AFRREV IJAH: An International Journal of Arts and Humanities

Disclosing HIV-Positive Status: What Do Questions Have to Do with It?

2020-04-28T09:32:26+00:00

This article discussed the need to ask questions among people living with HIV to facilitate disclosure. This is because disclosure of a HIV-positive status is an important tool for prevention of HIV and early treatment, many people who know their status do not disclose to their spouse or sexual partners. Disclosure would not only protect the spouse from risk of infection and if already infected be able to access treatment, support and care but also promote adherence to antiretroviral therapy. The paper looked at questioning as an important communication skill that can facilitate disclosure. This paper is based on a larger qualitative study that investigated the factors influencing disclosure of HIV-positive status to spouses among people living with HIV in Kirinyaga County in Kenya. Data was collected using semistructured In-Depth Interviews. The paper argued that questions play a crucial role in disclosure of a HIV-positive status in accessing information which would otherwise be unavailable about the HIV-positive status of their spouses and suggests incorporation of communication skills on questioning and disclosure at the comprehensive care Centre services.

Key Words: HIV disclosure, person living with HIV, questioning, spouses, psychological safety

Roles of Perceived Locus of Causality, Social Distance and Gender on Willingness to Volunteer in Nigeria Local Community

2020-04-28T09:54:01+00:00

The present study investigated potential enhancement factors in relation to volunteerism. Specifically, we examined how perceived locus of causality, social distance and gender may influence willingness to volunteer help for victims of road accident. The study was based on a controlled experiment among students of a university (N = 80). Hypotheses were tested simultaneously in a univariate analysis which showed non-significant influence of perceived locus of causality (H1, p > .05); significant influence of social distance (H2, p < .05); non-significant influence of gender (H3, p > .05); significant interaction of perceived locus of causality and gender (p < .01), and significant interaction of perceived locus of causality, social distance and gender on willingness to volunteer (H4, p < .01). That is, people were more willing to help when those in need are related to them. The present study contributes to theory within this research field which explain African disposition by showing that kinship and familiarity are significant predictors of willingness to provide help for victims of disaster. However, the researchers encourage all Nigerians to look beyond family ties and affiliations in providing help to people in need.

Key Words: Volunteerism; Social distance; Perceived locus of causality; Gender; Nigeria; Local culture

Application of Resource–Based Learning (RBL) in Nigerian Language Teaching and Learning: The Case of Ìgbò Language

2020-04-28T10:01:54+00:00

In this technological dispensation, foreign languages are already on board with ICT applications and advancement with different language courses online thereby encouraging independent study of these languages. Teaching and learning of Nigerian languages cannot be said to be at a comparable rank with these foreign languages in this respect. In view of the seemingly lack of interest in the Nigerian languages study ad usage, it is believed that the application of Resource-Based Learning in this scenario will rekindle interest as well as place Nigerian languages study in a comparable terrain with their foreign languages’ counterparts. This paper explored the possibility of applying Resource-Based Learning in the teaching and learning of Nigerian languages in this ICT dispensation. It is delimited to the application of RBL on the teaching/learning of Ìgbò grammar, culture and literature. Recommendations include creating of online Ìgbò grammar lessons, running audio/visual documentaries and cutting/burning into CDs, different cultural activities, different aspects of Ìgbò oral literature like, folksongs, folktales, ballads, anecdotes, lullabies, satires, getting learners to act out same etc. Text writers are encouraged to develop varieties of children’s literature and story books.

Key Words: Resource-based Learning, teaching, learning and Ìgbò language.

Brechtian Methodology in Wise’s The Sound of Music: Insights into Theatre in Education

2020-04-28T10:17:45+00:00

Methods are problem solving devices for the benefit of education in society. When a method assumes regimental fixations, society suffers hackneyed bouts of limitation and contention necessitating flux. This paper examines issues of regimentalism as they affect society in Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music, and the staccato notes of change inevitably mobilizing a Brechtian methodological reading amplifying social change, in a Theatre in Education performance. Bertolt Brecht (1898-1965), accomplished German director, playwright and theorist, mobilized theatre for social change by setting up Marxist dialectics in pursuit of retrenchment of total empathy; giving free reign to critical consciousness in theatrical productions. This paper has investigated analytically, the representations of this Brechtian methodology in The Sound of Music with the manifest result that the experiment in the movie has produced a healthier and better organized society than the German regimental machine.

Key Words: Education, Theatre in Education, Brecht, Alienation Effect, Social Change, Family, Critical, Learning and Socialization

The Socio-Cultural Implications of Odezuruigbo Cultural Dance Music in Awka, Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State

2020-04-28T10:25:01+00:00

Music is an integral part of everyday life in Awka traditional community. It is a very important aspect of their culture. Music accompanies every socio-cultural activity of the people. Consequently, there are varieties of musical types practiced by various categories of people in Awka. This paper is concerned with activities of Odezuruigbo Cultural Dance Music, an outstanding women music group in Awka. It discussed amongst other things the organization and the socio-cultural implications of odezuruigbo cultural dance music. Data for this study were drawn from fieldwork, oral interview and review of related literature. The findings of this study revealed that the impact of odezuruigbo dance group in the life of Awka community is indispensable. It also revealed that some gender dichotomies in the use of some local musical instruments are gradually becoming insignificant. This study recommended that the practice of those socio-cultural festivals which promote the traditional music and dance of the people be encouraged.

