ENGAGING THE UNWRITTEN TEXT: THE ROLE OF ORALITY AND POPULAR CULTURE IN THESOCIAL ENGINEERING PROCESS OF POSTCOLONIAL NIGERIA

A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science

TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright by Eyitayo Gad Aloh 2015 English (Public Texts) M.A. Graduate Program September 2015 ABSTRACT

Engaging The Unwritten Text: The Role of Orality and Popular in the Social Engineering Process of Postcolonial Nigeria

Eyitayo Gad Aloh

This study is an attempt to look at how orality plays a role in modern society to move people to action in a social engineering process. By examining the theories for the formation of publics as outlined by Jurgen Habermas and Michael Warner, I argue for the existence of an oral public and further show that it can be engineered with some of the tools provided. This theoretical foundation provides a pathway for a thorough examination of orality as a tool for social engineering and shows how the practices moved the people in the past. In this study, I posit that the oral traditions are still alive and well in modern times and still function as a tool for moving people to social action. To achieve this, orality makes use of popular culture. This study examines elements of popular culture with a view to unearthing the presence of oral modes and how they are still carrying on the same function of social engineering in a modern society. This study concludes by positioning orality as a relevant tool for social engineering in modern Nigerian society and affirms that it is still relevant in the areas of politics, literature and cultural productions with possibilities yet untapped in the area of digital technology.

Keywords: Orality, Public Sphere, Social Engineering, Popular Culture , Publics, Nigeria, Literacy.

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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

A project of this nature would have been impossible without the support of several individuals. I therefore wish to express my profound appreciation to my God,

Jehovah for the gift of life to see the completion of this work. I will also like to thank my wife, Joy and the children, MasinJah and Jahziah for their patience on those grumpy evenings they endured as I tried to weld the ideas together. For his patience and guidance and going beyond the call of a supervisor, including giving me unrestricted access to his library, my immense gratitude goes to Professor Hugh

Hodges, who made himself a friend in the process and helped me shape the path of the thesis. Professor Margaret Steffler also took the pain to read this over more times than required and offered invaluable suggestions,. I will also like to thank

Professor Charmaine Eddie for agreeing to be on my committee as well as Professor

Michael Eamon who became a friend with his constructive criticism and words of encouragement. In one way or another, Professors Kelly McGuire, Sally Chivers, Beth

Popham, Suzanne Bailey and Michael Epp all contributed to making me welcomed at

Trent and getting on with my research.

I also wish to acknowledge the support of the good people at the Academic

Skills Centre for making me look good on paper and the university administration for all their financial support. Finally, I want to thank my colleagues in the programme, allies in the frontiers of scholarship.

iiii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………….ii

Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………..………..iii

Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………..iv

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………1

Chapter One………………………………………………………………………………………12

Chapter Two……………………………………………………………………………………..44

Chapter Three…………………………………………………………………………………..77

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….116

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………..121

iv 1

INTRODUCTION

Orality and the Challenges of Modern Society

In the build up to the Presidential election of Nigeria that was held on August 6,

1983, the candidate for the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) arrived in Ibadan and was greeted by cultural dancers who chanted his praise and prayed for his success at the elections. Obafemi Awolowo mounted the podium and stated, “Today is not for song and dance. Today, we are here for serious business” (Mazrui, The Africans). To him, the oral traditions that were being invoked by the dancers could not be considered serious business. He lost the election.

Ever since I watched this scene from Ali Mazrui’s documentary, The

Africans,in the early 1990s, I have questioned how powerful orality can be in a society. My interest in this area further grew in 1993 when another presidential candidate in another election in Nigeria, Moshood Abiola, a traditional chief, embraced orality and built his campaign on songs and dance from across the country in order to move people to action. There appears to be a function of orality that is inherently fused withpower and shows that orality still has a role in the activities of a modern society.

However, what seemed to baffle me more at the time was the fact that in academia, scholars like Ruth Finnegan, Isidore Okpewho and Abiola Irele were trying to establish Orality as a relevant field of study. I wondered at the time why the articles by Isidore Okpewho in particular had to go to great lengths to establish the relevance of a study in orality when all around me, I witnessed the presence and use of oral traditions in my immediate surroundings. For example, my mother would sing my birth praise poetry whenever I had done something good, my father recited the 2

family’s praise poetry to discipline me whenever I have done something wrong and in Lagos, where I lived during my childhood, the Eyo Masquerade Festival took over the entire city for one day and brought peasants and the rich of the society together in the open square.

There have been gains made by these scholars, and today the intellectual discourse has shifted from the oral –literate dichotomy to the functions of oral traditions in the public sphere. Therefore, my objective in this project is to focus on a particular area of social consciousness where orality is a successful tool: social engineering. It is my hope that by examining this area, that affects our everyday life,

I will be able to show that orality is still very much a part of our social existence.

Engineering people to act in a specific manner is not just a chance occurrence, but a careful process requiring calculation and study in order to influence the people. That is why Alexander and Schmidt define social engineering as the “arranging and channelling of environmental and social forces to create effective social action”(3).

While thereare exhaustive theoretical materials on how education, law, the military and indeed social movements have been able to play a role in this process, there has been little research into how oral rhetoric and popular culture are being used as a tool in the social engineering process. This is especially curious as James C.

Scott, back in 1998, subtitled his book, Seeing it Like a State: How Certain Schemes to

Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, an allusion to the failure of the western paradigm to achieve effective social action in the public sphere. With the failure of the notable schemes to improve human conditions, there is a need to seek alternatives that may help in the influencing of people for positive social actions. In 3

fact, these alternatives do not have to be new as Immanuel Wallerstein contends that “the last thing we really need are more Utopian visions”(99).

This therefore compels the question: can orality and popular culture play a role in the social engineering process and provide the alternative to the failed schemes? If so, how can they be deployed and are there modern examples of a society where they have been engaged to useful effects?

These questions will form the basis of this thesis which will examine, with a particular focus on Nigeria, the role of orality and popular culture in the social engineering process, and how the public responds to the influence of these tools when they are deployed. It will also look at why some forms of rhetoric are more powerful than others at certain points of the process. If presidents can sing and dance to influence public votes, then this strongly suggests powerful elements in oral rhetoric.

I have chosen Nigeria as my case study as my preliminary observations in this geographic space have yielded interesting results in the functioning of oral modes in influencing public. My experience as a journalist and a writer will further enhance my information gathering in the Nigerian environment that is rich in rhetoric and oral traditions. There is also a particular focus on the Yoruba cultural experience above other ethnic groups in Nigeria and this is deliberate. I am of this tribe, raised in the customs and culture and versed in the language, and as such, translating some of the proverbs, songs and poetry from this ethnic tribe will not be an issue. These elements of orality form a major part of my arguments in this thesis, and as translation can sometimes lose the meaning of a text, I have privileged the Yoruba tradition to get my points across. However, it must be noted that I have also made 4

reference to books in which other traditions, from Nigeria and Africa as a whole, have been established to have similar effects on the society.

I also will counter the postmodernist concept of deconstruction that tends to argue that oral traditions have an alienating effect by showing how the public attitude has continued to change in response to oral modes deployed by governmental authorities and other agencies for the purpose of social engineering.

There is also an exploration of how oral rhetoric has been deployed in the social engineering process and how this rhetoric, rather than being a recent consciousness in popular arts and culture, actually dates back to the pre-colonial era and in reality, has never been gone from the Nigerian social consciousness.

Literature Review and theoretical framework of Social Engineering

This thesis will examine the works of Peter Swirski (American Utopia and Social

Engineering in Literature, Social Thought and Political History) and Adam Podgorecki

(Social Engineering) in defining social engineering and how it has evolved over the years as a social concept that has confounded theorists and scholars. I have taken the pains to explore how there are misconceptions of what social engineering is, by looking at how it is perceived in other fields of study but with a particular interest in the field of information technology as the term is distrusted and associated with liars

(Cole 352). Therefore, I reclaim the word in this study and use the theories of the scholars above to establish social engineering as a vibrant social concept. There are people who may need to be convinced in order to be moved and applying social engineering tools to move them is not in any way deceiving them or lying to them. In exploring how the term has been conceived in the area of information technology, I lay the groundwork for a latter consideration, in Chapter Three, of how orality is 5

beginning to make an inroad into the field. My consideration of orality’s function in information technology is speculative as the field is ever changing and new forms of media are emerging constantly. However, with orality already present, its role as a social engineering tool using the technological platform is gradually being established. Karin Barber also points to the fact that one of the strengths of orality lies in its ability to merge with new forms of technology, revitalise itself and reach out to a wider audience (3). Orality has provided us with traditional forms of information technology that are unique. I consider the town crier in my exploration of how traditional technology targets people and lays the foundation of how modern computer publics make use of the media in ways not dissimilar to how older and traditional forms of media were previously used. The town crier’s action, though an act of information dissemination, encourages participation. I argue that for any social action to succeed, it must be all encompassing and invite the public to be a part of it. Only then has orality succeeded and the fact that orality does tend to be all encompassing and invite public participation is why it lends itself more to social engineering than any other process postulated.

However, it is pertinent to examine who constitutes the public sphere to be engineered and how the social engineering process can be measured as a success or failure. This is where the definition of Jürgen Habermas in The Structural

Transformation of the Public Sphere comes in as a valuable tool to this research as it helps formulate the publics, their expectations as well as define social engineering from the standpoint of these identified publics. I also examine the works of Benedict

Anderson and Michael Warner in order to establish the existence of an oral public in the social engineering process. I engage the Habermasian, and to some extent 6

Anderson’s, concept of publics and then extend its theoretical meaning to the oral mode. When I engage Habermas and Anderson, it is not with the aim of flawing their theory, but to demonstrate that the approach is flawed in vision as it privileged the European environment when the borders of the theory could have been expanded to generate a more pragmatic discourse that brings in other societies such as the oral society. To strengthen my argument that an oral public exists, I turn to the work of Michael Warner, Publics and Counterpublics, and look at the criteria established by Warner for the existence of a public with a view to seeing how an oral public measures up to these criteria. To further establish the fact that an oral public exists and can be socially engineered, I delve into the Yoruba oral tradition and match the first four criteria of Warner to an already existing proverb in order to show that oral cultures do have a well-informed public.

“Say What?” Orality and Popular Culture in Perspective

Orality and oral African traditions, with a particular focus on their influence on the public, have been discussed extensively by scholars such as Abdul Rasheed Na’allah and Bayo Ogunjimi who postulate that “in their traditional environment, [Africans] create functional, effective and practical mode of communication. Ideas and information are orally transmitted from individual to individual, group to group and community to community” (15). This statement reinforces my argument that by its nature, oral traditions are no mere rhetorical exercise, but functioning tools in shaping publics and getting them ready for social action. The progression is also worthy of note: “from individual…to group…to community.” The process does not see the individual in isolation, but as part of the community. Therefore, the instruction being passed on to the individual is with a view to having a positive 7

impact on the community at large. It is just as B.F. Skinner points out, “men are made good or bad and wise and foolish by the environment in which they grow”

(257). With oral traditions already existing and functional in the environment, social engineering can begin in the society. In the oral setting, the social engineering process starts from birth. A child is given a name with symbolic meaning that he is expected to defend for the rest of his life. A praise poetry is attached so that he can remember and know that to follow a path contrary to this is to shame his family.

Members of his immediate environment, his community members are there to remind him of the need to be good. Skinner’s vision must have been that of an oral society.

But what is orality? Many of the available studies jump straight into discussions of orality’s function within the society without providing a definition. It appears that human speech has been part of man’s existence for so long that to define orality is not considered necessary. Walter Ong defines orality as “thoughts and verbal expressions within cultures totally untouched by printing and writing”

(11). So what about the attendant traditions within this cultures that also make use of verbal expressions? Are they covered by the “thoughts” process that produced them? Ong would seem to imply this as he was contrasting this oral culture to a writing culture and he applied the term “primary orality” to his definition. However, it is in his reference to culture that a wider understanding of “orality” lies. Since culture is a reference to the way of life of a particular people in a particular period of time, then I argue that every tradition that exists within the culture and is transmitted orally forms the different parts of orality. And that is why, in the course of this study, whenever reference is made to the term orality or oral traditions, it is 8

with Chris Baldick’s definition in mind which defines orality as “the state of dependence on the spoken word in oral culture” (241). In this way, the traditions that go with orality such as storytelling, dance and other performances can be brought into the discussion about its usefulness as a tool for social engineering.

It must be pointed out that orality as a tool also needs vehicles of transmission to its desired publics or audience. What is the vehicle and is it new or old? An examination has been made of how oral traditions have found their way into popular and mass culture in the form of literature, film and music. Abiola Irele’s The

African Imagination: Literature in Africa and The Black Diaspora and Isisdore

Okpewho’sThe Oral Performance in Africa provide the needed evidence to support the postulation that oral traditions have always been at the heart of social engagement with the public in Nigeria, and this is done to achieve positive change.

The concept and function of orality that I am exploring in this study serves to reframe the existing works on African and to some extent, postcolonial studies.

Specifically, I am hoping that by focusing on a particular function of orality, social engineering, a shift can be made in the discussion from a mere polemical and academic exercise towards a more beneficial concept of communal belonging and cohesion, that can then be stretched into global contexts.

As I have privileged Nigeria as my case study, I also consider the modern trend of film, and using existing arguments in publications such asThe Video Film in

Nigeria, I further argue that the presence of the oral modes in forms of popular culture has been explored by the government to influence the public as defined by

Michael Warner in Publics and Counter Publics. 9

A specific exploration of popular culture and its meaning is made in order to show that orality has always existed as a popular culture, respected and active in the communal life of the oral public, provided there is a definition for popular culture that is agreed on by all. Stuart Hall states that he has “as many problems with the term ‘popular’ as he has with ‘culture’ and when you put the two terms together, the difficulties can be horrendous” (455). So how does one “arrest” the concept and apply it to this study? I have carefully chosen the definitions that capture the objectives of this study and combined them to derive one definition with a functional use. Here, the guiding principle in arriving at my definition is function as oral tradition is concerned with people and it is only considered functional if the effect is felt by the community. Hence, what role do songs, films, proverbs and dance play in social engineering? I have provided examples that provide answers to this question.

A study of this nature requires an analytical approach to be able to actualise its visions. As such, I divide the chapters into three specific categories looking at the key areas of social engineering, popular culture and orality in a modern society.

Within each chapter, I also endeavour to synthesize already existing materials and theoretical works with my own experience as a product of an oral tradition. In most cases, I have looked at what orality accomplished in the past and how the traditions have outlived external influences, such as colonialism and postcolonial concepts of governance, to still remain relevant in contemporary society.

In the first chapter, I provide an analysis of how social engineering in all its facets has been engaged in order to achieve social action on a large scale amongst the populace of a particular area. I also focus on the pragmatic deficiencies of the 10

tools currently in use to subjugate the populace,in order to establish that an alternative tool is required, and this is present in oral traditions. I also briefly discuss the concept of social engineering from a grassroots level as a foreground of what will follow in the third chapter.

Popular Culture as a concept is the focus of engagement in the second chapter as I explore the concept and how oral traditions in various forms (Praise poetry, dance, proverb and folklore) constitute popular culture and play a significant role in the creation of social action amongst publics. It is my intention that this establishes how, in the pre-colonial era, oral rhetoric was powerful in uniting people.

A Yoruba (Nigeria) proverb states that “when the cock crows at dawn, it crows from the compound of one man, but it wakes the entire community.” This communal life is what has always been at the heart of the Nigerian consciousness and though colonialism seems to have corrupted it, the failure of the western tool of social engineering (Scott 6) has made it possible for the oral tradition to be re-awakened through an interaction with popular culture.

I conclude the study with a consideration of the interface of orality and popular culture and how they function within the social engineering process, especially in a society undergoing changes that are driven by technology. Elements of the oral traditions are extracted from literature, films, art and music with a particular focus on how they have been deployed by the government of Nigeria and other agencies in the process of social engineering. I have also measured the success of such interactions, with a particular look at the 1993 and 1999 elections in Nigeria, which had oral modes evident in all the campaign process to attract people to vote and then l provide a summary and an analysis of the success of the oral mode in the 11

social engineering processes of the postcolonial state of Nigeria while pointing out the limitations of this study and looking at future areas of expanding the study.

I undertake this study in the hope that it will open up both social engineering and orality as new space of criticism, both in the literary field and cultural studies and engage more scholars to focus on the impact of their work on the society and the environment with a view to creating a cohesive society.

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CHAPTER ONE

Engaging The Unwritten Text: Orality As A Tool For Social Engineering

The power of human speech and what it can accomplish has been a subject of ongoing debate amongst scholars since 1959 when Ferdinand De Saussure indicated a primacy of speech over literacy and writing when he declares:

People attach more importance to the written image of a vocal sign than to the sign itself. A similar mistake would be in thinking that more can be learned about someone by looking at his photograph than by viewing him directly. (23-24)

This has created an orality/literacy dichotomy of primacy that continues to engage scholarship. However, it seems the most profound argument for the primacy of literacy over orality is that provided by Walter Ong who, in Orality and Literacy:

The Technologizing of the Word, states:

The scholarly focus on texts had ideological consequences. With their attention directed to texts, scholars often went on to assume ,often without reflection, that oral verbalisation was essentially the same as the written verbalisation they normally dealt with and that oral art forms were to all intents and purposes simply texts, except for the fact that they were not written down. (10)

Ong re-affirms his position on the distinction between orality and literacy by asserting that “written words (the key elements of literacy) are residues. Oral tradition has no such residue or deposit” and “though words are grounded in oral speech, writing tyrannically locks them into a visual field forever” (11). Ong observes that orality and literacy are in possession of distinct powers but with literacy - writing and print - technologizing the word, the power of orality on a modern world will be reduced as “without writing, human consciousness cannot achieve its fuller potentials” (14). 13

Ong’s argument, which further promotes the idea of literacy being superior to orality, is a validation of postmodernist enquiries that deconstruct and challenge widely held beliefs. With reference to previous works by Richard A. Scwedder on postmodernism, Pauline Marie Rosenau proffers that:

Postmodernism challenges global, all-encompassing world views, be they political, religious or social. It reduces Marxism, Christianity, Fascism, Stalinism, Capitalism, liberal democracy, secular humanism, feminism, Islam and modern science to the same order and dismisses them all as logo centric, transcendental totalizing mega narratives that anticipate all questions and provide predetermined answers. All such systems of thought rest on assumptions no more or no less certain than those of witchcraft, astrology or primitive cults. (6)

Extrapolating from this statement, we can add oral traditions to the social worldview that is challenged by postmodernism, especially with the reference to

“primitive cults” as part of the social structures that have spurned the mega narratives postmodernism is deconstructing.

In defence of orality, at least in the Nigerian context, communalists or communitarians, those who are deeply concerned and interested in the quality of life in their ethnic and cultural space, have pointed to the integrity and value of oral traditions in the communities where they are practiced as “such expressions of integrity are rooted in an African cultural legacy and these Afrocultural expressions continue to help shape the contours and textures” of the communal experience

(Boykin et al 409).

Sometimes, the passion of the communalists rises to uncontrolled levels. For instance, Polycarp Ikuenobe declares: “I see myself as a research scholar in the area of and subject matter of Africa; I see myself as a defender of an African perspective, that is, someone who takes pride in the beliefs, views, thoughts of Africa. In this second sense, I am motivated partly by a kind of nationalism (Africanism) and I have 14

an activist attitude in my efforts to defend African ideas” (42). He further states that

“the idea of communalism in African tradition represents a normative theory about what a moral person, community and their connections ought to be according to

African thought system” (53). With oral traditions being central to African beliefs,

Ikuenobe invariably makes enclosed communities, either in Africa or Diaspora, the locus of the practice of oral traditions and outside these communities, orality becomes irrelevant. This will make orality an archaeological practice of a community out of step with modernity. This will confine it to the field of anthropology, rather than include it as a contemporary relevant practice.

However, for there to be a more pragmatic approach towards the resolution of the oral -literate dichotomy, the argument will have to shift from a question of “Is orality relevant?” as presently proffered by postmodernists to “How is Orality relevant in contemporary times and society?”

