Nativization as Style and Identity Marker in Barclays Ayakoroma’s Dance on his Grave By Ebi Yeib
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Vol. 3,
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Nativization as Style and Identity Marker in Barclays Ayakoroma’s Dance on his Grave
Ebi Yeibo
Department of English and Literary
Studies,
Faculty of Arts,
Niger Delta University,
Wilberforce Island
ABSTRACT
The study explores nativization in African literature
as a counter-discursive canon, with illustrative focus on Barclays Ayakoroma’s Dance on His Grave. With Bakhtin’s
(1981) Linguistic Hybridity, as the theoretical framework, it examines the
supra-linguistic and para-verbal devices the author has deployed in the text,
such as native rhetorical patterns, proverbs, transliteration, native
tropes/figurations, code-switching and code-mixing, to capture and delineate
the Izonlinguo-cultural environment in which it is set. The study demonstrates
the relevance of nativization not only in capturing indigenous forms,
rhetorical patterns and language varieties in literary texts, but also in its
potential for evoking a people’s world view, philosophy, cultural nuances and
ethos and the inherent reflexivity between a society’s metonymic expressive
forms and cultural practices. It posits that the import of nativized forms in
African post-colonial literary texts rests on their subtle disavowal of
vestiges of linguistic and cultural imperialism by juxtaposing indigenous and
colonial languages in one semiotic space and, in the process, compelling the recognition
or integration of local cultures and identities in global thinking and
consciousness.
Key words: nativization, identity discourse, style
markers, Linguistic Hybridity, local Cultures, global consciousness.
Introduction
Our major
concern in this study is to explore nativization as a style and identity marker
in African literary canon, using Barclays Ayakoroma’sDance on His Grave,as the illustrative text. The central argument
of the study is that, as Kristiansen (2003: 104) put it, “language forms are
part of a larger system of symbolic markers of identity, including dress,
dance, song, property and manners” (see Kaseem, 2009: 198). It is apparent that
the scholar sees language, basically, as a vocal or expressive aspect of
culture, like other symbolic or indexical markers of individual or group
identity. This thesis is echoed by Alo (1995: 10) inter alia:
Language is culture-bound. Language is both an index
and an integral part of culture. Since language is an integral part of culture,
language becomes a mode of expressing a culture and a ‘world view’. In
learning another language, new cultural
traits or behaviour are acquired in the process, in addition to one’s own.
The study, therefore, hinges on the duality of
linguistic and cultural traits that are compulsively manifest in the African
and his existential engagements as a result of his colonial experience.
Ofcritical relevance to the study is the fact that the complex situation of
hybridity which imperialism has foisted on the African has become strategic and
integral to the literature of the continent, thereby creating a peculiar
idiom.Izevbaye (1974:138) hints at the “background of vernacular cultures” that
is most prominent in Nigerian literature and which has helped to give the
literature “its character and can provide a touchstone for understanding and
identifying (its) peculiar characteristics...”Hence Adedimeji (2008: 72/73)
observes that African literature is defined by its focus on “...aspects of
African life, society, philosophy and experience, regardless of whatever
language in which it is written”. Igboanusi (2004: 219/220) expresses a similar
sentiment when he averred that,
The oral tradition is very important to Africans in
general because their behaviours, thoughts, language and rhetoric are moulded
and shaped by their tradition. Similarly, their creative imagination, history,
medicine, technology and philosophy were orally passed down to different
generations through various forms of oral performance. The writer’s experiences
and world view are nurtured by this tradition, in spite of the language of
expression.
Bamgbose (1995:20) identifies nativization as one of
the three major characteristics of Nigeria English, the others being the
influence of biblical language and importation of Americanisms (see Opara,
2016:138). According to the scholar (2004:612), nativization is realized in
three ways viz: pragmatic, creative and linguistic (Onyema, 1998:47; Alo, 2006:
25; Opara, 2016:138). Bamgbose (Ibid) explains that while pragmatic
nativization is innovation associated with the context of situation to reflect
the world view, rhetoric and idiom of a particular culture, creative
nativization manifests in two major ways viz: coinages which may express or
reflect the Nigerian experience or world view i.e. been to (one who has
travelled abroad), four-one-nine (the act of duping); and the translation of
the Nigerian native idiom into English to reflect the mood of the situation
(See Alo, 2006:25).Aspects of linguistic innovation or nativization include the
“formation of new words (neologisms), and new meanings or semantic extension...
(and) deliberate alteration of linguistic forms and usage, for instance, a
word, idea or meaning” (Alo, 2006:25). Alo (2006:25) explains that linguistic
nativization also covers the process of translation i.e. when an existing word
in English acquires a new meaning. It is, therefore, logical to state that,
whatever form it takes, nativization refers to the modifying influence of
African indigenous languages (in our context), in various ways, on the colonial
languages. It refers to forms or varieties of language outside the native
varieties, which are products of cultural or social realities in the new
environments.These realities include the thought or speech pattern, the value
system, philosophies, worldviews, attitudes, mores and lores, which aggregate
the culture of a given people and which underscore the deep nexus between
language and culture. In other words, native English words and utterances that
reflect the English socio-cultural realities have been replaced with functional
African forms which are alien to the language but which effectively reflect the
values and experiences of the new environment and context.
Nativizationis, thus, engendered
by the need to circumvent the linguistic dilemma or imbroglio faced by the
African writer vis-a-vis whether or not the colonial languages such as
Portuguese, English and French, would be able to adequately and authentically
convey the socio-cultural and linguistic realities of the African continent in
its literature. Essentially, the dilemma is predicated on the fact that language
is central to literature and that there is a watertight connection or nexus
between political independence and cultural emancipation (see Yeibo, 2011:202).
