Research Journal in Modern Languages and Literatures
Research Journal in Modern Languages and Literatures is a leading interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research works across the breadths of Literatures and Languages. The journal has a mission to make research and knowledge accessible to all; authors, therefore, benefit from high visibility and readership for their work. The journal's broad aims and scope allow researchers to explore interconnected subject areas. Each article on this particular issue has been evaluated on its own scholarly merit and research integrity, and our expert academic editors take an objective and constructive approach to peer review.
This open-access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Prophetic knowledge, trauma and gendered violence in Faith Ben-Daniels’ A Quarter Past Midnight (2013)
Prophetic knowledge, trauma, and gendered violence converge as central concerns in Faith Ben-Daniels’ A Quarter Past Midnight (2013), a contemporary Ghanaian novel that engages deeply with spiritual causation and the burden of long-held secrets within a family and community setting. The novel sits within a longstanding tradition in African fiction and cosmology of treating the supernatural not as fantasy but as a coherent and operative worldview shaping how characters understand fate, obligation, and consequence. This article takes a look at how the novel deploys prophetic knowledge and supernatural causation as narrative mechanisms for surfacing trauma and enacting gendered violence Adopting Supernaturalism as its theoretical framework, and drawing on its treatment in, comparative literary criticism, and African literary studies , the article undertakes a close textual reading of key moments in the novel, treating its spiritual causation deity pacts, prophetic countdowns, and spiritual reckoning as an internal cosmological logic instead superstition requiring secular explanation. The analysis demonstrates that this supernatural authority governs the novel’s treatment of inherited suffering and its consequences, tracing how trauma is transmitted across generations before erupting into gendered violence that repeats not only resolves. The article finds that prophecy in the text functions not as foreshadowing but as binding spiritual contract, structuring the plot’s climax around foretold obligation rather than open-ended threat. The article recommends wider critical adoption of Supernaturalism and related frameworks for reading African texts on their own cultural terms. The article contributes a critical reading of A Quarter Past Midnight (2013), positioning Supernaturalism as a necessary and longstanding lens for understanding how prophecy, trauma, and gendered violence are bound together in the novel’s narrative structure.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jonathan Essuman, Esther Tontoh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Stylistic reading of Faith Ben-Daniels’ A Quarter Past Midnight (2013)
Style constitutes a central resource through which writers construct meaning, evoke emotion, and shape reader response, functioning across every level of language from word choice to discourse structure. This paper, titled “A Stylistic Reading of Faith Ben-Daniels’ A Quarter Past Midnight,(2013)” undertakes a linguistic stylistic study of the novel. The study is guided by the purpose of examining how diction, syntax, point of view, imagery and figurative language, dialogue, transitivity, cohesion, and tone function as the primary means through which meaning, characterisation, and theme are constructed in the text. It is anchored in Linguistic Stylistics as its theoretical framework, which holds that linguistic form is inseparable from literary meaning. The study concludes that a stylistic reading of A Quarter Past Midnight (2013) illuminates dimensions of the text that thematic reading alone cannot capture. The study contributes as a first critical engagement with the novel and extends linguistic stylistic method to an under-examined area of contemporary Ghanaian fiction.
Copyright (c) 2026 Esther Tontoh, Jonathan Essuman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Discourse and pragmatic features in children’s narratives in trauma related challenges: A case of the Anglophone Cameroon crisis
The Anglophone Cameroon crisis has exposed children to violence, displacement, loss, and prolonged insecurity, significantly affecting how they communicate traumatic experiences. While previous studies have focused mainly on psychological outcomes, limited attention has been given to the linguistic construction of trauma in children’s narratives. This study examines how discourse and pragmatic features reveal intended meanings in the narratives of trauma-affected children during the Anglophone Cameroon crisis. Guided by Pragmatics Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study adopted a qualitative research design to explore children’s narratives within their socio-political context. Fifty children aged 8–17 years from the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon were purposively sampled. Data were collected through observation, interviews, field notes, and audio recordings. Analysis was conducted using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of text, discourse practice, and social practice, alongside pragmatic analysis focusing on speech acts, implicature, and presupposition. Findings reveal that children’s narratives reflect psychological trauma through features such as silence, repetition, and implicit meanings, while also indicating challenges in communicative competence resulting from fear and resistance. The study contributes to discourse, trauma, and linguistic research by demonstrating how pragmatic and critical discourse approaches uncover hidden meanings in children’s trauma narratives. It recommends greater investment in child-centered communication tools for conflict-affected contexts.
