Vol. XXXI, Issue 2: Spring 2024 Foreign Gods, Environmentalism and “Linguistic potpourrism”

Table of Content

Editorial:

Professor Alex Chinwuba Asigbo, PhD
Department of Theatre and Film Studies
Faculty of Arts
Nnamdi Azikiwe University,
Awka, Nigeria

Abigail Onowosemenmen Oaikhena &Alex Chinwuba Asigbo: Cultural Materialism and Transactional Construct: Gods and Exchanges in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc.

Awuawuer, Tijime Justin & Bem Alfred Abugh : Environmental Challenges and their implications in Nigeria: A Filmic Reading of Jeta Amata’s Black November

Mark O. Onwe: Linguistic potpourrism in Nigerian Drama - Contemporary Trends from Ahmed Yerima’s Hendu and Paul Ugbede’s Dialling Love

Editorial

Open vision is a common trait of the liberal arts. It is the raison detre of creatives and creativity. It is what nourishes and enriches literature. It is what distinguishes the arts from the sciences- that ability to explore different perspectives from a particular situation, that is, to study a particular text or scenario and be able to give different critical interpretations. The Arts and Literature have always been seen as the simulacrum of the society that births it. Nigeria as a microcosm of the world remains a melting pot of all shades of human dispositions, cultures, religions, opinions, and intellectual leanings. With the economic, religious and socio-political upheavals in Nigeria, it is not surprising that there will be a Babelian dint and differences in opinions on all matters concerning Nigeria’s corporate existence. This collection is an attempt to collate opinions of critics and creatives as they try to interpret the Nigerian situation from different authorial perspectives. As will be noticed, the voices presented in this special issue of Africa Update speak of, and to different issues.

Oaikhena and Asigbo kick off the discussion in “ Cultural Materialism and Transactional Construct: Gods and Exchanges in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc ” by looking at the Pentecostal frenzy that is ravaging Africa as a form of neo-colonialism. They contend that Ndibe through his subtle satire is able to show that the colonisers have always seen Africa and Africans as the ‘Other,’ hence they must be kept at the margins. This is why Christianity, as handed down to Africans, cannot bode any good since the West has never really shown genuine love for Africa. Their love is likened to a man’s love for his domestic animal which he feeds fat for the slaughter. By portraying foreign religions as incorporated businesses in Africa, Ndibe shows that only the mentally enslaved are taken in by the pretences of its priests. Ndibe’s writing becomes a fresh perspective on the discourse on the place of religion in African cultural, and socio-economic lives.

Climate change and environmental issues have also become major topics in global discourse. This inspired Awuawuer and Bem, in their interrogation of Jeta Amata’s film, Black November. In their paper, “E nvironmental Challenges and its Implications in Nigeria: A Filmic Reading of Jeta Amata’s Black November ” the duo interrogate and expose the high-level environmental pollution and degradation orchestrated by multi-national oil companies in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. They contend that corrupt governments and greedy individuals are complicit in the continued ravaging of the environment, as aptly depicted by Jeta Amata. To mitigate the negative effects of these spillages, it is recommended that government agencies become more proactive and steadfast in the implementation of regulatory measures.

The question of language has always been a topic of discussion in African Literature. In what language should African writers, write? This inspired Mark Onwe’s study in “ Linguistic Potpourrism in Nigerian Drama: Contemporary Trends from Ahmed Yerima’s Hendu and Paul Ugbede’s Dialling Love ”. Drawing inferences from Yerima and Ugbede, Onwe contends that, code-switching, and code-mixing, or what he calls, linguistic potpourrism is a sure way to reach a wider readership. Amalgamating pidgin, vernacular, standard English and Nigerian English, in a single work, according to Onwe, predisposes it to different linguistic audiences hence it qualifies as a new voice.

In the Spring Issue of Africa Update the discourse continues.

GUEST EDITOR, AFRICA UPDATE

Professor Alex Chinwuba Asigbo, PhD
Department of Theatre and Film Studies
Faculty of Arts
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

………………………………

Chief Editor, Africa Update
Professor Gloria Emeagwali, PhD

………………………………

Cultural Materialism and Transactional Construct: Gods and Exchanges in Okey Ndibe’s Foreign Gods, Inc . 

Abigail Onowosemenmen Oaikhena, PhD
Department of English Language and Literature
Faculty of Arts
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7760-4695 
oo.abigail@unizik.edu.ng

&

Alex Chinwuba Asigbo, PhD
Department of Theatre and Film Studies
Faculty of Arts
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5296-2963
ac.asigbo@unizik.edu.ng 

Introduction

The study of Postcolonial Literature in Africa is primarily concerned with what occurs to a people’s culture especially of Blacks, from the beginning of colonialization till present, and possibly into the future. It is a peculiar aspect of study to scholars from the colonized part of the world, where there are issues of cultural hegemony, like the clash of cultures “in which one deems itself to be the superior and imposes its own practices on the less powerful one” (Ann Dobie, 208). In essence, it is literature written by culturally displaced people; they are concerned with their histories, while exploring the changes around them due to colonialism and looking forward to its future effects on Black society. This study is not restricted to literature alone, it spreads across other disciplines like political science, sociology and psychology. In emphasis Ann Dobie reaffirms that:

Post colonialism theories offer topics of interest to members of these fields because the formal termination of colonial rule does not wipe out it legacy, and the culture that is left is a mixture of the colonized one and that of the colonizer, often marked by contrasts and antagonisms, resentment and blended practice (206).

The cultural mixture or syncretization of the colonized and that of the colonizer is what the post-colonial theorist, Homi Bhabha refers to as hybridity which he defines as “a problematic of colonial representation … that reserves the effects of the colonialist disavowal, so that other ‘denied’ knowledge enters upon the dominant discourse and engages the basis of its authority” (49). Hybridity is thus the articulation of both colonial and native cultural beliefs and discourse which makes the colonized or the occident á la Edward Said neither here nor there. As for Ato Quayson :

A possible working definition for postcolonialism is that it involves a studied engagement with the experience of colonialism and its past and present effects, both at the local level of ex-colonial societies and at the level of more general global developments thought to be the after-effects of empire. Postcolonialism often also involves the discussion of experiences such as slavery, migration, suppression and resistance, difference, race, gender and place as well as responses to the discourses of imperial Europe such as history, philosophy…. (n.p)

Quyason, depicts postcolonial literature as writings and opinions of writers and people who experience colonialism. Writings that are concerned about the historical encounter of the colonizer and the colonized and the effect of this contact on the ex-colonial societies.

From the foregoing the sociological norms in almost all the colonized societies are predominated by colonial culture and ordinance. Evidently, postcolonial literature came handy as a reactionary discourse against the dominant presence of colonialism, or the main stay ideology of colonizers. It does not exist in isolation as it serves as a resistance literature against the impalpable presence of colonialism. According to Chike Okoye while quoting Tiffin, he asserts that “post-colonial culture are inevitably hybridized, involving a dialectical relationship between European ontology and epistemology and the impulse to create or recreate independent local identity” (95). For Tiffin, it is neither fully separated from the Empire nor completely dependent on it for existence (Okoye 3).