Aboh and Uduk (2015:166) adumbrate this imperative inter alia:
Provided the discourse limns the reflexivity between
the use of language and literary composition in West Africa or Africa as a
whole, the question of which language to compose in will continue to interest
both writers and critics of African literature.
The critical fact in this study, as we have earlier
stated, is that the dominant and pervasive use ofnativizationprovides an index
to its utilitarian value both as an identity and style marker in African
literature,in the sense that it helps to assert, maintain and project the
African linguistic and cultural heritage and experience even though the
conveyor language is imperialist. The African writer seeks to achieve this goal
by deploying idioms from his native or indigenous cultural and
linguisticrepertoire, which inevitably imbues the literature with local colour.
HenceGrieve (1964:3) observes that, in Africa, English is a vehicle of African
cultures, as well as of English and in these African cultures, concepts exist
which do not exist in English culture. Against this backdrop, the scholar
contends that if English is to be an effective mode of communication in Africa,
it is essential that it adapts itself to the inherent cultural and contextual
realities, so as to be able to express these concepts. Alo (2006: 25) has
outlined a variety of stylo-linguistic and discoursal strategies which African
writers who write in the imperialist language deploy in order to contextualize
aspects of indigenous/cultural meaning inter alia:
i) The use of non-native similes
and metaphors ii) The transfer of
rhetorical devices for personalizing speech iii) The
translation (transcreation) of proverbs, idioms, etc.
iv) The
use of culturally dependent style. v) The
use of syntactic devices.
There is no
doubt that
the patterns
of English
usage in
Ayakoroma’sDance
on His Grave, with its “nativized flavour, express the deep
inter-relationship between language and culture” which African writers exploit
to serve functional and aesthetic ends in their works (Hunjo, 2002: 62). This
is an apparent recognition of Wellek and Warren’s (1948:105) thesis that
“literature occurs only in a social context, as part of a culture, in a
milieu”. In a broader perspective, Tsaaior (2006:7) also avers that,
It has become an established epistemology in
linguistic, literary and cultural discourses that texts – whetheroral, scribal
or print – exist within concrete socio-cultural, political and ideological
contexts. It is these contexts that give the texts birth and fire them with
life and ontological existence.
The present study, therefore, examines the language
patterns or forms that reflect native cultural concepts, values, experiences
and worldviews which etch the identity of the Izon people, and also foreground
stylistic functions in the text, in tandem with Alo’s (2006:26) thesis that
“non-native creative writers in English generally” resort to a variety of
linguistic and discoursal strategies, as well as the use of native rhetoric and
figurative language, proverbs, transliteration, and translation to contextualize
aspects of indigenous cultural meaning. In other words, the study privileges
local colour in the text as a style marker, since it highlights linguistic
innovations or novel forms which derive their value or sense from the context
of the L2 environment,particularly if we view the term “style markers” as
... those linguistic (or literary) features
deliberately deployed in a given text or discourse by an author, to encode
aspects of meaning and also achieve particular aesthetic effects... the
linguistic features of texts which are significant for their semantic
implications and aesthetic functions.
(Yeibo, 2011:930).
Osani(2008:101) has drawn our attention to the fact
that “literary aesthetics in Africa should entail the authentic representation
of African realities”. According to the scholar (Ibid), “this can be done....
if the writer rehabilitates the English language to suit his purpose”. Thus, in
a broad sense, the primary purpose of this study is to, as Lindfors (2002: 4)
put it, determine “...the influence that one type of verbal art has had upon another”,
by exploring the “... skill with which ... writers exploit new aesthetic
opportunities by incorporating traditional matter in the novels, plays and
poems they write in a language which is not their mother tongue” (Lindfors,
2002: 3). From available literature, there has been robust and thriving
scholarship on the engrafting of indigenous linguistic and cultural elements as
a stylistic and discoursal strategy in modern African literary texts written in
English (see Achebe, 1975; Ojaide, 1992; Nwachukwu-Agbada, 1993; Bamiro, 1994;
Bamgbose, 1998, 2004; Igboanusi, 2002; Adedimeji, 2003, 2008; Alo, 2006; Osani,
2008; Fashina, 2009; etc). The present study adds to the corpus of work on the
subject.
Theoretical Framework
The study adopts Mikhail Bakhtin's(1981) analytical
model of linguistic hybridity. The theory of linguistic hybridity is derived
from the concept of hybridization which means 'mixture' and "denotes
anything of mixed ancestry or origin" (Josiah, 2014: 16; cited in Aboh and
Uduk, 2015: 168). It implies the coming together or intermingling of two or
more discrete or disparate objects or processes, to form a single object or
process, as a result of certain bases or motivations. Though the term evolved
from biology, it is used in sundry academic disciplines, intellectual domains
or discourses that border on race, post-colonialism, identity,
multiculturalism, biculturalism, popular culture and globalization, etc.
Hybridization
is not a new concept in intellectual discourse; societies have always adopted
or engrafted ideas, perspectives, worldviews, cultures, sciences, philosophies,
etc, from other societies, thereby bringing about hybrid or dual entities,
processes or phenomena. In post-colonial discourse, the term is particularly
associated with identity and culture as a counterpoint to cultural (in its
broadest sense) imperialism or hegemonism. Its promoters include: HomiBhabha,
Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, GayatriSpivak, Nestor Garcia Canclini, etc. Bhabha's
(1994) text The Location of Culture is
very significant in this regard. The point is that the dominance or subalterm
predilection of colonial languages, which results in anxiety among the
colonized, is neutralized by deliberate efforts of indigenous writers and
scholars, to contextualize meaning in local idioms, against the backdrop that
it brings the ‘other’ culture to the fore, thereby engendering the recognition
of local cultures and identities in global thinking and consciousness.According
to Wikipedia,
Languages are all hybrid in varying degrees, for
centuries people borrowed from foreign languages, creating thus hybrid
linguistic idioms. They did so for commercial, aesthetic, ideological and
technological reasons (to facilitate trade transactions, express philosophical
or scientific ideas unavailable in their original idioms, enrich and adapt
their languages to new realities, subvert a dominant colonial literary canon by
deliberately introducing words from the colonized people's idiom). Trade and
colonization have been the main vehicles of linguistic hybridization across
history. Since the classical conquests, both the colonizers and colonized
tapped into each other's languages.