Anglophone Cameroon crisis, child trauma, critical discourse analysis, narratives, pragmatics
Copyright (c) 2026 Musih Vale Ngong, Esther Phubon Chie, Atoh Julius Chenwi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Magic realism and its afterlives in African Literature: Between the marvellous and the oral tradition
This paper re-examines the role of the marvellous in African fiction, tracing its narrative displacement under dominant realist paradigms and its aesthetic resurgence through myth-infused literary forms. It argues that while early postcolonial works—most notably Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart—strategically embraced realism to assert African cultural agency, this alignment with Eurocentric narrative conventions marginalised indigenous oral and metaphysical traditions. Against this backdrop, the fiction of Ben Okri, Mia Couto, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o reclaims the marvellous not as imported magical realism but as epistemic continuity rooted in African cosmology, communal voice, and ritual cadence. Through the lens of orature realism—a genre framework proposed by this study—the paper explores how these authors structurally embed ancestral rhythm, mythic temporality, and spiritual presence. It concludes that the marvellous in African literature is neither aesthetic ornamentation nor symbolic excess, but the ontological ground of African storytelling and a sovereign mode of world making.
African cosmology, genre, magical realism, myth, orature
Copyright (c) 2025 Nicholas Kamau Goro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The semiotics of space and time in the Turkana traditional marriage ceremony
This paper discusses the semiotic use of time and space among the Turkana during Akuuta, the traditional marriage ceremony. All through the ceremony that lasts three days and takes place in the open, the sequence of processes and positioning of participants are regulated mostly by time and space. As a ritual, marriage ceremonies reflect a people’s culture, beliefs and attitudes hence deserving analysis from a literary perspective. The data analysed in this paper was collected through observation of a traditional marriage ceremony in Turkana County, Kenya. The study is guided by Umberto Eco’s Theory of Semiotics that calls for the treatment of every cultural phenomenon as communicative and meaning making. The findings reveal that the use of space and time, movements, and actions performed within the ceremonial space convey meanings related to love, commitment, fertility, and social cohesion. For example, the exchange of gifts, the tying of ceremonial knots, and the sharing of symbolic foods all carry deep cultural significance within the Turkana marriage ceremony.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jacqueline Kandagor, Jack O. Ogembo, Cellyne Anudo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Kisii Town Nubian morphology: Investigating grammatical features in a multilingual context
The study examines the morphological characteristics of Kisii Town Nubian, a unique language spoken by a Nubian ethnic community in Kenya. Despite being geographically distinct from original Nubian languages, Kisii Town Nubian has complex grammatical markers and agglutinative morphology. The research aims to record the morphology of grammar, including prefixes, suffixes, and infixes, and examine how the language is affected by its multilingual setting. The study uses fieldwork, written material collection, and spoken language data to provide a comprehensive description of Kisii Town Nubian's morphology, highlighting its distinctive characteristics and potential phonological alterations. It also explains the impact of morphological patterns on Arabic loanwords. The findings advance knowledge of this endangered language and provide guidance for future language revival initiatives. The study also establishes the foundation for further investigation on the syntax, phonology, and vocabulary of Kisii Town Nubian in the context of multilingualism.
inflectional and derivational morphology, loanwords, language contact, morphemes
Copyright (c) 2024 Mary Moraa Oichoe, Peter Nyansera Otieno https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Nigeria’s national language question: A case for the English language
This paper examines the national language question in Nigeria. The paper establishes that language is the vehicle with which the cultural ethos of a society are transmitted while in return, society nurtures language through its socio-political, economic and cultural groups. Language is a means of communication by means of which human beings share and impart information to one another. The bottomline is that the English Language in Nigeria, more than any other other indegenous language, has for decades being a mobilizer of linguistic, political, technological, economic, cultural and religious potentials toward the creation of wealth, freedom, responsibility and common togetherness for the individual and for the nation. It is this function of the English Language that makes it a veritable tool for national development in Nigeria. The paper found out that some Nigerians are pushing for the adoption of an indigenous Nigerian language as against the continued use of the English Language as national language. The paper concludes that in the present situation in Nigeria, it is difficult to see how a local lingua franca can be adopted except by a process of gradualism. It is suggested that state governments should give serious thought to the inclusion of a major Nigerian language (other than the major language of the state) as compulsory subjects in the secondary school curriculum and by so doing continue to encourage our local languages, continue to research into them and make them as virile as possible while Nigeria for the time being concentrates more on matters of national development and the wellbeing of her citizenry.
