates distinction in style.  
A Pragma-Semiotic Analysis of Ịkụ Aka n’ụzọ (Knocking-on-the-Door) Traditional Marriage Ceremony of Awgbu in Igboland
Get PDFStudies on the linguistic imports of the traditional ceremony Ịkụ Aka n’ụzọ (Knocking-on-the-door) among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria are rare. This paper attempts a pragma-semiotic analysis of the ceremony among the Awgbu people of Orunba North Local Government Area of Anambra in Igboland. Data for the analysis was gathered through participant observation and informal questioning technique during one of such ceremony. Mey’s pragmatic acts theory and Peirce symbolic sign in semiotic theory are employed for the analysis. The study reveals that Ịkụ Aka n’ụzọ is performed in traditionally motivated contexts characterized by practs of questions, denials, reporting and responses that project issues of culture, humour, and pretence. These are indirect acts which exploit contextual features such as reference, voice, inference, shared situational and cultural knowledge, and relevance. The semiotic analysis reveals that the signage (i.e. kolanuts, palm wine, sheep and agụụ ‘hunger’) that feature in the ceremony are quite significant. Considering the real-life samples, the paper concludes that the significance of communication in the cultural context of the knocking-on-the-door ceremony based on its indirectness and symbolism is central to the overall understanding of this traditional practice among the Igbo. Keywords: 
United Nations Sanctions against Sierra Leone and the Sandline Affair in the United Kingdom, 1997-98
Get PDFThis paper examines the Sandline Affair that occurred in the late 1990s in the United Kingdom and analyzes the process by which the British government officials became involved in violating United Nations sanctions against Sierra Leone during a civil war in the 1990s. In 1997, a military coup which was the third one since the outbreak of the conflict occurred, the civilian government was overthrown, and President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was forced into exile in Guinea. The international community expressed its disapproval of the coup. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a sub-regional organisation of West African countries, imposed an embargo on the supply of arms and military equipment to Sierra Leone by its member states, and the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1132, which also imposed an arms embargo. However, Sandline, a British private military company, violated the UN arms embargo by providing arms and military equipment to the ECOWAS military forces and militias supporting the Kabbah administration. British government officials including British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone became involved in this violation of the UN economic sanctions. The Sandline Affair was caused by multiple factors. First, arms embargo sanctions against Sierra Leone included the UN Security Council resolution and other documents at various levels, and each was characterised by different sanction targets and criticism. This leads to ambiguity among the relevant parties in terms of their awareness of who or what was the target of the sanctions. Second, the awareness of British government officials about complying with UN sanctions and their implementation as well as their communication with each other was insufficient. Third, diverse military actors were involved in the conflict in Sierra Leone, including government troops, anti-government guerrillas, sub-regional military forces, militias, and private military companies. These diverse actors and the complexity of the relationships between them complicated understanding the targets of the UN sanctions of the arms embargo
Language, Vulgarity and Social Critique: The Case of Nigerian Pidgin in Stand-up Comedy
Get PDFThe status which Nigerian Pidgin (NP hereafter) has come to have in Nigerian stand-up comedy is different from the position it has in other spheres of interactional communication where it is restricted to non-prestigious genres. This paper examines how stand-up comedy has changed the linguistic order in Nigeria by giving prominence and prestige to NP and elevating it to serve a good purpose. Data for the study were drawn from recorded performances of seven popular stand‑up comedians in Nigeria. The analysis shows that NP is dominant in Nigerian stand-up comedy. It also demonstrates that apart from their use of vulgar words, stand-up comedians in Nigeria mirror the society by discussing various types of immorality in their performances. Finally, the paper submits that Nigerian stand-up comedians are social critics and commentators who through humour and satire often tacitly criticize nefarious policies of the government and condemn immoral acts of politicians and their agents with the aim of changing the society for the better
Compositional Exoticism in Selected Nigerian Literary Vocal Music: Explicating the Figurative-Sound Idioms
Get PDFDespite the fact that musical idioms are compositionally efficacious in arousing aural imageries and effects, especially in their enhancement of Nigerian literary music identity and nationalism, there is a dearth of scholarly studies on them. This paper, via score reading and sampling of relevant literary nuances, theoretically explicates the compositional utility and rationale of figurative-sounds in the vocal music of some eminent Nigerian composers. It argues that the idioms creatively permeates sonic-imagery, sonic-reference, and sonic-allusion of replicated phenomenon as Nigerian contemporary composers in their search for indigenous sonic materials stylistically indulge in utilizing figurative-sounds in their vocal music