Hybridity, therefore, has both linguistic and cultural
dimensions or colouration. It breeds multicultural or bicultural awareness or
consciousness, which is inscribed or captured in metonymic linguistic forms,
since all languages have their signifying systems and social nuances or
structures.
As earlier mentioned, of particular
relevance to the present study is Mikhail Bakhtin's (1981) concept of
linguistic hybridity which has two prongs viz: 'organic' or 'unconscious' and
'intentional'. According to the scholar, while the former is self explanatory -
unconscious - the latter refers to a writer or speaker artistically or
advertently deploying forms, perspectives or texts in one language, but
reflecting the semantic, cultural or philosophical moorings or nuances of
another language.The implication of this thesis is that, as with Ayakoroma's
engrafting of Izon linguistic and cultural elements in the text under study,
the two languages (i.e. Izon and English) are focally present in one semiotic
or textual space. Hence, Issifou (2013: 47) avers that the term "is a post
colonial construct that aims at countering all binaries based on notions of
ethnic, cultural, racial and political purity” and that“it refers to the new
trans-cultural forms within the contact zone produced by colonization"
(see Aboh and Uduk, 2015: 169). There is no doubt that this postulate is particularly
applicable to the African post-colonial context, for, as Ngugi (1993:42) avers,
“...the economic and political conquest of Africa was accompanied by cultural
subjugation and the imposition of an imperialist cultural tradition whose dire
effects are still being felt today”.
Brief Biography of the Author
Barclays Ayakoroma was born on the 3rd of
February, 1956. He hails from Angiama in Sagbama Local Government Area of
Bayelsa State and had his early education at Agbarho, Delta State, before
proceeding to the University of Calabar to study Theatre Arts. He later
obtained an M.A. and a PhD in Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan and
Port Harcourt, respectively. Ayakoroma has worked in various establishments
including Professor J.P. Clark-Bekederemo’s PEC Repertory Theatre, Lagos;
Rivers State Television (RSTV), Port Harcourt; University of Port Harcourt; and
the Bayelsa State Council for Arts and Culture, Yenagoa, as Executive Director.
He is, at present, the Executive Secretary of the National Institute for
Cultural Orientation, Abuja. Ayakoroma’s published plays include: A Matter of Honour, Dance on His Grave, A
Chance to Survive, Castles in the Air, Once Upon a Dream and A Scar for
Life.
Synopsis of the Play
The main issue
addressed in Ayakoroma’sDance on His
Grave is patriarchy and women revolt, with its dire consequences or
implications for societal cohesion and progress. King Olotu and the elders are
the promoters of patriarchy, while his wife, Alaere, is the arrowhead of the
women revolt against the status quo. In the play, the women, through their
leader, Alaere, struggle to share power with the men and have a say in the
affairs of the land, on the basis of equity and fairplay. The main tools the
women deploy to potentiate the struggle are sexual deprivation of the men and
sheer abandonment of domestic chores or duties. Shocked and embarrassed, the
men decide to beat up the women and force them to give into their sexual
demands. Unable to withstand the physical, emotional and psychological pressure,
the women surrender and succumb to the men’s continued hegemony. However,
Alaere introduces another weapon which completely devastates the king – that he
is not the biological father of his only child (daughter) – Beke. King Olotu
interrogates his wife, probing deeply to get at the sacrosanct truth about
Beke’s paternity. He ultimately loses the battle and commits suicide.
Textual Analysis
The status of
language as the most expressive cultural attribute of man, is incontestable.
Also incontestable is the fact that language contact engenders borrowings and
innovations. The contact between African languages and European languages, as a
result of colonialism, has thus, created new forms of expression which are
palpably present in the “variety of discoursal and stylistic peculiarities and
innovations” in the literary products of African writers who make conscious
efforts to contextualize aspects of indigenous meaning (Alo, 1998: 27). Alo
(1998: 26) highlights this imperative inter alia: There is the natural human
tendency to innovate in language, either for the sake of being creative and
original or as a result of the need to express new objects, things or ideas.
People are creating new expressions or altering old ones to fit new ones.
Innovations in language are chiefly controlled by the necessities of
communication... innovations in non-native English occur as a result of new
cultural realities.
Following from the foregoing, therefore, this section
focuses on aspects of Izon L1 speech patterns and modes of meaning making in
Ayakoroma’sDance on His Grave, which
give the text a distinctive and compelling linguistic and cultural backdrop or
texture, including the use of native rhetorical patterns, proverbs,
transliteration, native tropes or figurations, euphemism, and code-mixing and
code switching.