national language, Nigerian, debate, question, official, adoption
Copyright (c) 2023 Nuhu Isaac Obins, Andrew Onoja, Mary Daniel Nimram https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Feminist backlash and a postcolonial dialectics: Rethinking binaries
Inspired in part by a feminism-related debate on the WhatsApp ‘Collaborative Research’ Forum to which I belong, this paper argues that feminism remains an alien consciousness in Africa, and that the trumped up marginalisation of the female was a colonial subterfuge to legitimise homogenous privileges. The analysis therefore envisages two things: first, that a backlash against the theory results from a combination of epistemic inconsistencies that evolved from a malleable discourse and the sustained indolence with which feminism was received in the continent, facilitating the erasure of every enabling data; and second, prospects into the possibility of an alternative theoretical imaginary that will realign gender relations back into an organic, non-intellectual and non-materialist context in which nomenclatures renegotiate an inclusive worldview with only relative polarisation of status. Textual and ethnographical material will be used to animate the analysis within the context of glocalisation imperatives.
african feminism, feminism, femalism, patriarchy, theory
Copyright (c) 2023 Mbuh Tennu Mbuh https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Cluster simplification in Olusuba: An optimality theory account
This paper centres on phonological process involved in the simplification of clusters of consonants in Olusuba. This simplification has been established in the phonological behaviours of these clusters as attested in their differences in the underlying and surface forms during their articulation. Using data from Olusuba the study shows that the language can allow two consonants at the onset of its syllables hence a cluster. From the reviewed literature, studies show that some of these clusters are difficult to articulate, therefore, an involvement remedies by the speakers of languages in their articulation of words bearing clusters. This study was set to describe phonological processes involved in the simplification of these clusters in Olusuba. The data generated in this study were analysed within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). To establish the phonological processes involved in the simplification, a descriptive analytic design was used in the study. The research design entailed description and explanation of why and how consonant clusters display specific patterns in Olusuba. Findings of this study are expected to be useful as they will provide archival preservation of corpora that would have been constructed from Olusuba.
cluster, corpora, onset, simplification, surface, underlying
Copyright (c) 2023 Walter Ochieng Sande https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Constraints in the interpretation of English-Lubukusu medical discourse
Medical interpretation is simultaneous, and the interpreter usually lacks sufficient time to process and reproduce the information received as accurately as is sufficient. This paper investigated the linguistic and contextual issues that make simultaneous medical interpretation difficult. The paper focused on the constraints encountered by interpreters in English - Lubukusu medical consultation in Bungoma County Hospitals. By adopting a descriptive research design, 36 audio recorded respondents were selected using purposive sampling. The study targeted two non-native doctors at the Bungoma County Referral Hospital and two non - native doctors at each of the selected five Sub-County hospitals in Bungoma County, their interpreters, six Standardised Patients who were represented by nurses working at the health facilities and six real patients who volunteered and signed the consent forms. The researcher audio recorded two interpreted consultation sessions for every doctor with one patient or Standardised Patient on different appointments. A sample of 66 words selected by judgmental sampling was analysed in this study. Setton’s Pragmatic Model of Simultaneous Interpretation guided the study. The results of this study reveal that 40% of the patient’s who visit the health facilities in the target area require interpretation whenever they need the services of non-Bukusu doctors. The interpreters having no formal training in interpretation face linguistic, contextual, paralinguistic and time lag challenges during interpretation. The results of the study will inform stakeholders in health on ways of ensuring patients benefit most from the presence of doctors from other counties and countries in the health facilities.
constraints, consultation, interpretation, Lubukusu, medical
Copyright (c) 2023 Mary Masika, David Barasa, Benard Mudogo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Cognitive stylistic analysis of stereotypes in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Minutes of Glory (2019)
The paper Cognitive Stylistic Analysis of Stereotypes in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s “Minutes of Glory” examined stereotypes in the text using the schema theory. The schema theory is concerned with contextual knowledge which an individual possesses that would enable the individual to process language. Quite a number of contextual knowledges are stereotypical because stereotypes are social constructs that are conventional, fixed, and often exaggerated conception, opinion, or image of a person or group of people. The primary data consisted of seven excerpts extracted from the short story “Minutes of Glory”. The excerpts are chosen through a thorough study and the page numbers from where such excerpts are picked are indicated. The researcher made use of purposive sampling technique for the extraction of the excerpts. The study reveals that most everyday discourse is schema preserving or schema reinforcing because they are stereotypical.