Key Words: activity, culture, cultural dance, dance music, and odezuruigbo

Emurobome Idolor and the Discourse of Nigerian Art Music: A 60th Birthday Celebration

2020-04-28T12:03:50+00:00

This article focused on some of the contributions of Emurobome Idolor in the Nigerian music studies. His scholarly contributions cut across different areas of Art Music including Ethnomusicology, Music Composition, Conducting, African Music and Music education in Nigeria. This article identifies and acknowledges the ideological concept of Idolor’s Philosophy towards excellence. Also, this article justified and abstracted some musical attributes that he portrayed as a scholar in Nigerian Art music. Empirical method of research was used for this study, through the holistic overview of some of his scholarly publications and two of his art music compositions titled “Glory Hallelujah and Nigeria’ Otoro So Owan. Through abstractive analysis of these creative works, younger art composers will learn and acquire divers’ compositional techniques that can be used and adopted in promoting African indigenous music.

Key Words: Hard Work, Philosophical Perspective, Art Music and African Music

Nationalising Intangible Cultural Heritage in Nigeria for Optimised Cultural Tourism: The Zangbeto Model

2020-04-28T10:36:28+00:00

This paper evaluates developments in the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) discourse with particular reference to Nigeria, with a view to identifying challenges to its proper conservation and management on the one hand, and projecting its potential for optimised cultural tourism on the other. Along with an overview of the ICH industry in Nigeria, the Zangbeto masked tradition of the Ogu of south-western Nigeria was proposed as an example of the nation’s many intangible cultural heritage models and expressions that could be engineered through nationalisation for enhanced cultural tourism, national development and unity, and international collaboration. Through a triangulation of the phenomenological and case study approaches, complemented by a hermeneutical investigation of some significant themes on the subject, this paper explored the background to the UNESCO Convention on ICH and the attendant conceptual developments and critical junctures in the ICH discourse. It also examined the issue of ICH’s under representation in micro and macro strategies for social and economic development, reconceptualise nationalisation to accommodate specific anthropological concerns, and went on to propose a nationalisation-based analysis and management framework for the celebration, evaluation, effective conservation, preservation and management of Nigeria’s ICH with the Zangbeto tradition as a cultural model.

Key Words: Nationalisation; Zangbeto; Intangible Cultural Heritage; Cultural Tourism;Analysis and Management Frameworks.

Aspects of the Grammar of Past Tense and the Present Perfective Aspect in English and Echie: A Contrastive Account

2020-04-28T10:45:13+00:00

The absence of a parallel equivalence in the grammar of past tense and perfective aspect in English and Echie is significantly responsible for the errors that occur in the related sentences of the Echie second language learners of English. This article is a contrastive analysis of the grammar of past tense and present perfect tense in English and Echie and it highlighted the structural specifics of each of the languages. Using the descriptive research design, the data for this study were gathered through the primary sources (ten competent native speakers of Echie were interviewed) and the secondary sources (examples generated from textual materials). Our description showed a complete range of morphological differences in past tense and present perfect tense of English and Echie as seen in the use of 1st, 2nd and 3rd persons singular and plural respectively. The paper concludes that the parametric variation in the past tense and perfective aspect of English and Echie languages show that every language is unique in some sort.

Key Words: Contrastive, grammar, tense, parametric, descriptive, interference; language.

When Enough is Enough: Breaking Free from Intimate Partner Violence in YejideKilanko’s Chasing Butterflies

2020-04-28T10:54:47+00:00

Gender-based violence has become a common feature in gender relations globally, with women as the main victims. However, despite the fact that violence against women has been recognized as a violation of their human rights, the African society, in particular, is still plagued by gendered violence particularly in families. Adopting postmodern feminism as a theoretical framework, this article examines Kilanko’s portrayal of the devastating impact of gender-based violence, particularly intimate partner violence, on the female protagonist in Chasing Butterflies. In so doing, it establishes that dominant gendered norms and unequal power relations between men and women in the African society are the root causes of violence against women in intimate partner relationships such as marriage. The article, therefore, explores avenues of awareness-raising in the novel, as well as options and resources through which women can be effectively empowered to confront and surmount their status as victims leading to the realization of their rights and freedom.