Native Izon Rhetorical Patterns
Native Izon rhetorical patterns are
advertently incorporated or woven into the dialogues or utterances by
characters in Ayakoroma’s text, clearly to capture the L1 context of these
forms of language use. One prominent aspect of this strategy is the deployment
of the call-and-response technique, which actually cuts across the entire text,
and which is fundamentally used in all social and political gatherings in the
text. Apparently, the strategy facilitates or engenders the emotional,
psychological and mental involvement of participants of such gatherings. At
other times, it could be for purposes of ensuring harmony, solidarity or the
projection of a single voice, particularly if a consensual position must be
taken on critical issues. What is fundamental or paramount in all of these
situations is that the technique instills absolute silence and order, and
captures the requisite attention for the person taking turn to address the
gathering. In the text, for instance, EREBU greets the gathered women to, as the
author put, “bring order in the crowd” (P.21):
EREBU:
|
AahnAma!
|
ALL:
|
Iyah!
|
The call is done three times.
|
|
EREBU:
|
Amakemeemiyan?
|
ALL:
|
Emi yooo!
|
EREBU:
|
Good women of Toru-Ama, I greet you all!
|
ALL:
|
We greet you in return!
|
EREBU:
|
Are we women or not?
|
ALL:
|
We are women!
|
EREBU:
|
If we see, can we act?
|
ALL:
|
We can act!
|
EREBU:
|
I greet you all.
|
ALL:
|
Iyaa!
|
(P.
21/22)
|
Thus, Erebu prepares the ground for the Amananarau,
ALAERE, to address the women folk, who also calls three times when she takes
her turn, as a prelude to a well-rehearsed revolutionary speech. It is
noteworthy that Erebu also introduces a more ecstatic and triumphant variant of
the technique, which is more of a solidarity chant, apparently to capture the
mood of the situation:
EREBU: Women Oh yee! CROWD: Oh
yeee!
(p.
22)
Significantly, at critical or convenient moments during the
speech of the Amananarau (ALAERE), Erebu interjects with appropriate variants
of the technique, ostensibly to sustain the attention and enthusiasm of the
crowd. A solid instance in the text is when there is an admixture of open
derision and applause from different sections of the crowd, in response to 1st
WOMAN’s interjection that it was not out of place for the womenfolk to
ultimately aspire to rule the land, EREBU promptly comes in, not only to drive
home this bloated and bizarre ambition (in the context of the text) but,
perhaps, more importantly, to restore the requisite attention for the
Amananarau to continue her speech:
EREBU: Aniyabayeee!
CROWD: Yeee!
(P.
23)
It must be noted that the
call-and-response technique is also integral to story-telling in African
folklore, essentially for the same purposes highlighted above. However, in
Ayakoroma’s text, the story about the white egret’s decision “not to be king of
the Bird’s Kingdom” (P.28), does not adopt the opening coda or formulaic
line:
STORY-TELLER: Egberiyo!
AUDIENCE: Iyaa e!
apparently because of its anecdotal use within a
speech. In a typical or proper Izon story-telling session, as with other African
languages, the story-teller “calls” and the audience responds, in the opening.
In fact, the performer and audience must work together for an African tale to
be successfully or effectively rendered. Hence, Akporobaro (2012:115) contends
that there must be a “dramatic (rhapsodic) opening of the folktale”, which the
audience must respond to and which sets the stage for the actual rendering.
According to the scholar (Ibid),
the African story-teller does not just introduce his
story anyhow, but with a set formulaic statement or phrase which his audience
knows and recognizes to be the formal opening of a folktale.
Okoh (2008:136) also highlights the relationship
between the African tale and riddle, in terms of pattern of rendering, delivery
or performance, inter alia: Like the
tale, the riddle is also conceived of by both the performer and audience as a
dynamic corporate literary activity. The structure of the riddle (and the tale)
is such that both the performer and audience have traditionally assigned roles.
The call-and-response pattern here means that participation by both parties is
paramount in the realization or performance.... (A) cannot stand alone, but is
necessarily complemented, and completed by (B)....
Proverbs
Proverbs are
also significant aspects of Izon rhetorical identity deployed in Ayakoroma's
text. These are profound, terse and witty sayings of the people of traditional
societies, which capture the truths and experiences of such societies. They are
allusive and analogical in content and provide a pragmatic code of conduct or
behaviour in all matters or subjects under the sun that are consequential to
the peaceful and progressive coexistence of the inhabitants. Alo(1998:30)
defines the term as “short, popular witty sayings with words of advice or
warning”. Proverbs are, thus, products of man’s imagination and observation and
perfunctorily reflects the social and religious environment in which he lives.
Needless to state that, they are an integral aspect of the folklore which is
transmitted from one generation to another, in the sense that they “carry a
density of cultural signification”(Fashina, 2009:263).Hence Okoh (2008:132)
posits that “proverbs convey considerable cultural information regarding a
particular society”. In fact, proverbs are so prominent and treasurable in the
art of conversation or speech making, in the African sense, that Achebe
memorably observes in Things fall Apart
(1958:5) that they are the “palm oil with which words are eaten”. Osani(2008:
95) avers that,
In terms of content proverbs may refer to any
situation because they emanate from the reservoir of a people’s collective
history, knowledge, and wisdom. They embody their norms and values, thoughts,
ideas and beliefs. They also reflect and articulate a people’s philosophy,
mythology and religion as well as their empirical observations of their
physical and social environments.
As we have
earlier stated, the critical fact in this study is that, as the contexts below
show, proverbs are used overwhelmingly or preponderantly in Ayakoroma’stext,
specifically to evoke Izon sensibility and values and to capture the creative
idiom of the people. Below is a juxtaposition of some proverbs and explanatory
comments to give us a sense of their pragmatic value in the text:
i)
“it is the heedless hen that turns her back to
the wind” (P. 27). Alaere uses this proverb to drive home her homily on the
imperative of self-control if women must achieve their revolutionary aims.
ii)
“I am not opening my mouth because I believe in
the saying of the goat that the mouth which does not chew smells.” In other
words, the old woman is saying that she does not just exercise her vocal
chords: she has a critical and timeous contribution to make.