cognitive stylistics, schema theory, stereotype
Copyright (c) 2023 Asheazi Diana Ponsak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Discovering the self in Ukamaka Olisakwe’s Ogadinma (2020)
This paper takes a look at Literature’s approach in presenting how characters achieve self-discovery by taking an in-depth look at how Ukamaka Olisakwe chronicles a character’s journey to self-discovery in her novel, Ogadinma. A link is drawn between Sparby & Co’s (2019) list of how the true self is defined by connecting four of Sparby and Co’s (2019) steps to self-discovery to the plot progression of the novel’s protagonist, Ogadinma. The discussion attempts to show how literature, be it fiction or non-fiction, reveals the importance of self-discovery in living fulfilled lives as humans. The discussion equally highlights the influence of society and family in one’s journey to self-discovery. The paper concludes that the journey to self-discovery is an individual journey that one must make in order to live a fulfilled life.
characters, characterization, Ogadinma, self, self-discovery, true self
Copyright (c) 2023 Faith Ben-Daniels https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Interface between gender myths and history in Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source (1994) and Marjorie Macgoye’s Coming to Birth (1986)
Culture is central to the understanding of gender relations. Yet, studies have not examined how history (as myth or its product) influences our perception of gender relations. This paper investigates how myth, as a function of language, constructs history. It specifically explains how myth is used to construct and determine gender through a close reading and textual analysis of Margaret Ogola’s The River and the Source and Marjorie Macgoye’s Coming to Birth. The discussion is guided by Roland Barthes’ conceptualization of mythology and Judith Butler’s ideas on definition and cultural construction of gender and power, as well as authority in performance of gender. Findings showed that Ogola and Macgoye situate their fiction within the history and culture of the Luo people, who have traditional myths and legends that explain their existence. They invent characters and events that correspond to history, despite not being historical in themselves. The authors thus portray Africa as a rich combination of myth and history, their major characters embodying the essence of history, or battling it, or somehow relating with it through fantasy. In so doing, the authors engage in gender discourses, challenging patriarchy while highlighting the milestones achieved by women in time.
Copyright (c) 2022 Lily C. Salat, Peter S. O. Amuka, Christopher J. Odhiambo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Strategies of Achieving Pragmatic Equivalence in Interpreter-mediated Sermons: Insights from a Group of Churches in Busia County, Kenya
This paper examines the linguistic strategies employed by interpreters in dealing with the absence of pragmatic equivalence when interpreting church sermons from English into selected Luhya varieties. The effective delivery of church sermons relies so much on careful application of communication strategies for proper interaction with the target audience. The Relevance Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1986) provided the background for the discussion of the data. Data was collected through key-informant interviews of interpreters, Focus Group Discussions by the congregants, and the researcher’s non-participant observation during church services. Audio recording was used to collect corpus for analysis. The following strategies were revealed: compensation, calquing, paraphrasing, borrowing, ellipsis and adaptation. The findings further established that although church interpreters played a significant role in interpreting the preachers’ utterances from the SL to the TL, there was a discrepancy between what the preachers said and what the interpreters relayed to the TL speakers. It was therefore imperative for the interpreters to come up with strategies that would enable them to communicate the SL message to the TL speakers so that the pragmatic equivalence of the message is achieved.
Equivalence, Interpreter-mediated sermons, Interpreting Strategies, Pragmatic equivalence, Source Language, Target Language
Copyright (c) 2022 Annet Aromo Khachula https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Conception, animation and evaluation of didactic sequences based on written production activities in the FFL class in Bungoma County
This study focuses on the design, animation and evaluation of written production activities in the FFL classroom. The little research done on the teaching of composition writing in French in Kenya reveals that learners have serious difficulties expressing themselves in written French. The study was guided by the Project Pedagogy theory, inspired by John Dewey and based on organized action towards a specific goal, while actively engaging the learner in the acquisition of knowledge. The study was analytical and descriptive in nature, combining non-participant class observations, questionnaire survey and documentary analysis. Our sample consisted of 12 teachers of French from 2 national schools and 10 extra-county schools in Bungoma purposively selected. Data from lesson preparation sheets were subjected to content analysis, of classic type. Those resulting from the observations of the lessons were recorded, transcribed using Gardin’s transcription code and presented in tables and graphs for their interpretation. The study confirmed that teachers of FFL plan their written production lessons, follow a three-step process during these lessons: introduction, development, and conclusion, and evaluate the written productions of their learners based on certain criteria. The results of this study could be useful to trainers of trainers, foreign language teachers and the Ministry of Education with the aim of improving teaching programs and practices.