This question will be the focus of this chapter. I argue that there is a need to shift from the two extremes of thought, not relevant at all and relevant only in a particular society, and closely examine the function of African Oral traditions within a social process in contemporary society. To do this, I will closely examine social engineering, the process of moving people to action, in Nigeria as it is a process that can contribute to our understanding of the relationship between the oral mode and modern practices in Africa.

According to James C. Scott, every human endeavour, from education and agriculture, to law and arts, that is performed in any given society moves the members of the society to some form of action (352). This is social engineering and the action can be personal satisfaction as when one reads a good book and nods in 15

acknowledgement of the facts being expounded or gets up and applauds a performance of a play in a theatre or a movie cinema. It can also be communal, such as when a law is enacted and members of the society achieve cohesion from obeying the law or the safe production of food that comes from following a regulation provided by governmental policy. As Peter Swirski notes, social engineering is the

“systematic process, policy, program or project designed to decrease disorder and suffering in the society” (6).Therefore, with orality concerned primarily with promoting “social harmony and emotionally balanced citizenry” (Okpewho “African

Oral”:109), it becomes an effective tool in the entire social engineering process designed to decrease disorder. I will now closely examine the concept of social engineering and related ideas in the intellectual circuit with a view to providing evidence of the presence of oral traditions in the process, especially in the African and specifically Nigerian setting. I will also discuss why Nigeria qualifies as a good case study for Africa in this chapter.

The Misconceptions of the Social Engineering Process

Jon Alexander and Joachim Schmidt define social engineering as the “arranging and channelling of environmental and social forces to create high probability that social action will occur” (3). However, arriving at this definition has not been an easy task as Social Engineering is a concept that has suffered deep misconceptions in academic and social settings which is understandable as most social engineering processes have been carried out in totalitarian and autocratic states and it is difficult to see how it can work with a willing public. As Adam Podgorecki puts it: 16

Historically, social engineering has persistently aroused negative attitudes because of association with notions like dehumanised treatment of human beings, manipulation, exploitation or ‘activities from behind.’ (24)

Outside the social setting too, the term “social engineering” is seen negatively particularly in the area of information technology where social engineering is synonymous with hacking or obtaining information without consent.

Eric Cole noted in his discussion of social engineering, the entire process can be summed up as “pretending to be something you are not, with the goal of tricking someone into giving you information they normally should not give and that you should not have access to. In short, social engineering is lying, it just sounds better than saying you are a liar” (352).

While there has been an attempt to provide a less reductive and dismissive definition of the term, there has not been a significant shift in perception within the information technology field. Following Cole,Kevin Mitnick states that “social

Engineering is getting people to do things they otherwise will not do for a stranger”(352).In so stating, he simply makes social engineering an art of deception, which, not surprisingly, is the title of the book from which the quotation is taken.

The structural flaw in this representation of social engineering is that it fails to recognise the basic fact that most members of a society start out as strangers and then build trust as relationships develop. It supposes that every human activity that involves a stranger is predicated on the art of deception, thereby taking agency away from members of the society.

In order to correct this glaring flaw, and restore some agency to individuals,

Susan Hansches offered a definition of social engineering that has been widely accepted in the field: 17

The successful or unsuccessful attempts to influence a person into either revealing information or acting in a manner that would result in unauthorised access to data and information. (200)

It is pertinent and useful, particularly in this study, to note that social engineering will not always be successful but will, like all human endeavours, be attempted with a view to moving people to action. Hence, clearly stating this fact from the outset is useful in this definition as is the acknowledgement that the process is not complete until an action has taken place. However, the action in this definition is a negative one, the “unauthorised access to data”, which would still seem to imply that the whole point of the process is to influence negatively.

This gives ample insight into why social engineering is always considered to be detrimental to the society it is supposed to engineer. It is also a reason why the entire concept has to be looked at from the perspective of the raw material that makes up the society: humans.

That is why the definition by Jon Alexander and Joachim Schmidt at the beginning of this section puts humans at the heart of the process without taking away their agency as it acknowledges human actions or “social forces” as essential elements of bringing about social action.

Again, it is clear that the process cannot be said to be complete until an action has occurred. However, unlike the definitions of Cole, Mitnick and Hansche, the action is not necessarily negative, but dependant on the outcome preconceived by the “social engineer”. That is why, in this thesis, I use the term engineering to mean the arrangement of structures and designing of forces to ensure a positive social outcome. As Peter Swirski puts it, “the systematic process policy program or project designed to decrease disorder and suffering in society” (6). 18

Swirski’s definition makes clear that a social engineering process must have:

(a) “A systematic process”: A specific idea and action plan

(b) “A designing”: Conception and devising of the action plan

(c) “ADecrease of disorder”: A result to be achieved.

These factors must be clearly identified from the beginning of the process or there will be a malfunction as the raw material of the process- humans - will be

“resistant” (Alexander and Schmidt 3). Therefore, unlike for other machines, it is impossible to formulate just one structure for humans; the resistant nature of humans must be acknowledged. This resistant nature will also inform the outcome as not all the outcomes will be positive, but a social action occurring is guaranteed at the end of the process.

Failure to acknowledge the presence of constantly changing “social forces” has led to the failure of most of the processes aimed at creating mass action in human society. Not only have some of the attempts at social action failed on a grand scale, they have occurred with very tragic consequences for members of the public within which they occurred. Little wonder then that Podgorecki proposed a new term for social engineering; “sociotechnics”, which, to him, “in democratic and liberal societies, deals with matters of just and rational social changes” (24). However, it appears to just be a matter of semantics as technology and engineering describes an organised and orderly arrangement of machine parts to form a functional whole. The term “technics” however is deficient as it focuses on the crafting of the process but fails to define the human activity beyond speaking to the craft. On the other hand,

“engineering” encompasses the clever and thoughtful designing and devising of the 19

process for a purpose, and the fact that there is an “engineer” carrying out the process will arguably give deeper meaning to the procedure. That is why social engineering will still be the preferred term for this study.

It is also important to note that the reason for engineering people may not always be noble or measure up to that widely accepted by the society. However, the crucial thing is identifying the objective of the social engineering process before moving forward with the decision of the correct tool to apply.

As already pointed out by Alexander and Schmidt, any study of humans and their relationship with their environment must approach the subject with caution due to the fact that humans are “resistant” (3).Therefore, they are a different kind of machine from a regular machine that has a set of outlined operational instructions and any approach must acknowledge the presence of other elements – environmental and social forces - in their engineering work. However, there is a need to examine how humans are constituted into a public in order to know the right social engineering tool to use.

Identifying the ‘Public’: Habermas, Anderson and Warner’s approach

Despite the fact that it is used often in conversation, the term “public” is still a contested term. In an attempt to theorise and detail the components of what constitutes a public, Jurgen Habermas in his book, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, locates the rise of public discourse in the western hemisphere

(mainly Europe) in the late 17th and early 18th century when there was a shift from a representational public sphere, organised and directed by the monarchs and ruling class and to a certain extent the church, to a discursive public sphere where the citizenry could come and have an open debate about issues affecting their collective 20

life and business interests. This discursive “civil society” paved the way for a democratic society. Key to this shift, according to Habermas, was the development of print-newspapers, novels and other forms of print - which engendered a different kind of debate in public places. The Salons and tea houses where people met, no longer simply functioned as meeting points for work, but now also functioned as meeting points for ideas to be generated and debated at an unprecedented level. So the king’s word was no longer law, but the public could now assess the impact of the king’s law on their life and then debate if it was in their interest or not. The “public” comprises the common people on the street who came “into an awareness of itself as the latter’s [the King’s] opponent, that is, as the public of the now emerging public sphere of civil society” (Habermas 23).

Drawing directly from the theory of Habermas, Benedict Anderson uses the term “Imagined Community” to describe the nation of publics who stand together, not because they know each other, but because “in the mind of each lives the image of their communion” (Anderson 6).This means that the community is a social construct, whose members must share something in common. Using events in Asian colonies as an example, Anderson also states that for a public to be formed, the members of this imagined community must share something that simultaneously addresses them. The simultaneity must be strong enough that it unites the members as a whole, solid unit: a public. However, like Habermas, he then credits the printed text as the catalyst for the formation and identification of the “imagined public” he describes. Using religion as an example, Anderson points to how Christians on different continents who may never meet each other, united by the bible, think of themselves collectively as Christians. 21

The modern equivalent would be the newspaper, especially the so called national newspaper that serves as a bridge between the citizens of a nation state in the colonies and their counterparts resident in the nation. The power of textual simultaneity shows that geographical borders are incapable of stopping the formation of a public, as they feel a belonging to the same community by virtue of reading the same newspaper.

Both Habermas and Anderson provide a framework within which a concept of a society or community to be engineered can be formed. However, they argue for a fixed text or mode of addressing the public and community thus formed when the borders of the arguments could have been expanded to incorporate other elements such as oral texts. While their emphasis is on print text and visual art (monuments and film), they leave out other texts that can address the “publics” and make them a community. They also miss the impact of the human bodies that gather together and their interaction with the texts in the domain of the public sphere itself.

To give an example, the location where the public comes together to be addressed plays a role in its formation, like an artistic space or cinema classifying everyone in the room as “audience”. However, the fact that the “text(s)” can create different sets of publics based on interactions and engagements with the text, even if they are gathered in the same space, cannot be overemphasized. All the

“audience” in the cinema may not agree with every aspect of a movie. Another example will be lovers of Dolly Parton coming together for a convention even though they all love different kind of her music; therefore it is the interaction with a particular music that brought them and not all of her music. 22

That is why the Habermasian blueprint (backed by Anderson) for a public sphere, with its emphasis on the printed text, would seem to leave out African and other oral traditions as they are not printed and do not possess material qualities.

This further presents orality as an alienating rather than harmonising experience, affirming the picture already painted by postmodernists.

While it can be argued that members of the educated European middle class of the 18th Century became informed as a result of reading and assimilating texts, they still had to rely heavily on the spoken word for their conversations in the salons and coffee houses. The arguments engendered could only be articulated orally before being brought forward to the public sphere; put simply, the members of the public sphere had to be orators first.

This was why Michael Warner in his book, Publics and Counterpublics outlined ways in which a public can be identified. But before going into this, it may be instructive to look at some principles of Habermas’ public sphere and how they could have been extended to cover the oral traditions, thus including it as a valid public text.

In the 17th and 18th Century, the public sphere served as a discursive forum of intellectuals who had been educated through texts and needed to also keep an eye on their business concerns. Habermas points at Salons and cafes (or Coffee houses in

England) as the space for such discussions. For a penny, clients could have access to the salons and cafés, to relax and talk about business concerns. They also served as meeting points for merchants and sailors of ships heading for new destinations to relax and talk about events taking place outside the territory. This created a new kind of public intellectuals who were not totally controlled by the laws of the 23

monarch, but could now discuss the laws and present a case to the king if such laws are not favourable. These intellectuals were also the first to get the news contained in pamphlets and newspapers which were covered by the price paid for coffee. As business, political and artistic debates occur, the ideas of an enlightened society took shape.

Though Habermas located the development of this print-text educated public sphere in Europe, there was an unacknowledged parallel practice taking place elsewhere in the same time period (the Victorian era of the 17th and 18th

Century).Among the Yoruba race of western Nigeria, there was a gathering in the king’s courtyard for games, relaxation and discussion. Like the public sphere

Habermas painted, it was male dominated and it brought together people from all walks to discuss issues concerning the welfare of the community. It also provided a forum for relaxation as the popular board game, Ayo, was ever present at such gatherings. During the game, as players tried to outwit each other, there was an exchange of witty banter, proverbial chants and a general discussion of the affairs of the state. Though they had not read any printed text, the players in the public sphere were well informed enough to contribute to discussions that shaped the affairs of the state. Most times, due to the proximity of the sphere to the King’s palace, they were the first to hear of decisions or proposals made by the king and his chiefs and were quick to send a representative to either amend or reject the decision in question.

It is not only in the Nigerian context that Habermas’ theory of the public sphere is faulted as feminists have also condemned Habermas’ theory for not paying attention to women as players in his public sphere despite the fact that certain 24

powerful women in the era actually operated a number of the salons and cafés. The lack of acknowledgement of the role of women in the evolution of the European public spheres has been pointed out by scholars such as Nancy Fraser (57). The oral tradition, on the other hand, accorded women their rightful place in the society. At any king’s courtyard in Yorubaland, though dominated by men in terms of discussion, there was the titular Iyalode (literally translated, the mother in the open square or space), who ensured that the rights of women were upheld (or at least their views heard) when discussions surrounding the governance and management of the communal structure were discussed (Steady, 11). This ensured that there was a voice of caution that helped the men in the court look at the feminine perspective that they probably would not have considered if there was no female representation in their midst. If there was ever any such thing as the “realm of freedom and permanence” that Habermas describes (4), then it had to be the inclusive public square of the oral community where there was freedom of speech and a permanent air of belonging to a society as encouraged by the traditions.

Like Habermas’s public sphere, Andersen’s “imagined community” of readers is a public mediated by the printed text. Andersen pictured this public as scattered across oceans but still united by newspapers and novels, which makes an oral community impossible. Words cannot fly across oceans, so an African language addressing an extended public and moving them to social action may just be impossible; or so it would seem.

However, the passage of time has revealed that while a word cannot travel on its own across oceans, it can travel in the human receptacle that it has always inhabited. Orality has continued to function as a unifying factor amongst immigrants 25

who see culture as the “text” that addresses them and organises them into a public.

Memory becomes the textual vessel for the transmission of the oral text. As Ali

Mazrui observes, the resilience of the African language and tradition against the

European language is a testimony to the ‘publics’ it had developed, doing everything to keep it (14,200). Using the Yoruba tradition as an example, the fact that today the language exists in Brazil, Cuba and several parts of Africa shows how the human vessels have carried their oral culture with them and continue practicing it in their new environment. Orality did not just function as some late night entertainment, but as a way of life for the practitioners and that is why they took it with them for it held sacred importance.

In tracing the roots of text as a mediator for publics, Andersen pointed in the direction of the bible. As already established, not all Christians even know each other but by virtue of worshipping in a building with similar name and using the one book, the bible, they all classify themselves as Christians wherever they live. As the slave trade took its toll on Africa, most took their religion with them. The rituals were so entrenched in oral traditions that it was possible to carry on the rites in the new location. The memory of African religious practices is analogous to the biblical texts that Christians use to identify themselves and so qualifies in identifying the African practitioners as a public.

As Biodun Idowu observes, while talking about the oral practice of music in relation to worship:

Music finds an important place in worship in the religion of the Yoruba. The music may be quiet, loud or noisy; that depends on the kind of worship in which it occurs. It may just be singing; it may be singing accompanied by clapping; or singing accompanied by instruments. Again, the kind of worship decides how full the instrumental accompaniment should be. The instrument may be two pieces of bamboo, sticks, or metal, held by each member of the congregation; it may be a 26

drum…on the occasion of an annual festival, however, the set order of worship demands a full accompaniment of instruments. (113-114)

The simplicity of the instrument, “clapping of hand”, “bamboo”, and “sticks” means that the rites of a festival can be recreated in any setting where the public finds itself. With the Yoruba language being tonal and recitative in nature, it isno surprise that the songs of worship to the gods take on the nature of chanting, accompanied by dancing, which leads to the common saying amongst the Yorubas –

“Won nki Orisa” –“they chant the praise of divinity” (114). Who are “they” that chant the praise of the gods? Bolaji Idowu points out that the “hymns occur often in communal worship. Each divinity has his own set of hymns which are connected with his/her cult”. Members of the cult pass it on to their children who carry it along with them as one of the rituals in the community. Even the dance steps are “not mere random movements or mere emotional responses to the rhythm of music” but performed to invoke some historical sentiment that will galvanise the entire community for action - a public text with social engineering as its aim and it is written with voices on the tablet of hearts. The ability of this ritual to move community to social action -not forgetting their culture and religion - is another reason why their text, orality, can classified as a text that identifies them as a public.

This is why Isidore Okpewho affirms that:

Memory of Africa, a sense of roots, therefore, served these exiles well, especially when conditions seem intolerable…the slaves held on stubbornly to their ancestral mores, not only as a political statement, but as a psychological necessity. (African Diaspora xv)

This memory means that in far afield places such as Brazil and Cuba, the oral traditions, as exemplified by religion, are still in circulation amongst descendants of these slaves. Within the religion can also be found the stories and other traditions 27

from the oral culture in what Okpewho, speaking specifically about Cuba, calls “an aggressive cultural nationalism” (xv). John Hutchinson states that the “primary aim of cultural nationalists is to revive what they regard as distinctive and primordial collective personality which has a name, unique origins, history, culture, homeland, social and political practices” (394). This would suggest that the cultural nationalists, united by orality, explored their shared memory in order to form a unique public. As

Anderson’s study is a study of nationalism, it can be argued that he left out a certain nationalism that could have further enriched his study - “cultural nationalism” based on orality. This explains why there is a festival for Sango in Bahia, Brazil to foster the shared heritage that the people in this land share with their fellow “Yoruba” public in western Nigeria. A similar festival takes place every December in Trinidad where

Sango is affectionately called “Papa Sango” (Falola et al 2-5). It appears that the power of the human body to serve as a receptacle of text may have been underestimated by Andersen. The bible, key to Anderson’s argument about the written word, says, in Jeremiah 31:33, that God requested to write His laws on the

“hearts” of the Israelites (New World Translation, 2013). Orality reaches straight for the hearts, disseminating its texts to publics.

With the presence in orality of music, religious practices and other forms that both Habermas and Warner have used to validate the existence of a print public, an argument can be made that an oral public also exist.

Therefore, while the public paradigms of both Habermas and Anderson have provided us with the basic framework of identifying publics, they have also revealed a limitation especially where African and oral publics are concerned. Hence the need to re-contextualise their concepts and see how they apply to oral publics. 28

To help do this, a close examination of Michael Warner’s Publics and

Counterpublics is required. Having considered Habermas, Warner states that “the public sphere as an environment… [is] a principal instance of the forms of embodiment and social relations that are themselves at issue” (54). This would make a public sphere and its public a unit, interdependent and related; “the circularity is essential to the phenomenon” (67).

Warner thus provides the framework for defining the oral public as a valid public. All the traditions are structured in a way that produces a society where the members function as a community in an interrelated manner with social cohesion as the ultimate goal. Even the court of the king, the very heart of the public sphere is open for debate and discussion and the king, though referred to as a “deputy to the gods” in Yorubaland, is seen as a servant of the people and as such a part of the community. A Yoruba proverb says “Oba ni sin Ilu, Ilu ko no sin Oba,” (The king ministers to the people and not the other way round).Therefore, a public will be a community of people including their king, who function according to the rules of the oral discourse or texts that create them. That is why a traditional King in a Yoruba state will listen to a priest and join the people in a festival or ritual in his court or open square as they are all addressed by oral discourse.

Warner further describes a public as “an ongoing space of encounter for discourse” (90).This discourse must also possess the ability to address the identified public and engage it through a communicative action. Constantly, as the oral public engages in discourse through the traditions, it reaffirms those traditions. As these traditions are passed from generation to generation and committed to memory, the public and its sphere continue to grow and expand the scope of the discourse. 29

While Habermas and Anderson focused on the written text as the only tool for recognising and creating a public, Warner declares that “a text public can be based in speech as well as writing” (66). With narratives and other oral media at its disposal, the oral public has enough tools for social action. Warner gives the essential theoretical evidence that orality is a symbolic text with its publics.

However, as the term “text” is often understood as written and printed, I argue that since any written text is subject to interpretation, then it must have been preceded by a thought process, an internalised ordering of letters, that eventually produces what is written. If the thought process that produce the text is halted at the point just before it is committed to a slate, then the thought produced can come out in one of two ways, written script or oral speech. Either way, both must still be subject to the interpretive process and as such in my use of the term text, I am referring to the process that produces the language and then subjects it to discussion in order to claim its interpretation – a process through which invisible and unwritten text is verbalised. This will also agree with the root meaning of text, which is “to weave” hence the weaving together of ideas that are then verbalised qualify as text.