Worthy of note is that most postcolonial writers focus more on the struggle of the colonized against the alien culture of the colonizers as well as social and radical change of structure ushered in by colonialism. Religion which serves as one of the major means of colonialism happens to be central focus of this study.

The Displacement of Traditional Religion by Christianity in Africa

The detachment from one’s traditional cultural practice as a result of colonialism preoccupies a major aspect of African postcolonial literature. Due to the advent of Christianity cum colonialism many cultural norms were regarded as unrefined and socially unacceptable, especially the traditional religion. This is what led to the first postcolonial novel in Africa, Things Fall Apart , set in Igbo land in the 20 ^th century when the early Europeans were coming for the first time to Nigeria. In the text, Chinua Achebe presents the Igbo value systems and their religion which is embedded in their traditional cultural practices. Unfortunately, the advent of the Europeans brought a drastic change to their traditional values. Obierike reminds Okonkwo while in exile that “the church had led many astray… but apart from the church the white men had also brought a government, they had built court where the district commissioners judge cases in ignorance” (123). It is equally what inspired Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. In this text, Soyinka uses Olunde to unmask the pretenses at cultural/religious superiority by the colonizers by pitting Olunde’s wit against that of Mr. Pilkings. Even though Elesin Oba is ultimately subdued and led away, we do not miss the irony of the colonizers’ false claim to superiority.

From the descriptions above, it is evident that the new order actually came to overthrow the old. Thus, African followers of this new order share the same perception with Obi in Achebe’s No Longer at Ease who asks “why should they who have seen the light of the Gospel remain in that ignorance?” (6). This is the major ideological instrument used by the missionaries (imperial power) as they create a sense of guilt and inferiority complex among the “natives” for their beliefs and way of life, and in this way engraved their foreign beliefs into their soul. Thus, African Christians abhor any other form of religious beliefs, as seen in the attitudinal behaviors of their congregants who are so belligerent and unreceptive to the adherents of other religions, especially those who still practice the African Traditional Religion. These African converts are described in Things Fall Apart as “the outsider(s) who wept more than the bereaved” (131) since they uphold the religion more than their colonizers. This attitude is also discernible in Malawi of the early 1970s where:

The Born-Agains, as an emergent Pentecostal movement, began forcefully advocating a special type of conversation. Born-Again conversation was marked by a rejection of any form of personal, communal, or cultural nostalgia. The narrative construction of a new subjective identity was to bring out the individual capacity to reject past personal experiences within a specific communal and cultural context ( Memory and the Postcolony 161).

This rejection of African traditional religions is like a wild cry by the born-again Africans who see their cultural heritage as primitive due to colonialism. The problem is, though Africans understand little or nothing about the new religion and its implications, they are more concerned with the promised blessings in the afterlife that will divinely come to them if they let go of their cultural and traditional practices. This mindset affects both the young and the old in the community. Birgit Meyer recounts the case of her grandmother when she became born again in West African Ghana:

My grandmother doesn’t celebrate the Homowo festival anymore, my friend Adwoa told me when we discussed the current hotly debated question about how modern Ghanaians could relate to their culture. For the Ga, the traditional inhabitants of Accra, the most important festival is the Homowo…for her grandmother, the Homowo festival became a ‘primitive thing’, and she claims that she moved beyond such traditional customs because she had been born again (182).

This is evident in Ndibe’s text as Mike Ekunno describes the novel as “…. Christian’s ideological differences with African traditional religion and the mercenary arm of Nigerian [African] Pentecostalism”. That is why Emenyonu and Oguzie note that “they are not just victims, but they are wretched victims of colonization” (93). Yet the ineptitude of Africans toward the new found religion helps the west to promote their western stereotype of African backwardness as we strive to unpack every trace of our traditional belief, identity and cultural heritage. The sad and depressing reality of the converted African is that he closes his mind to reasoning and instead, embraces an irrational belief in the idea of a foreign messiah that will magically appear one day and make everything right and perfect.

Okey Ndibe, the Igbo Indigenous novelist, was born 1960 in Yola, Nigeria by a postal worker father and educationist mother. He finished his elementary education at Enugu Ukwu and had his secondary education at St. Michael’s Secondary School, Nimo, both in Anambra State. He worked as a journalist in Nigeria before travelling to the United States, 1988, on Chinua Achebe’s invitation, and got his PhD at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has written Arrows of Rain (2000), Foreign Gods Inc . (2014) and his recent memoir, Never Look America in the Eye (2016). Foreign Gods Inc. was named as one of the best books of the year by The New York Times , Inquirer , Cleveland and others. The novel, Foreign Gods Inc. depicts the frustrations and hardships faced by African immigrants in the western world despite their level and grade of formal education. Issues of racism, classism, disillusionment, and quest for permanent residency preoccupy the novel whilst it simultaneously captures the unflinching reverence for the western religion (Christianity) against their traditional belief system back home in Africa. Hilariously, he also portrays the western quest for African deities, as Ike, the main character travels back to his Igbo village in Africa, to steal his ancestral deity, Ngene, which he sells to Mark Gruel a foreign gods’ merchant. These ironic contradictions he uses as expository factors for readers, which also justifies the text as a postcolonial novel.

DISCUSSION

In Foreign God Inc. , Ndibe portrays Ike’s mother as the ideal and archetypal figure of African Pentecostalism. Her expression, likethat of many African “born agains” who unavoidably come in contact with traditional religious people which they regard as abomination, superstitious and unacceptable, is seen through her weird reaction when Ike tells her about his visit to his uncle, the custodian of Ngene (their traditional deity). She is raging with irritation and a palpable unacceptance could be deduced in her countenance. His mother’s reaction:

…was as if the very devil had materialized before her. In an instant her eyes flared, filled with ire. Her face scowled up, took on a shape of menace. The air was combustible. She released a deep, disgusted sigh and a grunt. Then she hunkered back down on her husking task. A vanquished foe, she’d skulked away from a devil (210). 

She exudes all manners of exasperation since she is highly overwhelmed by pastor Uka’s preaching about the imaginary devil, a mechanism he uses to exploit his members as they seek protection under his assumed spiritual powers. Using hyperbole and other forms of exaggeration has always been a ready antic for modern pastors and preachers as it helps them to graphically drive home images of hellfire to their beguiled converts.

Ike’s mother is filled with disgust for non-Christians because she believes she is “now covered with the blood of Jesus Christ (193)”, when she vehemently rebukes Uncle Osuakwu, who in his African nature and in the expected African communal lifestyle decides to check up on her at her apartment after not seeing her for some days. Just like in the case of Osuakwu, she also sees Nne (her mother in law) as a witch, who wants to kill her grandchildren, as she has been told in the church by pastor Uka, that her mother in-law, and Uncle Osaukwu, killed her husband (Ike’s father). The pastor also told Ike about his revelation, as he avers: “oh yes, God showed me how they killed your father. And these satanic agents were planning your death. That’s when God revealed their plans to me. Without me, they would have finished you off (160)”. This is his usual manipulative words for his followers, like his prey, Ike’s mother, who he made to believe that her in-laws are blood sucking demons who are after her life and that of her children. A make-belief episode by pastor Uka in order to keep exploiting her financially, as he professedly ascribes himself as a Godly agent who is interceding between God and man.

