Ibadan Journal of English Studies

PROTEST POETICS IN SO RO SÓKÈ: AN #ENDSARS ANTHOLOGY

Rita O. Okonoboh-Fagbayi — 2026-09-04

Language use in literary works have consistently engaged with societal realities, including pressing concerns on security in contemporary Nigeria, resulting in civic debate and demonstrations such as the #EndSARS protests. Existing studies on literary pragmatics have focused largely on elements that emphasise meaning, such as linguistic choice, characterisation techniques, and meaning constructions in socio-cultural contexts. There has, however, been limited attention to how poetic language reflects resistance to extrajudicial violence, conflict, profiling, and delayed access to justice. This paper, therefore, examines selected poems in Soro s ókè: An #EndSARS Anthology (Soro s ókè), with a view to analysing how imagery, symbolism, irony, and allusion are foregrounded through pragmatic expressions represented in tense, punctuation, and pronouns, in determining how poetic language shapes public perception of security matters. This study adopts pragmatic concepts foregrounded by Mey (2001) which provides the framework for a reader-based interpretation of linguistic-literary signifiers. Findings reveal the use of alternating tense constructions to portray imagery, symbolism and ironical stance in highlighting past and current social realities related to the #EndSARS protests. Pragmatic expressions such as ellipsis and personal pronouns indicate representational references to poetic imagery and allusion, as contextualised in personalised and solidarity perspectives of extrajudicial brutality. With a deployment of literary pragmatics, especially as it relates to the sensory/imaginative and the semiotic/symbolic, this study explores linguistic strategy through literary lens in selected poems from Soro s ókè, to make a case for how understanding language use in literary contexts can foster national and, by extension, global security.

ANONYMOUS IDENTITY AND BONDING IN ELNATHAN JOHN'S BORN ON A TUESDAY

Ayotomiwa Odebunmi — 2026-09-03

The activities of the almajirai in Northern Nigeria, especially their infamous association with violent acts, have become a critical subject in contemporary Nigerian literature. Extant studies have focused on terrorism and violence with reference to Niger Delta insurgency, Boko Haram terrorist acts, among others. This research, however, explores the interconnection between terrorism in the North and the activities of the almajirai, using El-Nathan John's Born on a Tuesday. The aim is to critically examine how the almajirai's structurally imposed anonymity triggers a crisis of identity disintegration, which leaves them vulnerable to mislabelling and social alienation. This research adopts a psychoanalytical and fundamentalist framework to investigate the internal and external mechanisms driving the alamajirai youth toward political violence. With respect to methodology, this study critically explores the selected texts Born on a Tuesday, due to the import of psychological factors that strengthens the bond among the almajirai. Finally, the study highlights the fundamentalist and psychosocial factors that propel the almajirai into terrorism. The findings of the study reveal that the anonymous identity usually given to the almajirai makes them prone to mislabelling. It is also discovered that emotional and other psychological vulnerabilities make them easy recruits for religious extremists, terrorists and corrupt government officials. The almajirai ought to be seen, first, as normal human beings; so this study shifts focus away from the presentation of the boys as dangerous and destructive and, instead, reviews their place in the society, exploring their private lives that have hitherto not been adequately accounted for.

'SHOULD YOU BE UNFORTUNATE?’: EMOTIONAL IDENTITY IN NIGERIAN ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION CENTRES

Simeon Ajiboye — 2026-09-03

Emotional language is central to identity construction in any adjudication setting, which essentially a negotiated process compared to a courtroom is setting. Previous studies have focused on the use of lexical items to construct identity in the courtroom, neglecting the construction of emotional identity in adjudicative encounters, especially in Nigerian university law clinics, a popular site for dispute resolution. Therefore, this study investigated the construction of emotional identity and the pragmatic strategies used in adjudicative encounters, drawing on aspects of Interpersonal Pragmatics, Conversation Analysis, and Social Constructionist theories. Three universities: University of Ibadan (UI), Adekunle Ajasin University (AAU) and Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), where adjudication is practised in southwestern Nigeria, were purposively selected. Data comprised purposively selected taped hearing sessions and documented cases between 2010 and 2017: UI-20 sessions; AAU-one session and 10 documented cases; and OOU-20 documented cases. Three categories of emotional identities characterised the Southwestern Nigerian adjudicative encounter: furist, pugilist, and recalcitrant identities. Furist identity manifested as excessive anger; pugilist identity was divided into bellicosity and obstreperousness; and recalcitrant identity manifested as Obduracy and rigidity. Furist identity was created through the evocation of evidential sentiment, the evocation of experiential reality, and the construction of profanity; pugilist identity was generated through the construction of an enquiry proposition, the evocation of experiential reality, and the evocation of evidential sentiment. Recalcitrant identity was constructed through the construction of asseveration, biblical allusion and evocation of evidential sentiment. The study concludes that emotional identity negotiated through context-driven pragmatic resources characterised Nigerian adjudicative encounters. This indicates a relationship between language and identity and