To reach this conclusion, I am drawing on Paul Ricoeur’s assessment that

“text must be able to “decontextualise” itself in such a way that it can be

“recontextualised” in a new situation as accomplished, precisely, by the act of reading” (139). In the reading process, a reader recontextualises a text in order to make meaning, thus textuality becomes a communicative process of interpretation and understanding and orality falls into this. There are even oral practices that actually have inscriptions or texts made to be read and interpreted. In Yoruba culture for example, an Ifa priest makes a mark on the floor, following the pattern 30

made by his cowries and with the use of a hymnal chant ‘reads’ out the implication of the signs before interpreting it to his audience. Invariably, the unwritten text of orality had been written for a split second in the sand before being erased. The text also helps the priest mediate between the gods and the community and brings them into harmony. The community in which it is used as a set of code understands it and can make use of it in negotiating their participation in the public sphere.

This may explain why Warner declares that the “public sphere as an environment, then, is not just a place where one could rationally debate a set of gender or sexual relations that can in turn be equated with private life. The public sphere is a principal instance of the forms of embodiment and social relations that are in themselves at issue” (54). This implies that a public cannot exist apart from the discourse–the shared codes, signs, symbols and the interpretations given to these signs for communicative action to occur- that creates and address them. Oral traditions had rules, regulations and traditions that were known by every member of the community and they did all they could to respect those traditional rules in order to maintain social cohesion.

Warner further provides identifying criteria for a public, which when viewed within the theories of Habermas and Anderson, validates the oral public. A careful look at the first four criteria will be instructive for establishing the existence of an oral public.

A public is self organised (67): “The torn cloth knows its place on the rafters”

(Yoruba Proverb)

Before the advent of colonists, there was an organised political state in Nigeria, especially amongst the Yoruba people. Describing the political structure of the Oyo 31

empire of the Yorubas between the 17th century and the arrival of colonists, Samuel

Johnson states:

Yoruba proper was completely organised … The government of Yoruba proper is an absolute monarchy; the king is more dreaded than even the gods. The office is hereditary in the same family but not necessarily from father to son. The king is usually elected by a body of noblemen known as OYO MESI, the seven principal councillors of state (40)

While the king, Alaafin (Lord of the Palace) presided over the state, his power was seen to come from the public, represented by the noblemen who meet to elect him.

However, the public was still at liberty to discuss issues and bring them to the king’s court in a respectful manner. The fear spoken of by Johnson is reverential fear and not morbid. While Warner argues that this governance structure alone does not necessarily create a public as the discourse must be the catalyst for forming the independent public, he clarifies that being self-organised does not mean being

“detached from all cultural forms”(72). As pointed out earlier, oral discourse in

Yorubaland ranges from poetry on the affairs of the state to public opinion on family matters. Again, the traditional mode of information dissemination, the town crier with his gong, brought people together and provided the information-edicts from the king, announcements of the conferment of a title or a community meeting - to be discussed that instantly formed the public. Another example was the children who gathered at the feet of a storyteller to be morally instructed and at once became a self-organised public, discussing the storyteller’s tale and the lessons learnt from it.

A public is a relations among strangers (74):“It is in the congregation of trousers that shorts will know he is a miscreant” (Yoruba Proverb) 32

As communal as any Yoruba society may be, it is still populated by humans and as such, made up of strangers as not all members can claim to know each other. It is still an “imagined community” of people who form a public as a result of the discourse that has brought them together and organised them. This is especially so today during festivals and rituals when people are gathered together for a common cause and cannot claim to know each other. However, the ritual ceremony becomes the discourse that has united the people into a whole unit, a public.

The address of public is both personal and impersonal (76):“A tree does not call itself forest but it is part of the forest” (Yoruba Proverb)

Warner states that public speech must be taken in two ways; as addressed to me and addressed to strangers (77) which means that the discourse of any public sphere must be seen in an individual as well as a collective way. While the oral mode is addressed to the community, the individual member must first internalise the lesson before seeing how it affects the community. This fact is further emphasised by a

Yoruba proverb still used today, ‘Falana gbo ti e, ta’ra eni laa ko gbo (Literally: Mr

Falana, pay attention to yourself before paying attention to the community). The fact that an individual is named gives the proverb an element of historicity. It proves that individual members are expected to act in harmony with oral regulations before applying them to society thus ticking another box in the qualification to be identified as a public.

A public is constituted through mere attention (87):“With the ears, a woman hears the voice of the gods” (Yoruba Proverb)

“A public exists by virtue of address and must predicate some degree of attention, however notional, from its members” (87). Whether by ritual ceremony, games in 33

the public square or other means, the oral public is always in a state of attention, attention to details. Most of the gods have their specific panegyrics that must be recited and a specific communion sacrifice. The festival of Sango starts with a recital of his praise poetry, Sango Pipe (literally Sango’s Call), a presentation of his preferred sacrificial ram and bitter kola. These traditions have been handed down as a way of maintaining cosmic order and to fail to pay attention and follow them is to ask for trouble. In giving attention to the activities around them, the public absorbed these handed-down traditions and followed them to the letter as failure to do so was considered a taboo and punishable by the king. This may well be the reason why, despite being oral in nature, the traditions have been preserved until the present time and coexist with secular regulations. The state of being addressed and giving attention is emphasised from infancy when children are expected to listen to parents and learn. In this way, the child, as a citizen, is familiar with the rules governing participation in the public sphere. The games are also governed by set rules and invariably handed down to the children. They are not made up, but already exist and are shaping the community. A king is also expected to address the audience during festivals. I cite as an instance here, the annual World Sango Festival in Nigeria. The

2014 event was preceded by a visit by the Alaafin of Oyo kingdom, an acclaimed direct descendant of Sango to Brazil to address those who were worshippers. While he was in Brazil, there were a number of people who did not care he was there and so were not his publics. However, the people who knew of the myth and subscribed to it came to pay obeisance to the king as he addressed them. In orality, an attentive audience that seems to ever be in the state of being addressed is present and active. 34

No doubt, Warner’s approach provides a pragmatic way of viewing a public.

Thus, it can be argued that the oral public is indeed a public to be engineered and the tools for engineering and mediating the public are embedded in orality. The tools for discourse range from songs and proverbs, rhetoric speeches to folktales shared by all the community.

Focus on Nigeria’s Oral Publics

With the oral public visualised and affirmed, the next step is to examine how the public is moved to social action. Examples abound of how African orality serves as a tool for moving people within the African context as scholarly studies demonstrate.

Oyeronke Olajubu (2003) examined the function of orality in the Yoruba religious sphere as well as its impact on women. She focuses on how certain cultural practices such as storytelling and religious rites are strictly reserved for women and bring them into the public as participants.

Robert Kaschula (2001) examined the role of African oral literature in contemporary social issues especially in the fight against HIV/AIDS and other endemic issues facing the continent while Zageye and Harris (2003) as well as Okoth

Mudhai (2009) focused on how modern media practices as practiced in Africa are a mirror of the traditional oral communication practices. However, these studies, in the use of the word “Africa”, have opened themselves up to critical assessment.

Many of the critics have argued that the oral traditions vary from place to place in

Africa especially between the Northern part of the Sahara that tends to follow the

Arabic oral elements and the sub Saharan part that relies more on the traditional oral elements. Invariably, what has now happened is that the studies have been spread so thin in an effort to create a balance, that no balance is created and they 35

eventually focus on a part of Africa without really covering the context of other parts. An example of this is the work of Ruth Finnegan (Oral Literature in Africa), who conducted most of her research into African oral literature in sub (south) Saharan

Africa and as such based most of her findings on her observations within this realm, at the expense of traditions that existed at the time in the Northern part of Africa

(255).

The disparity is also evident from proceedings of the “Conference of African

Writers of English Literature”, held in Uganda in 1962. A proper definition for “the literature” (either “African literature” or “Literature from Africa”) could not be agreed upon. As well, the term “African literature” itself was debated; Is it literature from Africa or literature on Africa? As Obiajunwa Wali puts it, the conference’s achievement “is that African literature as now defined and understood leads nowhere” (13).

Even in academia, this is a cause for ongoing concern and a reason why Pius

Adesanmi declares in the title of his book, You are not a country, Africa. Indeed, while the colonial experience may have been shared by all states within the African space (with the partial exception of Ethiopia),1 the oral traditions that sustained the publics were not deployed in the same way.

It therefore becomes pertinent to focus on a particular area of Africa, without implying that it may be representative of the African condition. It is important to establish this fact at this point in order not to compromise this study. With Africa’s

1 In 1880, Italy made a failed attempt to take Ethiopia (then Known as Abyssinia). On 3 October 1935, Mussolini of Italy captured part of Ethiopia and was resisted constantly and so this can never be considered a full occupation although Britain and France did recognise Italian occupation or colonisation. However, it is generally believed that since there was no full occupation, Ethiopia is considered the only African country that is not colonised. 36

largest population and with a mixture of over 250 ethnic groups, Nigeria provides a practical case study of examining how social engineering has worked with the oral traditions to get people together and mobilise them for action. The political terrain also has examples of social engineering mechanisms that have tapped into the orality of the populace in order to make them effective citizens.

Therefore this study will examine both the social engineering process that moves from top to bottom in approach and will also examine how the process has worked in the other direction, within the framework of orality. The colonial experience has meant that social actions have evolved from different strata of society and the definition of a source as either ‘top’ or ‘down’ has been blurred; hence it is good for this study to look at social action and how it has been accomplished using oral modes from the different levels.

Political action, in particular, has relied heavily on orality to get messages across to the people. For example, during the botched 1993 presidential election in

Nigeria, both parties, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican

Convention (NRC), used songs and playlets, elements of orality to get the public’s attention and get people to vote. In the volatile environment of Nigeria, getting people to vote is not the only social action required. Getting people to be politically active and able to perceive the need for integrity within the entire electoral process is also needed. As in the traditional mode, where the town crier announces and indeed expects the people to reply, information dissemination becomes the important bit of the engineering process.

To be able to get a response, the town crier must first engage in some performative actions, to draw the people and gain their attention, before then 37

passing on the message. He beats the gong and dances to the rhythm as he moves with the message from the king’s Palace towards the town centre. He continually calls out: ‘Kere O’ (loosely ‘announcement’). As he attracts a crowd, he puts on different performances of his dance in order for the crowd not to thin out as he moves from one locale to the other to get as many people as possible to the centre.

After delivering his message he then calls out loudly:

Towncrier: Mo w’ire abi nko w’ire? (Have I spoken well or not?)

Crowd: O w’ire (you have spoken well)

Town Crier: E’n ba le’ti, K’o gboro (Let him who has an hear, heed and obey)

It must be noted that, despite the dialogic call and response mode of the interaction, the final word, a call to affirmative action, “listen and obey”, belongs to the town crier.

Similarly, political parties engage in this kind of performative action before getting their message of request across. An example is the presidential jingle for the

SDP. It starts with a typical oral concept of the call and response:

Call: Nigeria is on the march again

Response: On the march again

Call: Looking for Mr. President

Response: On the march again

Call: MKO is the man o 38

Like the town crier, the final message is a typical call for the people to vote for the party’s candidate at the election. However, there is a need to employ the oral mode just to allow people to be attentive. With the entire song embedded with dance moves and cultural costume on the actors, the electioneers draw the crowds out, giving evidence of the power that orality can exert as a tool in the social engineering process.

The question is would any other means have worked? The unique Nigerian public sphere meant that a tool familiar to the people had to be employed to get the people into the discursive mode required to negotiate the public sphere before an engineering could occur. A clear understanding of the makeup of the public helped electioneers choose the tool of the engineering process, and the desired result was achieved.

The Nigerian experience will be examined in greater detail in subsequent chapters but for now, it provides an example of a society with a successful deployment of orality as a technique for instigating public action. It also provides an insight into the bio politics of the African continent after the departure of the colonists.

In Nigeria, attempts to follow the described pattern of social engineering laid down by the colonists have failed. Soon after the collapse of the British styled parliamentarian system in 1966, an era of military dictatorship2followed, with a leaning towards hard-line revolutionary actions to solve national issues. The attendant corruption and failure of this pattern also showed that the society was

2 Between 1966 and 1999, Nigeria had a succession of 8 military leaders who came to power in coup d’e tats. Aguiyi Ironsi (1966), Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon (1966-1975), Murtala Muhammed (1975-1976), Olusegun Obansanjo (1976-1979), Muhammadu Buhari (1983-1985), Ibrahim Babangida (1985-1993), Sanni Abacha (1993-1998), Abdusalami Abubakar (1998-1999). 39

being worked on with the wrong tool. Though the revolutionary military leaders have always presented themselves as people-oriented leaders, acting with a view to supporting the working class, they have ended up being the only ones enriched. For example, Sanni Abacha, who took power in the name of encouraging a communist approach to solving national problems emphasized in his opening speech “we must solve our problems ourselves.” However, he seized all the wealth of the nation for himself and shared it amongst those loyal to him.

For the African public sphere, which is accommodating of new ideas, an

African solution had to be sought. As Mahmud Mamdani puts it when discussing the postcolonial African condition, “the customary (traditional leadership) was not opaque but porous, not stagnant but dynamic. In spite of the solidity of the Native

Authorities and the reinforcing power of the central state, both the dynamism of the market economy and the organized activity of diverse social strata gave the customary a fluid content” (168).

The dynamism of the customary power, as Mamdani points out, penetrates all the social strata, and orality, by its very nature contributes to the fluidity. I cite as an instance the narrative device employed by a storyteller. Based on his audience’s reaction, a storyteller may change the narrative structure without necessarily changing the outcome and conclusion of a tale. Invariably, what this provides, especially where it affects the people and governance, is a tool tailored to the needs of the people without compromising the goal. This will explain why native authorities, represented by kings and other traditional rulers, have managed to coexist side by side with the secular authorities and still exert a more stable control over the people. Oral modes such as poetry, festivals and games are still ever 40

present in the King’s court and public sphere almost at the exclusion of the central authority, an attestation to the surviving power of orality. According to Abiola Irele, there are three levels of orality: the communication level, the rhetorical level, and the literary level and these levels of oral communication are inseparable since they

"exist in a continuum" (54-55). An exploration of the connectivity of the three arms of orality will be considered later in this study. However, at this point, it is important to note that communication and rhetoric are related and form a key part of any social engineering tool that relies on orality.

Conclusion

As argued by British journalist and Historian, Paul Johnson, the 20th Century was the age of Social Engineering (Podgorecki, 1). However, it was also the era in which most of the processes ended in failure as a result of the use of the wrong tools. However, I have argued that the failure is sometimes not a result of the tool or technique deployed alone, but also a failure to properly identify the society within which it is being applied as well as the publics that make up that society.

To function, an engineered product will not only need a mechanism and technics of operation, but also requires a power source to make all the parts work harmoniously. In a social context, therefore, the power source must come from either an individual or a structure operating at a management or administrative level with a view to keeping the public happy during the engineering process. In most contemporary societies, this structure has been vested in political authorities who use laws and other “mechanisms”( e.g. propaganda and information services)to get the populace to follow the set actions they have put in place. That is why laws also 41

constitute a form of social engineering process, getting people to act and work in a legal and moral way.

While the works of Swirski and Adam Podgorecki have helped examine social engineering processes, it will seem that their assumptions have been too broad.

Though most of their studies were carried out in an European environment, they tend to prescribe the solutions as pragmatic for all situations. Both Habermas and

Anderson also prescribed a Eurocentric approach to moving people into action if their postulations on the public sphere are to be followed.

It would be a mistake to assume that the failures of the social engineering processes as outlined by Adam Scott are a result of the flaw in the concept. Rather, it is important to examine the execution as well as the sociological context of such execution. As mentioned already, the raw material of social engineering, humans, are unpredictable. Therefore, to try applying a process, even where it has been successful previously, to another situation, is to court trouble. This is particularly true in the Nigerian society as both the governance structure and traditions are different from the ones that exist in Europe and America where most of the aforementioned studies occurred. As already noted, the social engineering process leaves room for defiance and often defiance can actually be the end result desired by the engineer.

Therefore, with orality as an already engrained element of the African society, it serves as a veritable tool for engaging society and moving it to mass action. Orality as a successful tool for social engineering is not a coincidence. The term engineering suggests careful arrangement of events and circumstances to achieve the objective of the process. The oral mode, from inception is “concerned 42

with building community, reaffirming human dignity and enhancing life of the people” (Karenga 5). Therefore, orality is not just a tool for social engineering, but a core element of the mechanism as the people are at the centre of all the activities that make up orality.

Orality is targeted at people to get them to be responsible members of the society. Rather than function as a zombification tool though, orality also preserves people’s agency by guaranteeing a feedback process to the top.

Only a blind and unreasonable optimist would argue that orality is the answer to all the failures of the social engineering processes that have followed the western paradigm. However, what orality has guaranteed is that as a text, it has shown that we cannot apply the same model to every public as all publics are not the same.

Therefore, especially in the Nigerian and by extension the African context, we need to clearly identify the public’s need in order to choose the tool to be deployed in the process.

Orality is "sometimes associated with assumptions about the social and cognitive characteristic of oral communication or the significance of oral culture within broad stages of historical development"(Finnegan 6) and Okpewho also claims that modern African writers have recourse to oral literature in their art via translation, adaptation, and exploitation and this continued recourse to oral resources in modern African literary discourse serves "to demonstrate that traditional African culture is not obsolete but relevant for the articulation of contemporary needs and goals" (293). 43

Therefore, it can be concluded that with its presence in contemporary affairs of the society, orality has never left the scene, it may just not have been spotlighted enough to gain attention. 44

CHAPTER TWO

Transforming the Unwritten text: Orality and Popular Culture in the Social

Engineering Process of Nigeria

In the previous chapter, I argued that orality is a veritable tool in the social engineering of the Nigerian public sphere and used to rouse a collective public for social action. However, there is still the need toexplore how oral traditions function within the society in order to achieve this objective of a social action. Having identified and made a case for the oral public, we need to consider how they are mobilised by orality for action - the vessels of oral communication to achieve social action.

As already observed, the oral traditions of Africa, which sustained the society prior to the arrival of the colonists, were considered primitive and barbaric by postmodernists (Rosenau 6) and it took the introduction of writing to refine this culture (Ong 10) and bring it up to the definition of “civilised” as prescribed by the colonists. Ali Mazrui notes that:

One of the most serious consequences of European colonisation in Africa has been the destruction of Africa’s own legitimate institutions and structures of authority. The initial military triumph of European power over the local rulers was itself enough of a strain on the historic prestige of indigenous monarchies and institution of governance. But that initial European military triumph was followed by decades of European over lordship, with policies deliberately calculated to change the nature of Africa’s political process forever. (The Africans, 179)

However, the so called civilised culture introduced by the colonists to the colonised indigenes in Nigeria left behind independent traditional institutions forced together into a nation state. The three major ethnic groups, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, each with its own unique traditional and cultural heritage, were forced together into a unit and what ensued was an ongoing antagonistic relationship, represented by 45

bloody coups and counter coups3, that exist till the present time. This represents a failure of the colonial “civilisation” as it left a Nigeria that was “caught between the danger of tyranny and the risk of anarchy” (Mazrui179). The survival of the traditions and culture of the oral society, despite the attempts of the colonist to wipe them out, is a testimony to the resilience of the culture and its publics.

Despite this resilience, Walter Ong argues that “purely oral tradition or primary orality is not easy to conceive of accurately or meaningfully” (11). Thus, literacy became the “technology” introduced by the colonists to make orality meaningful as oral traditions were not easy to conceive and comprehend for the colonists. However, Cheikh Anta Diop points out that there was a writing culture in

Africa prior to the arrival of the European colonists in the form of Egyptian hieroglyphics (184). In Nigeria, there is also the cipher of the Ifa Olokun priests among the Yoruba people which is studied by apprentices before they attain the full status of a voice for the oracle and then speak to the people, a practice that still exist. “Writing” existed as part of the oral culture and functioned within the structure of authority that held the society together. For example, In Things Fall

Apart, Chinua Achebe refers to a traditional practice amongst the Igbos of marking walls with Uli chalk/paint when describing how Unoka, father of the protagonist,

Okonkwo, “writes” each debt he owes on a wall with the Uli chalk and then states traditional proverb of how improper it is to pay a lesser debt before a greater one.