Osuakwu laments his mother’s new life in the community with the pastor and complains about how disrespectful she has been to Ngene worshipers, especially Nne, who she believes to be a witch. Osuakwu recounts that she called Nne “sucker of blood and devourer of her son’s flesh.” She told Nne – the mother of her husband, that death stalked her door. Are such words spoken? Are they spoken even to one’s enemy? Tufia (193). With these questions on being emotionally sensitive towards neighbors, by an African traditionalist like Osuakwu, Ndibe questions the authenticity of pastor Uka, and whatsoever he represents, which contradicts the biblical teachings on love for neighbors and enemies alike (Matt. 5:43-44. NIV). This biblical injunction seems non-existent in Uka’s teachings as Ike’s mother happens to be a reflection of his preaching and modern form of Christianity in Africa.

With much emphasis on the arrival of the modern form of Christian religion in Africa, Ndibe through the pains of Osuakwu laments that:

It was shortly after that I heard that a man had come to Utonki and set up a mad church. And I learned that Nwanyi Eke had left the church of father and thrown herself, body and mind, into the madness. She began to dance to the tune played by the efulefu who said he was a man God. He told her that death was on its way to call Nne home, but that Nne and I had used magic to deflect the cold-fingered one to her husband. Are such things heard? Does it not bite the ear to hear such madness? (193-94)

Another rhetorical question from Osuakwu, as Ndibe ridicules the new style of ‘madness’ in Africa in the form of modern Christianity. Ironically, traditional African religions, thrive on tolerance and understanding and their virtues, it can be argued, gave a foothold to these foreign religions on African soil.

On the part of Ike, Osaukwu in his wildest imagination would never have thought his nephew from the western world, with much ‘exposure’ and ‘civilsation’ from a society where there is less or no regard for Africans and their tradition, especially the deities and gods, and who he reports the “madness” of the advent of new religion to, would do more harm than Pastor Uka and his congregants against Ngene. Ndibe describes Ike’s fantasy of stealing Ngene as spontaneous combustion which vibrates inside of him whenever he sees the deity. Ike who has been predestined to be the custodian of Ngene after his uncle, sought to escape, leaving the god behind, but in the narrative, Ndibe vividly depicts the deity’s presence around Ike while in America.

Ike’s encounter with Ngene happened to him when he was still a child. He became groggy as his limbs turned weak at the sound of rainstorm. His fear for storms started as Nne tells him “Ngene has favored you... you’ll find out once you’re old enough to understand. The same thing happened to your uncle, Osuakwu. Be patient (17)”. From Nne’s words to her grandson it is seen that Ike will become the chief priest like his uncle. Even in America, he experienced the presence of Ngene. One day, in his taxi with a white passenger, his passenger refused his request to raise the volume of the music that was playing in his car. Ike wanted to use it as a distractive effect from the raging storm that may have pushed him into unconsciousness but immediately it happened:

Doowah Doowah, raged the storm. Ike reeled, as if struggling to jiggle free of the seat belt. His body settled into a sweet laggardness…. Ike was helpless. He tried to raise his eyes to the rearview mirror but failed…. The storm’s wild, whirring music was already sweeping him up to the terrain of enchantment, up in the cloud, was beyond the wet, weeping skies. (22)

From Ike’s experience, Ndibe depicts the omniscient presence of Ngene as it plays out against Ike who is living in faraway America, a place distant from his ancestral origins, which is in consonance with his inability to secure a job and build a family of his own. His first-class degree from Amherst College could not give him a job, though he received his work authorization and began to apply for jobs. Frustration set in as “he attended five interviews at banks and investment firms, but the expected job offers never came (32)”. This dark cloud hovering over Ike could be seen as a punishment from Ngene; this led to his frustration and subsequent stealing and selling the god to Mark Gruels, the owner of Foreign Gods gallery (a white man who buys and sells foreign gods and deities) to salvage his financial predicament.

Again, through Mark Gruels character, Ndibe probes the deceptive and contradictory nature of the alien religion in Africa, where the originators still yearn for African gods that they call “dirty” and “crude”. Ike’s mother and her likes have left the “crude old way.” They are “born again” into the new religion while the instigators of the ‘new way’ are interested in their (African) ‘old way’. The view of the Foreign Gods gallery during Ike’s first meeting with Mark Gruels, made him fantasize on his next visit to the gallery while holding Ngene in his hand. He pictured Gruels gazing at the statue, sniffing it, fawning over it. Thoroughly fascinated, the man would make a solid bid, while he, Ike would balk. And then Gruel would go higher and higher, jacking up his offer. Although, despite his level of western education and his long interactions with westerners, he goes to desecrate the holy temple of Ngene by stealing the god which he sells to the western gods merchant, revealing the level of vileness and lack of discipline in the western attitude.

Osuakwu represents the disciplinary voice of Ngene, the abandoned old way, the collective conscience, and the people’s traditional belief. He is displeased with the new system of things in his community, especially the behavior of the so-called born agains who have wholeheartedly embraced the new religion, and their leader pastor Uka, who throws tantrums about Ngene, a deity that they believe has helped the community defeat their neighboring village during war.

With the coming of Pastor Uka, the son of a notorious rogue, (Okaa Dike), killed by a jealous white husband who caught him “on top of his wife” (204), the stage is set for the fickle minded to repudiate the traditional religion. Uka, just like his father, was not of good repute in the society, as he duped people of their money, alongside other anti-social atrocities. He once lived in Lagos where he was jailed for five years for stealing and “fled the city after his discharge” (204). He came down to his village and started a church as a means to survive financially. Through this character of pastor Uka, Ndibe depicts the true nature of the Christian religion in Africa, where colonizers came under the guise of religion to plunder the rich human and natural resources.

Uka instills fear in the minds of his members as he coerces them into believing in attacks from assumed enemies, who most of the times are family members. In order for his victims to get the required protection they have to sow seeds (money) for him as he is acting on God’s behalf to deliver them from their unseen enemies. Thus, he also tells Ike, that, “Satan had planned how to finish you. It’s God that canceled the plan. Look, a divine decree has declared you a millionaire. Your divine millions have been looking for you, but Satan kept confusing you” (159). In Uka’s manipulative way, he tries cajoling Ike to sow a seed like other deceived members since all “he (God) wants is for you to sow the seed” (160). Uka, just like Brother Jero in Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero is an alter-ego of what a true man of God should be. The stock in trade of these charlatans is sophistry and deceit.

Conclusion

It is to be noted that religion, which is ordinarily meant to reconcile humanity to the supreme being, has in Africa, been turned to a weapon of strife and disunity. It has become a tool of oppression and exploitation and is used to perpetually subdue and render the people indolent. Instead of building factories and working hard, Africans are taught to pray hard and become prayer warriors. They are deceived into believing that with prayer, all things are possible. This accounts for the proliferation of churches at the expense of industries. These businessmen in the guise of pastors, prophets, and preachers, beguile the ignorant public and smile to the banks. Ndibe’s work is thus, a worthy contribution to the struggle towards liberating African minds from mental and religious slavery.