establishes the impact of their discourse on the restoration of societal peace in Nigeria.

HUMOUR AND IDEOLOGICAL REPRESENTATION IN SELECTED COMEDY SKITS OF LAYI WASABI

Winnie Daniel Olaniru — 2026-09-05

This study examines humour and ideological representation in selected comedy skits of Nigerian content creator Layi Wasabi, investigating how he employs humour to construct, reinforce and challenge ideological positions in contemporary Nigerian society. The study integrates Attardo's General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) and Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the relationship between humour generation and ideological meanings. Data comprise 21 purposively selected skits from Layi Wasabi's official YouTube channel, from which representative excerpts were analysed. Findings reveal that Layi Wasabi's humour interrogates educational ideologies, class and economic aspirations, corruption and institutional failure, power relations and social inequalities, and religious ideologies and moral contradictions. Humour is generated through script oppositions, logical mechanisms, irony, exaggeration and linguistic creativity, while CDA demonstrates that these humorous representations function as forms of social commentary that critique societal contradictions and negotiate dominant ideological positions. The study concludes that digital comedy skits extend beyond entertainment to become significant discursive spaces for representing and challenging contemporary Nigerian social realities.

DREAMSCAPES AND IDENTITY FORMATION OF MIGRANT CHARACTERS IN SELECTED AFRICAN DIASPORIC NOVELS

Solomon Olusayo Olaniyan — 2026-09-04

Dream is a significant lens for exploring human consciousness and psychological conflict in African diasporic literature. Existing scholarship on dream in African literature has largely focused on its figurative and metaphysical interpretations as historical repositories for preserving accounts of significant past events with limited attention paid to the inner emotional landscapes of diasporic characters captured in dreams using a psychoanalytic framework. Addressing this gap, therefore, this study undertakes a psychoanalytic reading of the portrayal of migrant characters' dreamscape and identity formation in two contemporary African diasporic narratives—Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names—which are purposively selected for their in-depth representation of the intersection of dreams and identity formation. Deploying Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung's psychoanalysis, the narratives are subjected to a qualitative literary analysis. Dreams in the narratives function as symbolic sites where suppressed emotions, unresolved conflicts and fragmented identities surface through the unconscious. Gyasi foregrounds dreams as characterised by nostalgia and longing for home, while Bulawayo depict them as traumatic, nightmarish experiences that expose sufferings characters cannot consciously access. The authors deploy dreams not merely as narrative devices but as psychological portrayals of the diasporic unconscious, revealing how displacement shapes characters' lives.

“I'M TIRED OF BEING A DOCTOR'S LAB RAT”: METAPHORISING INFERTILITY IN NIGERIAN ONLINE TRYING TO CONCEIVE (TTC) DISCUSSION FORUM