3 After independence in 1960, Nigeria’s Central government was dominated by the Hausas in the North, a situation that caused disaffection amongst the Igbos of the South-East and Yorubas of the South-West and eventually led to a Coup, organised by mostly military Igbo officers in January 1966 and brought an Igbo man, Aguiyi Ironsi, to power. A mere six months later, Hausa military officers organised a counter coup that led to Ironsi’s execution and entrenched a Hausa man, Yakubu ‘Jack’ Gowon, in power. For more information, please see Why We Struck: The Story of the First Nigerian Coup by Adewale Ademoyega (Nigeria: Evans Books; 1981). 46

The “writing” and the proverb are complimentary in the creation of meaning (in this case, helping to distinguish a heavier debt load from another) and give further proof of Warner’s submission that the public sphere “is an ongoing space for discourse”

(90).

There has to be a medium for orality to get to its public and unite its members for action beneficial to society. It is this relationship, between the oral traditions and its publics, and how it achieved social engineering that will now be considered. The aim of this kind of study is twofold; if social engineering represents

“what” orality can accomplish in the public sphere, then we are about to answer the question of “how” it does it. Further, in the process of looking at how orality achieves social engineering, its impact on the society will be examined with a view to finding out if such tools are still existing and useful in contemporary times.

Orality and Popular Culture in Nigerian society

In discussing the term “popular culture”, Tony Bennett states that the concept is virtually useless as it is “simply a melting pot of confused and contradictory meanings capable of misdirecting inquiry up any number of theoretical blind alleys”(18). Invariably, Bennett points to the fact that there are as many definitions for “popular culture” as there are scholars researching the field either in the historical or social context. To avoid misdirection, therefore, there has to be a definition that will guide this thesis. For this purpose, the definition by John Storey will fit the concept well as he states that “popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or liked by many people” (5). Even this definition falls into many argumentative spots; what, for instance is “widely favoured or liked by many 47

people” measured? Raymond Williams suggests that “culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in English” (87) but goes on to define it as “a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development” and “a particular way of life, whether of a people, period or group” (90). Therefore, for the purpose of this study, I will adopt the meaning of popular culture as the particular way of life, be it spiritual, intellectual or aesthetic that is favoured and widely acceptable by many people at a particular period of time.

In adopting this definition, I hope to establish early that orality is capable of producing social and public texts4, under specific circumstances that moves people to social action. And because orality is concerned, as Maulena Karenga argues, “with human dignity and enhancing the life of people,” then these productions are popular culture. With the community at the centre of all the activities that are carried out in the oral tradition, the aim is to create an environment where everyone can be held to one tenet that is acceptable and favourable to most members of the community in the time period in question. This supports the position of Abdul Rasheed Na’alah and Bayo Ogunjimi who state that:

In traditional African societies, there is a spirit of collectivity. This is otherwise called communalism. People do things together. The survival of the society is determined by the collective participation of members of the society in any social process or activity. (14)

Therefore, to assign the term “popular” to oral traditions in pre-colonial

Nigerian and most African society, every activity must first satisfy the requirement of carrying everyone along and ensuring their collective participation at all times. This is a notion that is shared by Okpewho –in reference to storytelling- when he states that:

4 Please see pages 23 – 25 of Chapter 1 for the definition of text that is guiding this thesis. 48

In the case of storytelling, the fact that the tales are set in a fantastic non-human world helps to lift the minds of both performer and audience away from the limitations of human life to a world of blissful fulfilment. Some narrators are particularly fond of telling stories of bygone days. Such stories give the society a chance of feeling good about itself: we may not be worth much today as a people, but in the past our forefathers did great things and we have a history we can be proud of [. . .] By thus providing an avenue for emotional and psychological release in day-to-day relations between members of the society, oral literature helps to promote the basis for social harmony and an emotionally balanced society. (African Oral Literature 109)

The stories were designed for the people, to make them “feel good” and at the same time provided an avenue for “emotional and psychological release.” There is also the consideration that the ultimate goal is to achieve social cohesion in the form of harmony. The society, represented by the people is the main focus of the oral culture and so helps establish its popularity.

The survival of the traditions, from pre-colonial time, through the colonial era and down to the present time – albeit having undergone modifications and reconstructions - is a testimony to its effectiveness as a popular culture since the traditions are so favoured amongst its public that they are willing to pass it on to one another and from one generation to another (Na’allah and Ogunjimi 14); thus it is still available and active in the functionality of the society.

In Oral Literature in Africa, Ruth Finnegan broadly divides the oral forms into four distinct categories: poetry, prose, drama and “some specialised forms” (10,

465). Under the specialised forms are drum language, dance and other oral performances that form part of the traditions in question. The following is my analysis of how each of the oral modes function as popular culture in contemporary

Nigeria and are deployed for the purpose of social engineering. The backgrounds of these traditions have been examined to help understand how they were relevant 49

prior to the advent of European colonists and how their influence still continues to the present time.

Poetry: Orally Engineering the path of honour from birth

Traditional Nigerian poetry, especially amongst the Yorubas in the South-West, was not just a literary piece created for the purpose of entertainment and pleasure, but equally served functional and pragmatic purposes in the society within which it was composed. As Francis Deng states when discussing the poetry of the Dinka tribe of

Sub Saharan Africa, but also true of most traditions in sub Saharan Africa, “a good song and (by extension, poem) should move the audience towards its objective. A war song must rouse the war spirit and a dance song must excite the dancers” (93).

Therefore, pre-colonial oral poetry had a social function right from the outset, a specific purpose and a specified audience.

For example, when a child is born, the circumstances surrounding his/her birth is closely observed and a reflective poem, called “Oriki” in the Yoruba tradition of western Nigeria, is composed and sung in his/her praise. Usually, there is already a familial one that reflects the history and values that the family upheld collectively as part of the community. An authority on Yoruba culture and traditions, Bolaji

Idowu provides further insight:

Every Yoruba name has a character and a significance of its own. No child is given a name without a cause; and that cause is not the bare inevitable one that a child must be born before it can receive its name. Every one of the names is almost invariably a sentence or a clause or an abbreviation of a sentence which can be broken into component parts. Besides, the name must tell some clear story, whether it be of circumstances surrounding a child’s birth, the state of the parents or family affairs when it is born or a remarkable event in the town or the general world into which it is born. Also, with the Yoruba, name represents character and essence of personality. (30) 50

In deference to the general belief that the community is higher than the individual, there was usually a communal expectation of the child, either embedded in the praise poetry or put upon him by the history of his family and community. At the naming ceremony, the child would be given a name with symbolic meaning that is closely related to the family’s history and praise poetry. Through a call and response performance that guarantees everyone’s participation, the local priest ensures that the audience is informed and educated about the responsibilities the new child is expected to fulfil. That is why a Yoruba proverb states that “Ile La’awo

K’a to so’mo lo’ruko” (We look at the circumstances of the family and the birth before we name a child). As the entire community is part of the process, they became involved in the raising of the child as they are expected to call him or her to order should he attempt to go astray. All they needed do is remind him of his “oriki” and the fact that to go contrary to his social responsibilities is to shame not just himself, but his family and to some extent, the gods. “If a person’s real name is known, then it will be easy to bless the person” (Idowu 30).

In pre-colonial Nigerian society, poetry also served specialized purposes especially when it is related to a profession. In the Yoruba tradition, for example, poetry recital and performance is a rite of passage that must be undertaken by all interested in a particular profession and the recital formed some kind of professional examination that must be passed to become a full-fledged member of the profession and society, with the attendant privilege of participation in the conversation of the public sphere. Any member of the society who hoped to be a native doctor must learn the praise poetry of Orunmila, the orisha (god) that controls the herbs that 51

bring good health. A typical morning at the “clinic” is preceded in part with the chant:

Orunmila teju mo mi, k’o wo mii re

Bi o ba teju mo ni laa l’owo lowo

Bi o ba teju mo ni laa rire

Bi o ba teju mo ni la ri’wosan

Orunmila, fix your eyes upon me and look at me well

It is when you fix your eyes upon one that he is rich

It is when you fix your eyes upon one that he prospers

It is when you fix your eyes upon one that he has good health.

By giving praise to the god of health, the doctor shows his own limitation and puts himself as part of the community, no better than his patient as all the healing powers actually belongs to Orunmila. This also harmonised those belonging to the

“medical” profession and ensured professional integrity. It also helps them to seek help when matters are out of their hand as their limitations have been expressed in the praise poetry (Orunmila gives good health), and so any of his servants, “the doctors,” can help with an ailment.

Again, evidence of a social engineering being attached to oral traditions is seen. All the doctors are bound by their professional calling to be upright as it is believed Orunmila will not “fix his eyes” or look favourably upon any one who practices herbal medicine without integrity. 52

Another pre-colonial example in Nigeria is the “Ijala”-hunter's poetry-among the Yorubas. While there were families who were traditionally hunters, the profession was open to anyone willing to undergo the training and who demonstrated a deep interest in the profession. Part of the training was the memorising and reciting of the poetry at social events to entertain non hunters.

The social performance of the Ijala poetry by hunters also provided ample evidence that the community was considered larger than any individual or groups and that a positive social action as well as favourable disposition towards the said profession was desired. The hunter was considered a communal hero, one who brings food and as such was considered a sustainer of life in the community. His praise was sung and he was valorised for bravery. Coming to the open square or the

King’s court at festivals to perform increased the fame and value of the profession.

Poetry was also the vehicle for recording history as the events of a hunting expedition were recorded for posterity through composition and added to the repertoire of poetry and songs for the hunting profession. I cite as an example the traditional poem:

Sebi ni’jo Ogunedele ko’yan

Ogede l’oje Sun

Yi’yo Lo’yo

Ogundele, the proud hunter has refused to eat pounded yam

He forfeited pounded yam for bananas

Pity him not, for he must be filled 53

The poem/song is believed to be based on an actual event though not verified. However, the point is that a man’s rejection of the communal meal for a degraded fruit is sung about as a deterrent for anyone thinking of going astray from the communal/widely held (popular) professional ethos. Pride is condemned and the consequences spelt out in the recital. According to Babalola, this act of preserving history and the poetic tradition was so important that memory aid charms “Ogun

Isoye” (Loosely translated as medicine to wake the senses) were used by apprentice and established hunters in order to retain the compositions (40).

Quick professional chants were also recited to remind them of their calling and duty. The hunter’s often chanted vigorously:

Ise Ya

Omo Ogun Ise ya

It is time for Work

Children of Ogun, it is time for work.

In this poem, laziness is condemned. Hunters were required to be ready for work at all times. Just like the doctors in the previous example, there was the subjection to a guiding deity, Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and all implements made of iron including cutlass, hoe, gun and other farming, hunting and military implements. The song was designed to rouse the hunters to action and to be prepared at all times. Memorising this reminded both the apprentice and the established hunter of their duty to the profession, society and divinity. 54

It would appear, especially in the Yoruba tradition of western Nigeria, that for a profession to be accredited and accepted in the society, there had to be a praise poetry accompanying it.

As a sign of respect for the circle of life, hunting seasons were marked and specified within the calendar year. Rather than being an idle period, the pre- hunting season was used as an opportunity for the senior hunter and performer to train his pupil in the performative art of poetry recital which was usually carried out in three stages: the student learning from the master and watching him perform at public functions, the pupil serving on the chorus of the master performer during the public performance and the student being allowed to perform on his own (Babalola 40-41).

This process further enhanced the role of the hunter performer in the society and validated his status in the traditional public sphere.

The oral poetic style of the Yoruba tradition has left a mark on the literary production coming out of contemporary Nigeria and has found its way into the written poetry of the day. The poetic tradition makes use of sound elements and this is evident in the poetry of the region as seen in the works of two noted poets, Wole

Soyinka and Niyi Osundare.

In the collection of poem, Ogun Abibiman (1976), Soyinka uses the tool of poetry to rouse the oppressed people of black Africa into action calling:

No Longer are the forests green, Storm

Assail the palm, the egret and the snail

Bared, the dark heart of a hidden nursery

Of embers, flares aglow, a landmass writhes (4) 55

Like the hunter’s poetry mentioned above where history is weaved into the composition, Soyinka provides a one-line history of his subject, Africa. In the first line, Africa is no longer the green peaceful forest but is now oppressed by the “dark heart” of colonialism. Like the hunter or any other professional, the only thing left is for Africans to call on their local/patron gods. Being a Yoruba man, Soyinka favoured

Ogun, the god of Iron implements used for both war and farming, to fight back against colonialism. As Yakubu Nasidi points out, “Soyinka’s own strategy for overcoming the conceptual cultural hegemony of Europe is to overarch history…

There we meet the gods in whose rites of passage the authentic African worldview is to be found” (48). It appears Soyinka assumed the role of the hunter and was calling on his fellow Africans to be ready for work to fight back against the colonists who were still present on the African continent at the time (1976). Therefore, with a reliance on the oral style, even represented in the collection’s title, Ogun Abibiman, a mixture of a Yoruba god and an Akan word for Blackman, Soyinka demonstrates that oral poetic production is still considered powerful enough to rouse people to action against colonial hegemonic oppression in contemporary times.5

Niyi Osundare is another poet whose poetry is reflective of the oral Yoruba poetry tradition. Within his poems can be found the proverbs and songs of the people within that geographic space. In his book, The word is an egg (2000),

Osundare provides ample evidence that orality is still active in modern literature as a force for social engineering. The title is a translation of a Yoruba proverb, “Eyin

5 Interestingly, Soyinka is from the Egba tribe in Ogun State, a state named after the god in western Nigeria. All the indigenes, Soyinka included, are believed to be descendants of the said god and subject to him. Hence Soyinka had intimate access to the praise poetry and oral history associated with the god which he may have used in his poetry. 56

L’ohun,” encouraging caution in speech and utterances - an acknowledgement of the power of orality. In the title poem he affirms:

The Word is an egg

If it falls on the outcrop

It breaks

Ungatherably

Osundare plays on the Yoruba belief in the world being preceded by the word and as such encourages its recognition and use in a way that benefits the community. There is also a clear oral style in the arrangement of the poem. The call and response technique often employed by oral performers follows a set manner; a word is left hanging for the audience to conclude. Osundare could have added

“ungatherably” to the same line as “It breaks” since that would make a complete sentence; “It breaks ungatherably”. However, as the poet performer, he stops at “it breaks” and then adds “ungatherably” in a new line, which in performance can be recited by the audience as a response, thus making the moral sense of the entire recital more meaningful to the audience. By participating as the ones reciting the last line, the moral lesson is further emphasised to the audience. Indeed, the poem as it stands will seem to follow no European convention of poetry and the essence can only be extracted when viewed through the oral artistic lens.

For these noted poets and their audiences, orality is not an outdated tool, but a vehicle to pass their message to a contemporary audience. The relevance of the poem in modern times as well as its resonance with the public it targets is a deference to the power orality wields in accomplishing social action. 57

Were there changes in the society to match the poems and provide us with evidence of change? Soyinka’s poetry was released in 1976 and most of the countries in Southern Africa were still under colonial oppression. However, it seem they were galvanised into action as from 1980, the citizens started taking to the streets and winning their independence starting with Zimbabwe in 1980. In 1986 when Soyinka received his Nobel Prize for Literature, he used the opportunity to call on the oppressed people of South Africa to fight for freedom and eventually, apartheid crumbled in 1995.

Osundare’s collection though released in 2000 was first circulated in 1998 when Nigeria was under military rule and Osundare himself had to go into hiding along with Soyinka. However, collectively, they formed part of the intellectual opposition to military rule that eventually gave way to democratic government in

1999. While the poetry could not be said to have effected social change on its own, it formed part of the entire process that led to the social actions occurring in Nigeria and other African countries.

Drama: building a society of responsible citizens through performance

Comparing the dramatic element of orality to oral productions, Ruth Finnegan declares that “drama is not typically a widespread or a developed form” (500).

Though she acknowledges that “some writers have very positively affirmed the existence of native African drama”, she states authoritatively that they are at best

“quasi dramatic phenomena” which take place during festivals. She further identifies ritual ceremonies and festivals when these “quasi dramatic” elements of the dramatic genre of literature occur. While Finnegan had previously argued for a 58

departure from western convention of identifying literature and classification when it comes to African orality, she falls into the flawed basis for categorisation as her reason for reaching the conclusion that it is not developed is because it does not meet the criteria and “orthodoxies” of drama as outlined by European theories of theatre and drama. However, as Tejumola Olaniyan counters, “the blackface minstrelsy, which many critics and scholars acknowledge as the first quintessentially

American theatrical entertainment flourished between the early nineteenth century and the 1920s” (13).This blackface minstrelsy could only have flourished because there was an interaction between the theatres in America and the purveyors of this cultural artefact especially during the slave trade. This is why Olaniyan questioned the methodology employed by Finnegan in arriving at the conclusion above especially as it seems Finnegan was looking for European “drama” in the African context.

However, the interconnectedness of the oral form with the society is the reason why it is difficult to separate drama from the other elements of the tradition.

For instance, where the dramatic convention stipulates a theatre, audience and performers, the African oratory by nature was (and to a large degree, still is) performative and engaged the audience in a different way. It involved them both as an audience and fellow performers in the drama. Usually, especially during festivals, there would be a clearing where the performance took place, and the audience danced along, were expected to respond to calls during the recitals and could make additions to the drama through an informal request. I cite as an example, the Yoruba festival in honour of Sango, the god of thunder. There would be a performance of bata dance, the dance linked with Sango. Within the dance, the male (usually 59

costumed in the manner of Sango himself) and female performers sang lines in the form of conversation to each other and a dance drama would follow. The audience who came to the festival enjoyed the dance and were entertained by the mini play within the dance - a reminder of Sango’s prowess and guile. They also had the ability to extend the drama by asking the performers to do things unscripted and the performers in turn could bring the audience into the performance. The female performer would bring out a male as the object of her affection and “Sango” would magically blast the audience member with fire back into the crowd. An audience member could also be brought out from the crowd to make a request of Sango and

Sango would grant the request after requesting a sacrifice of dance. As the audience had seen so many performance in the past and bata was considered to be a communal dance, the audience members were prepared to form part of the performance.

It is also worthy of note that as Oyo was the dominant empire amongst the

Yoruba Kingdoms and Sango was a king in Oyo, he is celebrated across the region but it is the performers from Oyo, particularly from Sango’s shrine, that were considered the best, hence they were invited to perform at various festivals and celebration in honour of Sango across the region. This phenomena would later give birth to the popular Yoruba travelling theatre, Alarinjo (literally translated Walking dancers),that travels from city to city and performs at the open square and still exists in some form till the present time. It was easy to extract the dramatic performance of the festival and make it stand alone as a performance because the audience were used to seeing it at festivals. The travelling theatre of the Yorubas would later produce a sizeable 60

number of performers in the booming video and film industry that currently exists in

Nigeria and, as we shall see later, they still reflect the older forms.

The continuum of oral practices in drama also engaged supernatural beings as often masked performers, representing the gods coming to mingle with humans, take part in the festivities and dance with mortals. However, it is in the priest’s message that the purpose and function of the drama lies. The drama is a reminder of the actions of the deity and how the people must not forget what he represents and uphold this moral. In the example of the Sango Festival mentioned above, the dexterity of the dance as well as Sango’s perceived fiery strength - all dramatised in the performances - are used to encourage the people to be industrious and use their hands for good, usually in the provision of food for their household - an engineering of the community, subtly done.

It is also worth noting that recreating history in the form of drama at festivals that existed in the past and the idea of bringing the people into a story and acting out their lived experience is something that has found its way into the film industry of Nigeria. This is why Tori Arthur describes the Nollywood blockbuster “as a narrative spectacle, or hyper-dramatic plotlines that reflect the lived conditions and social pathologies that the Nigerian people face” (103). The drama cannot be divested from the people in the oral setting and that is why it becomes problematic for western scholars to actually identify the drama in orality. This is why the movies aim to teach a moral just like the drama that preceded them and also explains why they continue to put the society at the heart of their storylines.

61

Music and Dance: To entertain and to be socially responsible

Closely related to the dramatic performance in the oral tradition is the dance and music culture. It would seem both dance and music are symbiotically attached to each other and no consideration can be given to one without the other. A Yoruba proverb actually states that only the mad man dances without a music. Conversely, you cannot have music without dance and that may explain why the Yorubas have no distinction for the instrument, the music and the dance as they are all considered one (An example will be the term “bata” that is used to describe all three; the drum, the music and the dance). While the proverb shows the relationship between these two oral forms, it also shows the importance the community attaches to the art of music and dancing. They are only performed by sane and rational members of the community and rather than function simply as tools for entertainment, they were also communication tools that were deployed for social engineering. In fact,

Finnegan actually describes the musical instrument, the drum, as possessing its own unique language, a set of codes that can be deciphered by members of the community:

Communications through drums can be divided into two types. The first is through a conventional code where pre-arranged signals represent a given message; in this type there is no directly linguistic basis for the communication. In the second type, that used for African drum literature and the form to be considered, the instrument communicates through direct representation of the spoken language itself, simulating the tone and rhythm of actual speech. The instrument themselves are regarded as speaking. (481) Hence, particularly amongst the Yorubas, there was the “talking” drum that had its ritual uses but also functioned socially as well. To dance in a way deviant to the tone of the drum was to subject yourself to ridicule as the drum was said to be in a conversation with the dance. This perhaps explains why it is hard, particularly 62

amongst many Nigerian communities, to distinguish the drum from the dance for they are called by the same name. The bata dance, for example, accompanies the bata drum.

And because the instrument is in possession of its own language and speaking, messages were encoded in the drums and used for information purposes.

Discussing the social function of dance, Robert Fisher affirms that “dance is not only the symbolic and therefore the real vehicle of communion with the spirit world; it is also a means of communication with members of the clan and community. From earliest times, Africans have expressed through the language of dance the deepest feelings they have about life with one another” (19).

As a form of popular culture therefore, the drum was for the people and had to be comprehensible for the community to engage in a dance to the tune of the drum or heed the encoded message. In pre-colonial Yoruba society, the drum was venerated and a specialised school created for drummers within the community to be taught the tricks and language of the drum in order to communicate effectively to the people. Every community in Yorubaland had a specialised drum and the ability of the people to identify and relate to the message of the drum may be the difference between the preservation of life during war periods and imminent death as every community had its own unique language known only to the people of the community. Hence there was a drum language for war calling out the warriors followed by a dance of the warriors as they prepared to engage in battle. The tone and rhythm of the song and dance were such that reflected the mood of the warriors. A sombre and melancholic tone was played in times of defeat or the death of a soldier in contrast to a heavy and sporadic drumming of celebration for a victory 63

in battle. The oral tradition of using song and dance for the purpose of actively engaging the society in a positive manner is still not lost on the contemporary society. During the 2009 presidential election in Nigeria, the president, Olusegun

Obasanjo, recognised the power of the spoken word and song in his campaign and sang to his audience to woo them for votes. He also danced on stage and started campaign rallies with a local call and response. He demonstrated the impact of orality in the Nigerian environment as his populace could relate to him and his antics, which were familiar to them. He was often referred to as “Aremu the

Farmer”, in order to focus more on his cultural roots than his military background.

In contemporary music too the resilience of the oral music and dance form are still evident especially in the effort to move people to social action. In the song

“Skentele Skontolo”, musician Lagbaja uses the bata drum as part of his ensemble in calling on people to embrace the dying culture of traditional dress. The lyrics include an homage to the bata drummer, “Oni bata yi o k’are” (Well done, beloved Bata drummer). Currently, there is a resurgence of traditional attire among the youths of

Nigeria which may have something to do with this song (Bumah 40).

Prose: Building Characters with the power of the spoken

Of all the particular elements of the oral tradition, none has received as much attention as the prosaic form, made more evident through the storytelling tradition.

This is the one element of African literature that seems to fulfil the Euro-American perception of what literature is and as such has garnered a wide array of scholarship6. It would seem that the actual promotion of any form of oral practice

6 Please see African Novels and the Question of Orality by Eileen Julien (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1992,); An Introduction to the African Prose Narrative by Lokangaka Losambe (ed) 64

has to encompass the element of storytelling. Storytelling is the meeting point of all the other elements and appeals to all in the community irrespective of age and social status. The resilient nature of the narrative culture of western Nigeria provides an insight into how this element is regarded in the society. Despite the presence of the printed text, it is not uncommon to find people still relying on oral narratives of events without checking the veracity of such stories through consulting printed sources. Sola Odunfa observes that during the military incursion into the governance of Nigeria (1966-1979 and 1983-1999), “information circulation went back to the old days of mouth to mouth communication” (2009). People prefer oral information as the printed texts could no longer be trusted due to manipulation of the press by the military governments.

However, storytelling also served didactic functions in pre-colonial societies as it provided the needed moral education for children in the community. In the absence of a formal school as would later be prescribed by the colonists, education was provided in the form of stories that imparted not only moral instructions to the children, but also social and political history. Ogunjimi and Naalah allude to this:

In folktales, we have the clearest example of oral literature designed to teach specific lessons of behaviour. Little animals such as hare dupe the big elephant demonstrating that everything should be given due respect or recognition. Although many of the tales end with an explicit moral, the portraiture of the characters and their behaviours is invariably so explicit that no moral need to be stated specifically. One principal appeal of these tales is that they reflect so closely the fundamental ways of life of the average citizen. (116-117)

The nature of the oral tradition is such that the tales became the educational instruction that the children received and are expected to live up to as part of becoming a member of the society. As the stories reflect the “fundamental way of

(Johannesburg: African World Press, 2004); African Oral Literature: Functions in Contemporary Context by Robert Kaschulla (ed) ( Cape Town: New Africa Books, 2001) and The Cambridge Companion to the African Novel by Abiola Irele (ed) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2009). 65

life of the average citizen” the moral becomes easily assimilated, without any complicated ambiguity capable of confusing the citizen, and increases the chance of being obeyed and followed by the citizen. Rather than create an homeostatic society averse to change, the stories were designed to infuse members of the community with the needed confidence required to be able to function as part of the society as there are tales of little animals overcoming big animals and thus indicating that objectives can be accomplished irrespective of the size of the obstacle.

The tales also included legends, tales of past heroes in the society whose descendants could still be seen, and the community was able to reflect on past events and ponder on future actions as “even in the stories which they recall the glorious careers of the likes of Sunjata, the [African] griots occasionally take the opportunity to drop some lessons meant to guide their present day listeners in the kind of world in which they now live” (Na’alah and Ogunjimi 117). Therefore, rather than being a static and fixed experience, the stories were designed and narrated in such a way as to create a system of social growth, development and change. The folktales were imbued with values and potentials to teach moral values, social ethics and general attitudes required for a stable society and prepared for changes that may occur as well.

Perhaps it is this concern with moving the community and public into action that puts more responsibility on the storyteller. He must weave his tale in such a way that the audience is roused and infused with enough energy and enthusiasm to comply with the moral instructions. As Naallah and Ogunjimi emphasise, “the storyteller must be able to develop the potential of mental and physical displays to recreate the actions in his story […] All these dramatic actions consciously provoke 66

his audience to action. The participation between the performer and the audience is an essential aspect of the traditional narrative rendition” (22). It is pertinent to point to the notion of “consciously provoking an audience” to action as it underlines the objective of the oral narrative and indeed the oral traditions at large. It was with the intention of getting the audience and the public to do something, a positive action, that will add value to the society.

Therefore, when children gathered in the village square to listen to the sage or the griot narrate a story under the moonlight or the shade of a tree, there was a calculated intention to engineer them into responsible adults and members of the society. The story began with a call and response to ensure that they were attentive:

Storyteller: Alo o (Story, story)

Children: Alo (Story)7

Storytellrer: Itan mi leni da lo’ri… (My story today is about…)

This connection to the community and a firm belief that the purpose of any narrative is to give a positive meaning to life and better the members of the society will perhaps best explain why a number of literatures coming out of Nigeria and indeed

Africa is dedicated to resisting colonial oppression and advocating a return to the oral mode that served their society better before colonialism. As the pre-colonial stories moved to action, so must the postcolonial ones that came after.

It is no surprise therefore that the first published English novel in Nigeria, The

Palmwine Drinkard(1952) by Amos Tutuola relies heavily on the oral narrative and folktale style of his Yoruba culture. The Palmwine tapster dies and the drinkard has to go in search of him in the land of the dead. Along the way he encounters many

7 Accepted modern equivalent. The literal meaning of Alo is ‘weaving’ or to weave together which indicates a narrative structure. 67

fantastic creatures and adventures before finally reconnecting with his tapster in the land of the dead who gives him a magical egg that guarantees the supply of palmwine. Although whimsical in places, the novel has simply drawn on a well known Yoruba belief of never giving up in the quest for what is desired as there is always a reward to be had. This belief is used to motivate the public and energise them to be able to combat and cope with any setback that they may encounter in life. Tutuola’s novel follow the style established by Daniel Fagunwa, who wrote and published the first novel in Nigeria in Yoruba language, Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo

Irunmale (1938) (A Brave Hunter in the Forest of Demons) .8 Both Fagunwa and

Tutuola employ folkloric elements such as proverbs, fantastic and supernatural beings as well as various moral lessons. Fagunwa’s protagonist, Akara Ogun, a brave hunter embarks on three expeditions to the land of demons, acquiring wisdom in the process which he will use to benefit humanity. Both Fagunwa and Tutuola appropriated Yoruba narrative structure for their novels. Achebe describes Tutuola’s novel as a “fantastical expression of a form of indigenous Yoruba, therefore, African magical realism.” (There was a Country 113)

It is this connection to the community that influenced Chinua Achebe to declare that “the storyteller is a teacher” as that is their primary function in the oral setting. Achebe unequivocally expressed this by stating that novelists, like their predecessors, the folk storytellers or griots, have a responsibility to shape the social and moral values of a society. Achebe further highlighted that the African novelist has at his disposal all the needed ingredients of language to accomplish the above mentioned objective, including philosophy and poetry (Hopes and Impediments68).

8 Although in 1968, Wole Soyinka translated the novel as ‘The Forest of a Thousand demons’ I have decided to stay true to the literal meaning of the title in my translation. 68

Achebe himself leads the way in the use of the pre-colonial philosophy and poetry of the Igbos of eastern Nigeria to beautify his writing and bring his words alive in contemporary contexts. The African philosophy, most expressed in the proverbs or wise sayings of the community, is one of the literary devices that Achebe appropriates for his literature. In Things Fall Apart for instance, in discussing

Okonkwo’s wealth and why he must enjoy it, Okonkwo states that “I cannot live on the bank of the river and wash my hand with spittle” (148), thus demonstrating the need for a feast as suffering in the midst of abundance is not permissible in the society. Okonkwo would also declare that “the sun will shine on those who stand before shining on those kneeling down,” to help establish the importance of status and achievements attained by Okonkwo in the community, a cause for pride amongst the Igbos, Okonkwo’s tribe. He makes manifest to the immediate community this high status he has now attained, not to deride, but to encourage others to look at him as a model. In fact, we get the sense that Okonkwo is a wise and diligent man because of his rich bank of proverbs which he applies to the right situation. Achebe would later refer to proverbs as ancient wisdom, one that even he must not challenge ( There was a Country 183). Proverbs were used to illustrate and reinforce stated ideas in a story or to pass on message of inspiration. That is why, amongst the Igbos and the Yorubas as well, a storyteller was considered a very important man in the community as he is said to be wise and in possession of the

“power of words” (Yoruba tradition), the ability to use words as a weapon against even the most powerful in the society without being discovered.

Sometimes stories were also woven as simple riddles, meant to provoke reasoning and help the audience come to an agreed upon truth or principle that 69

would be beneficial to the society they lived in. In fact, riddles were sometimes used by elders to help young children think out a solution to a problem. This storytelling tradition is participatory in the same way the call and response form, so that the audience members are invested in the form.

In the Yoruba setting, for example, when children gathered round to listen to stories, there was a preliminary riddles session to get the children settled before the actual narrative began. Riddles such as “A single rod touches both heaven and earth, what is it?” is posed and the children tried to outdo each other in the provision of the answer. The storyteller calls on one child who eagerly answers “rain” and he/she would be applauded. Sometimes the riddles were in the form of deciphering the meaning of proverbs and the circumstances under which the proverbs could be used. I cite an example:

Storyteller: Ani ka pa enu po, ki a ba ole wi…

Selected Child: … E so wipe ibi ti’onihun gbe si ko’da

Storyteller: O dara. Igbawo ni a’le lo

Storyteller: We call for a communal effort against stealing…

Selected Child: …some of you are busy blaming the victim for putting his property in the wrong part of town

Storyteller: Very good, under what circumstances can we use this proverb?

This interaction during the storytelling sessions under the clear skies provided an opportunity for intellectual discussion around subjects pertaining to statehood and responsible citizenship. So intertwined was this tradition of riddles with oral 70

storytelling that it is considered storytelling. The Yoruba called riddles “Alo apamo” or “hidden story” while the longer narrative is “Alo apagbe”, or “continuous story”.

The riddles could be expanded to actually become great tales of historical figure with events surrounding such figures given as clues to unravelling the riddle.

Storytellers in pre-colonial Yoruba culture were considered as educators and in the absence of a formal school structure in the mould of the European colonists, this oral culture ingrained the history and identity of the community into the hearts of the children from an early age. Therefore, a social engineering process was at play and the machinery was already in motion through communal activities. Their education was providing them with the essential memories that “provides continuity to the dislocation of individuals and social identity” (Creet 5). Since the children were at the point when their identity as citizens of this pre-literate society was being created, the information and education on history and civilisation was valuable to their mental and social development. That was why the storyteller employed everything at his disposal, from songs to dance to proverbs to get the message across to the young minds. Even in adulthood, they continued to be reminded of these lessons if there was any perception that they were straying from the accepted norms of the society.

This connection, in the pre-colonial oral culture between the storytelling and the society is what has influenced many African writers in contemporary times. The fact that they put their audience at the heart of their story and make every attempt to connect with the society in any way possible, either with the language employed to communicate to their audience or the literary device used, the objective is always about rousing their audience to be aware of their environment and act on its behalf 71

to support any ruler or king who governs with the people’s interest foremost on his agenda or oppose any whose actions are unpopular. The oral culture is always a popular culture, designed to favour the people at all times and get them ready.

Since the coming of colonists to Africa, it seem the African writers, like their predecessors, the storytellers, have taken it upon themselves to combat all forms of oppression using the vessel of orality. Emmanuel Obiechina states that:

The embedding of stories in the (African) novels is based upon two main principles of the African oral tradition – authority and association – through which an idea is given validity by being placed side by side with another idea that bears the stamp of communal approval and by its being linked to the storehouse of collective wisdom [. . . ] Having been first nurtured within their oral tradition before being exposed to literate education, African writers are fully aware of the uses of the story as a communal form that transcends the narrow limits of pure aestheticism and entertainment to encompass broad social and ethical purpose. (201)

Further reflecting on how Nigerian and other African writers have responded to colonists, Achebe states:

When People talk of African culture, they often mean an assortment of ancient customs and tradition. The reasons for this view are quite clear. When the first Europeans came to Africa, they knew very little of the history and complexity of the people and the continent. Some of that group persuaded themselves that Africa had no culture, no religion and no history. It was a convenient conclusion because it opened the door for all sorts of rationalisations for the exploitation that followed. Africa was bound, sooner or later to respond to this denigration by resisting and displaying her own accomplishments. To do this effectively, her spokesmen-the writers, intellectuals and some politicians -engaged Africa’s past. (There was a Country 54)

It would appear that writers felt a need to restore the historicity of Africa by actually telling its tale, confounding the colonists with meaning laden riddles and expounding the culture and storytelling art. That is why the literature coming out of

Africa is considered a “write back” at the colonist (Ashcroft et al, 1989), an expounding of what really is Africa and how it is dealing with postcolonial statehood. 72

Just as the pre-colonial traditional folktales are communal in nature, the narratives and literature of contemporary Nigeria are still concerned with the welfare of the people and how they are governed. It appears the image of that storyteller still hangs on most writers and their literary production. As Madhu

Krishnan puts it:

Through his or her work of cultural historical transmission, the griot thereby serves the coexistent role of instigator, calling upon a form of social responsibility and connectivity across society. (30) Giving the examples of two writers, Krishnan further provides how this oral tradition currently permeates Nigerian literature when she states:

By adopting this role[of the storyteller] in their narrative forms, Abani and Habila’s texts enact a parallel function, one which opens the text beyond its boundaries and transforms the act of reading from a detached and individualistic mode of communication into a collective encounter with cultural history articulated in the shifting, communal and multivocal idiom of orality. (30)

The writers are the ones rousing the people, with words now written on the pages of papers rather than spoken orally, to stand up and be prepared to defend their hard won rights just as the griot or the storyteller of the pre-colonial era did. He had the responsibility of preserving history and through his story, took on the role of an “instigator” or one who roused the community to action, especially where the action, beneficial to all, is of the nature of “social responsibility.” That writers such as

Chris Abani and Helon Habila9are enacting a “parallel function” in the work, will further show the influence of orality in contemporary literature. This dedication to society, to make it a better place by encouraging all members to be active, is a feature of orality that many Nigerian writers still find to be true in contemporary times. In Graceland, Abani, in telling the story of the protagonist, Elvis, still manages

9 Madhu Krishnan discussed Chris Abani’s Songs of the Night (2008; Telegram Books) and Helon Habila’s Measuring Time (2007; Norton and Co.) in her article quoted above. 73

to point at the deplorable state of postcolonial Nigeria, especially the then capital

Lagos and how it is driving its citizens into crime, parallel to how a griot will sing of the ills of the society without directly referring to it. Abani writes in Graceland:

[Elvis] stared at the city, half slum, half paradise. How could a place be so ugly and violent yet beautiful at the same time? He wondered. He hadn’t known about the poverty and violence of Lagos until he arrived. It was as if people conspired with the city to weave a web of silence around its unsavoury parts. (7)

Abani manages to point to the deplorable state of development in the postcolonial state and indicted the government, albeit through the lens of his protagonist, Elvis.

Helon Habila, on his part condemned the military government that jailed journalist with his book, Prison Stories, that details the travails of a journalist named Lomba during the military rule in Nigeria. Again, these two writers form part of an intellectual resistance to the period of military oppression in Nigeria and thus show the continuous nature of the role of the oral storyteller in modern Nigerian literature.

Summary and Conclusion

Jurgen Habermas traced the discursive public sphere to the salon and coffee houses of Europe and placed men at the very centre of the discourse. However, the oral public sphere is also discursive and invited children and women to be a part of the discourse via the storytelling activities that engaged them in the public sphere. As their characters developed, they participated more meaningfully in the social conversation that concerned them and, as they grew older, were able to contribute.

The discussion of cohesion was a part of the society and always present in artistic productions and oratory. It was political and historical as well as entertaining. 74

Through poetry, prose, drama and songs, orality by its very nature was a communal experience with the public at its heart and it seem it was always deployed to encourage and rouse the citizen for a particular action. It was practical and engaging as it brought the community into any ongoing conversation. Abiola Irele puts this down to the fact that rather than being a literature to be simply read, the oral modes are actually meant to be absorbed, experienced and lived. They are part of the individual and connect him/her to his/her community thus making them a unit of whole bodies of individuals and communities (29). They engaged the individual’s body as well as the mind rather than being limited to the intellect. Ogunjimi and

Naallah further expresses it this way:

African mythologies are not static experiences and phenomena. As they link man to his roots, so also they connect man with his future. Whether they are true or false experiences, they are moulded to create a system of social growth and change. (56)

This ability to inspire its publics is a testimony to the durability and resilience of the oral traditions and explains why orality, “from being a natural manifestation of the processes, structures and dispositions of the various societies and cultures that made up our pre-colonial traditional world, [it] has more recently developed into a mode for the articulation of a new modern experience” (Irele 29).

That is why colonialism and colonial sentiments, rather than eroding the oral modes, have just armed them with the power of literacy and technology to reach out further to their publics. Irele further observes that:

There is an obvious sense in which it [oral literature] can be considered the true literature of Africa. It is the literature that is still the most widespread and with which the vast majority of Africans, even today, are in constant touch, and it represents that form of expression to which African sensibilities are most readily attuned. The reason for this is not far to seek, for despite the impact of literacy, orality is still a dominant mode of communication on the continent. (31) 75

While colonialism brought along with it a new language and text, the oral mode has simply appropriated this to its purpose and a large element of communication in Nigeria is still heavily dependent on the power of the voice of the human body. The literature and other elements of popular cultures in contemporary

Nigeria are an extension of the surviving and prevalent oral culture.

Professionally, the oral public sphere encouraged discussion and interactions among the professionals such as hunters, farmers and builders and helped foster a cross pollination of ideas that made the most of the opportunity for the discussants in this “public sphere” to be well informed. This public was educated enough that most of them were able to practice multiple professions and still participate in the affairs of state. It was not uncommon for a hunter to also be a skilled blacksmith.