Copyright (c) 2022 Wetosi Wendy Anyanjira, Rose Auma, Isidore Muteba Kazadi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Meaning and context in literary translation: Language as a cultural construction
The significant role of cultural context in translation entails a special focus from researchers mainly that the emotive nature of language affects the contextual meaning of expressions. The emotiveness that characterizes languages stems from the considerable position culture occupies with regard to the deliberate construction of specific types of meaning in different contexts. Culture is therefore an authoritative guide simply because the way speakers conceptualize their social interaction is based in the first place on their cultural identity. More importantly, words acquire their significance by virtue of their cultural context and thus their acquired meaning differs regarding the change that may occur within any context of interaction. It is worth noting that the problematic relation between language and culture results in an ambiguous conceptualization of textual structures mainly in terms of using one word in different contexts and for different purposes. This ambiguity can be resolved by looking at languages as outer forms of communication unable to carry anything without being colored by the power of culture. Hence, language and culture influence each other and complete one another in different fields and at all levels. Adopting a socio-cultural theory was relevant in this regard to investigate the problematic relation that exists between linguistic systems and cultural meanings and how they co-exist to produce significant expressions.
culture, emotiveness, language, society, translation
Copyright (c) 2022 Younes Aich https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Literary Etymologies of the Ewe Names of Some Animals
Employing the theoretical framework of literary etymology, this paper has investigated the Ewe names of ten animals purposively sampled for this study. These animals are atiglinyi ‘elephant’, tɔmenyi ‘hippopotamus’, dzotsinyi ‘rhinoceros’, sɔvedã ‘giraffe’, ƒeɖekadzoɖeke ‘stag’, amekese ‘gorilla’, gbeha ‘bushbig’, avugbe ‘fox’, kposɔ ‘camel’ and tɔkoklo ‘swan’. Two purposes inform this sample, namely, first, all the Ewe names of the sampled animals are descriptive because the framework of literary etymology favours descriptive names. Second. The animals are ten because ten is large enough a number for phenomenological studies such as the present one. Findings reveal novel, informative and interesting nuances behind each name and show that conscious reflection rather than random arbitrariness informs the giving of these names. The significance of this study is that it affords one the acquisition of pertinent information such as history behind the names, evidence-based reflection, creativity and comprehension of the deep meanings behind these common everyday animal names that could be taken prima facie as ordinary names without anything worth discovering. Moreover, the study can enhance the pedagogy of these animal names. Finally, the study goes to confirm that although a framework for the analysis of literary onomata, literary etymology can be employed to analyse common nouns like animal names, proving that there is more to a name, proper or common, than meets the eye.
Copyright (c) 2022 Cosmas Rai Amenorvi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Love-Rape in Contemporary Northern Nigerian Literature: A Feminist/Reader-Response Critique of Audee T. Giwa’s I’d Rather Die
If Audee T. Giwa isn’t amongst the first generation of male African writers: Chinua Achebe, Cypran Ekwensi, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiang’o, Sembene Ousemene for instance, who have cast women stereotypes as principal characters or heroines in their novels, he has indubitably joined the arty queue. Be that as it may, only Ngugi and Ousemene of the five have been textually hailed by Flora Nwapa in “Women and Creative Writing in Africa” for mirroring the ebullient “faces” of women in their novels and plays and the other three have been palpably indicted for being misogynist and sextially–biased in their portrayal of women in their early literary master pieces. Women Without Boarders (2012), a novel, in which Professor Aliyu Kamal underscores the intersection between patriarchy, culture, religion and the rights of women in Northern Nigerian Muslim world has brought the Kano-born novelist into the queue. In the latest queue to which he has joined, Giwa seems to have picked a distinctive literary path. This is the thrust of this paper. It explores another patriarchal mode in I’d Rather Die, as the opulent Alhaji Maikudi becomes a rapist, smoke-screening with poverty to rape love. This inimical and baleful attitude inflicts an incomparable misery and trepidation in the green and morally-raised Fatimah, whose heart has truly Muhammad’s embraced. The psychological gore caused in Fatimah’s heart when her love is raped by Alhaji Maikudi is tantamount to patriarchal subjugation and insubordination. The paper employs feminism and the reader-response paradigms for its analytical stands.