Rotimi Taiwo — 2026-09-03

Trying to conceive (TTC), a hitherto covertly expressed experience in Tmany cultures has been brought to the public view through open discussions on internet message boards. The kind of discursive engagements in which metaphor is seen to be constructed in these online forums is the focus of this study. Investigating the metaphorisation strategies in these discussions by TTC persons through the lens of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Cultural Linguistics, this study discusses how participants metaphorise their experiences. The findings revealed that the physical and emotional experiences and medical procedures were constantly metaphorised in the discussions, thereby simplifying complex, often abstract medical issues to construct resilience and hope in the process of trying to conceive. The findings specifically showed that TTC is commonly metaphorically constructed as A JOURNEY, characterised by unforeseen twists, obstacles, and disappointments; a LONG SLOW PROCESS of waiting for a complex series of steps that have to align perfectly; a mental and spiritual BATTLE often fought in isolation; AN INVESTMENT, considering the emotional, physical, and financial demands, and a SHAFEFUL EXPERIENCE, due to the impression of failure and isolation TTC couples often have to face. The perceived experimental nature of assisted reproduction is also captured in the metaphorical depiction of TTC women as LABORATORY SPECIMENS, given the constant trials, monitoring and testing of different medical procedures on their bodies during fertility treatments. Other conceptual metaphorical construals include FERTILITY IS A WINDOW and MENSTRUATION IS UGLY IN TTC. The study concludes that the metaphors engender resilience and hope, and foster communal identity, as these TTC persons create shared social space for expressing commonalities and the construction of alterity in the discourse of infertility online.

A TRANSNATIONALIST READING OF MIGRATION, IDENTITY AND BELONGING IN CHIMAMANDA ADICHIE'S ZIKORA AND DREAM COUNT

Mary Bosede Aiyetoro — 2026-09-05

African prose fiction has demonstrated significant awareness towards reconstruction of African identity in migrant literature. Chimamanda Adichie, one of the incumbent migrant writers, has produced works that capture transnationalist experiences. Existing studies on her works have focused on cultural integration and gender debates with little attention on comparative study of clashes between cultural injunction and Western ideology. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the conflict between cultural values and Western ideology in the integration process of Africans in diaspora in Zikora and Dream Count by examining identity negotiation and cultural hybridity in the texts. The study adopts Transnationalist theory by Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Gristina Szanton Blanc, and the concept of hybridity by Homi Bhabha to interrogate identity negotiation and cultural hybridity of the migrant characters. The theories are selected to engage the prism of transnationalist experiences ranging from globalisation, gender reconstruction, and migrant integration in the diaspora. Qualitative research method was used to select the two texts and they are subjected to literary analysis. Zikora and Dream Count examine the clash of cultural consciousness and globalization in the integration process of Africans in the West. It is evident in the novels that identity and cultural standpoints of migrants enter dilemma which often necessitates critical reflection to (re)find their stance. Migrants are instantly struck by their exposure to the other culture and identities in the diaspora which compels them to reassess their own identity. The experiences of Zikora, Nafissatou, Amina and Chiamaka highlight the struggle for autonomy, the redefinition of cultural expectations and the constant negotiation of self that characterise the transnational condition. Their journeys are not just personal but emblematic of the broader experiences of individuals living in a transnational world, where belonging is never fixed, identity is constantly fluid and women must continuously assert their agency and reshape their roles in the family and society. Globalisation continues to shape the experiences of migrants in diaspora and reconstruction of the ideation of home and national identity sets in. The study submits that African migrant fiction engages transnational experiences like globalisation, identity negotiation and cultural hybridity as factors that precondition migrants' existence in the West.

DP MOVEMENT IN ENGLISH AND NAIJA

Akinyemi AKINMURELE — 2026-09-04

Determiner Phrase (DP) movement plays a crucial role in the description and learning of human languages such as English and an emergent language like Naija. Previous studies on syntax of Naija examined relativisation, phrase structure and question formation, with little attention paid to DP movement in Naija, which is important for understanding semantic interpretation in the language and may pose challenges to the learning of English among L1 speakers of Naija. This study, therefore, explores possible realisations of DP-movement in English and Naija, examining their areas of convergence and divergence in terms of the derivations that trigger DP movement, their syntactic features and patterns. Noam Chomsky's Minimalist Program served as the framework. Using a qualitative research approach, English data were drawn from selected English syntax textbooks authored by first language users of English, while Naija sentences were extracted from BBCNaija articles. Data gathered were subjected to syntactic analysis. The findings reveal that DP movement in both languages is triggered by passivisation, DP raising, ergativity and middle constructions. While clefting also triggers DP movement in English, such derivation is not permissible in Naija. As an alternative, Naija allows focusing, achieved through the focus marker 'na'. DP movement in both languages is constrained by Extended Projection Principle, case licensing, and locality conditions. While English permits DP raising, Naija employs periphrastic (e-be-like-say) structures. Passivisation is permissible in Naija through the application of non-Perf 'dey' as last resort. These findings contribute to the broader understanding of movement syntax in contact languages, reinforcing the role of economy and feature checking in syntactic derivation. Naija exhibits greater structural flexibility, often substituting movement with alternative strategies.