Even the ruling and political class of the pre-colonial era identified the power of orality, especially poetry, in the recording and depiction of local historical events.

Most of the Chiefs hired griots and praise singers who accompanied them to events and added colour. Even Kings among the Yorubas of western Nigeria had permanent praise singers who ushered them in, calming them when matters got heated and singing them out of the Palace. It must be emphasised here that the accompanists were not mere entertainers, but historians as they were witness to history and began weaving new songs soon after events took place in order to document them.

Quoting Thomas Hale, Krishnan describes the storytelling griot as a “poet-historian praise singer and ‘highly visible cultural voice’” (30).

Kings also facilitated festivals and carnivals and participated in them. It is evidence that they respected oral productions as popular culture that had the power to make them well favoured by their subjects. It was a social engineering process 76

that catered to the interest of the people and still managed to keep kings and elites of the society happy.

Orality produced public “texts” and popular culture. And because it is public and popular, it naturally functions as part of any effort to move people from being passive members of the society into activity, which is the very essence of social engineering, thus proving that orality and popular culture are veritable tools if properly deployed in the social engineering process.

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CHAPTER THREE

Repositioning the Unwritten Text: Orality, Popular Culture and an Emerging

Nigerian Public for Social Engineering

One of the challenges to orality in recent years and one that will carry on unless addressed is its role in a modern world and society especially in the age of advanced information technology, an age when the impact of the voice is seemingly reduced and the world is becoming more visually textual. Such challenges are not new of course. However, there are strong grounds for believing that orality is undergoing dramatic and technologically driven changes. These changes, while they affect the impact and the role of orality in communities that still adhere to its tenets, have not reduced its efficacy but enhanced it.

Therefore, this chapter is going to examine orality in the postcolonial context with a look at specific examples that demonstrates the expanding role of orality and popular culture in the social engineering of Nigeria. I will also look at how this influence has spread, through technology, to the emerging oral public in the

Diaspora.

The socio political crisis in postcolonial Nigeria, and the perceived lack of leadership in the euro - inspired models of governance and social engineering explain why some10 feel that moving the populace to social action in a country as big as Nigeria may be too herculean for oral traditions and may actually disrupt the cultural and entertainment “safe” zones where orality seems to have found a home.

10 The Federal Minister for Information and Culture in Nigeria (1986 – 1990), Prince Tony Momoh in his book, Reflections on Letters to My Countrymen, states that “Nigeria’s culture and politics has moved from songs and dance” (28), to demonstrate the need to look beyond orality in looking for tools of social engineering. 78

Yet, I intend to show the potential inherent in orality as a tool for a democratically engineered public and hopefully contribute to the ongoing debate on African bio- technologies, which is more a creation of the Euro-colonists of the African continent.

This study has, thus far, demonstrated that the oral traditions have never gone away, but have found their way into the new technologies and continue to function as instruments for improvements of Nigerian and African society. It has also been established that while orality served the locals well and actually functioned as a text for resistance to the colonists, its power lies in its interaction with the cultures and customs of the colonists and its use of the avenues they provided to still form a part of the consciousness of the colonised.

That is why, while it is very instructive to look at the top to bottom social engineering process from government to the populace using orality, there is also the need to examine how the process works from the bottom up (grassroots), providing an avenue for feedback, for the populace to talk back to the “top”, the higher authority, either in a civil way, or where this is made impossible by the actions of the authority, through resistance; something Achille Mbembe refers to as “illicit cohabitation” (“Notes on Postcolony” 3). Mbembe further states that “it would be wrong, it seems, to continue to interpret postcolonial relationships in terms of resistance or absolute domination or as a function of the binary oppositions usually adduced in conventional analyses of movements of indiscipline and revolt.” (“Notes on Postcolony” 5). Therefore, the activities of individuals and social agencies such as non-governmental organisations in the public sphere to achieve informed collective action will also be examined.

79

Orality, (Post) – Colonialism and Resistance

The transactional communication model, as devised by Dean C. Barnlund (1970), stipulates that there has to be positive feedback for the process to be considered complete, a simultaneous interaction between the sender and receiver of a message. As previously discussed, the oral tradition was prevalent in harmonising and arousing the community to social and communicative action before the advent of the colonists into the continent. It also encouraged public discourse and there were avenues for the public to get their message back to the authorities. Where this civil communication is stifled by the ruling authority, orality also providesthe vessel of resistance against the perceived oppression.

At this point, the question may be posed: if orality was such a potent force for social action, why did colonialism succeed? The answer lies in the nature of the colonists and the colonial experience. Historians have tried to give a revised historical account of what happened (Freund 10-25), but what cannot be lost is the fact that the colonisers were welcomed as guests and partners before they inflicted violence on the colonised. In the Nigerian context, the colonisers came as missionaries, particularly through the Church Missionary Society (CMS), and traders before colonialism was unleashed (Isichei 91). As movingly depicted by Achebe in

Things Fall Apart, the missionaries and the colonial administration arrived together and in tolerating one the colonised natives tolerated the other especially as oral traditions stipulated that strangers must be cared for and welcomed with, unsurprisingly, songs and dance. However, as the colonised natives began to come to terms with the fact that they were being oppressed, it became necessary to resist and fight back. The Gramscian theory of hegemony postulates that no hegemony 80

can occur without the consent of the oppressed (Bates 352), and the natives refused to give ascent to oppression by their colonist “guests”.

It is important to note the approach of the colonised native in resolving the dispute with the colonial aggressors. Dialogue was sought in the initial attempts to end colonialism in Nigeria and in July 1947, a delegation was sent to England consisting of legal practitioner, Jaja Wachuku, a feminist activist and founder of the

Nigerian Women’s Union, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and a Prince, Adeleke Adedoyin.

Their mission was to seek an audience with the British monarch, King George VI, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the colonial crisis. In sending these three individuals amongst the delegation, the colonised people of Nigeria made tentative efforts to establish a cordial relationship with the colonisers in order to achieve social harmony that would lead to a non-violent disengagement of the colonisers from their territory. Usually in Yoruba tradition, when such a delegation was sent to seek peace with a neighbour, the emissary chanted all the way “Awa o ba ti’ja wa O”

(We have not come for quarrel but peace), and a prince or a member of the royal court was sent along as part of the mission. This was replicated in the delegation sent to England when Prince Adedoyin, rather than handing over a written document to an official, read aloud the four-point demand that the colonized natives were making to their colonisers: emancipation, equal rights, participation in politics and independence (Naij). The message was meant for the King of England, a monarch, and a native Prince was reading it aloud and invoking oral traditions in dealings with colonial oppressors. While the delegation may not have had an audience with the ruling monarch, orality considered Kings to be ever present in their domain and as such aware of events as they happen. A Yoruba proverb actually 81

says “Eti Oba ni’le, eti Oba L’oko” (The King has ears at home and abroad), to indicate the ever present nature of the king within the Yoruba world. Therefore, when Prince Adedoyin stood in London to read out the humble demands of

Nigerians, he may not have had an audience with the King, but he was sure he was speaking to the King’s “ears” as he was in his domain and he was certain to hear whatever he said in the public sphere. Thus, the delegation did not consider orality to be obsolete in seeking peaceful resolutions, but relied on it as a tool capable of breaking down barriers and achieving harmonious resolutions as it had done in the past before colonialism. Though no immediate action took place until ten years later as Britain and the world at this point was at war, this moment in 1947 is still the point when the march towards independence on 1 October 1960 began. And when compared to the violence that marred the independence of Algeria in the North of

Africa, then we can state that orality accomplished a peaceful resolution.

The delegation also included a woman, who held the title of Iya’lode (Mother of the open or public sphere), a further affirmation of the status of women within the oral traditions, not as subordinates but valued peers. It is this ability of the oral traditions in Yoruba and other Nigerian communities to coexist side by side in unity with other cultures that has made it able to preserve its core values despite the advent of the colonists. The Yoruba lived with the colonist, allowed him to practice his ways, learned from him and added his knowledge to what they already had. This culture of tolerance and seeking ways of peaceful coexistence is always a key element in the successful structure of the oral mode. Resistance only arises when such a situation is made impossible by existing circumstances. 82

Perhaps, this is why it comes as no surprise that the son of Funmilayo

Ransome Kuti, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, saw the need to continue the resistance to colonialism and oppression in all its forms. While his mother joined a delegation to

London and later led the women in opposition to Egba king, Ademola II, in western

Nigeria, Fela decided to use another derivation of the oral culture, music and rhetoric to resist first, the relics of colonialism and then later, neo-colonial oppressors in the form of successive military leaders in Nigeria. Using songs that are heavily reliant on the Yoruba oral traditions, Fela Anikulapo Kuti gathered a counter public into a counter cultural space that he referred to as “Afrika Shrine” to condemn the actions of successive military governments in Nigeria from 1966 to

1978. If there was ever a musician who followed the pattern of the griots in content if not in form, then it has to be Fela. Using music as a weapon, Fela resisted colonialism and even composed a number titled “Colo Mentality”, a reference to

Africans whose minds had been drawn away from their traditions towards colonial tendencies. Indeed Fela used “Yabis, a biting satirical song that is deliberately composed with the aim of correcting an atrocity, a misdemeanour or sacrilege committed by an individual, government or corporate body” (Olatunji 28), to resist oppression. Providing further insight into “Yabis” and how it works, Michael Olatunji traced the origin to Fela’s Yoruba roots and states:

The performance of satirical music is not new among many African societies. For example, among the Egbado people of the Yoruba of Nigeria, the phenomenon is known as Efe11. Efe music, which integrates masks and dance, provides an ample opportunity for its performers to criticize, deride, and ridicule any individual member or an organization (of whatever status) in the community who had contravened the laws and ethics of that particular society. This is done under the auspices of the conventional artistic immunity, which implies that artists cannot be

11 Efe is a Yoruba word that literally means ‘Fun’ and so would suggest the poking of fun at corrupt officials of the state at all levels. 83

arrested, detained or punished for taking part in a live performance of satirical music or drama. One interesting aspect of Efe music is that during its performance, names of the particular culprit(s) or erring member(s) of the society are never mentioned. However, members of the audience are provided with adequate clues to decode the identity of the culprit(s). This vital information is often “transmitted” to the audience through miming, costumes, and dance steps and formations, all of which are expected to vividly depict the mannerism and idiosyncrasies of the culprit(s). (27)

Fela tapped into his oral background and devoted part of his regular Friday performance to Yabis, an admixture of spoken word and music to condemn the ruling authority. He also brought his audience into the performance, sometimes asking them to name any official and he then launched into a list of corrupt practices purportedly carried out by the individual. The call and response techniques were also employed here as Fela started the night by engaging the audience:

Fela: Make I yab them?

Audience: Yab them

Fela: Make I yab them?

Audience: Yab them

Fela: Na which one of them? Babangida (The then military President) wey don chop money abi im ministers?

Audience: All of them

The audience were thus brought into the discussion regarding affairs of the state and became a part of the performance, just like the oral public.

Fela’s music, like the music from the tradition that produced him, acts as a weapon of emancipation for people and thus gives further evidence that orality arms the public with the needed tool for expression in a social engineering process. 84

Orality, Popular Culture, New Media and Social Engineering in Nigeria

Due to its unwritten nature, orality as a field of discourse relies heavily on a space of convergence, physical or virtual, for its actualisation as a public text imbued with meaning. This space of convergence for open, free and fair discussion of affairs provides the arena for the production of meanings and this meaning in turn informs and organises action (Storey 84). For the meaning to be able to inform, organise and move to action, it must be properly articulated within this arena or field of discourse.

Even in the open square where the sage gives moral instructions in the form of folktales, there are question and answer sessions at the end that test the children’s ability to absorb the moral passed on. However, the setting is also an opportunity to voice any counter opinion, for a process of articulation and discourse making to begin. The sage never berates a child for asking any question but either tries to correct a misconception or gives the question raised to the rest of the children as a take home assignment, to enquire of their parents and check if they can find an answer to the riddle posed or challenge raised.

Discussing this idea of “articulation”, Hall argues that “texts and practices are not inscribed with meaning; meaning is always the result of an act of articulation, a social production which then empowers and brings about consciousness” (143). Hall provided an example in reggae music. Though some of reggae music elements have their roots in the bible, to make it meaningful to their circumstances, the Jamaicans shook it up and added elements of their African oral background. As Hugh Hodges points out, “Rasta belief in a present God owes as much to reasoning on biblical texts as to the African roots of Jamaican folk culture” (45). Suddenly, the music made 85

sense, not only to the Jamaicans, but to a wider audience worldwide. The music became a politically articulated expression via popular culture (Hall 144). To bring this closer to the Nigerian context of this study, let us also consider Fela Anikulapo-

Kuti, who took music and traditional African religious culture to articulate his message of emancipation from oppression to the people of Nigeria. Fela assumed the persona of the “chief priest” who used his music as a medium between his audience and the gods. Aside from the reference to calling him the Chief Priest of his night club, Afrika Shrine, Fela is also referred to as Abami Eda (The Strange spirit creature or being). His music, to his followers, was from the gods and he was seen as their defender in the same class as the priests of the African traditional religion. His method was so successful that over a million gathered at his funeral on 12 August

1997 to show their support and give proof that his message had actually engineered them for social action. In fact, their presence was an action that spoke volumes to those who may have considered him to be just a rabble rousing musician of no value as it took place during a military regime that Fela had criticised, and it was considered an open defiance of authority that his “public” gathered and marched through the streets without a permit. This audience had come to partake of Fela’s passage to the spirit world and they were heeding a “call” to come and show that he was their hero. As his son, Femi Kuti, would later sing, “it was the day those who didn’t know actually came to know that the people love Fela” (97).

For orality to succeed therefore, it must find a way to continually stay relevant to the people it is motivating for action. In contemporary Nigeria, it does this through popular culture, represented by music provided in the examples above.

As already argued in Chapter Two, orality has always been a popular culture within 86

the community and for an articulation of the oral ideas to occur within its public and community, there must be an interface with the popular culture of the time. Orality has at its disposal songs, drama, poetry and other artistic endeavours and it seeks existing media as a platform to get the message to its public. These invariably have found their way into popular culture but still maintain their oral nature (Ogunjimi and Na’allah 25).However, this use of popular culture by orality for the purpose of articulation should not be confused with Walter Ong’s “secondary orality” (136), which is orality that is reliant on the written word. In the Nigerian context, orality never succumbed fully to literacy. The communal character of oral practices is affirmed through the entire articulation process and that is why all the practices can easily blend into a single narrative. The articulation process involves elements of performance on the part of the narrator or singer in order to ensure that the intended public gets the message and can take part in the discourse as an informed participant (Ogunjimi and Na’allah 25). Even where the medium employed is radio, there is always that desire of not just passing on news read from a written script, but passing on the moral angle of the news in order to educate the public. I cite as an example here the radio program on Radio Nigeria “Irinkerindo Kolawole” anchored by Kolawole Olawuyi. The show is somewhat a travel report from various Yoruba speaking parts of Nigeria. Olawuyi leads with a praise poem composed in honour of his audience and then rather than just bringing reports from his location, he searches for stories out of the ordinary and breaks his reportage at intervals with

“abi e ko ri nkaan eyin eeyan mi” (Can you believe what I am seeing, my people). The audience is not just seen as a receiver, but a participating receiver whose attention must be sought at intervals to ensure they are still there and while he is not 87

expecting an answer, he knows they will have provided one at home. In other words,

Ong’s discussion of “secondary” orality in the age of mass media does not explain the audience and their participation, which is the core element of the oral tradition or their participation and attention in the entire process.

I will now look at how orality has found a home in popular culture and how this is deployed for the purpose of social engineering. While most of the examples are drawn from orality’s effect on politics, I will also make reference to examples in the advertising and commercial sector to show the versatile nature of the oral mode in connecting with people.

Films:

The Nigerian Film industry, popular called Nollywood, has made some strides from its explosive stage in the late 1990s when films were made straight to video rather than going through celluloid for cinema releases (Afolabi 15). This phenomenon has made it possible to produce large volumes and continually generate interests while confounding established theories of film. Explaining the struggles of film theorists and academics to discuss African Film, James Burns notes:

The abilities of Africans to make sense of films has been a source of concern to whites in Southern Africa since motion picture first arrived in the region. Since the 1920s, an army of administrators, film makers, academics, journalists, missionaries, marketers and educators have attempted to measure the abilities of Africans to make sense of motion pictures. Their investigations have focused on several key question. Could Africans be taught to understand the ‘language’ of cinema? Were Africans particularly susceptible to motion picture images? Did African audiences inevitably accept action on the screen as literal depiction of reality or could they be taught to distinguish between ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’? (197)

It would appear that more questions than answers are generated in the pursuit of a clear understanding of films from Africa in general and Nigeria in particular as the largest production base of the continent. With the oral culture as its 88

root, Nigerian film speaks an oral “language” directed at an audience who understands it. That audience is not really worried about whether the action is the

“truth” or “fiction” as Burns queries as they have been exposed to stories that are told purely for the purpose of passing on moral instruction and film is just putting the folk stories into a visual form.

Certain elements of the folk stories break down the cosmological barrier between the human world and the world of spirits and these spirits can make appearances in human affairs and help fight for the “good guy”, just like in the films.

For example, there is a popular Yoruba folktale of the dog sending his mother to heaven instead of eating her during a period of famine on earth. He then sings to her to send food down anytime he is hungry. The detail of the path to heaven is not discussed in the story, not because it is not relevant, but because the aim of the story is to emphasise the importance of mother in the society and why there is a need to care for her. Even, the “Egungun” (Masquerade) cults amongst the Yorubas are believed to be spirit creatures coming to mingle with humans. This cosmological belief is transferred to the film - making process and can indeed confound anyone not versed in oral traditions.

As orality is about promoting communal values such as honesty, hard work and social harmony, the impact of any cinematic production on the community must be measured from feedback provided to the source. This has had an influence on the films from Nigeria. The early practitioners of the film industry were from the travelling theatre period discussed in the second chapter. With the advent of the film, the performers did not see a change in the moral message, but a change in the medium of communicating it to the audience. The oral tales were then performed, 89

filmed and shown to the people; but still with the aim of passing moral instructions for good and upright living in the community.12 In fact, the storytelling strategies of the films in Nigeria are uniquely oral in nature and designed to elicit an audience response reminiscent of oral traditions. A personal anecdote may help emphasise this point. In 1996, I was at a cinema in Lagos, Nigeria to watch the Yoruba movie,

Owo Blow. During the marriage scene featuring Yoruba traditional marriage rites and songs, the audience, familiar with the songs, started singing along and some actually got up and started dancing. For a moment, the film was forgotten and groups started discussing the value of staying chaste and moral in order to receive a similar honourable marriage in the community. I contrasted this to my first visit to an

English Cinema where there was a big sign on the wall: “Silence Please”. No such sign existed in this cinema and once the discussion had subsided with each one making his own observation as he/she would have to a storyteller in a village square, we resumed watching, waiting for the next big discussion.

Contrary to Theodor Adorno’s description of “ruthless unity” that has helped create stupefied and “labelled consumers”, the oral public actually engages the film text and the producers in a process of articulation to produce meaning that will socially engineer their actions.

One of the early practitioners, Hubert Ogunde provides another example of how movies can engage the audience as his movie narratives rely heavily on the

Yoruba cosmology for their conflict resolution. In the film Aropin N Tenia(1982), a

King is misled by his chiefs while his last wife, who manages to produce the long

12 One of the earliest known video productions in Nigeria is the 1965 stage performance of Oba Ko’so by Duro Ladipo at the Royal Albert Hall in London. No credits were given at the end of the film and it is still unclear if Ladipo actually gave permission for the production to be filmed and circulated in this manner. 90

sought-after heir, is being maltreated by the senior wives in the King’s harem. The heir produced is dumped in the river but rescued by Yemoja, the goddess of the river. The king longs to be popular, but the chiefs tell him this is not necessary as the people need strong hands. An uprising occurs, the chiefs get the blame and are executed, the river goddess returns the heir and the senior wives are also killed by drowning, sacrifices to thank Yemoja. The King and the community live happily ever after. The triumph of good over evil is not an isolated theme in this movie, but is replicated in most of the films coming out of Nigeria. However, while the resolution appears simplistic in nature – a goddess rescues a child from the river, the chiefs are easily found out – it must be acknowledged again that the spirit world and the human world are borderless in the oral culture of the Yoruba race of Nigeria. The audience members are also familiar with this theme and can relate to it, making them reconsider their actions in order not to meet a sad demise like the senior wives of the king and the chiefs. Basically, the film is a medium to tell a folktale in graphic manner and the audience is willing to be participatory, to be taught and to provide feedback.

