A FUNCTIONALIST ANALYSIS OF EXPRESSIONS AND EXPRESSIVENESS OF HAUSA ORATURE IN DAMAGARAM
A FUNCTIONALIST ANALYSIS OF EXPRESSIONS AND EXPRESSIVENESS OF HAUSA ORATURE IN DAMAGARAM
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Date
2023-09
Authors
BOUNOU, OUSMANE
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Abstract
This study attempts a functionalist analysis of expressions and expressiveness of Hausa orature of Damagaram and demonstrates the social function each of the types fulfills. The study examines the functions and expressiveness of this tradition of Hausa orature in the region. It is important also to specify certain socio-cultural practices as a result of foreign contacts and attitudes of dispossession or distortion of the cultural values in Damagaram. The stifling of some features of ancestral values was accelerated through the education system at every level, leading to abandoning of the professional initiations and certain family occupations. This study was carried out of a very critical time for orature in Niger Republic, particularly in Damagaram because of a wave of deaths of some eminent artists of this area some of whom included Yerima Malam, Ma‘azu Ɗan Alalo and Zabiya Hurera. Methodologically, for the primary source of data, four teachers were selected as research assistants for data gathering, identifying the most famous artists in Damagaram, their places of origin, their target audience and collecting some items of their performances. Later, the researcher conducted the validation of the corpus by attending to the artists and areas in different zones. The findings of the study revealed how the Hausa orature in Damagaram area from the point of view of expressions and expressiveness is relevant in the spectrum of orature in the social function it was supposed to perform. The form and the modes of expression are the same; but because of the diversity of the environment, the genius of expressiveness remains the base of authenticity. Also, it was found that Ma‘azu Ɗan Alalo had different tunes and manners from Ɗanƙwairo not because the first was in Niger Republic and the second in Nigeria, but the fate of contexts played on the personality of each of the two and makes the first what he was, and not an adapter of the second. This is also valid between Ɗan Alalo and Zabiya Furera or Yerima Malam for the same arguments on the myth of human personality. The study concludes that each orature material – proverb, folktale, song, lullaby, sarcasm of women, epithet, innuendo, riddle, counting rhyme – carries specific message and function. Also, each performer uses his/her technique or manner – which is called expressiveness - to express oneself or pass on a message. And the more expressive a literary message is, the more likely it is to accomplish the social function to which it is destined
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A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (PhD) IN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES,
FACULTY OF ARTS,
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA.