Surrogate Language in the African Novel: A Tool for Rural Development

The portrayal of drum language as a surrogate language in the African novel recaptures this ancient instrument as still a viable means of communicating the people’s thought and culture through spoken language by means other than speech.  The African novel illustrates the developmental essence of the drum in traditional African societies especially in West Africa as portrayed in some authors’ works like: Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, Camara Laye’s The African Child, Etim Akaduh’s The Ancestor, Ferdenand Oyono’s House Boy, etc. The paper subdivides the drum into its symbolic uses at varying cultural occasions in Ibibio tradition in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, as follows: obodom ubong: or the royal drum, obodom usuanetop: for disseminating information and obodom mbre: for entertainment.  The paper submits that language is not only an element of communication; but it is also a powerful means of enhancing grass-roots mobilization; a surrogate language which communicates actual speech by sounding out the stress and tone of syllables as well, has almost the same capability as language.  The drum language therefore remains a viable means for: interpersonal and group communion, cultural transmission, and basically for information dissemination within the rural communities which characterize the folks’ existence, organization and development.  For any scientific change in the transmission of information to be effective within the rural areas, the planners, policy makers and administrators must take into cognizance the drum as a surrogate language for the dissemination of such information.  Also since the drum language is a direct transfer of the stress and tonal features of most African vernaculars, the drum should be modernized and its language patterning encouraged as a field of study along with other contemporary scientific technologies for information propagation and for societal development. Keywords: obodom ubong, obodom usuanetop, obodom mbre, tonal language, communication, call and answer device

Sexual Orientation Identity in Select African and African American Novels

This paper set out to interrogate Sexual Orientation Identity in select African and African American novels, using the Queer theory. Some heterosexual writers inadvertently dwell on queer relationships in their works. Toni Morrison in both The Bluest Eye and Beloved portrayed bestiality/zoophillia, phytophilliac or dendraphilliac, Spectorphilli, incest, rape/molestation, masturbation, polyamorous relationships, homoerotic, homosocial, and heterosexuality. Whereas, Damon Gulet’s In a Strange Room and Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents depicted lesbianism, homosexuality and bisexuality. With the likes of Geraldine in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Mr Lebowitz in Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, I agree with Tyson on biological essentialism, that the rest of the population is naturally heterosexual. I also agree with other critics that all human beings have the potential for sexual activity that does not fit into heterosexual framework. I share the opinion of social constructionism; that LGBTQ sexuality and heterosexuality are products of social, not biological forces; our societies are fast losing their mores, hence these evil practices. Since patriarchy is the law, no stiff penalty is effected on their wide spread jeopardizing habits. Queerness is a generational destroyer of both moral and humanity. This paper is emphatic that stiff penalties be brought on the practitioners of psychology of peadophile

Queerying the Queer: A Puritan Christian’s Reading of Queered Sexualities and Identities in Selected African and African-American Queer Novels

This paper undertakes to read the queered sexualities and identities in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Damon Galgut’sIn a Strange Room and Sello Duicker’s Thirteen Cents from the critical lenses of a puritan Christian. The study, thus, deploys the Reader-Response and Queer theories as its theoretical frameworks. The study is motivated by the growing ideological spaces allotted to African queer studies; and aims to join the discussion by offering a puritan’s angle to the African queer arguments. Among the specific LGBTQ identities and sexualities interrogated in the paper include bestiality/zoophillia, phytophilliac or dendraphilliac, Spectorphilli, incest, rape/molestation, masturbation, polyamorous relationship, homoerotic, homosocial, and heterosexuality. These identities and sexualities are read or interpreted based on laid down Bible principles not necessarily to generate homophobic sentiments but rather to query the moral and didactic underpinnings of these practices in the light of societal mores, stability and progress of the human race, as problematised in the selected texts. The reading reveals that certain queer practices run counter to extant Bible precepts and do not make for a harmonious world order as they are seen to be products of dysfunctional societal institutions. Thus, they are predicated on exploitation, oppression, destruction and unequal, unbalanced and unnatural relationships

Family and the Bildungsroman Tradition in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus.

The paper examines family and the bildungsroman process in Maya Angelou’s I know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus. The study is carried out mainly through Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytical critical theory. The paper notes that the nuclear family’s responsibility at grooming the child (positively or negatively) is a choice, and that bildungsroman is a type of novel that is concerned with education, growth and maturity of a young protagonist from innocence to adulthood. Both protagonists are displaced and estranged from the parents at their pre-Oedipal periods. And because the children did not separate successfully from their primary unity with the parents, they could not initially build self-boundaries and appropriate mental representations. Consequently, Maya and Kambili in Caged Bird and Purple Hibiscusrespectively, became cold, distant and frustrated. They therefore encountered challenges in their new milieus: Maya’s natural instinct for a father-figure, at the stage of Oedipus complex lures her into being raped by Mr. Freeman. Kambili on the other hand, goes through introjections; she begins to split her father into binary oppositions of good and evil and not just the aptness she previously envisaged. The ego compels her to flee from the initial relationship with her father that threatened to overwhelm her fragile self-boundaries. Both protagonists are controlled by the id as they yearn for fusion with objects that never fully satisfied their cravings: Maya’s desire for sexual intercourse with an adolescent boy results in teenage pregnancy, and similarly, Kambili aspiration to covet, dominate and possess Rev. Father Amadi but for his Priesthood, wrecks her emotionally. Finally both protagonists ruled by the superego and guided by Momma and Aunty Ifeoma, in Caged Bird and Purple Hibiscus, enter their symbolic orders and pass into adult gender identities to take responsibilities for themselves and within their societies. The paper recommends that the family unit which is the closest of human relationships should be guarded jealously to forgo divorce and violence, in other to save the future generations from the uncanny and traumatic situations so that children can enter their symbolic orders in peace and harmony and affect humanity optimistically.Key Words: Id, Ego, Super-ego, Pre-Oedipal periods, Fragile self-boundaries