Politically, it must also not be lost on us that a governing authority, the king, is represented and the actions of his chiefs as advisers highlighted. This is to help the populace realise that some of those in power are well intentioned but surrounded by bad advisers and the people must ensure they look at the whole picture of governance before laying blame at the feet of the man at the helm of affairs. Social and familial harmony is also emphasised especially in the locally accepted polygamous setting. The evil fortune of the wives helps all in the community to do good as all activities on earth are being monitored by the gods. Usually, days after 91

watching this film, the audience are still engaging with it in ways that are uniquely oral; they discuss it passionately and try to make sense of it.

To apply a Euro-American paradigm of film and theory to this piece would be to miss the whole point of the filming process in the Nigerian context, which draws from the oral background of communicating with the audience. While foreign films have found a home in Nigeria, the expectations seem to differ for locally produced film.

As Nigeria moved from dictatorial military rule to democracy, film was used both in English and the local language to educate the populace of its responsibility in a democratic setting. The films The Last Vote (2001), produced in English and

Saworoide (1999), produced in Yoruba, provide examples. In The Last Vote, we again see the struggle of a seemingly upright politician and governor of a fictitious state surrounded by corrupt officials and a corrupt godfather. However, the narrative shifts when, fed up with the overbearing nature of his advisers which is bringing ill consequences to the populace, the governor breaks ranks and starts people oriented programs such as providing communal buildings, supplying fertilisers for farmers and funding school construction. He goes out to meet with the people and join in the projects being carried out. Frustrated, the godfather and advisers orchestrate an impeachment process to get the governor out with full confidence that they control the voters. There is a tie in the vote and the deciding vote is to be cast by someone perceived as a stooge of the godfathers, but he is now a well-informed voter and casts the vote for the governor. Again, good triumphs over evil and voters are taught to shun the antics of godfathers and political advisers. A close similarity can be seen between The Last Vote and Aropin N teni: the king and the governor, the chiefs and 92

the corrupt officials around them, the good outcome. So, the passage of time has not changed the fact that orality found a home in movies to further carry out its core values of socially engineering a harmonious people for a harmonious society. Though there seems to have been a transition in the governance structure from traditional kings to democratically elected governors, the film highlights the fact that orality is versatile and relevant under any circumstance. Thus, film takes on the “historian” role of the griot, calling for “social responsibility” on the part of the audience

(Krishnan 30), asking audience members to learn from the past and never allow a repeat of what has just been witnessed in the movie.

That is why Saworoide merges both government structures, native and contemporary, in its narrative. Saworoide was commissioned to mark the inauguration of the governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu. Not only is the movie a voter education tool, it follows the oral narrative style of looking back and reminding the people of their past and why they must learn from history and never allow military rule back into their lives. The story follows a succession of rulers in a communal town. First, a good King dies, then a King is installed who proves unpopular and is then toppled in a military coup by soldiers he invited to help maintain peace. Order is maintained for a while until the military dictator refuses to leave and desecrates the throne by wearing the sacred brass crown reserved only for rightful heirs to the throne. He is killed by the guiding spirit of the community and a popular uprising ensues with a clamour for democracy.

The governor, Bola Tinubu, attended a public screening of Saworoide and here, orality kicks in. 93

After the movie, he gave a short speech and then a question and answer session ensued with some members of the audience using the opportunity to remind the governor not to forget what he had seen and not turn aside from his pre-election promises, bringing all into the communicative circle of articulation.13

The message of sacred democracy being tainted by military incursion into governance is obvious from the storyline but what is also striking is that no king is installed at the end of the film, a clear message to the viewers that the success of

Nigeria’s democracy is up to them. The political message and its social engineering function are both clear.

As well as serving a political purpose, film is now used as a tool by corporate and charitable organisations to reach people: messages are weaved into moral tales or some sort of informative material added somewhere in the dialogue. As Ukadike points out, “in broader ideological terms, in African cinema, there has been a deliberate attempt to use the medium as a voice of the people” (126). This is not to be confused with Ong’s secondary orality as Ukadike’s point is in reference to how film is used in a similar way to the oral mode in its ability to engender debate about the story and to build community. Let us consider two related practices on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.

In a situation where sales statistics are not available (and the high rate of piracy would make such statistics questionable anyway), the popularity of a film is not measured by sales figure, but by how much discourse it generates amongst the populace. The economic situation has dictated that families who are too poor must rely on their middle class neighbour to watch television and film and usually the

13 I owe this information to the producer of the film, Tunde Kelani, who provided it during our meeting at the National Theatre, Lagos in October 2003. 94

children converse, mimic and recreate the message of the movie. Therefore it is not uncommon to see up to ten children in a neighbourhood cram into a small living room space to watch a video film. No quiet or silent moment is requested as an ongoing conversation carries on simultaneously with the film in order to establish its validity in the society. Often replicating the village square setting again, a present adult may ask the meaning of a scene or the lessons the children are deriving in order to further engage the text of the film.

The second common practice is in the marketing of the film. Economics again plays a role here as a prospective buyer will sometimes ask questions of the merchant before committing to buy a movie: What is the storyline? The message?

The actors (Some actors are considered more moral than others)? Often, if the shop is well established, a scene from the movie may be playing on a small television screen somewhere in the shop.

Unlike the western convention of measuring audience response on an individual basis, the communal effect of film is what counts in contemporary Nigeria and this is exemplified by the insistence on a moral message as opposed to picture quality.

There is also no fear of “spoiler alerts” on the part of the marketer as he is more than ready to inform his client of the content of the film. Another difference is the debate generated. When stars in a western movie come together to mingle with the public, it is for the purpose of marketing the movie; when stars gather to discuss a movie with the public in Nigeria, the questions are about the impact on the society and the role of the film in building the community.

In Nigeria, the language of the film is that of the community.

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Songs:

In 1993, a Yoruba titular chief, Moshood Abiola presented himself as a candidate for the presidential election of Nigeria. While he was already popular in the society as a multi- billionaire philanthropist, Abiola realised he had to engage the wider public in ways that would demonstrate his popularity and sympathy with the wider populace

(not just those in the upper echelon of the society). He turned to musicians and like praise singers in the oral traditions, popular Yoruba musicians started waxing songs in praise of Abiola. Musicians such as King Sunny Ade, Kollington Ayinla, Sir Shina

Peters and Ebenezer Obey all released albums with at least an entire side dedicated to Abiola and his good virtues. Obey simply dug up the praise poetry of the politician’s family and then recited it to an accompaniment of contemporary musical instruments. As Ogunjimi and Na’allah observe, “Minstrels sing to boost the pride of the chiefs. They make historical accounts in their songs to remind their patrons of important historical points that are necessary for their rule” (26).

It has to be noted that prior to this time, Abiola’s praise had already been sung in the public domain, but with no political intent as it was just a regular praise song.

But, if the populace must cast their vote for this individual, then there must be a way to weave a new narrative around him that emphasises, not his philanthropy as a rich man, but his political prowess and qualifications as the choice for the disempowered people who may not have seen him as such. As John Fiske notes, popular culture is always about the relationship of power, be it economic or social, between those who have it and those who don’t and this case provides an example of this relationship in action in the African context (20, 21 ). The exemplary artistry and performance 96

championed by this musician are an extension of the oral influence on the populace and in this case orality is allowed to mediate and articulate the message of power to both the controllers of power (voters) and those put in charge of it (politicians).

Abiola’s political platform, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), also produced jingles with catchy tunes for the purpose of circulating and disseminating the information among the voters. To them, songs, like all other expressions in the oral tradition, must serve a purpose even if the purpose is relaxation; there is agency with the people to choose. The choice, in this case, is the power and ability to choose a leader. Therefore the song must be picked up by the voting public and in turn must move them to mass social action or else it will be considered a failure. In 1993, songs succeeded and the power of orality as a tool for socially engaging and engineering people was demonstrated. As stated earlier, the 1993 election is on record as the freest and fairest and the one that drew the largest number of voters in Nigeria’s history, a testimony to the public feeling a connection to the songs used and then responding to its call.

However, the military government in Nigeria conspired again to truncate democracy and perpetuate dictatorial rule. Abiola was arrested and jailed without trial. Without prodding, musicians again assumed the role of the griots, “who serve as checks to the chief…and occasionally rebuke and correct him when he goes astray” (Ogunjimi and Na’allah 26), and mediated politics using popular culture. Fuji

Musician Adewale Ayuba sang “Free MKO (Abiola)” as a track on his album, Fuji

Music and Sonny Okosun took it further by releasing Hidden Agenda, a six track album entirely dedicated to the election and its annulment by the military - a 97

narrative in songs and chants. One of the tracks, “June 12” is the date of the election and he chants:

Eleleyerere Tu Sant Tusant

The Mystery of June 12 ‘93

The Memory of June 12 ‘93

Oh, Africa is burning on Fire

The oral call and response technique in this song strengthens the message and helps the audience realise that once again, as Africans, rooted and versed in the tradition of being roused by songs, they must come out and take the public sphere that is on fire. The song resonates as literature and cultural production designed to be a catalyst for a discourse of change in the public domain. Another track on the album is a simulated radio commentary, laced with tunes, of a fictitious football match between democracy and the military dictators and it ends in a blackout, a message of outright doom and a call on the people that they have a chance to effect the climax they desire in the events of the country at the time.

Achille Mbembe has argued that in the post colony, “commandment”

(governmental authority) and its “sign” (the language employed to manifest this authority) is not constant and needs to be argued and redefined and the symbol reconceptualised. Though the authorities would love the laws to be non-negotiable, by imbuing them with “signs” that are non-negotiable, the fact that the language and narrative employed have multiple meanings provides the public with an opportunity to debate based on the tools orality provides. Thus, a simple change in 98

the tone or sound of a song may be a way of talking back to authority.14 In Nigeria, songs have been used to redefine the power dynamics of the country.

Mixing poetic chants and song, Gbenga Adeboye released Pasan Oro (Tongue lash) and condemned the annulment of the election and incarceration of the winner.

His mixture of this related culture, rooted in his Yoruba background, amplifies the role that orality and popular culture play in the social engineering process of any country, but particularly in Nigeria. As Fela affirmed in an interview, “I do not see how African music can be about what doesn’t affect our lives. Our music should not be about love, it should be about reality and what we are up to now”(Collins 135).

Literature:

The narrative style of most Nigerian authors has deep roots in the narrative style of the storytelling traditions of the country. In fact, so strong is the relationship between the authors and their storytelling traditions that Olakunle George declared that to be considered a Nigerian writer, there must be a “related allegiance to

African culturalism” and to go against that allegiance is often considered a sacrilege in the literary community (17). However, as the history of Nigeria has had its fair share of tyrannical rules, there has been the need to adjust the storytelling into one of resistance and it can be argued that orality has reasserted itself through literature as a tool for resistance

Discussing the role of a writer in a crisis situation or in the event of a social upheaval,

Chinua Achebe wrote:

14 An example is the Regional Minister Adegoke Adelabu who described the opposition and its populist programs as a “Peculiar Mess”. The non literate Yoruba public added the ‘n’ tone and changed it to ‘Penkelemessi’ to describe Adelabu and the name stuck until his death in 1958. Please see Wole Soyinka’s Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years. 99

A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories-prose, poetry, essays and books for our children[…] the role of the writer is not a rigid position and depends to some extent on the state of health of his or her society. In other words, if a society is ill the writer has a responsibility to point it out. (There was a Country 53-57)

It is obvious that Achebe considers the writer to be a prominent social engineer, a storyteller with the power to influence events in his society for the better and the postcolonial condition existing in Nigeria meant that the writer assumes the role of educator, informer and entertainer.

As educators, writers in Africa have the task of helping bring about a positive change in the society with their literature. Where there have been laws that repress the populace, the writers have assumed the role of encouraging the people to let their voices be heard. The postcolonial condition in Nigeria has meant that most of the citizenry live in penury while power and wealth are concentrated in the hands of a few. To address this imbalance, there have been books by authors that are aimed at inciting the people. In the example of Chinua Achebe already mentioned, if it can be said that he wrote the acclaimed Things Fall Apart to the colonists and to fire his people up for social action against their oppression, then it can be argued that his subsequent novel, No Longer at Ease, was a reminder to the same people that oppression was still in place and they should not rest on their laurels. To borrow the words of Frantz Fannon, the colonists may have been gone, but the elite class were wearing “black skin, white masks” (1967).

The sequel to Things Fall Apart, No Longer at Ease, sees the grandson of the hero, Okonkwo, subtly named Obi Okonkwo, join the civil service and against his initial upright standard, become corrupted by the system to the point of oppressing 100

the people through extortion and abuses of power, a reference to prevalent cases in

Nigeria’s emerging independent state. Achebe, by making the protagonist suffer for his corrupt act of receiving bribes by going to jail, is helping people to see that all it takes is one act of bravery and standing up to the oppressors for a change to occur.

Achebe’s moral leaning in this novel borrows from the oral storytelling tradition and brings to light the ills in the society. It also encourages the people to fight against all moral decadence. And that is why he pioneered the African Writers Series, a corpus of literature by African writers to tell their own stories and educate the people as to the real role of the colonists and why a new form of oppression, neo-colonialism, must not be allowed on the continent.

This tradition of using literature to educate does not work only for those trying to change things at the top, but has been deployed by successive authorities to help educate the populace in whatever form possible, especially where governance is concerned. In 2002, a voter education play, Bombshell was published by Tunji

Fatilewa and endorsed by the Osun state government of Nigeria to help sensitise the populace in the state. Combining the proverbs of the Yorubas and other elements of orality, the play centres on a corrupt politician, Akinfunmilola and his quest for power through election. However, he is confronted at a public space by well informed citizens who take him to task on previous promises and how he came about his wealth. The people refuse to be deceived again and reject him. It is a call by the government for the populace to vote wisely based on information rather than on false promises. This approach could be said to be successful as Osun State indigenes took to the street to protest the election results of 2007 and became the first state to successfully overturn election results in Nigeria when the incumbent 101

governor and former military general, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, was removed by a court and the apparent people’s choice, Rauf Aregbesola was sworn in as governor.

The process also informs and engenders discourse in the public domain, the same way it occurs in the traditional manner after the town crier has delivered the message to the people of the town. When Chinua Achebe wrote A Man of the

People, the story of postcolonial politicians enmeshed in corrupt practices, he played the role of the traditional seer by informing people of the actions taking place and foretelling a coup at the end. Incidentally, it came to pass that Nigeria’s political crisis was resolved by a military coup, although it gave way soon after to a set of new crises that would eventually become a civil war. However, the point is that Achebe pointed in the direction of what corrupt practices can mean for democracy and this was fulfilled. We must note that the griot or sage in the oral tradition is the “ear” of the people in the palace and informs people of happenings in his songs and tales, though embellished to make them appear fictional. However, the populace always knows when an important message has been given to them for discussion and possible action by the griot and this is what Achebe accomplishes with the novel, A

Man of the People. According to Achebe’s biographer, Ezenwa Ohaeto, one of

Achebe’s contemporaries, the poet, J.P. Clark, declared upon reading the novel,

“Chinua, I know you are a prophet. Everything in this book has happened except a military coup” (109).

It is the realisation that literature plays a formidable role, not just in activism, but in the orientation of people generally that has made some people in positions of authority explore it as an option in their attempt to reach the public and the attendant popular perception. An example here is the case of the administrator of 102

the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, Abuja, General Mamman Vatsa. With the unpopularity of military rule in Nigeria, Vatsa saw literature, and particularly poetry, as a way into the hearts of the populace. In his time as administrator, Vatsa re- released his collection of poetry, published in the common language of Nigeria,

Pidgin English, Tori for Geti bow leg and a new collection, Reach for the Skies. It is worth emphasizing that Reach for the Skies is a calculated attempt to move people to action, reaching for the skies and attaining their full potential despite the seeming oppression of the military regime that Vatsa was a part of. Vatsa’s belief in literature as the vehicle of change was so strong that he actually donated a parcel of land for writers to build a village to spread the message of hope to the populace. Unlike most military men who try to use force, Vatsa chose literature, something Wole Soyinka considered impressive for a military man of war ( Set Forth at Dawn 240). Soon after this gesture, Vatsa was arrested, tried under questionable circumstances and sentenced to death. An uproar followed as many of his audience, who had read and become familiar with his works did not perceive him as a villain, but a hero. The

Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) sent their leading lights, Chinua Achebe and

Wole Soyinka, to the President to plead on Vatsa’s behalf (Soyinka 245). This action replicates the pre- literate oral setting where people are moved to action by what they have heard. In this case, even the intellectuals, who may not necessarily consider a military commandant to be a colleague rose in his defence and took their case to the highest authority. Vatsa started a circularity of discourse and actually got the feedback he wanted - a popular man at the heart of the people who engendered debate between fellow writers and the highest authority.

Sadly it did not work as he was eventually executed by the President. However, from 103

the social engineering point of view, it was a success since his execution became the first secret execution of coup plotters in Nigeria as the government was unsure of how executing him publicly will go down with the people who saw him as a hero.

Vatsa had managed to engineer the public to think of him positively and the government feared a riot if they were to execute such a popular literary figure in public. Like the oral traditions, the writers decided to weave a tale around Vatsa and name their Secretariat in Lagos after him. Recently, a writer’s village, built on the parcel of land he donated to writers is named in his honour and his praise continues to be sung amongst writers.15

There is now widespread action among politicians who use literature as a vehicle to inform and get people on their side in an attempt to be popular, especially among dictators who use literature to create legends for themselves and have now created a new genre called ‘dic-lit’16.

In its informed and educated state, orality has also managed to entertain. As psychoanalyst Sudit Kaka suggests, “the world of imagination is fuelled by desires which provide us with an alternate world where we can continue our long standing war with reality. The power of fantasy comes to our rescue by extending or withdrawing the desires beyond what is possible or reasonable” (27). Because social realities are a part of the entertainment value of literature right from pre-colonial times, it is not surprising that events in real life often find their way into literature

15 Wole Soyinka’s book “You must set forth at Dawn” devoted an entire chapter to Mamman Vatsa, his relationship with writers and events leading to his death. 16 While the origin n of the term ‘dic-lit’ is not clear, it is believed to have been popularised by the CIA when referring to the four novels written by Saddam Hussein as a way to counter the dominant narrative in western press. Saddam wrote “Zabibah and the King” (2000), The Fortified Castle (2001), Men and the City (2002) and Begone, Demons (2004). On the African continent, Ibrahim Babangida published a collection of his speeches, “For their tomorrow, We gave our today” (1991) in order to gain popularity amongst the populace. I owe this information to Dr. Nduka Otiono of Carleton University, Ottawa, a former Secretary General of ANA . 104

and are used to create entertainment. For example, Nigeria’s popular “Onitsha

Market Literature” consists of pamphlets on newsprint written by half educated traders for fellow traders in language the traders understand. The authors write as if they are speaking to colleagues and regale them with tales of their exploits in the area of romance, the predominant theme, or what they can accomplish outside the confines of their everyday market life. With such long titles as, Beware of Harlots and

Many Friends The World is Hard, Boys and Girls of Nowadays and “Drunkards Believe

Bar as Heaven”, “the emphasis is on educating the people [. . .]to live a moral life”

(Nwoga 39). However, the education is embedded in a story, poor in quality from an academic point of view, but from the perspective of the half educated public, solid gold entertainment. This is because the language and the subject unite the traders in a communal environment that they are familiar with and can relate to. Their lack of education means any other literature will not be as accessible to them in terms of understanding and may not create the atmosphere required to bring them together for discussion. However, they can all read, understand and generate debate from the literature produced and even make up their own, which is what happened as the popularity and production of the literature grew until the 1990s. Different readers also made use of the literature either as a romance manual or simply a set of moral codes to guide them in life and business (Nwoga 40). Just like the Penny dreadful literature, the Onitsha Market literature provided entertainment in an environment filled with individuals struggling to adjust to or resist the effects of the postcolonial condition. The communal “publicness” of belonging to a reading tribe that the literature provided despite the audience’s poor education helped make the adjustment bearable. 105

However, how do all the above translate as new media? If orality, in its base form is seen as the use of the voice and traditions rely on the voice to communicate, reach the hearts and minds of people and then move them to moral and social action, then every other form that comes after but still uses the oral mode is, to borrow the phrase of Walter Ong, a “technologizing of the word” and thus qualifies as “new" media to orality. Hence, what we have is orality traversing all platforms on the back of popular culture to still give out messages to people.

