Papers by Prof. Stephen O Solanke
Stephen O. Solanke , Dec 19, 2022
African histories and modernities, Dec 31, 2022
Journal of English Scholar's Association of Nigeria
One dominant feature of Modern African poetry is its integrative quality. It incorporates the ora... more One dominant feature of Modern African poetry is its integrative quality. It incorporates the oral tradition carried by many African writers versed in their indigenous literatures into written form to enrich their poetic imagination. The resolve to deploy folkloric elements in aesthetic designs like myth, proverbial sayings, narratological strategies, riddles, chants, songs, drums and so on, produces sublimity prevalent in modern African poetry. Minstrelsy is an aspect of African oral aesthetics. It is an indigenous art form whereby the poet, Tanure Ojaide, assumes the role of a local singer. The paper examines the indices of minstrelsy in Ojaide's Songs of Myself (2015). This is with a view to seeing to what extent the warnings of the persona has impacted positively on the ruling class. The study adopts the Postcolonial Theory that privileges cultural plurality and hybridity to examine the interplay of orality and literacy in Ojaide's poetry. Significantly, Edward Said's Orientalism (1978), which conveys the relationship between the colonisers (the self) and the colonized (the other), is applied to show the duality of cultural realities in the selected poems. Selected poems in the sampled collection were subjected to qualitative, literary analyses. The analyses reveal that Ojaide assumed the image of a traditional griot through the use of oral cadences like songs, proverbs, invocations, incantations, riddles and other folkloric features in his poetry as a wakeup call to remind his people that the solution to their problem can be solved from within, and not outside.
Green Letters
Before modernity, oral narratives were an invaluable means of solving ecological challenges, of w... more Before modernity, oral narratives were an invaluable means of solving ecological challenges, of which the woman’s image was an integral part. Existing studies on mythical stories among Yoruba people of Western Nigeria focus on cultural realities that underscore the socio-historical experiences of the people. Still, little attention has been paid to the ecofeminist experiences foregrounded in the Sogidi Lake as a mythical, alter-narrative text. This study, therefore, examines the myth as an alter-narrative to ecological conservation, which conveys the cultural practices and taboos of the Awe people in Oyo town that serve as protective measures against climate change and human-induced disruption of the eco-tourist site. The study adopted the Ecofeminist Theory to examine ecological and gender issues foregrounded in the mythical narrative. The selected narrative was tape-recorded, translated and subjected to close literary analysis. Also, literary devices such as narratological strategies, symbolisms, characterisation, and poetic devices are evident in Sogidi Lake. KEYWORDS: Ecofeminism, Sogidi Lake, Environmental ethics, Alter-narrativity, Awe (oyo town)
From immemorial, marriage has been regarded as the union of a man and a woman to live together fo... more From immemorial, marriage has been regarded as the union of a man and a woman to live together for love, procreation and social acceptance (The Bible-Genesis 2:14, Ephesians 5:33, The Quran-2:187, 30:21). In the African world, especially among Nigerians, this is not different. Contemporary Nigerian marriage ceremonies, the subject of this paper, reflect a link between tradition and modernity. The process demands the new couple have enough finance to marry and to see them through life the many months after the marriage ceremonies. Steps involved in the marriage process are many and daunting. Each involves huge sums of finance: Initial Introduction of the two families; Engagement (Traditional Marriage); Registry (Court Marriage); Church (Christian/White) Marriage; Mosque (Islamic/Nikkah) Marriage; and Reception (for refreshment) amongst others. This paper contends that the financial implications involved are so enormous that young men are dilly-dallying over getting married. This situ...
Venec, 2013
Creating myths and mythologies out of facts and fictions has been known to man for a long time. T... more Creating myths and mythologies out of facts and fictions has been known to man for a long time. The practice of using them for freedom struggle is something very recent, amongst the many situations they are intended for. This position, taken to a higher level, is predominant in Ebrahim N. Hussein's Kinjeketile: creating new myths from the old to fight a pressing national societal dilemma. The Tanzanians, in unbundling the shackles of the Germans in the late 19th century to the early 20th century, had to recreate and utilize the myths of unity and inner strength through a prophet-seer, Kinjeketile. He became a rallying point through his divinely given gifts of water and fly-whisk. For him and the freedom of the nation, the people went to war. This paper, therefore, sees the possibility of a conquered, separated and disunited people becoming a whole and unified nation in the face of an enemy: freedom is achievable with the remaking of the old myths to suit, serve and fight new soc...
Creating myths and mythologies out of facts and fictions has been known to man for a long time. T... more Creating myths and mythologies out of facts and fictions has been known to man for a long time. The practice of using them for freedom struggle is something very recent, amongst the many situations they are intended for. This position, taken to a higher level, is predominant in Ebrahim N. Hussein's Kinjeketile: creating new myths from the old to fight a pressing national societal dilemma. The Tanzanians, in unbundling the shackles of the Germans in the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century, had to recreate and utilize the myths of unity and inner strength through a prophet-seer, Kinjeketile. He became a rallying point through his divinely given gifts of water and fly-whisk. For him and the freedom of the nation, the people went to war. This paper, therefore, sees the possibility of a conquered, separated and disunited people becoming a whole and unified nation in the face of an ene-107 my: freedom is achievable with the remaking of the old myths to suit, serve and fight ...
Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies, 2014
Oppression of man by man has been a common phenomenon from time immemorial. This subjugation has ... more Oppression of man by man has been a common phenomenon from time immemorial. This subjugation has mostly been subtle, insidious and debilitating, especially of the oppressed and the common people. This paper examines the apartheid South African world in Sizwe Bansi is Dead, and exposes tacit, discreet but mythically destructive avenues that Athol Fugard, Wiston Ntshona and John Kani opine oppressors have always archetypically drawn from. The paper allows that freedom is possible if the oppressed are introspective, creative, focussed, and do not get themselves lost in the 'dangerous dreams' of their oppressors. They must, like Styles, Sizwe and Buntu in the examined text, be able to create, archetypically too, like their oppressors, new songs, new myths and new weaponry and strategies to unchain themselves.
The lack of local literature bedevilled African and Nigerian literatures for a long time. This co... more The lack of local literature bedevilled African and Nigerian literatures for a long time. This contributed in no small measure to a few critics averring that Africa and Nigeria lack literature of any major type especially of the traditional form. The twentieth century Onitsha Market Literature in Nigeria which came in pamphlets, novellas, and chap-books is just an example to disprove this assertion. Within this traditional but regional literature is a compilation of oral literary sourced works and documented solutions to modern life issues. It is a potpourri of life experiences of Nigerians within the colonial and post-colonial life. This paper, through pedagogical and bibliographical modes, situates the development and effect of this onerous popular fictional phenomenon as a relevant precursor to the origin and development of not only present day Nigerian Literature but also to a large extent, to the Anglophone West African Literature.
The Journal of Pan-African Studies, 2013
For more than half a century, the Nigerian socio-political landscape had been occupied by militar... more For more than half a century, the Nigerian socio-political landscape had been occupied by military adventurists and aberrant politicians – both betrayers of the nation. The people and the country have, therefore, been on the receiving end of different uncaring governments. The onus to call these rulers and sometimes, even the ruled, to order has most times fallen on the Nigerian artistes, - a major part of who are poets. These set of writers have, for the period under review, been recorders, critics and way-showers to all involved in the development of Nigeria. This paper avers that the Nigerian poet has also gone a step further by not just writing and complaining but by also proffering ways out of the imbroglio the country has been enmeshed in by its near inept leadership. Through the various poems examined in this paper, Nigerian poets have proved to be visionaries and inspirers for the citizenry who dream of a better country.
The lack of local literature bedevilled African and Nigerian literatures for a long time. This co... more The lack of local literature bedevilled African and Nigerian literatures for a long time. This contributed in no small measure to a few critics averring that Africa and Nigeria lack literature of any major type especially of the traditional form. The twentieth century Onitsha Market Literature in Nigeria which came in pamphlets, novellas, and chap-books is just an example to disprove this assertion. Within this traditional but regional literature is a compilation of oral literary sourced works and documented solutions to modern life issues. It is a potpourri of life experiences of Nigerians within the colonial and post-colonial life. This paper, through pedagogical and bibliographical modes, situates the development and effect of this onerous popular fictional phenomenon as a relevant precursor to the origin and development of not only present day Nigerian Literature but also to a large extent, to the Anglophone West African Literature.
Leadership is meant to affect positively the lives of the led (Nelson 2003: 51; Winston & Ryan 20... more Leadership is meant to affect positively the lives of the led (Nelson 2003: 51; Winston & Ryan 2008: 213; Greenleaf 2010: 89). Rhetoric is inextricably linked to the quest for leadership, for those who seek to become 'gods' in an allegorical state. They are also established as leaders based on prejudiced myths and the twisted set of criteria that constructs, for the led, a dubious psychology of honour, namely, ethnicity, religion, wealth and others. Tewfik al-Hakim's Fate of a Cockroach examines different types of leadership positions - family, political, sexual and religious - through the absurdist dramatic worlds of humans and animals (delineated in the text as cockroaches and ants). The work reflects and refracts the Egyptian government and people (the leaders and the led) as its immediate foci. It is a representation of undertakings within the Egyptian family, political, economic and religious leadership and followership landscapes which have global consequences. It ...
Matatu
The Nigerian political milieu has, for more than five decades since independence, been bedevilled... more The Nigerian political milieu has, for more than five decades since independence, been bedevilled by adventurist civilian and military leaders, coups d’ état, and a seemingly ‘docile’ citizenry (who receive the ‘fallout’ of bad governance). This political landscape saw a handful of democratic governments (two overthrown by putsch). These leadership swaps have resulted in no major changes in the socio-political and economic lives of the led. In his poem collection Songs of Odamolugbe, Ademola Dasylva explores imagery, realistic symbolism, and revolutionary poetry to paint, recall, and re-live various past and present debilitating national issues engendered by groups and personalities. This essay draws on Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of the unconscious. Freud distinguishes between psychoanalysis as i) a method for investigating unconscious mental processes and ii) a method for treating neurotic disorders. There is the subtle examination of the mental workings of the leaders...
The study of myths has generated critical attentions as scholars have attempted to discern encode... more The study of myths has generated critical attentions as scholars have attempted to discern encoded meanings behind the different codes designed to pass on messages, secular or spiritual, across generations. This paper, through the examination of Efua T. Sutherland"s The Marriage of Anansewa, situates mythic tendencies and reveals mythographic meanings in the lives of Ghanaians (Africans). The findings show that encoded in the work are the beliefs accrued from past experiences of the Ghanaian (Akan) people to be used in all facets of their lives: not only for the present but also for the future. The symbols and encrypted messages, which are decoded with the use of the archetypal model, are found and shown to have, and still have impact, on the lives of Africans in general, and Ghanaians (Akans) in particular.
Society has always been developed by conservatives and the progressives under differing ideologie... more Society has always been developed by conservatives and the progressives under differing ideologies. Usually both hold to diverse mythic traditions which influence their world-views. This is extremely reflected in 'Zulu Sofola's Wedlock of the Gods. The two main characters (and a few others) become epitomes of an ideology wanting development while others demand maintaining the status quo. This struggle becomes depicted in the mourning archetype and the mythic taboo-breaking issue that nearly tears the people apart along with far-reaching implications for the individuals and the community. Heroism is accessed by the record-breaking but negatively regarded actions of the heroes. Each character becomes a mythic symbol in this examination of a community's struggle for development superimposed on the positioning theory. This paper adjudges that a society can progress when individuals make personal sacrifices through the acting out of their beliefs thereby effecting changes in mythic stories, symbols and meanings to reflect and affect ongoing sociological realities. Jung maintains that literary works contain strange forms, and thoughts which may only be understood by intuition: their language is full of images and symbols that express something unknown. A psychoanalyst treats symbols as "the intimation[s] of a meaning beyond the level of our present power of comprehension". For him / her the symbols employed by a poet or prose writer are deeply rooted in the realm of "unconscious mythology", whose "primordial images" are "the common heritage of mankind" (Jung 1993: 80).
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Papers by Prof. Stephen O Solanke