The Monster in Patriarchy-A Thematic Review of Novels of Three Female African Writers (Published)
For the most of history the female has been largely disadvantaged in terms of social standing or status as well as fundamental legal rights, compared to their male counterparts. The continuity of this trend of the female being a second class human, is fuelled by traditional, cultural, and religious beliefs of mostly patriarchal societies. The theory under application in this write-up is the radical feminist approach. The paper seeks to explore how patriarchy, being an aspect of culture, helps to paint or make the woman inferior in the light of their male counterparts. This theoretical approach has been sufficiently explored in the work of Nawal El Sadaawi entitled, “A woman at point Zero” (1983), Buchi Emecheta’s “The joys of motherhood” (1979) and Amma Darko’s “Beyond the Horizon” (1995), among other literary works. The efforts made by the female towards becoming independent from men, have also been closely looked into. Sexual abuse, polygamy, female genital mutilation, widowhood rites and the “trokosi” tradition (Ghana) are among several other socio-cultural factors that set the tone for the oppression, under-rating, malhandling and general discrimination against women in the stories selected in this study. The theories of feminism and literary criticisms have been implied in this study.
Keywords: Culture, Feminist Approach, Patriarchy, oppression.
Language and Culture as Conflict Resolution Tools: Rethinking English as Lingua Franca (Published)
Language as a structure of meaning giving and reality creation is composed of words, phrases and sentences. Humans’ communications are based on these features to describe an event, explain one’s emotions, needs, interests and fears etc. Language is used to resolve or escalate dispute. People from different culture and social units perceive the world through the lens provided by their distinctive languages. Meaning that language provides repertoire of words that name the categories into which the language users have divided their world. In fact, definitions of words are linguistically, culturally and contextually bound. This is because words carry meanings that make sense to members of a shared social environment. Dispute resolution relies heavily on words (language). However, there is an underlying assumption in Nigeria that all these words should be in English – the second language. The researcher posits that if English is to be a conflict resolution tool in Nigeria. It must accommodate the diversity of culture and language usage. The paper therefore explores the challenges of English language in intercultural conflict resolution, and emphasizes the need to consider the different uses of the language in national and transnational conflict resolution.
Keywords: Conflict Resolution, Culture, English, Language, Lingua Franca
LANGUAGE, THE INDIVIDUAL, SOCIETY AND CULTURE CONSTITUTE A UNIQUE APPROACH, CONGENIAL FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS (Published)
A formidable unique effect is expected when language, individual, society and culture are studied together. The result shows that languages reflect rather than create social-cultural regularities in values and orientations than has previously been identified. Language has profound influence on an individual’s self-image. Interpersonal events help to set the stage. The characteristics of languages are regarded more as indicators of social relationship. Anthropology attributes to language teaching such importance as it does to the grammatical or phonological aspect. Added, fieldwork expects familiarity with the tribal language. For example, an expression in a primitive language may be totally unintelligible unless considered in its cultural context and related to circumstances in which it occurs. This makes language a guide to social reality and a symbolic guide to culture. Culture indeed satisfies both the basic and integrative needs of the individual and society. Consequently, language, the individual, society and culture constitute a unique approach, congenial to language teachers.
Keywords: Culture, Individual, Language, Language Teachers, Society, cultural competence