NATIVIZATION OF ENGLISH IN AFRICAN LITERARY TEXTS: A LEXICO-SEMANTIC STUDY OF TRANSLITERATION IN GABRIEL OKARA’S THE VOICE EBI YEIBO
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Every Literary text is constructed with language. Therefore, it is imperative to determine how a particular writer has utilized the potentials of language to negotiate meaning(s) for his text This thesis is anchored on the premise that, as Brumfit and Carter (1986) put it, we need to show “how what is said is said and how meanings are made” within the psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic ambience of the text. As a bilingual and bicultural text, the structure of language use in Okara’s The Voice “calls attention to itself” (Murakarovsky, 1964:58), in the sense that the author manipulates and adapts the rhythm, register, syntax and semantics of the English Language to the linguistic and cultural nuances of his native ijaw Language. Specifically, the peculiarity of Okara’s linguistic style in the text under study is a product of, or direct response to, the lingering problem of language in African literature. This problem borders on whether or not the colonial linguistic media (i.e. Portuguese, English, French etc), would be able to adequately and authentically express the socio-cultural and linguistic realities of the African continent. Scott (1990) refers to it as:
….the long-standing debate among critics of African literature over the relation between African authors and the colonial linguistic legacy.
This debate which has dominated Africa literature in the past fifty years (Osundare, 2004), stems from the recognition among African scholars/writers of the centrality of language to literature, and the close connection between political independence and cultural emancipation. As literary works are cultural artifacts, the basic thinking is that, the use of colonial languages in African literature is a willing perpetuation of imperialism. Significantly, there has been a sustained polarity of opinion about the appropriate attitude the African writer should adopt to this phenomenon. These range from the fervidly nationalist to the stridently compromising. Osundare (2004) identifies three “attitudes” viz: (i) accomodationist, (ii) gradualist, and (iii) radicalist.
According to this scholar, the first group (i.e. accommodationist), which has as its chief promoter, Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal, favours an outright use of imperialist languages; while the “gradualists” are “the dwellers of the middle of the road”, prominent among whom is Ali Mazrui who advocates a de-Anglicization and re- Africanization of the English language, to authentically convey Africa’s literary sensibilities. The third group, on the other hand, is the “radicalist” composed of writers who call for an immediate adoption of indigenous African languages as the media of literary expression. Obi Wali and Ngugi Wa Thiongo are proponents and exponents of this attitude. Instructively, majority of African writers belong to the “gradualist” group identified above (i.e. indigenizing the colonial language).
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Gabriel Okara, Chinua Achebe, Amos Tutuola, Elechi Amadi, J.P. Clark-Bekederemo, Kofi Awoonor, etc. all fall into this category. In the main, this linguistic constraint would have informed the device of “transliteration” adopted in Okara’s The Voice.
On his part, Ushie (2001), summarizes some of the major positions canvassed by scholars on the problem of language in African literature as follows:
a) Those who, following Obi Wali, have continued to advocate the use of African indigenous languages, e.g.
Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Immeh Ikiddeh. b) Those who have followed the sophisticated formal English expression e.g. Okigbo, Soyinka, Dennis
Brutus, J.P. Clark-Bekederemo, e.t.c. c) Those who, following Janheiz Jahn, have suggested that European languages, for instance, English, be used in such a way that languages bear the African cultural experience while remaining intelligible internationally. Chinua Achebe‟s novels, especially Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, and the poetry of Okot P „Bitek and Kofi Awoonor illustrate this category. d) Those who advocate transliteration as a way of keeping intact African cultural heritage while using
foreign words, e.g. Gabriel Okara, AS illustrated in his novel, The Voice e) Those who may be described as following a plural code e.g. Ken Saro Wiwa (whose literary oeuvre is a pot-pourri of linguistic codes with which he has experimented in his work. His novel, Sozaboy, for instance, comes in Nigerian pidgin English; his poetry collection Songs in a Time of war, is in both Nigerian “Standard” English and in Nigerian pidgin English; while several of his biographical works are in sophisticated Nigerian English, just as his posthumously published novel.
Generally, it is germane to note that African scholars who advocate the use of indigenous languages are goaded on by nationalist sentiments, while their counterparts who favour colonial languages place a high premium on the global intelligibility and outreach of a work of art.