Works Cited

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart . London: Heinemann. 1958

____________ No Longer at Ease . London: Heinemann, 1960

Dobie, Ann. Theory into Practice: An Introduction to Literary Criticism . Wadsworth: Centage Learning. Third Edition. 2012.

Emenyonu, Ernest and Oguzie, Benaiah. African Literature for Schools and Colleges . Ibadan: University Press, 2002

Memory and the Postcolony . Richard Werbner (ed). London: Zed Books. 1998

Ndibe, Okey. Foreign God Inc. New York: Soho Press. 2014.

Okoye, Chike. Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literature . Suleja: Besing Books (2013)

Quayson , Ato. “What is Postcolonial Literature” The British Academy https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/what-is-postcolonial-literature/ 2020

Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman. London; Eyre Methuen, 1975

Soyinka, Wole. The Trials of Brother Jero. London; Oxford University Press, 1963.

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ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS IN NIGERIA: A FILMIC READING OF JETA AMATA’S BLACK NOVEMBER

Awuawuer, Tijime Justin, Ph.D.
Department of Dramatic Arts
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife
awuajust@yahoo.com 
07066763511

&

Bem Alfred Abugh 
Department of Theatre and Film Arts, 
University of Jos, Nigeria.
abughalfred@gmail.com 
08062098662 

Introduction

Nigeria has suffered much from environmental degradation, and the situation is worst in the Niger Delta region where this filmic analysis derives its background. The situation in the region is so bad that even water, which is a major source of livelihood is jeopardized following the exploration of the oil in that region. The inhabitants are suffering from the degrading effects of oil exploration and exploitation: lands, streams and creeks are totally and continually polluted; the atmosphere is forever charged with hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide; many villages experience the infernal quaking of the wrath of gas flares which have been burning continually for 33 years; acid rain, oil spillages and blowouts are common. The mangrove trees, the aerial roots of which normally provide a natural and welcome habitat for many of the sea food -crabs, periwinkles, mudskippers, cockles, mussels, shrimps, etc, are almost gone. Hydrocarbon haze, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide prevail. There are instances where even drinking water is being imported into some communities for the people’s consumption. The lands are polluted by oil spillages and the natives cannot even farm on their lands. The fishes die and float on the water like boats. This sorry state of the region has inspired a lot of people into fighting for the emancipation and improvement of the wellbeing of the people of the region, including a human rights activist and writer, Ken Saro Wiwa, who devoted his days on earth demanding for environmental social justice and equal opportunities to natural resources found in the region and by extension in all regions of Nigeria. Wiwa’s avid determination opened the conversation for environmental issues in the region. Through his poems, novels, essays and memoires, Wiwa was able to foist his voice on environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region and Nigeria in general.

This paper is structured around the framework of Ecocriticism, a fledgling theory covering an epoch of about three decades. This green theory now multiplies into several subfields like ecosophy, ecocide, eco-criticism, ecofeminism, eco-spiritualism, green cultural studies, deep-ecology movement etc. Many writers have written on the theme of nature. The ancient Veda has a beautiful treatment of nature and its advocacy for the preservation of the physical environment for the benevolence of mankind. The same tune is found in the works of Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore, R.K. Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Mahasweta Devi, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh etc. Their writings plead for environmental protection as well as the need for the human - nature bond. This paper carries out a filmic reading of Black November. Other scholars have written on Jeta Amata's Black November. For example, see Ebekue Emmanuel Onyekachukwu & Nwoye Michael Chidubem (2019), “Nollywood interventions in Niger Delta oil Conflicts: a Study of Jeta Amata's Black November.” This paper adopts the critical theoretical framework of eco-criticism.

Black November and the Environmental Discourse 

Black November (2012) as produced by Jeta Amata is a thought provoking master piece that lightheartedly presents the story of the Niger Delta community’s struggle against the government, a multi-national oil corporation and the greedy traditional leadership of the community so as to save the environment which is being destroyed by excessive oil drilling and total neglect. The film’s scenarios are taken in different locations. The first action of the film opens in a dilapidated Warri prison in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, where the prison attendant prepares a noose to hang Ebiere one of the major characters in the film who obstinately questions the way in which the government, the multi-national corporation and the traditional leadership of the Warri community have ill-treated the people and the environment. This sets the tone for the actions of this engaging and thought-provoking film.

The next scene opens up in Los Angeles, California; the Chief Executive Officer of Western Oil Tom Hudson and his wife are intercepted and kidnapped on their way to the airport by a group of well-educated and sophisticated members of the Niger Delta region called “United People’s Front for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta People of Nigeria”. Tamuno, the leader of the group masterminds the kidnap with his cohorts. Kristy a news reporter alongside her cameramen are also kidnapped by this group and put under hostage under a tunnel that has been closed from both ends by the hoodlums.

Another switch in the film is the dialogue where Tamuno narrates their ordeal to the public, Kristy is made to record whatever Tamuno says and transmit same to the public. Tamuno narrates how Ebiere was born in Warri during the military regime and given a scholarship for a higher degree by Western Oil, few years later; there is oil spillage in the community and the people go to scoop fuel. The aftermath leads to destruction of farmlands - streams and fishes are affected and the water contaminated. The law enforcement agents compounded the situation in a bid to stop the people from scooping the spilled oil and the whole community is set ablaze killing several people: including Ebiere’s mother and her siblings.

Upon return, Ebiere insists that the Western oil must as a matter of fact compensate the community for the damage caused them from the spillage. The community, having learnt of her true intentions, decides to support her struggle. She is constantly pressured by the authorities of the Western Oil Corporation to end it. In the process, she is offered huge sums of money as a bribe to betray her people, but she refuses and insists that her people must be duly compensated. She begins to organize peaceful protests so as to have the people of her region compensated and the entire land cleaned up.

Another group also erupts out of frustration knowing that the government will not give in, to the peaceful struggle. The group is led by Dede who lost his wife and child during military invasion of the community to subdue the people and make them submissive to the whims and caprices of the government in power. Dede forms a militant group as opposed to Ebiere’s peaceful protest group. Ebiere is conscripted by the Western Oil and Government into luring Dede, who is her lover, into dialoguing with them on a personal note in order to end the attacks on the company’s properties and staff. Ebiere does this in good faith. In the meantime, chief Gadibia, one of the chiefs in the community, is in the habit of collecting all the monies meant for the development of the community from both the Western Oil Company and the government. All the monies given to him are cornered by him and his accomplices for their personal use. Chief Gadibia confesses his atrocities to his son and tells the elders that he is no longer interested in embezzling the money meant for the growth and cleanup of the community. Poised by the sweetness of what they have been getting from the act, the elders connive and poison chief Gadibia to death. Gadibia’s son narrates the incident to Ebiere, who organizes the masses to round up the elders and make them accept responsibility for their actions and at the same time be handed over to the police. The people feel cheated and set the elders ablaze. The police arrive at the crime scene and arrest everyone including Ebiere who takes responsibility for every action. The scene switches back to Los Angeles where Tamuno and his cohorts insist that Ebiere must be released. The United States anti-terrorism unit headed by Angela tells them that the US government needs to make a diplomatic call to the Nigerian government to stop Ebiere’s hanging. In the end, they renege on their words and decide to issue a deceptive press release stating that Ebiere has been released. Consequent upon this, Tamuno and his gang surrender and at the same time release Tom Hudson and the rest of the kidnapped victims. Ebiere is eventually sentenced to death by hanging back in Nigeria. Tamuno and his cohorts are arrested by the United State police and taken to prison.

