Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS)

From the Editorial Team

Akosua Adomako Ampofo — 2024-03-30

An Account of Leteh Language Context

Mercy Akrofi Ansah — 2024-03-30

In this paper we present the context or the environment in which Lɛtɛ is spoken, rather than the structure of the language. In presenting the context of the language, the paper sheds light on the extent to which Lɛtɛ language context contributes to the status and use of the language. Lɛtɛ (Kwa: South Guan) is a less-studied language spoken in only one town, Larteh, in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Its linguistic neighbours are mostly Akan-speaking towns. The vitality status of Lɛtɛ is pegged at 6a, and described as vigorous. However, literature on African linguistics indicates that work on Lɛtɛ is lacking. Available literature on Lɛtɛ has focused on aspects of the grammar and social life, and has not considered the interrelationship of the two. Other interesting aspects of the language context the paper discusses are the migration history of Larteh; the linguistic neighbourhood of Larteh; the interaction of education, culture and religion at Larteh; and social organization. We adopt an approach in anthropological linguistics: ‘language and thought’ in our discussion’. The paper, among other things, reports societal changes that have occurred over the years in Larteh and how the changes could affect the status of Lɛtɛ over time. The paper makes use of both primary and secondary data. We conclude that the context of a language and the dynamics of the former could have significant impact on its status and use.

The Yùngbà Panegyric Poem: A Metatext Of The Ọ̀yọ́ Empire

Nana Aba Bentil-Mawusi — 2024-03-30

THE YÙNGBÀ PANEGYRIC POEM: A METATEXT OF THE Ọ̀YỌ́ EMPIRE

ABSTRACT

In line with previous studies (Quint 1993, Stetkevych, S. 2002, Bauman and Briggs 1990), which have established the relationship between genre and ideology, this paper is founded on the premise that the literary form and content of the Yungba panegyric poem is intimately related to the idea of Yoruba-Oyo imperial hegemony. The paper starts with the argument that the Yungba panegyric is a metatext. The study defines a metatext as an independent text created in relation to an extant text called a prototext, either as a commentary to (Genette 1997) or a translation (Popovic 1976) of the extant prototext. Linking metatext to the reputation of a text, the study maintains that the subject of the metatext, the Alaafin’s (king’s) name (reputation), is judged by the volume and ingenuity of the poems composed in his name and his empire. Put differently, the heroic deeds of the king are the main text, which in turn earn the Alaafin a metatext of praise names and epithets, which go on to form the basis of the composition of the Yungba praise poem Finally, the paper argues that the Yungba is not just a metatext, but that it is a metatext of empire—specifically a metatext of the Oyo empire. The Yungba promulgates a myth of kingship that legitimizes the king (Stetkevych 2002). The way the Yungba is constituted as text (Barber 1999), is a reflexive process on the part of the poet, who is conscious of empire as she weaves her metatext to validate Oyo imperial hegemony. The Empire is in fact the reason for the existence of the royal Yungba panegyric genre and vice versa.

Keywords: Yungba metatext Oyo-Yoruba praise poetry metatextuality praise names

Through a Glass Darkly: Grassroots Theology and the Music of Ghanaian Hip-Life Artist Kofi Kinaata

Joshua Settles — 2024-03-30

One scarcely finds Christian Theology, the Arts, and African Tradition linked together or brought into dialogue in any formal way. The very idea that these have anything to do with one another might be seen as anathema by many African arts scholars and practitioners as well as African Christian theologians. In this paper, I utilize the concept of grassroots theology to explore, in a preliminary way, how such theology emerges from what would not ordinarily be considered sources for Christian theological reflection. I do this by dilating on the limitations of traditional sources of theological reflection, and how these limitations hinder a robust engagement with African cultural resources. I then proceed to analyse the lyrics from selected songs in the discography of Ghanaian hip-life artist Kofi Kinaata, identifying salient theological themes, as well as some pointers for future enquiry.

“I don’t want my children to grow up there”: Counter-Narratives to Migration by University Students in Ghana

Kajsa Hallberg Adu — 2024-03-30

Despite mobile students from the global south being a key feature of globalization of higher education, their voices are underrepresented in the International Student Migration (ISM) discourse. In ISM literature, the reasons and motivations for university students’ mobility is discussed as adventure, exposure to new cultures and languages, however rarely with a focus on students from the global south. Migration studies more broadly has recently expanded beyond migrants themselves to include prospective migrants and even the society they live in. This paper builds on this development and uses narratives from undergraduate students, not necessarily prospective migrants, from Ghana to make a contribution from students in the global south to explore their migration aspirations. Ghanaian students at the public University of Ghana and private Ashesi University were interviewed in focus-groups about migration as an option. This study contextualizes students' migration aspirations within a critical view of global knowledge production, employs self-reflexive methodology with roots in feminism, and centers the students and their narratives. My findings reveal diversity and contradictions: students speak about migration in simple terminology suggesting perhaps the quotidian quality of the conversation, but also harbor distinct views on migration connected to class and identity including various reservations or indeed counter-narratives to migration.

The evolution of “new” political-religious actors and the interplay of international and internal factors: The case of Mali.

Beatriz Mesa García — 2024-03-30

For the last years, contemporary North Africa has been an ideal vantage point from which to observe international and regional influences at play in the processes of regimen change, transitions and in the evolution of political actors. However, not enough academic literature has been produced about the Sahel as a new space to observe the domestic and international arenas in the field of political Islam. The study of the evolution of religious actors in the Sahel region needs to take the form of a historical retrospective of the Maghreb due to the cultural interaction of both geographies (North Africa and Sahel) that begins with the spread of Islam through commercial exchanges in both directions before the Middle Ages. In this paper, we will see the significant effect of the international dimension in the evolution of political-religious actors in the Malian landscape. Indeed, a rivalry between traditional brotherhoods, Wahhabism (reformist tendency) and Shiism has engendered a political emergency among the religious actors that has permitted a new debate about the future pattern of Political Islam. The three leaders, above all, the representative of the Wahhabi current, have found a new window of opportunity to attain more power level and be more influential. This window was flung wide open after the 2012 outbreak of the crisis in northern Mali, once more following the degradation of the security in the centre of the country in 2016 and more recently, on the heels of a coup d’état against the president, Ibrahim Boubakar Keita in August of 2020.

'In my father’s house’: Conceptualising the Pragmatics of Cognitions

Papaa Bunmi — 2024-03-30

In this research, I adapt the Oyeleyian sense of “my father’s house” thoroughly to a pragmatic axis, using as a springboard the basic cognitive pragmatic content of the structure and lexical preference of biblical authors and translators. I situate words of English in single ‘nature’ cognition of all categories of speakers (native, non-native, educated and uneducated) and locate the processing of their meaning within ‘nurture’, which operationally presupposes nature in the first language speaker sense. I argue that what is said and what is understood may or may not jibe, which does not necessarily imply communicative incompetence on the part of any of the interactants, but rather is a function of either party’s exposure to the language and the degree of influence of the exposure in the environment of cultivation. I conclude that a ‘pragmatics of cognitions’, based on the non-native speaker processing of English words is possible, and that this, of necessity, in large measure, neutralises the concept of lexical errors.