Love-Rape, Northern Nigerian Literature, Feminism, Reader-Response Theory
Copyright (c) 2022 Nasir Umar Abdullahi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Translation at crossroads-translating the untranslatable in English-Lubukusu advertisements
This paper applies Skopos Theory in the analysis of “the untranslatable” in the translation of English advertisements into Lubukusu. Translation is a process by which meaning and information of a given text in one human language which is the source language (SL) is produced in another human language, the target language (TL).The central issue in translation is equivalence-sameness of the SL and TL. However, there are some items in the source language which do not always attain that degree of sameness in the TL. Those items are often referred to us “untranslatable or non-equivalents” and they form the basis of this paper. Adopting Analytical design, the paper established that there are two types of non-equivalents in the translation of English advertisements into Lubukusu namely; cultural and linguistic non-equivalents. Further, under linguistic non-equivalence, the study reveals three factors which hamper equivalence; words that share different semantic fields, words which lack hyponyms in the target language and words with different senses in the ST and TT. The findings of this paper would be of help and use to translators who wish to translate advertisements texts and to students and trainee translators who wish to acquire knowledge and awareness of the challenges encountered in the translation of advertisements.
Copyright (c) 2021 Rashid Mutacho, Benard Mudogo, Lucy Mandilla https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Discussing the migrant experience: From Dakolo and Darey’s songs to Chika Unigwe and Abi Dare’s Novels.
This paper is focused on exploring the migrant dream as presented in two African popular soul songs and two novels vis-a-vis the reality migrants face when they arrive at their destinations or new spaces. These popular songs are: Timi Dakolo’s Wish me well and Darey’ Pray for me. The novels are Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters Street and Abi Dare’s The girl with the louding voice. The discussion attempts to draw comparisons between the migrant’s dream versus the reality as explored in the songs and the novels. It is important to note that all two popular songs are written by men. The dreams and hope of migration that they present is in some ways a direct contrast to the realities female migrants face in the accounts of the two novels, On black sisters street and The girl with the louding voice, which are written by women. This paper intentionally focuses on migration within home spaces and migration outside home spaces, and such migrations are not embarked upon due to the reason of war or political displacement as often talked about by migration experts.
Displacement, Migrant experience, Migration, Popular African music
Copyright (c) 2021 Faith Ben Daniels https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Polar subjects, perilous stories: Intricacies of narrating authentic warriorhood in Madikizela-Mandela's testimonials
The centrality of corporeal and embodied militancy in South African women’s political testimonials has scarcely been addressed in African testimonial criticism. Arguably, representations of women warriors have been overlooked because of the masculine nature of war discourse that imagines militancy as a masculine prerogative. Drawing on testimonial theories and criticisms on South African war narratives, this article examines representations of rhetorical militancy in testimonials of Nomzamo Winfreda Zanyiwe Madikizela Mandela. Specifically, it seeks to interrogate how the act of witnessing intersects with claims to truth, a key testimonial imperative, in view of the polarity of the subject under study, a factor that renders her testimonial claims to truth perilous. The aim of this article is to analyse how women politicians’ witnessing of their personal struggles within domains otherwise constructed as domestic/private during and after war (in this case apartheid) serves as historical revisionist accounts of women’s war-time experiences. Further, these testimonials are read as re-signifying women’s everyday experiences under apartheid, as acts of (embodied) militancy. In other words, this debate examines how rhetorical militancy in the two testimonials demonstrates the narrator’s warriorhood.
metrics of authenticity, Madikizela Mandela, militancy, political warriorhood, testimonial
Copyright (c) 2021 Marciana Nafula Were https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Negotiating escape: De-muted voices of female narrators in the Rwandan and Sudanese conflicts
Eastern Africa has experienced its fair share of violence since independence whether one thinks of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia or South Sudan among others. These wars have come to define the postcolonial discourse not only in Eastern Africa but also in the whole continent of Africa. This paper discusses the female voice in negotiation of escape in the testimonial writings revolving around the conflicts as represented in Slave: My True Story by Mende Nazer and Left to Tell: One Woman’s Story of Surviving Rwandan Genocide by Immaculée Ilibagiza. The two non-fictional works are echoes of happenings in the wars that took place in the nineties in Rwanda and South Sudan respectively. They mark a significant paradigmatic shift from the predominant discourse of the boy soldiers who narrate their military experiences that depict the ambivalence of victim and culprit. From the female narrators’ point of weakness, the voice is a testimony of the space of the victim in the whole disposition of the violence.
