Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel by Romanus Aboh TERMS of USE The African Humanities Program has made this electronic version of the book available on the NISC website for free download to use in research or private study. It may not be re- posted on book or other digital repositories that allow systematic sharing or download. For any commercial or other uses please contact the publishers, NISC (Pty) Ltd. Print copies of this book and other titles in the African Humanities Series are available through the African Books Collective. © African Humanities Program Dedication For my wife, Rita Ititim-Aboh About the Series The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality. Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a manuscript mentor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript. The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world. The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa. AHP Editorial Board Members as at November 2018 AHP Series Editors: Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa Consultant: Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology) Board Members: 1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa) 2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program) 3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies) 4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies) 5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory) 6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy) 7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History) 8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies) 9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology) 10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics) 11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology) Published in this series Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema, 2014 Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014 Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English, 2014 Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe, 2016 Pascah Mungwini, Indigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights, 2017 Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2017 Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse, 2018 Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: the making of an organic intellectual, 2018 LANGUAGE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF MULTIPLE IDENTITIES IN THE NIGERIAN NOVEL ROMANUS ABOH Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za First edition, first impression 2018 Publication © African Humanities Program 2018 Text © Romanus Aboh 2018 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-920033-29-3 (print) ISBN: 978-1-920033-34-7 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-920033-35-4 (ePub) Manuscript mentor: Prof. Harry Garuba Project manager: Peter Lague Cover design: Advanced Design Group Printed in South Africa by Digital Action The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition. Contents Acknowledgements ix Foreword xii Preface xv List of Tables xvii CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 Beyond stylistic rhetoric 1 Establishing the canon 5 Identity as a linguistic phenomenon 9 Theoretical approaches 12 Socio-ethno-linguistic analysis 12 Critical discourse analysis 14 Literary discourse analysis 18 The selected texts 21 CHAPTER 2 Constructing ethnic identity 25 Names as labels of ethnic identity 25 Circumstantial names and naming 28 Personality promotion/Ego-boosting names 34 Names with anti-ethnic/racial sentiments 38 Who has the right to name whom? 49 CHAPTER 3 Enacting cultural identity 53 The bond of language and culture 53 Loanwords describing food items 56 Loanwords referring to clothing 65 Loanwords describing dance/music and supernatural beliefs 70 vii CHAPTER 4 Lexical and discursive construction of national identity 78 Language and nationhood 78 Nigerianisms 81 Neologisms/Coinages from existing English words 82 Loan transfer 88 Creations from Nigerian linguistic space 94 Pronominal strategies 97 Expressing solidarity and collectivity 99 Polarity and boundary mapping 104 CHAPTER 5 Language as a marker of gender identity 109 The juncture of language and gender 109 Marriage and procreation as identity 111 Woman-woman oppression 115 Man-woman subjectivity 118 CHAPTER 6 Afterword 124 BIBLIOGRAPHY 129 INDEX 138 viii Acknowledgements I acknowledge the postdoctoral fellowship support I have enjoyed from the African Humanities Program (AHP), which has offered me several opportunities to learn many things not only about academics, but about life in general. AHP’s interest in supporting and giving budding African scholars the opportunity to advance their careers as well as strengthen African-humanities scholarship call for celebration. I am particularly thankful to Professor Harry Garuba of Cape Town University, South Africa for critically reading this work. He proffered ideas that helped me to improve the quality of this work. I also wish to thank three people who taught me an immense amount about discourse analysis and pragmatics and how to engage discourses critically from an interdisciplinary perspective: Professors Tayo Lamidi, Obododimma Oha and Akin Odebunmi, all of the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. In their respective ways, they contributed significantly to who I have become and what I know about discourse analysis, pragmatics and scholarship. Professor Joseph Akawu Ushie of the Department of English, University of Uyo, Nigeria, has remained a significant part of my academic career and I am grateful to him. His private library provided the critical materials I depended on to lay the foundation for this book. In the course of writing, I also depended on his rich knowledge of Bette-Bendi cultural semantics. Our constant interactions on ‘where stylistics and discourse analysis parted ways’ further deepened my knowledge about the nexus of language and literature. Another academic who has been extremely supportive is Professor Luke Eyoh of the Department of English, University of Uyo. His kindness and geniality to younger scholars are greatly appreciated. I am also indebted to my colleagues in the Department of English, University of Uyo for the various ways they supported me during the writing of this book. I remember that when I was away at the University of Dar es Salaam, Dr Julia Udoudom assisted me in grading some of the scripts I could not grade. In writing this book, I have depended on a platoon of friends with attending ears and urging minds: Happiness Uduk, Richard Akwagiobe, Isidore Adie, Eyoh Etim, Amaka Ezeife, Susan