iii)
“The face does not quarrel with the nose, which
gives it beauty” (P. 29). Further to her plea for caution, the old woman
reminds her younger compatriots that man and woman cohabit the earth and must
be given a chance to cooperate for a productive and mutually beneficial
existence. iv) “He who has not secured a place on the floor should not look for
a mat” (P. 57/58). Chief Mowei insists with this proverb that there is a burning
need to unravel the reasons behind their wives’ decision to flex muscles with
the menfolk, before any considerations on how to outwit them.
v)
“It is from the pole that water gets into the
canoe slowly” (P. 74). This proverb is apparently the Izon equivalent of the
English adage “a stitch in time saves nine” or “to nip in the bud”. The King
(Olotu) expresses his concerns about the enormity and untoward direction of the
women’s revolution and urges the chiefs to fashion out strategies to checkmate
them at the initial stage before it is too late to do so.
vi)
“those who eat eggs forget that the hen labours
to lay them” (P. 64). Alaere uses this proverb to underscore the selfless
sacrifices and hardwork women put into the day-to-day running of the home which
men inherently.
Thereis no doubt that the foregoing
catalogue and variety of proverbs from Ayakoroma’s text illuminates or
illustrates our earlier view that the communal nature of proverbs makes them a
veritable part of the folklore of a people. A salient fact about African
proverbs, which needs to be underscored, is their relevance and applicability
to diverse praxis or contexts, in the sense that they “can be made to say
different things in different contexts” (Barbar, 1990:167).Ayakoroma (2002:29)
has outlined distinctive functional contexts in which Izon proverbs can be
deployed viz: religious belief system, social practices, economic and political
praxis.Fundamentally, this fact also clarifies their deliberate deployment in
literature by African literary artists, “not only to project the cultural
values of the people, but more importantly, to also achieve aesthetic effects”
(Osani, 2008: 95). The critical fact is that, as we have earlier mentioned, the
use of proverbs in African native rhetoric shows anindividual's grounding in
the contours and architecture of pristine African folklore and tradition, as
the proverbs both embody and provide a window into the nitty-gritty of the
African worldview and philosophical moorings. Hence
Fashina (2009: 261) avers that,
Proverbs are indices of immersion in cultural
civilization and oral/loric versification. Sometimes, the use of proverbs may
also imply the speakers’s knowledge of human and natural organic history; even
though the proverbs are communal intellectual property.
Fashina (2009: 261) has also drawn our attention to
the fact that the user of proverbs earns “... some kind of compelling respect
for his inviolate wisdom and psychic energy of archetypal nature”.
Osani(2008:99) expresses a similar viewpoint in his averment that “proverbs
impact memorably on the listener because they emanate from the reservoir of
ancient wisdom and therefore have the force of tradition behind them”.No doubt
this scenario motivates adults and even the young ones in rustic African societies
to strive to master and deploy these proverbs in appropriate contexts or
occasions, thereby engendering a common knowledge and understanding that
entrenches their status as communal or public property, as demonstrated in
Ayakoroma’s text when the crowd helps 5th WOMAN to conclude her
proverb:
5TH WOMAN: Our Amananarau, do not listen
to the nonsense that we emit.
They say he who pours water in his compound...
CROWD: ... will always step on wet
ground!
Proverbs are, thus, a veritable part of African native
rhetoric, against the backdrop of their “aphoristic beauty” and “telling
effect” (Chuma-Udeh, 2011:71) or their “delightful and profound expressiveness”
(Osani, 2008:101). Lawal (2011:91) also believes that “there is a subtle
correlation between language and thought, and a people’s language is the
profound witticism of the native tongue which finds natural outlet in
hard-core proverbs and pithy anecdotes”.
According to Fashina (2009:262), proverbs take
discourse to the level of the sublime .... (and) function in the same
way as gestural kinesis complements meaning in everyday communication and
reception process as well as in literature. Proverbs help to reinforce the
direction of epistemic fulfilment in every verbal discourse in Africa, using
the ‘force’ of rhetoric.
Akporobaro (2012:23) hints at the fact that the ready
acceptance and impact of African proverbs is contingent upon their overt and
incontrovertible truth value:
The element of truth or self-evidence of proverbs
enables proverbs to be asserted to or believed as truths readily by the
listener. In this way proverbs have persuasive force. For this purpose elders,
story-tellers, parents alike use proverbs to illustrate, explain or argue a point.
Transliteration
Transliteration
is also auspiciously deployed in Ayakoroma’sDance
on His Grave to approximate or capture Izon, native idiom and usage and
contextualize aspects of the people’s experience and sensibility. No doubt,
this strategy gives the language of the text a distinctive or peculiar artistic
charm or appeal and functional effect. A good textual example is found in the
scene where the crowd responds in the affirmative to Alaere’s catalogue of
duties women specifically and selflessly perform in the home front. “Yes! Say
it let them hear!” (P. 24). Another example can be located during the
vociferous altercation between 1ST WOMAN and 2ND WOMAN
when the former suggests that “... from now on, the woman should be on top when
sleeping with her man...” (P. 23), to which 2ND woman promptly
responds: “Tufia! Abomination” (P. 23). The exchange is reproduced below for
clarity and easy references:
1ST WOMAN: Look O, I have said it and I
will stand by it. Why is it that we
are always under men? It is because they sleep on top of us. May be if we sleep on top, we
will gain our rightful position.
2ND WOMAN: I think there
is madness in your head.
1ST
WOMAN: Ehen? Did you all hear that? You are all my witness O...
(prepares to fight). I will teach this daughter of a
nobody a lesson she’ll never forget.
2ND
WOMAN: (Taking up the challenge as she too prepares). You can’t do anything! Come near
me and you will see pepper.
This madness that never stops flowing in your family tree! 1ST
WOMAN: ShoShoSho! Look at who is talking! You whose father died with a calabash
between his legs. And did
your great grandfather not die of the swollen foot? Big calabash.
