Fearless song

Máire Bhuí Ní Laeire, a farmer’s wife who could neither read nor write, gained great acclaim in the oral tradition from the late eighteenth century due to her exceptional abilities at song making and the uncompromising disdain for the colonial establishment expressed therein. Her compositions are most closely associated with the period from the 1820s onward when the Rockite agrarian movement was at its strongest, and when millenarian belief was widespread among members of that agrarian secret society. Her songs represent an alternative tradition of thought that lived in the elusive moment of performance itself, fostered by a rich oral culture that existed parallel to official written accounts. In this unofficial, though highly influential, sphere of idea-making, the illiterate female song poet would engage with the most pressing political concerns of her community and society, demonstrating the sheer power of song for political engagement and thought formation. Three key elements of Ní Laeire’s work and legacy will be considered herein: oral aesthetics, oral composition, and training; representations of prophecy and parrhesia in the songs themselves; and a re-appraisal of the role of the illiterate Irish-speaking female song poet in the history of anti-colonial thought and activism.

Practitioners and Uses of Contemporary Mende Folk literature in South-Eastern Sierra Leone

The study examined the practitioners and uses of contemporary Mende folk literature in South-eastern Sierra Leone. A qualitative research design involving 250 participants from 50 communities with 5 participants from each community was used in the study. Interviews were carried out using interview guide questions relating to folk practices, performance, and uses in the selected communities. Focus group discussions followed the interviews in 10 communities selected using simple random techniques. The findings revealed that Mende folk literature was endangered and, apart from occasional singing, household story-telling and riddling sessions done mainly by children and women, the only groups of people recognized as practitioners of Mende folk literature were the tribal and secret society heads and the community's griots, who mostly were elderly people. Mende folk literature should not only be of academic interest but rather a source of cultural rejuvenation. Received: 26 July 2021 / Accepted: 27 September 2021 / Published: 5 November 2021

Cultural Dominance and Language Endangerment: The case of Efut in Cross River State, Nigeria

The Efut culture, and by extension language, seems to have been mortally threatened after their speakers’ migration to Nigeria from Cameroun in the 16th Century. The linguistic situation resulting in language shift was especially exacerbated in the last seven decades, largely due to the dominant cultural influence of Efik, Ibibio and English. The most ostensive vestige of the language manifests in the Ekpe ‘Leopard’ secret society songs, rituals and proverbs (performed by, and intelligible mostly to octogenarians). The Efut language sociolinguistic status is between post moribund and dead stage(s). This paper attempts, therefore, to x-ray ways to revitalize and revive it. Two such revival strategies are the use of digital communication technology and Efut in Nollywood movies. Data for this work came mainly from songs, proverbs, interviews, wordlist and available historical literature. The prognosis for reviving Efut appears realistically poor, at present. However, with appropriate input and pragmatic will from all stakeholders, it would be hasty, uncharitable, to consign the language to irreversible extinction. This optimism is sustainable only if language engineers, policymakers and the Efut nation do not continue to sit on the fence.