Asεmka: A Bilingual Literary Journal of University of Cape Coast

Animality: Animal imagery, characterization, and the articulation of difference in Victor Yankah’s dear blood

2024-12-20T16:44:33+00:00

Drawing on the literature on animality, this paper examines animal imagery or animality as a strategy of characterization and the articulation of difference in Victor Yankah‘s Dear Blood (2014). Specifically, the paper focuses on metaphors and similes that are embedded in proverbs as locations of animal imagery. It argues that animal imagery or animality is integral to how Yankah frames characterization, agency, voice, and the quest for an inclusive postcolonial society. Through the use of animal imagery or animality, Yankah recreates Sophocles‘ Ismene and Antigone within a Ghanaian sociocultural context as Panyin and Kakra. Seen from this vantage point, Dear Blood emerges as not just an adaptation, but a play with its own thoughts and modes of becoming. Overall, the paper seeks to answer two key questions: what is the dominant imagery in Yankah‘s Dear Blood? What are the ethico-aesthetic entailments of this imagery? The paper shows that animal imageries of domestication and the wild constitute the dominant means by which Yankah frames not only the different approaches of Penyin and Kakra to power, but more importantly, the possibility of woman‘s voice in the public space.

Unpacking African rhetorical theory in an African game

2024-12-20T17:00:55+00:00

African rhetoric usually stands accused of one basic charge: false equivalences. Scholars argue that the burgeoning field, for instance, heralds Afrocentricity to rival Eurocentricity. In responding to this concern, this article seeks to reimagine ways of conceptualizing African rhetoric on its own terms in order to propose an alternative concept termed as Afrifuge. Focusing on ampe, a traditional Ghanaian game, the paper demonstrates how scholars of African rhetoric can draw on unique tropes to think, speak, learn, and write about African rhetorical inventions and processes. The analysis brings to light significant rhetorical arguments when scholars closely examine the game from an Africanist perspective. These include a discovery of the laws of probability and calculus, critical thinking skills, multi-tasking, and agility. The overarching goal of the paper is to invite scholars to build a meta-theory of African rhetoric.

Language culture and the conceptualization of character in selected Yoruba proverbs

2024-12-20T17:11:08+00:00

This paper investigates the cultural import of proverbs in contemporary Yoruba society in Nigeria. Proverbs are short, witty, popular expressions that contain morals, truth, socio-cultural precepts and heritage of a particular group of people. Every ethnic group the world over has its set of proverbs formulated and collected over several generations. Proverbs give insights into wise living and stimulate good decisions thereby satisfying the concept of moralities in African realities. One common thread that runs through world religions and cultures is the universal affirmation of the cultivation and practice of ―good character‖. This concept, popularly known in the Yoruba milieu as ―omoluabi‖ is believed to be responsible for fundamental contributions of morality to the overall human flourishing and wholeness of Yoruba societies and people. Proverbs constitute a veritable component of ‗ways of speaking‘ among the constituents of Yoruba speech communities across age groups, as well as social and occupational categories of speakers. Using fourteen purposively selected proverbs that deal with the Yoru ba concept of ―Omoluabi‖ (good character), this paper employs a socio-cultural linguistic approach to show how the rhetorical force of the proverbs can help reveal the ills in our society and reclaim some of the virtues of ―Omoluabi‖. Findings show that Yoruba , like many other African languages, is richly endowed with proverbs emphasizing virtues such as patience, respect for elders and constituted authority, selflessness, contentment and dignity in labour , all of which can bring about cultural re-orientation if imbibed by citizens.