[
.... ]
2ND
WOMAN: Come, I’ll pluck out those eyes of yours, mad woman!
1ST WOMAN: You hear
that? Leave me! Let me teach her a lesson!
(P.
26)
In fact, Ayakoroma’s text is littered with such
eloquent or palpable transliterations, in line with the overall Izon cultural
backdrop of the text against which any meaningful interpretation can be made.
When chief Apodi tells chief Osima, for instance, that “... you have been
looking for my trouble these two market weeks. If you are looking for my head,
go and tell them you did not see me!” (P. 56);orwhen King Olotu tells Alaere
that “You call their carrying away our daughters like Kites a good thing?” (P.
39); or when Chief Apodi tells King Olotu that “... These women will kill us in
this land O!” (P. 72); or when Alaere tells the king: “... you can cry blood if
you like...” (P. 84); or when Chief Biri deploys the euphemistic “... she made
the thing to stand all night” (P. 55); or when King Olotu insists that “... we
have to make them hear ground” (P. 77), we clearly see transliteration at work,
essentially, as we have earlier mentioned, to effect transfer of meaning from
one distinctive culture to another.
Native Tropes/Figurations
Native tropes
or figurations also endow Ayakoroma’s text with resilient freshness and
profundity. The most prominent native Izon figures of speech deployed in the
text are similes, metaphors and euphemism. As typical of any gathering or
social context in traditional Izon society, native figurations are deployed in
the text to reflect or evoke ingrained social vestiges, experiences, wisdom,
values and the communal sensibility and expressive idiom. In movement one of
Ayakoroma’s text, right in the opening, for instance, the author draws our
attention to the fact that the gathered women are “... chattering away like
weaverbirds” (P. 21).Undoubtedly, this figuration makes the description vivid,
concrete, enchanting and memorable. The following contextual instances of the
use of native tropes/figurations, for example, have similar aesthetic and
functional value in the text:
i)
“... you call their carrying away our daughters
like kites a good thing?” (P. 39/40).
ii)
“Do you consider the enormity of their
encroaching on our ponds and water fronts as if they have bells tied around
their waists, challenging us to wrestling matches (P. 39/40).
iii)
“This action of the women has been like rain. It
is befallen all houses” 9P. 58).
iv)
“... They think taking care of the affairs of this
land is the same as haggling in the Zarama market?” (P. 58).
Item (i) to (iii) above were used by Chief Olotu in a
probing and tension-soaked exchange with his wife, Alaere, while in item (iv),
Chief Osima ridicules or denigrates the revolutionary initiatives of the
womenfolk to share leadership with their male counterparts.
As in the
instances of simile we foregrounded above, Ayakoroma also deploys indigenous
Izon metaphors to contextualize meaning in the text. For instance, King Olotu
refers to the women gathering as “a gathering of hens” (P. 36); his messenger,
Odibo’s dashing speed as “... those legs of an antelope...” (P. 74); and
himself as “Akpobirisi. No bird flies over my head and lives for a second” (P.
40/41), an appellation or cognomen which equates him to the tree “which is
believed to possess strong supernatural powers. Birds are said to die if they
fly over it” (P. 91). 2ND WOMAN also insists that the war in the
home front (starving their husbands of sex) continue, accusing 1ST
WOMAN who thought otherwise of being “hungry for that elephant husband of hers”
(P. 64), to which 1ST WOMAN responds: “Did you hear her" foul
insults? She who has a praying (sic) mantis for a husband” (P. 65).
Euphemisms are also significant
aspects of Izon language features deployed in Ayakoroma’s text to achieve
specific effects. When king Olotu tells his ancestors that “... I am not ready
to join you ...” (P. 40/41), or makes the very pungent and haunting statement
“... I have to find solace in silence” (p. 87), or when 1STMAN says
“... Even now, I have to go inside, to make up for the long period of
starvation” (P. 80/81); or when Chief Biri says “... she made the thing to
stand all night” (P. 55), we know that they are talking about death, copulation
and penile erection, respectively. What is particularly significant in the
foregoing instances of the deployment of figurations is that the imagery
reflects not only the flora and fauna of the immediate environment of the text,
which makes them strikingly familiar and comprehensible, particularly to those
who share this environment with the author,at a deeper level, it also unravels
or projects the myths and cultural and philosophical nuances of the traditional
society. Though Lindfors (2002: 20) argues that “... accomplished works of art
communicate in such a universal human idiom that they are capable of
transcending their particular time and place and speaking to all mankind”, the
scholar agrees that,
... bearers of a culture are better equipped to
interpret that culture than aliens who have experienced its realities only
vicariously. Those who share a writer’s background can more readily comprehend
the full implications of his message.
However, this obvious privilege of the indigenous
scholar/critic has its own peculiar responsibility, for,in spite of the
watertight veracity of the foregoing thesis, it should be noted that, as
Iyasere (1975: 25) observes, the indigenous scholar must explain "the
aesthetic and functional import or significance of such cultural elements in
the context of use”. Otherwise, the advantage may backfire, as their works may
turn out to be a mere catalogue of cultural or native rhetorical elements,
which is a dire critical deficiency or aberration. Iyasere (Ibid) hints at this
scenario when he averred that the critics may “deviate from the task of
illuminating the work of art and become overly concerned with the
socio-cultural and traditional aspects of the work”.
Code-Switching and Code-Mixing
Code-switching
and code-mixing are also pivotal aspects of the language of Ayakoroma’s text.
This technique is apparently integral to the bilingual and multilingual text.
Hence Hudson (2001:51) observes that “code-switching is a consequence of
bilingualism”. Alo (1998: 28) explains that,
An individual who is able to employ more than one
code-language or dialect can switch codes for various socio-cultural functions.
Code-switching which means a total change from one language to another in a
speech serves a variety of social and stylistic functions.
According to the scholar (1998: 27),
many non-native writers in English “...establish local identities in style, in
culture and linguistic experimentation in code-mixing and code-mixing, use of local
idioms, collocational deviation and grammatical deviation, etc” and that these
writers often use these devices to “reflect the local reality...”.In the
call-and-response technique we alluded to earlier, as a veritable aspect of
native rhetorical patterning in the text, for instance, there is a clear
instance of code-switching:
ALAERE:
|
AahnAma!
|
CROWD:
|
Iyaa!
|
[ ... ]
|
|
ALAERE:
|
Amakemeemiyan?
|
CROWD:
|
Emi yoo!
|
(P. 22)
|
The first part of this excerpt is a greeting. The
second part literally translates to “are there people in the town?” which is
meant to challenge or stir the crowd to action, and the crowd responds “Yes,
there are people!” Olotu also code-switches when Alaere tells him that he is
wasting his time to stand against or obstruct the collective and iron-cast wish
of the women. “AmaAlaere, ye ekere dab a” (P. 41) meaning “if I get my hands on
you” or “If I catch you”. We also find an instance of code-switching when Olotu
uses the proverb “... when a handshake goes beyond the elbow, it has turned to
another thing” (P. 76) and the crowd (the people of Toru-ama) concurs: “That is
true. It has turned to wrestling. Gesiegberi, andakepado!” (P. 76). The last
sentence, which is in the Izon language, re-echoes and reinforces the initial
part expressed in English. Alaere also code-switches when king Olotu, her
husband, kneels down before her to press her to reveal the true father of his
supposed daughter: “Abei! Sisei, eterimo O!” (P. 84). This literally means “You
man, please hide me O!” The reason for Alaere’s impassioned plea is not
far-fetched. As the author states in the glossary, in the Izon cultural milieu,
... it is an abomination for an elder to genuflect
for a younger person, not to talk of a husband (who is the king of the land)
kneeling for a wife. If the brothers-in-law know (about) it, such a woman would
be fined.
(P.91)
Instances of
code-mixing, which has to do with theuseof words of two or more languages or
varieties side by side in a single utterance for effective communication, also
abound in Ayakoroma’s text. Hudson (2001:53) observes that,
To get the right effect, the speakers (or writers)
balance the two languages against each other as a kind of linguistic cocktail –
a few words of one language, then a few words of the other, then back to the
first for a few more words and so on.
When King Olotu and his wife vociferously debate their
daughter’s future, for instance, the king asks his daughter to leave them:
“AmaBeke, I said go inside” (P. 50). There is another instance where king Olotu
highlights the troublesome and intractable nature of a woman and her tongue to
his confidant, Chief Apodi: “The day Tamarau added women to our fold, our troubles
began” (P. 71).The same device of code-mixing is used when Chief Apodi hushes
the king’s daughter, Beke, thusly: “Tah! Enough...”. “AmaBeke”, “Tamarau” and
“Tah” in the three excerpts, above mean “You Beke” (the term used specifically
for the female gender), “God” and “shut up”, respectively. In a fundamental
way, as the illustrative contexts show, the term ‘code-mixing’ can be said to
eloquently reflect the concept of hybridization since it represents a bringing
together or “mix” of different cultures and codes, particularly as it is evoked
or utilized by bilingual writers for purposes of foregrounding cultural
identity and stylistic effect.
Conclusion
So far, it is
clear that the study locates Ayakoroma’s text in Izon cultural and linguistic
roots, which help us to define or deconstruct the underlyinglinguo-cultural
psychology behind the events, utterances and actions in the text. This thesis
is in tandem with Nabofa’s (1997: 63) contention that “... music, dance and
drama, most of which are consequent upon a deep sense of inner illumination and
religious awareness cum expressions, are powerful tools for promoting cultural
identity”.Though, it is also germane to reiterate the point made in the study
about the language dilemma being faced by the African writer and his
instinctive or concomitant recourse to nativization as a way out, it must be
noted, in a general sense, that this strategy is a testament to the inherent
dynamism or variability of the concept of language itself, in the sense that
distinct contexts of language use breed new varieties. These new varieties
serve specific functions in given environments where users naturally enjoy
mutual intelligibility, in view of the fact that there is a common core in the
people’s linguistic and cultural sensibilities. Hunjo (2002: 63) has drawn our
attention to the fact that, in the Nigerian context,
It is glaring that pragmatic use of English is not
without the effect of the Nigerian cultures on the users of the language.
Prominent Nigerians in the field of literature agree with the cultural
influence on their thought system whenever they want to express experiences
that are alien to the English culture in the English language.
It must also be noted that linguistic
innovations can occur at any level of language study viz: sound, lexis, syntax,
semantics and discourse. What is important is that, as Alo (2006: 25) put it,
“It is in the new socio-cultural environment that the innovations in the L2
derive their communicative value and meaning”. Crucially, such innovations must
be motivated and also serve distinct purposes (Nicholls, 1983). Hence Alo
(2006:26) avers that innovations in the African context “cope with the problem
of expressing features of the indigenous culture and ... remain as culturally
authentic as possible”.What is perhaps, more crucial, as the study shows, is
the dire implications of linguistic dualism on African literature. Kachru
(1987: 130) observes that, as bilinguals in colonial languages and the
indigenous languages, African writers such as
Barclays Ayakoroma demonstrate
immense creativity
.... in the facility and ease of mixing, switching
and the adoption of stylistic and discoursal strategies from the total verbal
repertoire available to a bilingual. One has to consider not only the blend of
formal features, but also assumptions derived from various cultural norms and
the blending of these norms into a new linguistic configuration with a
culture-specific meaning system.