New Media and grassroots social engineering

The oral model also provided an avenue for direct feedback from the people to an authority in an instant if necessary, an opportunity for the people to speak up for themselves. This may have informed the need for an “egbe” or professional union of artisans and peasants, for a Yoruba proverb stated that Agbajowo l’a fi soy’a (There is strength in unity).These unions usually send delegates to the king if there were issues that they do not agree with such as taxation, poor yield or need for more farmland within the community. Within the King’s court, there are also chieftains who represent various divisions of the community. For instance there are chiefs titled Otun (Right or right hand or the eastern division of the community) and Osi

(the ‘Left’ equivalent). There is also the representative of the women, the “Iyalode” and the war generals, Balogun and Basorun. This produces an active public and an allowance for a counter opinion to be heard even if the demands take time to be met or are tolerated with heavy compromises. Orality always has the people at the centre and endeavours to make them functional and active in the society with an emphasis on their participation having a positive impact, just like the griot and the children in a village square. 106

It must be observed that the people in countries such as Nigeria, that once practiced orality, are still empowered enough to try and force an action from their ruling class from the grassroots if it is deemed oppressive. The advent of modern technology and new media seems to have expanded the borders of the feedback process for the public to be able to get its message across to the ruling class and where necessary force a change of an unpopular policy. Unlike modern representational democracy where the people often have to put up with the failure of their representatives until the next election, oral traditions provide for immediate demands for action and feedback. It has been possible to go around the representative and take matters directly to the king. The representatives also can bring the King to the area of trouble for direct assessment. The immediacy of communication and feedback, quick interaction between the top and bottom, is what distinguishes orality in this regard.

In Nigeria, before the explosion of new media in the late 1990s and early 2000s, any oppressed groups such as journalists suffering from the persecution of the ruling military powers had always resorted to secretly printed and distributed newspapers.

Such was the belief of the opposition in the power of texts to change people and move them to action based on the effect of the text that they risked all to get their message into the public domain17. However, in 1996, a new phenomenon drawn from the oral tradition was introduced. As a result of the fact that most of the populace had been impoverished and so lacked basic literacy, it was difficult for them to comprehend what was in the newspapers and so they could not act on the

17 In 1994, Sanni Abacha proscribed Tell magazine and Tempo Newspaper. However, both publications still managed to make it to the newsstands, much to the consternation of the regime. This would later be described as “guerrilla journalism” by Kunle Ajibade, the editor of Tell magazine in his book, Jailed for Life. 107

information provided. Therefore, a group of activists, led by Dr. Kayode Fayemi, came together under the of banner of United Democratic Front of Nigeria (UDFN) and launched a radio station from a secret hideout, reportedly in South Africa, and broadcasted their message to the populace. The radio station was called “Radio

Democrat International” until July 4 1996, when the name changed to “Radio

Kudirat” in honour of Kudirat Abiola, the wife of M.K.O Abiola, who was killed just before participating in a pro-democracy rally that she had convened in Lagos

(Clandestineradio.com). The music played on the station was the same music used to chase out the colonists which gives another pointer that all forms of hegemony, both colonial and postcolonial were considered the same. Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s music was also played extensively to reconnect the people with the activism side of resistance and get them up and going. As discussed above, by this time, Fela’s music had become synonymous with resistance to oppression and so became the clear music of choice on a station decidedly anti-government and pro-people power. It must be noted that this is not a ground breaking project. The term “pirate radio” had been used to describe the three radio stations that came up in Britain to play alternate music to the music played by BBC. In the 1980s, Bush radio also broadcasted illegally after being denied a license by the apartheid government in South Africa. However, this perhaps was the first time that the medium of radio has been used as a tool for resistance and opposition to an existing government in Nigeria and it shaped the media operations after the event. The government had no control and so could do nothing and soon, the voice of the people became an integral part of the opposition to the military rule prevalent at the time and to that of General Sani Abacha in 108

particular. The station ran until 1999 when democracy was eventually restored in

Nigeria.

With the advent of the internet, the public sphere of discourse for the people to talk to the top widened expansively and became virtual. The virtual side offers the anonymity that is sometimes required to circulate the text of resistance, especially in the face of oppressive persecution. This anonymity in orality is provided by denial when convenient and is not considered cowardly, but an act of wisdom.

For instance, amongst the Yorubas, a saying goes “Only a fool sees death and walks unconcerned into it”. Therefore, it sometimes is considered a noble act to deny especially when the information is harmful to the collective purpose of the community. However, on the virtual space of the internet, anonymity is assured and there is no fear of reprisals.

Oral ideas, as they have done with all previous technological advancement, have found a home within the internet technology and exploited it for their primary purpose of engineering people when the need arises. It is now easier via social media portals such as Facebook and Youtube to find African dance, oral poetry performances and drama at the touch of a button. These platforms have taken the communication process, chief of which is the voice, and modulated them into elements of the technology process.

As the internet now gives orality a new public sphere, albeit virtual, to function, so also have the possibilities increased especially in helping mobilise people for social action from any point of the communication spectrum. However, it is in the bottom to top engineering process that the internet has provided a role for both orality and popular culture. I cite as an instance here, Buni TV, an online television 109

station on Youtube that runs a series of short animated sketches called “Oga

(Master)at the Top”. The entire purpose of the sketch is to satirically parody the actions of the ruling class in Nigeria and expose them to the public, thus helping the public make informed choices of either keeping this class in power or exercising their power by voting them out. Often, the entire sketch is a remix of popular songs but with changed lyrics that give an idea of the misdemeanours of the political elite in question. If the narrative or situation looks familiar, that is because it mirrors the activities of griots in the oral traditions who weave tales and songs that satirically mock kings who are unpopular. The narrative structures are simple and it is not hard to figure out the politician in question, including the character of a sitting president in Nigeria and his wife.

The existence of a television station of this kind would have been impossible in previous times as the television and its content were controlled by the government and existed only as propaganda to engineer the people to be docile.

Only state controlled television, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), was licensed to operate and all the dramas were government-sanctioned propaganda machines. This is in sharp contrast to the perception of television as “a central figure in representation of family relationships,” in America (Spigel 36), where television was and is seen as a domestic entertainment that bridges the gap between the private and the public.

It must be pointed out, though, that as governance has become more democratic in Nigeria and most media outlets are opened up to the people as a talk- back channel to the top, social engineering as a process has taken on more importance and to be heard, there has to be something unique and familiar to rouse 110

people for action. Aside from the culture of the colonists, which is borrowed, the most familiar element to the people of Nigeria remains the traditions handed down by their parents and this is now being explored to the full by the corporate organisations. While a study like this is limited in its examination of how orality is devised as a marketing tool in the advertising world, it must be pointed out that just as in politics, orality is now a force for advertising and marketing in Nigeria and considered to be the most efficient way of communicating as it is what the people know and are familiar with.

The Nigerian Diaspora and the emerging oral public for engineering

The traversing of the virtual world of new media has opened up a new kind of public and society that orality can reach. Communication technology is ever expanding and to discuss the function of a form within it will be challenging. Therefore, in this section, I point to the possible role of orality and how it will still find a home within this new form and reach a new set of publics.

As migration becomes a part of the changing world, the loss of a familiar environment and the adaptation to a new environment seem to be posing their own set of challenges, and to combat those challenges migrants rely on memories of the things that they have left behind to fill the void. In the case of African migrants, the memory is aided by the songs, stories and other traditions that they have retained within them, not unlike the slaves who took their traditions with them as memory and passed it on to generations coming after them.

The modern migrants however need not worry about how to retain all the traditions and stay connected to their homeland as most of the elements of the oral 111

traditions are now easily accessible on the virtual space of the internet. Platforms like Youtube and Vevo provide easy access to the music of different countries and information on what is happening in the home country of the immigrant. Even before the advent of the internet though, most travellers had in their bags cassette and video-tapes as memory aids.

Other than serving as a coping mechanism, orality, through its literature and traditions, has elements that encourage industriousness and communal living and where this is impossible, encourage doing everything to maintain peace with neighbours. Amongst the Yorubas of Western Nigeria, there are ample examples of how hard work and seeking fortunes in foreign lands is encouraged. For instance, a widely accepted proverb is “K’oju mam ri’bi, ese l’ogun” (For the eye not to see the evil of poverty, the legs must be active). Hence, not only is hard work encouraged, but searching out fortune, wherever it can be found, provided it is done in the legal way, is advocated. Invariably, this has been represented in the literature that is produced within the area. In Tutuola’s Palmwine Drinkard, migration as a way to combat poverty is represented by the willingness of the unnamed “drinkard” to journey to the land of the dead to ensure he gets his palm wine. Such a determined nature of an individual nurtured by the oral traditions to fulfil his dreams is evident in the way that African migrants have embraced their new environment, worked hard at settling and maintained peace with their new hosts and stayed connected to their homeland. Efforts are made to preserve the language and traditions attached to it. Social media platforms such as “Facebook Yorubaland” and “Yoruba Proverbs” are also created mainly by the Nigerians in Diaspora as a way to remain a part of the public and stay involved in the activities at home but with a view to living 112

harmoniously in their current abode. To differentiate this platform from a literary text, public participation is encouraged. I cite as an instance the call by “Yoruba

Proverbs” on March 16, 2014 for people to post proverbs they can remember. Not stopping there, discussion arose as to the correct use of the proverb and in what ways the proverbs could be misapplied if not followed correctly. It was not just a platform for interaction, which would have been the case if it were just based on text, but a platform to learn and be engaged positively. It demanded action.

Of particular interest too is the fact that the Nigerians in Diaspora are now seen as a core element of the national politics and invited by decision makers either to invest the income made abroad at home or to return and contribute to the economic growth in the country. Again, we need to look into ancient wisdom to realise that this is not a new practice but one already ingrained in the oral traditions.

According to Yoruba traditions, it is common practice to have a crowned Prince go where he is not recognised and work manually before returning to assume the throne. It is the general belief that the experience gained will help in the administering of affairs as he now has experience of what the people go through on a daily basis. That is why there is a general saying “Ori Ade k’I sun ita” (literally, “The

Head that will wear the crown never sleeps outside/in a foreign land”), a reference to the fact that the crown prince will always return to assume the throne after gaining the required experience.

That is why the Nigerian Diaspora is now taking on an additional responsibility within the working of the country. Olusegun Obasanjo, a former

Nigerian President, spent most of his first six months in office appealing to this ever growing public and engaging them in a discourse to benefit the country they have 113

left behind. To further facilitate their engagement, he appointed two Nigerians living in the Diaspora into his government. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, a Vice president with the

World Bank, was appointed as Minister for Finance and Obiageli Ezekwesili was appointed from Harvard University, first as a parastatal head before being assigned the Ministry of Education. This was possible because of the active participation of the Diaspora in home affairs and the President did say that the Diaspora is as much a part of the country as the people living at home if the troubles of Africa and Nigeria are to be solved.

However, as more of these migrants begin to have children and a second generation in Diaspora appears, it seems orality will once again assume the educational role to be able to rouse the children for action and engineering. Like the

Ifa corpus that serve as a means of communication between man and the gods, orality is now seen as a way of educating this new generation about their roots in

Africa and the culture of their forebears. As outlined above, orality’s versatility means it has now mounted the social platforms of the internet and reaching this new public who are acting as a bridge between the two worlds that they traverse and negotiate. This may explain why more Nigerian films and music can be found online than in the past, providing this emerging public with the needed cultural orientation.

The impact of this virtually mediated interaction between orality and its new public in the Diaspora cannot be fully measured yet. However, that is not to say that inferences cannot be made. For instance, there are more awards for Nigerian films held internationally than a decade ago; increasing numbers of Nigerian films are holding premieres in foreign countries and there is an increased academic interest in 114

the Nigerian film industry. This can only be due to the uniqueness that orality has given these cultural productions and the interest that their public in the Diaspora has taken in them. One thing that is certain is that the impact of orality on this public will be significant.

Conclusion

New media and popular culture have not killed orality; they have simply provided it with wings to fly and expanded the sky in which it is flying. Being a versatile model, orality has made use of these advancements to further explore the public sphere and access its audience in ways not previously possible. As Karin Barber notes, “it is important to recognise the extent to which African cultural innovators have seized upon the possibilities of the media to revitalise their traditions and generate new forms” (3).

If orality is a social text that must be experienced for the maximum impact to be accomplished, then I argue that a happy society will engender a happy text and a not so happy society will engender a text of resistance. As the human society manages to produce these types of societies even within the realm of orality, the traditions of the realm have managed to produce texts for both eventualities. While the postcolonial texts have been filled with more instances of resistance there have also been opportunities through the beauty of orality to move people to positive social action , even if this comes after resistance. The jubilation and street dancing, a symbolic occupation of the public sphere by the locals, are examples of positive social actions that have occurred as a result of the bottom to top orality-inspired social engineering process, culminating in the non-violent disengagement of the 115

British colonists. The populace were not just content to sit back at home and savour the air of freedom that self-governance offered, but needed to experience the feeling, which could only be satiated in a communal manner. Nigerians in particular have always explored and deployed an oral mode in their approach to dealing with governance challenges with the emphasis on dialogue and talking things through. A clear example of this is the constant call by successive governments for a “National

Conference”, a meeting of everyone with a stake in the affairs of the state of Nigeria.

While such a call is yet to be heeded by the authorities, the conference is supposed to provide an avenue for discourse and articulation, an exploration of the issues and the differences encountered with a view to working out a solution. Orality engenders communicative action as an alternative to violence and where violence has to be used, it must be with a view to seeking a chance to talk and arrive at a solution

(Fanon 50). Yes, I postulate here that violence itself is a discursive text for the public sphere if used in manners reflective of the wishes of the people. This is something trade unions in the Euro-American part of the world have employed: the use of strikes, picketing and threats as a bargaining or discursive tool in the negotiation of better rights for their members. As pointed out above, this has always been present in oral traditions.

Governments have also used derivatives of orality to marshal their subjects and negotiate the terms of the subjection in order for peace and order to reign.

Orality has been repositioned in popular culture and new media to be that communication force that the people respect and gladly embrace as it guarantees their right to provide feedback to any disagreement to the upper class of the society.

116

CONCLUSION

“A people are as healthy and confident as the story they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick. Without stories, we would go mad. Life would lose its mooring, lose its orientation. Even in silence, we are living our stories. Stories can conquer fear”

- Ben Okri, Birds of Heaven.

If orality is to be fully realised as a concept and an effective tool for social engineering , then it must be energised by the community in which it is practised.

The community must acknowledge its efficacy and make use of it in their actions. It must guide their actions, both socially and politically, and it must either transcend new ideas or must be able to interact with the new ideas and still retain its characteristics. Only then can it be said that orality has succeeded.

Maulana Karenga sums it all up when she writes:

[Orality]requires a minimum respect for the dignity and rights of the human person, economic justice, meaningful political participation, shared power, cultural integrity, mutual respect for all peoples and uncompromising resistance to social forces and structures which deny or limit these. (5)

In the first chapter, we considered how the “respect…dignity and rights of the human person” that Karenga speaks of above, are established in the oral public sphere. With social engineering being concerned with moving people to positive action and reducing disorder in the society, the oral public sphere invites participation and ensures that in participating, there is no “voice” that is lost in the crowd.

However, it must be emphasised that the key element of social engineering is establishing the needs of the society before applying any tools to it and that is what 117

the consideration of an oral society in the light of Michael Warner’s public provides.

To engineer a society in such a way that its members’ dignity and rights are respected means we have to first identify what each member needs and the needs in turn provide a signpost of the tools needed for the engineering. This requirement of first identifying the public takes on added importance because the raw material of social engineering, humans, are described as “resistant” and as such their participation in any social action must be negotiated. In negotiating the consent of the public to participate in social action then, the right currency must be used and in an African society, orality provides that currency.

In the above quotation, Karenga also states that orality requires “meaningful political participation, shared power and cultural integrity.” To move people to action, orality needs a cultural vessel, a vessel of integrity that is respected by all. In

Chapter Two, that vessel is identified as popular culture. Again, I have taken pains to describe how this term, popular culture, best fits the practice of oral traditions in the

Nigerian community. As stated in the introduction, I have drawn mainly from my

Yoruba tradition due to the fact that it is one that I am very familiar with and that I have seen it in action and can state categorically that it works. Oral traditions have made their way into the popular culture of Nigeria and help in ensuring that people are active in the affairs of the state. Like the griots of time past, modern musicians have sung the praises of leaders and when necessary, condemned their actions.

Writers have drawn from oral traditions in their literary productions and have used it as a tool to ensure that the people come out as active participants in any social or political action that is required. As Mbye Boubacar Cham puts it, “African oral narrative traditions always constituted a seemingly inexhaustible source of 118

inspiration and models for many African artists” (267). There are heroes to choose from, villains to learn from and songs, proverbs and dance all play a part in the driving of a public forward in the oral public sphere. If the words of John Fiske are to be followed that popular culture is about “negotiation of power”, then all social actions can be said to be political in nature.

Political as they may be, all social actions are about people and as such, the freedom of people to participate. Karenga concludes such freedom must be respected and should any force try to limit this freedom, it will be resisted with equal measure. This argument for resistance and social engineering from the grassroots was the focus of the third chapter and it spotlights orality at work in the social engineering process. Orality serves as a tool for the negotiation of power by government in Nigeria and it also proves useful in the resistance process. This study also shows that orality is still very much a part of the Nigerian society, deployed by corporate and nongovernmental organisations in reaching out to people and moving them to social action with varied success.

Why varied success? One of the limitations of this study is the absence of verifiable data, and an intricate bureaucratic model in Nigeria made it impossible to measure the extent to which the use of orality has succeeded in the Nigerian society.

However, this much can be said- that Nigerians have continued to rely on oral practices and elements of oral production for getting their message to the populace is a testament to the fact that orality works. If not, why keep on using it?

The seamless manner in which orality has also mounted new platforms and reached out to a new audience is also worthy of mention. While it is hard to track down the extent of reach as new media is always evolving and creating new 119

platforms, it can be said that the presence of oral practices and a drive to revitalise it in step with the evolution of new media is a pointer to the fact that orality will be a social engineering tool for some time to come.

However, it is pertinent to pause at this juncture and ask: How unique is this use of orality to Nigeria? Would studies in other African cultures uncover similar uses and practices of orality as a social engineering tool? Can orality solve all social problems?

Nigeria, with its large population and mixed ethno-cultural groups, provides a sample of what orality can accomplish. While some of the oral practices and productions examined in this study have been clearly Nigerian, most African communities have their own practices, which have been deployed to good use. If there is one similarity in all the oral practice, it is the art of storytelling and as Ben

Okri points out, “a people are as healthy and confident as the story they tell themselves. Sick storytellers can make nations sick” (19). Folk stories imbue a community with pride, a sense of belonging and a desire to fully participate in activities that benefit the society.

Without going into detail, I can mention the Zulu oral philosophy of Ubuntu18 that was used by former president Nelson Mandela to rouse South Africans to collective action. With its apartheid past, South Africa needed something strong and familiar to the people as a driving force to unite the former white supremacists and the previously oppressed blacks as one nation and their President found it in orality.

No wonder he is considered an international statesman.

18 In Zulu, Ubuntu means “I am because we are” and it now considered as a universal philosophy of communal living and extending a helping hand to ones neighbour in times of need as the welfare of the neighbour affects every member of the community. A video of Desmond Tutu explaining the full concept can be viewed on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wZtfqZ271w#t=162. 120

Is orality then the answer to all social problems? That would be a faulty assumption. However, what this study demonstrates is that when a public has been identified, then the right text with which to address it can be chosen for the desired social engineering to take place. In the Nigerian context, orality has served that purpose well. 121

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