With a rereading of Jeta Amata’s Black November , it is worthy of note that Jeta has used this film to question environmental degradation and developmental issues in the Niger Delta region, and Nigeria in particular. Black November is seen through the thematic predilections of the film; how the producers and their well-developed characters have succinctly represented the deplorable state of the Niger Delta region and Nigeria as a whole. In the film, the different groups which come in different guises are all tilted towards demanding that the Western Oil Corporation operating in their land, and the government as well, should ensure that they provide the inhabitants with basic social amenities that will cater for the total wellbeing of the community.

In the film, the Warri inhabitants decide to take their destiny into their hands. The kidnap is meant to make the bodies responsible for the provision of the needed social amenities to the people of the Niger Delta region live up to their responsibility. As events of the kidnap progresses, the people of the region also take up the retributive justice approach by setting ablaze some of their community leaders who have continuously connived, diverted and embezzled the monies meant for the cleanup of their polluted land and other developmental projects within the region.

The film serves as a mirror through which the Warri community, Nigeria and the global community at large get to understand the reason behind the uprising in the region and of course the constant agitation by the Niger Deltans, and their demands for equality and a fair share from natures’ resources in the region. Through the lenses of this film, we could see that both the Nigerian government and that of the United States of America began talks that could bring an end to the deplorable state of the Niger Delta region and Nigeria at large. This came about because of the kidnap of the chief Executive Officer of Western Oil Corporation Tom Hudson. In one of the instances where the villagers in the movie have gone into the forest to drill oil from the pipeline, there is a fire outbreak that claims the lives of many of the villagers including Ebiere’s entire family. This shows that the environment is truly toxic, and the application eco-critical concept of the environment plays out aptly. Again, the argument between Ebiere and the leadership of the multi-national company and the government demanding that the duo fix the deplorable conditions of the people of the region in the movie further justifies the application of eco-critical concept in driving home the message for an improved ecosystem in the Niger region. Film can be a mechanism through which serious environmental issues that affects any country, or the globe can be discussed and resolved.

The Way Forward

The Nigerian policy makers should as a matter of urgency, and make better policies that will address environmental issues in Nigeria. The Nigerian masses should also be given proper education on matters concerning the environment. This will help promote knowledge and information about the environment and how to effectively handle it.

Film-makers should continue in this advocacy for making films that are committed to issues of the environment and how such issues can be resolved. Such films should be translated into local languages in the country so as to have wider audience coverage. This will help immensely in providing the right knowledge about the environment and issues surrounding it.

The militants in the region must also acknowledge the fact that peaceful coexistence is two-sided and they ought to surrender their weapons and embrace quality dialogue. Only quality dialogue can bring about the needed peace and development in the region and beyond.

Traditional leaders in the Niger Delta region ought to also understand the fact that the hopes, aspirations and developmental wellbeing of the people rest on their shoulders. For this reason, they have the responsibility to ensure that the wellbeing of the people who they represent is well taken care of. They should ensure that whatever is meant for the progress of the community is for the betterment, growth and development of the people of the region.

Conclusion

Film is an audio-visual mechanism that has functioned greatly in telling stories, and communicating environmental issues. Suffice it to say that the film media is humanity’s encyclopedia which its professionals use in documenting the happenings around them and the globe in general. Indeed, Jeta Amata in this thought-provoking film; Black November, has been able to succinctly capture and present the reality of the Niger Delta region and Nigeria by extension.

Works Cited

Amata,Jeta. Dir. Black November. Wells and Jeta Entertainment, 2012. DVD)

Cheryll, Glotfelt. What is Ecocriticism? http://www.Asle.Org/site/resource/ecocriticallibrary/intro/defining/glotfelty/22/10/2019. 

Buell, Lawrence. The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination . Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

Darder, A. in Andrzejevski, Social Justice, Peace and Environmental Education: Transformative Standards, New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.

Ebekue Emmanuel Onyekachukwu & Nwoye Michael Chidubem . “Nollywood interventions in Niger delta oil conflicts: a study of Jeta Amata's Black November” OGIRISI a New Journal of African Studies 2019

Emmanuel Onyekachukwu Ebekue & Michael Chidubem Nwoye , Nollywood interventions in Niger delta oil conflicts: a study of Jeta Amata's Black November, OGIRISI a New Journal of African Studies · July 2019.

Ihentuge, Chiisimdi and Uzondu, Ifeanyiwa. “Saving the Nigerian Environment with Audio-Visual Literature: Reading Environmental Lessons from Selected Nollywood Films”. A Paper presented at the 2013 Annual Conference of the School of Arts. Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri. Theme: Footprints to the Future: Language and the Arts for a Sustainable Earth.

Liwhu, Betiang. Communicating Environmental Issues to Post-Modern Urban Audience Through Popular Arts. The creative Artiste. Journal of Theatre and Media Studies Nnamdi Azikiwe University. Vol.3. No.1. Alex Asigbo et al (ED). Awka. Valid publishers, 2009. Print.

Mishra, Sandip Kumar. Ecocriticism: A Study of Environmental Issues in Literature. BRICS Journal of Educational Research 6(4),168-170, 2016.

Pepper, D. Eco-socialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.

Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumannand .Popular Film : Cinema on the Edge, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, 2009.

Rosenbatt, R. “Earth Day 2000: All the Days of the Earth”. Time.com.2000.20 April 2000. http:/www.time.com/earthday Accessed 27/10/2019.

Serpil, Oppermann. Ecocriticism: Natural World in the Literary Viewfinder. 1999. www.asle.org./site,resourse/ecocritical-library/intro/embark.22/10/2019 .

Slaymaker, William. “Ecoing the Other(s): The Call for Global Green and Black African Response”. In Olaniyan, Tejumola and Ato, Quayson. Eds African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Malden USA: Blackwell Publishers, 2007. Print.

Wolfson, Z. The Geography of Survival: Ecology in the Post-Soviet Era. New York: Routledge, 2015. Print.

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LINGUISTIC POTPOURRISM IN NIGERIAN DRAMA : CONTEMPORARY TRENDS FROM AHMED YERIMA’S HENDU AND PAUL UGBEDE’S DIALING LOVE 

Mark O. Onwe, PhD
Department of Theatre and Media Arts
Federal University of Lafia
Nasarawa State, Nigeria
ogahmarc@gmail.com

Introduction

African writings that first became known outside the continent were done in the received languages of Europe (Awoonor 146). The colonisers’ languages particularly English, French and Portuguese enjoyed unrivalled patronage. Later on, this became a subject of perennial debates in attempts to decolonise African literatures. The earliest writings in African languages (vernacular literature) were a reflection of efforts to translate missionary teachings into African languages. Subsequent ones included experiments that extend the conversations around decolonisation. It is important to mention that several schools of thought have emerged on the question of language in African literary works. The Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s argument for the use of indigenous languages was sufficiently advanced in Decolonising the Mind … and Homecoming. Similarly, Chinua Achebe’s preference for adoption of foreign language was championed in The African Writer and the English Language. These schools of thought and several others have respective followers and adherents who have sufficiently explored their propositions. However, what needs further interrogation is how the emerging and subsisting writers, post-Ngugi and post-Achebe, are catering for the linguistic demands and the language needs of the ever-evolving linguistic landscape of the different countries and regions of Africa.