The Kernel of this viewpoint is that, as the Whorfian
hypothesis espouses, each language both embodies and imposes upon the culture a
particular world view (see Sapir, 1921; Whorf, 1956; Alo, 2006).
From theevidence provided above, it
is clear that Ayakoroma’s text contains a preponderance of Izon socio-cultural
meanings and speech patterns or linguistic frames which necessitate the
evocation of the appropriate L1 linguistic and non-linguistic context for
effective interpretation. It is also clear that Ayakoroma’s pragmatic
nativization in Dance on His Grave,
as well as in his other plays, has benefitted immensely from Okara’s (1963)
thesis that, as a bilingual African writer, he has perfunctorily endeavoured in
his writing to keep as close as possible to Izon vernacular expressions, which
is concretely and programmatically manifest in his The Voice (1964). In the main, as with other African writers, the
nativization of both writers, ostensibly borne out of the hybrid character of their creative heritage, traversesstylistic wordplay to reflect speech
forms and cultural practices that are akin to a people.... to expand the
frontiers of language to accommodate as well as express the social needs of a
people and their culturalorientation or realities.
(Aboh and Uduk, 2015:166/167)
There is no doubt that this expansive goal of the African writer’s nativization
of the imperialist languages and delightful evocation of the African linguistic
and cultural ambience in their works prompted Issifou (2014:49) to declare that
it is “a linguistic and literary counter-attack from the former colonized
against the colonizer”.
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NUANCES
http://www.humanisticnuances.blogspot.com Vol. 3, Issue 2; July-Dec.
2017 email:
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CONTRIBUTORS
Research Papers 
• Sneha Pathak, Dr.: Assistant Professor, Department of English and MEL Banasthali
Vidyapith, Rajasthan.
• T. Sasikanth Reddy, Dr.: M.A., B.Ed.,
Ph.D. (S.V.U.) PGCTE, PGDTE EFLU) Lecturer in English, S.C.N.R Govt. Degree
College
Proddatur Town, YSR Dist, A.P. India, 516360 drtskreddy@gmail.com, sasi_kanth007@yahoo.com Mobile: 9966180108, 9059072226.
• Ebi Yeibo, PhD: Department of English
and Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce
Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria (West Africa) Email: eyeibo@gmail.com Phone: 08139023646
• Dr. H.L. Agnihotri: A retired professor
in English, Punjab University. He has published volumes of poems and short
stories.
• Prasanta Kumar Panda: Prof. in English,
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Email:
panpanda@ymail.com
Stories 
• Chandra Mohan Bhandari: Former
Professor of Physics, University of Allahabad. Email: bhandari.cm@gmail.com
• Sunaina Jain: has done Ph.D. (English)
from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She is an Asst. Professor (English) at MCM
DAV College, Chandigarh. Email:
jainsunaina14@gmail.com
• Humera Ahmed: has been writing short
stories for a number of years. Many of the stories have been published in
leading magazines and
CONTRIBUTORS
newspapers, a collection of which was titled Check mate and other Stories. Email: hunaa5@yahoo.co.in
Poems 
• Malsawmi Jacob: is an independent
writer who has authored eight books. She earlier worked as a lecturer in
English in Bangalore and Aizawl, as a senior co-ordinator with SPARROW, Mumbai,
and freelanced as a journalist in the regional publications of Northeast India.
Email: mesjay@gmail.com
• Parminder Singh: is pursuing Ph.D. in
English. He teaches English at Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, Chandigarh. He
also writes poetry and short fiction in English, Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi. Email:
parmindersinghaziz@gmail.com
• Rochelle Potkar: A poet and short story
writer. She is the co-editor of Neesah Magazine, Joao Roque Literary Journal
and the Poetry editor of The Bombay Review. She blogs at: www.rochellepotkar.com. Email: rochellepotkar@gmail.com
• Joie Bose: is an Indian English poet
and writer living in Kolkata. Her works have been translated into Bengali,
Albanian and Japananese. Email: joiebose@gmail.com
Book Reviews 
• Prasanta Kumar Panda: Prof. in English,
Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Email: panpanda@ymail.com
• Azeez Jasim Mohammed, Dr.: Taught
English Language and
Literature
at Teachers' Training Institute – Iraq and Dept. of English at
Jerash
University – Jordan. Email: azizjasim73@gmail.com
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NUANCES
http://www.humanisticnuances.blogspot.com Vol. 3, Issue 2; July-Dec.
2017 email:
intellectualnuances@gmail.com
NUANCES (A Peer Reviewded International Journal) Form IV
(As required by Rule 7 of the Press Registrar's Act)
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1.
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Place of Publication
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Varanasi
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2.
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Periodicity of Publication
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Half-Yearly
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3.
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Language of Publication
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English
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4.
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Printer’s Name
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Mr. Rohit Sharma
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Nationality
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Indian
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Address
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Varanasi
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5.
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Name of Printing Press
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Sri Mahavir Press
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Address
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Bhelupura, Varanasi, 221010
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6.
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Publisher’s Name
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Ms Sangita Panda
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Nationality
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Indian
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Address
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Manager Quarters, Opp. Dept. of Journalism, Near Viswanath Temple,
BHU, Varanasi 221005
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7.
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Editor’s Name
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Prof. Prasanta Kumar Panda
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Nationality
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Indian
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Address
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Prof. in
English
Dept. of Humanistic Studies, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi,
221005.
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8.
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Owner’s Name
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Ms Sangita Panda
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I, Ms Sangita Panda, declare that the
particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
Place: Varanasi Sd/- Date: 01/012/2017 Ms
Sangita Panda
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