escape, female voice, postcolonial discourse, violence
Copyright (c) 2021 Obala Musumba https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
This paper interrogates selected cinematic and stylistic techniques with a view to establishing why film audience would enjoy watching a film featuring violence and instances of intense human suffering, which elicit pain, when they avoid painful situations in real life. The study is based on the hypothesis that though the fractured, chaotic, and violent aspects of crime would appear to be diametrically opposed to the entertainment functions of films, stylistic presentation of violence would cause the audience to enjoy watching films with criminal activities which they would otherwise shun in reality. The research is guided by the theory of Semiotics and Psychoanalysis and employs a qualitative research design. The findings of this research explain how the devices and techniques function to make the audience feel pleasure in response to tragedies of crime and objects of distress. The study draws a conclusion that cinematic techniques and stylistic devices transform the unpleasant emotional responses the audience may have into pleasurable ones through psychologically engaging the audiences’ mental schema.
Adrenalin Curiosity Dopamine Violence Pleasure
Copyright (c) 2021 Lencer Achieng Ndede https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Enhancing teacher education and training for effective teaching and learning of French for vocational purposes
A lot of dynamism and paradigm shifts have been experienced in the world’s different sectors, especially in matters education. In this regard new training needs have emerged and hence the necessity to have qualified teachers endowed with adequate skills and competences. This article however, outlines the skills and competencies that foreign language teachers should equip themselves with, in order to facilitate the acquisition of linguistic competencies among the learners. The overall goal is to sensitize teachers and trainers on the need to adopt those approaches and methodologies that are specific to the teaching of languages for specific and professional purposes and consequently, to facilitate the setting up of appropriate and adequate training systems. The adoption of the systemic approach in teacher education and training is recommended; while the socio-constructivist theory and the action-based approach in the teaching of languages for professional purposes forms the basis and the adoption of the appropriate teaching strategies.
Copyright (c) 2021 Clara LAGAT, Isidore Muteba KAZADI https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Aspects of graphology in the construction of selected Kiswahili children’s novels
Graphology has today dominated children’s literature making it look like an amorphous and an ambiguous creature with its relationship to its audience. Children lack the required knowledge and skills to associate meaning to the stylistic devices in use. This, however, means that children’s literature has undergone a series of transformations and it appears that in the process of its transformations, it has been affected and it has equally affected its representation as well as the socialization of children as manifested in five (5) purposively selected Kiswahili children’s novels of Nyumba ya Sungura (2012), Hadithi ya Mamba (2009), Harusi ya Mwanasungura (2006), Usicheze na Moto (2003) and Dani na Wezi wa Toyota (2015).This is so because a keen look at the five (5) literary texts confirms a lot of graphological dominance which has presented an avenue for debates and radical shifts in the scholarship in the discipline of children’s literature. With Leech & Short’s (1981) Stylistics and Rosenblatt’s (1939) Readers Response theories Rosenblatt (1939), this paper attempted to highlight and re-examine some of the graphological aspects used in the construction of children’s literature with a focus on selected novels and how those graphological features impact on the readers. It established that graphological aspects enhance thematic foregrounding in children’s literature besides giving those texts some aesthetic appeal resulting into ideal comprehension.
Copyright (c) 2021 Eliud Musotsi, Frida Miruka, Benard Okal https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The functionality of lexico-pragmatic strategies in selected Lubukusu secular music texts
This paper focuses on the Lexico-Pragmatic Strategies employed in selected Lubukusu secular music texts and their functionality. The study was anchored on the Relevance Theory (RT). The study purposively sampled out twelve (12) secular music texts among the Bukusu in Bungoma County, Kenya. The music texts were sampled thematically based on the themes of politics (4), love (4) and social commentaries (4). Data was collected through content analysis of the downloaded music texts from YouTube, interview schedules and Focus Group Discussions (FDGs). Data was transcribed and translated into English for analysis. Data was presented thematically in accordance with the study objectives. The findings of the study revealed that Lubukusu secular music texts employ a number of lexico-pragmatic strategies. These include euphemisms, codeswitching, lexical borrowing, repetition, metaphorical extensions and irony. It is therefore recommended that further studies be carried out on figures of speech like proverbs in the framework of lexico-pragmatics as well as explore the same linguistic strategies using a different approach like lexico-semantics.