In Nigeria, succeeding generations of playwrights have variously employed different languages in their writings, not necessarily as a response to the age-long debate on African literature but as a technique to convey their thoughts in the most appropriate language(s) to contemporary Nigerian audience. A particular trend is discernible in the works of these contemporary writers: an eclectic deployment of languages hereby referred to as potpourrism. Hence, this paper focuses on potpourrism as a trend in Nigerian contemporary playwriting and draws extracts from the plays of Ahmed Yerimah and Paul Ugbede.

The choice of Yerima and Ugbede stems from the fact that they are contemporary writers and that they began their crafts at different significant and epochal periods in Nigerian playwriting history as far as ideological commitment and thematic preoccupation are concerned. Yerima is one of Nigeria’s most prolific playwrights. The turnout of plays by him and his engagement with issues as they affect human lives and society attest to his productivity. Yerima’s plays engage history, ritual and religion, multiculturalism, and social and political realities of Nigeria and Africa, and in them, he creates what he called ‘the refracted universe and alternative realities.’ Note his Inaugural lecture in 2013. On the other hand, Paul Ugbede, a graduate of Mass Communication, University of Jos is an emerging playwright with astronomical effect. Following his hands-on training at the Royal Court Theatre, London, Ugbede’s rise to popularity began in the early 2000s as an undergraduate student but has catapulted into the limelight with over 20 plays to his credit. He won the inaugural award of the BEETA Playwriting Competition in 2016. Ugbede’s plays have featured prominently in theatre festivals and literary criticisms. Ideologically and thematically, while Yerima’s works began from the traditional and mythical and traveled through the revolutionary post-civil war era to the present, Ugbede’s crafts represent the emergent new millennial voice in the era of full-blown globalisation. Having begun at different times with different temperaments, crafting for the same generation of audience, their current works: Hendu and DialingLove are analysed.

Periodising Linguistic Trends in Nigerian Playwriting

The Nigerian literary space, especially the drama genre, has, for over 5 decades, been inundated with different identifiable linguistic styles. The first identifiable style was the verbose English used in pamphlets known as the Onitsha market literature. English was seen as a language of prestige and one’s eloquence in it conferred and or inferred elitist status on the user. Among the writers to have emerged in this category were Ene Henshaw and N.O. Njoku. Closely following the above style of language usage in Nigerian drama, not in any form of chronology per se, was the style that coincided with the return of Nigerian scholars from abroad where they were trained. The mastery of English language by these returnees coupled with their understanding of the various cultural backgrounds that they came from provided the impetus to translate verbatim and transliterate those cultural experiences into the newly acquired or mastered language. Nigeria ranks amongst the largest speakers of English as a second language (ESL) countries in the world (Jowitt 6). Consequently, different playwrights deployed English language in their works. Wole Soyinka, John Clark and Ola Rotimi rank very high as pioneers of this style. They appropriate traditional histories, mythology, themes, motifs and explain them in English.

Conversely, some playwrights have, as a style, attempted to write plays in native languages. Sufficient instances avail in the over 500 different languages and dialects in Nigeria especially Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa. For the Yoruba, Isaiah Ilo stated that despite the use of the Roman script, they have facilitated the development of literary Yoruba. Moreover, the study of the language began very early with the establishment of mission schools where instruction was given in Yoruba and English ( http :// docs. lib. purdue. edu/cl/cweb/vol.11/iss4/ ). The development and utilisation of Yoruba orthography alongside the English language in teaching made students able to write in both languages. Several plays were exclusively written in Yoruba language. For example, Akinwumi Isola wrote award winning plays in Yoruba as EfunsetanAniwura , Kosegbe ; Duro Ladipo wrote Moremi , ObaWaja and ObaKoso . The Hausa language was not spared of this initiative as Mallam Bello Kagara wrote Gandoki; Shu’aibu Makarfi wrote Jatau Na K’yallau and Zamanin Nan Namu. Accordingly, Igbo language enjoyed its usage in drama. Kalu Okpi wrote Obi Nwanne; S.O. Mezu wrote Umu Ejima while Innocent Nwadike has written Okwe Agbaala and Onyekpa Nku Ahuhu. It is equally worth iterating that some of the plays originally written in Indigenous languages have been translated into English language perhaps, considering the restrictive and limited readership they would reach if left in the original forms.

Another style of language deployment that has not so much enjoyed patronage is the bilingual style in which English and native languages are simultaneously used. A typical example of this style is the bilingual experiment of Idoma and English by Amali Samson O.O in Onugbo N’loko. Bilingualism is somewhat an ambivalent experimentation to kill two birds with one stone but may not achieve intended purpose when such plays are staged; only one version could be used at a time. At best, it could make a good written work even though plays are generally intended to be staged.

Furthermore, some playwrights like Tunde Fatunde and Tunde Lakoju have written plays in Nigerian Pidgin. It is pertinent to state that Nigerian Pidgin as Dada (58) said, has the highest number of speakers in Nigeria. English language probably trails Nigerian Pidgin, considering the ever-changing hybrids, the ever-moulting variabilities of Pidgin as a creole, and the varying regionalism, with dialectical colourations. Closely related to pidgin is the Nigerian English style. it is a distinctive style discernable in the works of Nigerian playwrights. Nigerian English. It is a distinctive variety of English that is neither pidgin nor standard English. Its usage can be attributable to efforts to portray the very character of the Nigerian society. When indigenous expressions lack standard English equivalence, attempts are made to convey intended messages through ‘indiscriminate’ use of English words that are most understandable and expressible for the people. While this style has not found much deployment in Nigerian plays, Ola Rotimi experimented with it, through ill-educated characters, in his multilingual plays such as Hopes of the Living Dead. He attempted a miniature representation of Nigerian multilingualism in Hopes of the Living Dead. In this style, dialogues are written in multiple languages. What differentiates multilingualism from the potpourri , which this paper is about is that, potpourri incorporates standard English, indigenous languages and other varieties in a single play in a bid to communicate a message in the clearest, persuasive and meaningful expressions. Potpourri does not necessarily utilise languages as representatives of ethnic groups but employs the most suitable language or expression in a manner that sufficiently relay the intended message. In multilingualism, a character in a play would maintain a single language or linguistic expression and could require interpretation by another character for wider understanding in the manner that Rotimi did in Hopes… For example, Jimoh speaks Yoruba and another character interprets in English for the rest of the characters (Rotimi 21). Conversely, potpourri allows a character to switch, for instance, from pidgin, standard English, Nigerian English and to Indigenous s depending on how best to communicate certain expressions.