CONTEXT TYPES IN NIGERIAN PAEDIATRIC CONSULTATIONS: AN INTERACTIONAL SOCIOLINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVE

Boriwaye Adeyehun — 2026-09-03

Communication in medical encounters is shaped by the contexts in which interactions occur. This study examines the contextual configurations that structure paediatric consultations in Nigerian clinical settings. Drawing on data from 20 recorded consultations across selected hospitals in Ondo and Lagos States, the study adopts Interactional Sociolinguistics as the theoretical framework. The analysis identifies institutional and social contexts as dominant organising frameworks, realised through features such as agency and hierarchy, communality, politics and governance, and religion, which shape participant roles, interactional behaviour, and meaning-making processes. The findings reveal that paediatric consultations are deeply embedded in institutional structures that regulate participation and interaction, while still allowing for dynamic negotiation among participants. The study contributes to research on medical discourse by foregrounding context as a primary determinant of interaction in paediatric healthcare settings.

FACE MANAGEMENT IN MEDICAL ENCOUNTERS WITH PATIENTS DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH CONDITIONS IN NIGERIA

Bolanle Idowu AKEREDOLU-ALE — 2026-09-03

Patients, particularly those in psychiatric care, expect clinicians to respect their "face" (social self-image) during medical encounters. Despite mental health disorders being a leading cause of global disability , linguistic research on medical interactions in Nigeria has largely overlooked psychiatric discourse in favour of other clinical conditions. Because the negotiation of mental health diagnoses significantly impacts a patient's face, this study examines how face is managed during doctor-patient psychiatric sessions in Nigeria. Guided by Brown and Levinson's politeness theory and Arundale's face-constituting theory, this study examines how the face is negotiated in doctor-patient encounters in psychiatric sessions. The study employed qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate face negotiation in medical encounters with mental health patients in Nigeria. Findings reveal that conversational tokens such as “okay” and “yes” function as critical positive face markers. Furthermore, face support strategies are mainly engaged during phatic exchanges of medical interactions to establish a positive rapport with the patients, while face-stasis strategies dominate medical examinations through routine health status checks. Notably, face threats were entirely absent during the opening phases of the encounters. The study concludes that face negotiation is a fundamental component of effective doctor-patient communication in psychiatric settings, essential for maintaining therapeutic relationships.

STRATEGIC INTERCHANGES IN NIGERIAN ONLINE MEDICAL CONSULTATIONS

Akin Odebunmi — 2026-09-05

Extant scholarship has revealed more attention devoted to the pragmatics of in-person clinical consultations than that of online medical consultations, leaving undescribed such consultative features as strategic voicing and shared consultative salience that are considered distinctive to online consultative interactions. This study addresses the lacuna by examining the strategic interchanges between doctors and patients in Nigerian online medical consultations with a particular focus on the contexts which define consultations and the pragmatic strategies employed by online doctors in the consultations. Prior's Polyphony theory and Clark's Common Ground theory were adopted as the study's theoretical framework. Fifty (50) interchanges between doctors and patients on Nairaland were purposively sampled for analysis. The sampled interactions centred on malaria, typhoid, menstrual pain, allergic reactions and growth. Only portions relating to patients' complaints and doctors' diagnoses and recommendations were analysed. Regarding common ground, the data revealed a strategic, contextual observance of community co-membership and linguistic co- presence by means of the invocation of real and assumed doctor-patient shared knowledge of Western medical jargons and alternative practice. Concerning Polyphony, the typified social voice indicates doctors' low and high levels of commitment to professional authority, a reenvoicing of patients' therapeutic biography is predominant and personalisation is achieved more as internalisation than externalisation. The study concluded that the analysis demonstrated online consultations' affordances for exchanges of medical information, which is pragmatically assessed to match with participants' interactive designs while doctors' and patients' strategic orientations to technicality and confidentiality sometimes weaken the epistemic base of the practice and reduce its reliability in Nigeria.