Copyright (c) 2021 Metrine Wamalwa, Lucy Mandillah, Reginald Atichi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
This paper examines the concern by the early African critics that popular Culture was an example of false consciousness. In essence, it explores the popular cultural productivity which until recently is still assigned a marginal position in scholarship on the East Africa arts. This debate is enhanced by Owuor Anyumba, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Taban Lo liyong, Chris Wanjala, Henry Chakava and Elizabeth Knight who castigate popular works for their irreverent content. They seek to distinguish between elite literature and popular literature in terms of themes and formal stylistic features. Some of these critics argue that popular writings are wholesale replicas of western pulp fiction because most of it tap themes like crime, sex, prison, local politics and local intrigue other than enhancing the African ethos. This study is qualitative, employing discourse data obtained from a close reading of the text, and guided by post-colonial theory in the process of its enquiry.
culture, False consciousness, population
Copyright (c) 2021 Vincent Odhiambo Oduor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The philosophy of Wanyore metaphor: A semantic approach
This paper sought to analyse the philosophy of metaphor in the Banyore proverbs. The paper identified different types of metaphors in the Banyore proverbs and evaluated the metaphor philosophy in the proverbs. This was guided by Relevance: Communication and Cognitive Theory, founded by Sperber and Wilson (2004 & 1986). The Relevance: Communication and Cognitive Theory by Sperber and Wilson (1986) was used to analyse, explain and interpret philosophy and meaning of metaphors in the Banyore proverbs. The study population was conducted on the Banyore natives of Emuhaya and Luanda sub-counties in Vihiga County. Purposive sampling was used to get the Banyore natives who speak the Banyore language and who are fully conversant with the Banyore proverbs. Data collection was done through content analysis and interview. Research instruments included interview schedules and questionnaires. The proverbs were recorded, translated and interpreted in Kiswahili. The research findings established that Banyore proverbs are rich in various philosophies such as forgiveness and reconciliation of the society, marriage and family life. The importance of research findings include documentation of the Banyore proverbs which are rich in their philosophical meaning.
Copyright (c) 2021 Henry Andele, Susan Choge, Fred Wanjala https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
Rhetorical questions as an off-record politeness strategy in language use among the Bukusu
This paper sought to discuss rhetorical questions as an off- record politeness strategy with the aim of determining the context and reasons for their use in communication. It focused on language use amongst users of Bukusu language through a case study of Manguliechi’s oration. The study was guided by the Politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987). Purposive sampling was used to sample Manguliechi, whose language use formed the basis of this study. Data was collected by use of content analysis and discourse methods. Data analysis was done through the interpretive method and the results reported by description. The research outcomes are expected to play a vital role in highlighting and explaining the context and reasons for the use of rhetoric questions as an off-record strategy in language. The report will also contribute literature in critical discourse analysis of African languages.
Copyright (c) 2021 Eunice N. Neyole, Frida A. Miruka, Deborah N. Amukowa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0
The role of autobiographies and biographies in the promotion of Kiswahili prose
Despite the fact that Kiswahili prose has grown and made great strides as well as demonstrating high artistic levels through stylistic experimentations as well notable developments in content and presentation; some of its sub-genres especially the autobiographies and biographies seem to be overlooked by writers and literary critics in Kiswahili and thus they continue lagging behind as mediums of artistic expression. This article (re)evaluates and explains the role of these writings in the promotion of Kiswahili language and literature with an aim of rekindling enthusiasm in its composition and promotion as a feature of cultural development. The paper takes a theoretical perspective in that it evaluates a Kiswahili literary sub-genre from a historical perspective. The evaluation used critical analytical methods to examine the autobiographies and biographies in Kiswahili as well as to question and to evaluate the prevailing situation. Finally, the paper recommends that strategies for composing and teaching Kiswahili autobiographies and biographies be put in place in order to broaden their scope.
autobiography, biography, Kenya, Kiswahili, prose
Copyright (c) 2021 John M'Raiji https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0