Linguistic Potpourrism in Hendu, and Dialing Love 

Ahmed Yerima’s Hendu reveals the level of engagement with the socio-cultural and political realities viz-a-viz climate change, insurgency, and citizens’ agitations in Nigeria. Hendu is Fulfulde’s word for spirit or wind. It is synonymous with being mysterious, anonymous, nameless, and faceless. The title suggests and conjures the itinerant nature of the anonymous killers, kidnappers, and gunmen that ravage many parts of Nigeria and whom many suspect to be Fulani pastoralists and herders. Unfortunately, the wanton killings leave both the herders and the accusers, equal victims – leaving one with the yet-to-be-answered question – who fuels the killings? Hendu dramatises the activities of herdsmen and the associated violence and misgivings that surround terrorism and the agitations of citizens. Wabiti whose husband, Hamajam, died from the wanton killings, finds herself and her children under the roof of Garga, a yet-to-be-apprehended culprit of terrorism acts. Garga feigns caring for Wabiti and in a bid to acquire more powers to perpetuate the acts, surreptitiously takes to snuffing life out of Wabiti’s children one after another. He becomes the victim of his very act and Wabiti cannot find the appropriate answer and meaning to the question in the play and life generally.

Paul Ugbede’s DialingLove is about the peasant life of Audu, a servant who secures Mr. Otunba’s gate but is secretly in love with his boss’ daughter, Bosede. He is encouraged and prodded by his unemployed but wealth-craving friend, Luka to tell Bosede. In a tricky scheme engineered by Luka, Bosede is deceived into falling in love with Fred, an imaginary but wealthy character created by Audu for Bosede through phone conversation. The realisation by Bosede and his father that Audu is an impostor results in an unexpected end.

Both plays weave and deploy language to reflect the authors’ desire to persuasively and effectively manipulate and capture ‘a sense of life’ that they intend to present, bearing in mind the audience they want to reach. The renditions used from standard English, vernacular, pidgin English and where necessary, Nigerian English (transliteration and slangs), are suggestive of the best way to convey the authors’ thoughts.

Standard English

Over 80 percent of the expressions in the two play texts are done in standard English. It won’t be out of place to categorise the two texts as plays written in English language. The audience whom the authors probably had in mind definitely would be English language readers and speakers. Other linguistic variables are only used to highlight characters and actions that need different emphasis. All the characters in Hendu, for instance, speak standard English. The switch to Fulfulde and other indigenous languages from the Middle Belt region of Nigeria such as Berom when necessary is with the aim to vividly capture and convey the indigenous flavour of those expressions.

Bosede in Dialing Love does not say anything in any variety other than standard English. This is because she is from a wealthy home and supposedly, educated, unlike her father, Otunba, whose background reflects in his words. Audu equally speaks standard English whenever he switches to Fred. In the same way, all the characters in Hendu at one point or the other speak standard English. The switch into other languages and/or varieties by some characters becomes necessary when a particular expression is considered clearer and better understandable in such varieties. The standard English is the lingua franca of Nigeria and it is therefore understandable that the two playwrights chose to convey their thoughts and make majority of the characters speak in standard English. In Hendu , Chafe, a nomad said:

Despite Chafe’s rustic and nomadic life, Yerima made him to deliver the above speech in standard English. A careful gleaning of Chafe’s statement reveals a speech targeted at a particular audience and it none other than the educated group of Nigerians who live in urban centres and have no regard or plan for the nomadic fulanis. Similarly, in Dialing Love, Bosede conveyed her understanding of her maturity and her expectation from her parents thus:

Bosede’s statement is an affirmation that, at twenty-three years, she has grown into maturity. This maturity is not just as a result of an attainment of a particular age but also a product of a growth through the secondary and tertiary institutions where standard English is taught. Equally, maturity confers on her the ability to intercourse with the worlds where she can make decisions of relationships, politics, commerce, etc where standard English is the medium of communication. In Hendu , Chafe directly addresses the people in these formal circles while in Dialing Love, Bosede speaks of attaining the maturity to associate with those in these circles. Overall, both authors conceived the audiences in these formal circles as constituting the majority of the audience that can easily identify with the language and message they want to convey.

The understanding of the complex linguistic configurations and ability of not just the audiences in formal circles but also the significant number of users of other varieties, nonetheless, makes these writers deploy other linguistic varieties in the same plays. In fact, sometimes, the people in formal circles switch between other languages and varieties of English for certain emphases. This is in addition to the significant number of those who are not literate in standard English, and therefore, communicate in the most conversant language or varieties. Hence, the deployment of vernacular, pidgin, etc., not just reflective or representative of the informal characters (unschooled in standard English) in the plays but to also address them as part of the audience of the plays.

Vernacular:

Vernacular expressions are splattered appropriately in Hendu. Wabiti declared: “Allah chu la wala Fulbe.” (Yerima 16). Wabiti’s declaration is a Fulbe’s way of pronouncing God’s blessings of togetherness, unity and peace. Fulbe is synonymous with Fulani, Fulfulde or Fula which is a member of a pastoral and nomadic people of West Africa. The Hausa call them Fulani, while the Wolof use Peul and the Mandinka Fula. The Fula call themselves Fulbe (plural), Pullo (singular) with the western dialect as Pulaar while the eastern dialects use Fulfulde. If the above expression by Wabiti is rendered in standard English, it would lose its unique flavour. Yerima, therefore, makes Wabiti render it in Fulbe. Moreso, Garga and others do not only ululate to movements and drumming, they sing and chant in Fulfulde thus:

When loosely translated, Garga’s declaration is ‘Kingi is strikingly beautiful’ and others respond: ‘beautiful!’. Literarily, boddo (bride or the beautiful one) is a Fulani girl who will be married at a young age. Again, Garga’s repetition of the expression using mijabi (I agreed) makes it not only indigenous but also a way of saying ‘I conceded’ in Fulbe. The use of these Fulani expression instead of conveying them in standard English confirmed Yerima’s assertion (Yerima 6) that he researched and interacted with the Fulanis and Indigenous people of the Middle Belt whom the play is written about, before he wrote the play.

In DialingLove , Luka’s first statement in the opening scene is rendered in vernacular (Hausa). Luka says: “ Aboki na, kagiya mata mana” ( Ugbede 32 ) . The direct translation could be Friend of mine, tell it to her now. If this statement is to be rendered in standard English, the nuance, flavour and intent could be lost or result in several different interpretations. In addition to pointing to the fact that both the addresser (Audu) and the addressee (Luka) originate from the Northern region of Nigeria where Hausa is a lingua franca in most states, rendering it in Hausa appropriately veils it from the third person (Bosede) who is not supposed to understand that she is being discussed. Similarly, when Mangs, Audu’s friend, comes in with a bale of newspaper on his arm and head, the conversation is done in Hausa:

Mangs’ greetings “ Yayakake ? (How are you) is preceded by “Wawa” (Fool), a derogatory expression but pardonable among friends. Luka responds with “ Maloboy ” (Herder boy), a condescending tag referring to sameness in reasoning of a northern herder to his cows. These jibes are taken at face value and could be complimentary between friends. This explains why further inquiry into Mangs’ wellbeing ( ina gejiya ) immediately got the response of “ Bagejiya ” (No stress) from Mangs. These dialogues could not be appropriate, persuasive and engender conviviality among friends if rendered in standard English or transliterated to another language.

Interestingly, both Yerima and Ubgede have sufficient understanding of the culture of the northern and middle belt people of Nigeria. Besides the academic stint Yerima had in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, which is considered the hub or citadel of northern academic, he had first-hand interactions with the Fulanis that formed the story in Hendu. Similarly, Ugbede, himself a northerner from Kogi State, spent over four years with the people of Plateau State. The author’s deployment of Fulfulde and Hausa points to their experiences and engagements with these languages of conversations in northern Nigeria.

Nigerian Pidgin

Although, Yerima avoids using Pidgin in Hendu, Nigerian Pidgin finds expression in DialingLove as the policemen follow Bosede outside:

Nigerian Pidgin particularly has a way of creating humour and it is the mostly used language in Nigerian comedy genre. The comic confusion created by the attempt to arrest a supposed Happiness could not be achieved if the policemen rendered their dialogue in standard English. The use of Nigerian Pidgin by Ugebede in the above dialogue does not only point to the lackluster level of education and reasoning of some police officers but also for the comic relief it is capable of generating among Nigerian audience. Similarly, when Audu asks why Luka left his former work, Luka responds by relaying the speech of Mr. Joy, an expatriate of Asian origin working in Nigeria as:

Luka’s rendition is a combination of code-shifting and code-mixing in an attempt to convey appropriately Mr. Joy’s variety of English that is not Nigerian. Many Koreans and Chinese operate businesses in Nigeria and their communication with their staff, in English, is somewhat funny and incongruous to the ears of Nigerians. When this happens, it creates comic relief for Nigerians.

It would be erroneous, and perhaps a grave omission, to represent the contemporary language of communication in Nigeria without enlisting the Nigerian Pidgin, although it has regional varieties. The use of Pidgin by these authors, particularly Ugede, reveals the Korean/Chinese version and the variety that is somewhat generally understood by a large percentage of Nigerians. Chinese engineers and technicians can be seen in many parts of Nigeria. The same is true of the Nigeria Police Force whose presence spreads across the entire country. It is unlikely to traverse the length and breadth of the country without encountering a police officer or a Chinese. And considering itinerant movement of these people, the variety of pidgin that they speak, therefore, could be reflective of the ever-evolving linguistic compositions of contemporary Nigeria.

Nigerian English (Transliteration and Slangs):

Nigerian English are un-English expressions and slangs and they attempt to communicate in English using the same equivalence of Indigenous words in English. They are not Pidgin neither are they figures of speech nor idiomatic expressions. They merely and usually convey ‘ Nigerianness’. These expressions are highly localised in time and place such that, as Blench and Dendo (1) said, “the exact location of the boundary between them differs from speaker to speaker”. An example of a Nigerian English expression is used by Ugede in Dialing Love.

The ‘turning of a dead relation in their grave’ is an expression that is neither standard nor the known Nigerian Pidgin. However, a Nigerian would definitely understand it to mean the unhappy response of a dead relation over the actions and decisions of their living relations. It is a complete transliteration into English; not the intended meaning but the exact words as used in the vernacular lexicon. To fully apprehend it, one would require to have a background understanding of the ‘world’ of conjoined relationship between the living and the dead in Africa. African languages are reputed for generous usage of proverbs. Emphasising the significance of proverbs among the Ibo, Chinua Achebe said that “proverbs are a palm-oil with which words are eaten” (7). Proverbs are essential elements of traditional rhetorics and one’s mastery of them demonstrates adroitness and confers enviable respect. Sometimes, the direct transliterations of a proverb or a thought in one’s mother tongue to English usually results in an un-English expression. Nonetheless, an attempt to translate them to standard English would usually emasculate them of the aesthetics they originally possess. Therefore, they are conveyed directly in the exact vernacular lexicon and understood by the intended audience.

Rationale for the Trend

Nigeria is a miniature representation of Africa in terms of multilingualism with about 500 languages and ethnic groups. The same questions shrouding the authenticity of African literature reverberate in Nigerian literature. While the above debates subsist, it is imperative to state that the historical antecedences and circumstances that compelled Africans to write in Western languages (colonialism, education, writing back, etc.) are not the same circumstances in contemporary African and Nigerian writings. As concrete as the desire to preserve and enshrine certain cultural values in Nigeria’s drama of the 1960s and 1970s, some of these values have been overtaken by newer realities. For example, a higher rate of inter-ethnic marriage has ebbed the hankering to promote certain languages at the expense of others. Although, competitions still ensue in promoting ethno-cultural identities, issues that affect people across all boards have overridden clannish clamours in contemporary times. Hence the ever-broadening attempts of contemporary playwrights to capture these new realities.

Moreso, when drama is written, it is expected to be acted and not just read. Consequently, language as a readership determinant in drama takes a little different twist from other genres of literature. Expediency and pragmatism in choosing what language to deploy in drama are factors that weigh above the age-long debate on the suitability of a language for African literature. Admitted, Chima Osakwe pointed out that using multiple languages substantially or throughout an entire play is likely to affect the smooth delivery of the message. He stated that Soyinka’s The Road, a multilingual play blending English, pidgin and Yoruba had the dual ‘toughness for local hearing’ and the Pidgin and Yoruba exclamation difficult for non-Nigerian ears to catch when it was premiered in London in 1965 (60). However, it must be pointed out that the toughness was because it was staged outside its expected immediate audience (London). Secondly, the use of multiple languages in The Road is not in the manner of potpourrism discussed in this paper. In fact, Osakwe admitted to the cooperative linguistic experiment involving English, Nigerian languages and Pidgin being worthwhile (59). In potpourrism, the playwrights, like Yerima and Ugbede specifically have their expected audience in mind as they write each play. Besides, the flexibility of the characters switching to other appropriate languages usually takes into account the audience on ground.

Finally, contemporary Nigerian drama explores international themes. The globality of the issues discussed in contemporary Nigerian drama has made the concerns around African and Nigerian drama no longer, to borrow Helon Habila’s words, ‘palm-wine and kolanuts’ which hitherto were restrictive values and themes. The issues that infuse contemporary Nigerian drama cut across terrorism, corruption, love, multiculturalism, gender, civil rights, good governance, religion, etc. and they resonate and find relevance anywhere in the world. While the nuances and certain mannerisms may be region-specific, global movements and resettlements of people make them have wide applications. Interestingly, the advancements in information and communication technology for translation, interpretation and adaptation in the age of new and social media has, to a reasonable extent, addressed the constraints of limited acceptance and readership in the case of foreign audiences. Consequently, getting African and Nigerian languages interpretable and translated on different new media could address the concerns of either side of the debate.

Conclusion

Contemporary playwrights have demonstrated commitment to deploying amalgam of languages, linguistic nuances and flavours as a means to cater for the multilingual composition of contemporary audience. The exploration of an eclecticism of vernacular, standard English, Pidgin and Nigerian English appropriately within a single work seems an effective communication style or strategy to reach their audience. This strategy addresses both the guilt of writing in received languages and the challenge of limited readership occasioned by writing exclusively in African Indigenous languages.

Works Cited

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