Forces and Flaws in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and Idu

2020-04-28T11:04:34+00:00

Considering her unique position as the premier African woman to publish a novel in English, given, also, her relatively artistic delineation of the African woman’s experience at a time when there is a dearth of female voice on that topic; when works of the male authors generally denigrate women, Flora Nwapa receives a commendable level of attention from critics all over the world. While most of the critics appreciate her for drawing attention to the strength and challenges of the African woman, others fault her for the absence of literary dexterity in her narrative. But for some critics’ romance with Uhamiri, not enough attention, relatively, has been given to the intrinsic and extrinsic forces surrounding Nwapa as a writer and how she manages these forces in plot development. Thus, this paper addresses this concern through the analysis of her foremost works, Efuru andIdu. Certain oversights are, also, noted some of which result from her deliberate or unconscious attempt to handle the forces that influence her. This is to draw attention to a writer’s conscious or unconscious struggle with forces, natural or supernatural, and, also, point to certain flaws, in Nwapa’s narrative, for the advancement of scholarship. The choice of Nwapa and her first two novels derives from the need to approach a relatively new topic from the beginning.

Key Words: Forces, flaws, tradition, love, muse, influence.

Traditional Theatrical Practices in a Receding Economy: A Focus on TombianaEgbelegbeFestival of Rivers State

2020-04-28T11:24:08+00:00

Lack of cultural reality has often led to recession in most developing societies as perceived in cultural studies. However, traditional adaptations are often deployed to cushion and possibly reverse the severity of recession across time and space. Instances of such reversals include the Chinese reversal to Confucianism, the Indian resort to Hinduism and the traditional African invocation of ancestral myths, religious observances and festivals. From the re-enactment of the procreative Tombiana Egbelegbe festival we have seen that traditional value creates order and social cohesion in African societies. A reversal to these traditional means of social reengineering will endear these creative practices that create order and social cohesion in African societies. Thus, the theoretical position of Marxist cultural inquiry will be applied as the theoretical framework for this paper. The Methodology applied in this study is research participant observation and sources of data were primary and secondary sources. The findings revealed that consistently, festivals are efforts of man to alleviate human suffering, create order and control his environment through creativity and cultural resourcefulness in performance. It was recommended that given the reality that is subsisting in most Nigerian communities, agrarian festivals, innovative, resourceful and masked designs, costumes, make-up, craftsmanship, dance, and music, drum communication should be encouraged. It was thus concluded that continuous performance will lead to preservation, packaging, promotion and transmission of cultural values from one generation to another which will in turn lead to cultural tourism. Cultural tourism can lead nations out of recession and economic dependence as was experienced in the Indian and Chinese cultural revolutionary experience.

Key Words: Traditional theatrical practices, recession, human capacity development, TombianaEgbelegbe Festival

Tradition of Concubine Holding in Hausa Society (Nigeria), 1900 – 1930

2020-04-28T11:32:10+00:00

This paper examined the tradition of holding women as concubine in Muslim societies of the Hausa. Concubine holding changed the status of women and was acquired by slavery. This paper analysed concubine holding as a phenomenon that challenged female status in Hausa society. It put into perspective, the trajectories of concubine holding from the legends in the tradition of origin. It analysed the rights and privileges accrued to a concubine. And by the beginning of the twentieth century, the question of concubine holding was conveniently desirable under Islamic law and while the British law attempted to change the practices as part of efforts to abolish slavery. Thus, the paper contended that; concubine holding was part of the accepted norms in the sexual notions, which specifically privileged women to change their status and negotiate power in Hausa society. The paper adopted the historical approach by analysing court records, archival materials of the Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna, as well as books and journals relevant to the theme.

Keywords: Concubine holding, British law, Islamic law, Hausa society

Two Crucial Experiments on the Nature of Light: Beyond the Bounds of Wave-Particle Duality

2020-04-28T11:39:32+00:00

The wave-particle duality of light has been hanging over the clouds of science as an insuperable mystery. Debates have gone on for centuries as to which of the two aspects of light best represents the natural property of light. On the one hand, the particle theory of light camp made its own submissions a long time ago with many experimental demonstrations to confirm its position. On the other hand, the wave theory of light camp did organize or face some experiments to corroborate its own position. But then, a middle ground interpretation was shoveled-in by Niels Bohr during the second decade of the 20th Century. For him, the two aspects of light are complementary and Louis de Broglie popularized it, despite the halting beginnings of the complementarity Thesis. A double-slit experiment was, however, organized to show that light has these dual aspects. The central thesis of this paper is that though light exhibits these dual aspects, it is fundamentally a wave. The paper adopts the historiographical approach in navigating this lingering issue of the nature of light in the history of science.

Implications of Hegel’s Dialectical Evolution of the Spirit to the Problem of Shortcut Mentality in Nigeria

2020-04-28T11:51:28+00:00

This article focused on Hegel’s dialectical evolution of the spirit and its implications to shortcut mentality in Nigeria. Hegel’s evolution of the spirit is a process of change and human development, which moves from the individual to the state and then to the absolute. This process identifies and represents the world’s civilization as a gradual realization of the absolute. The fundamental questions are: What actually is Hegel’s dialectical evolution of the spirit? What is shortcut mentality? Has Hegel’s dialectical evolution of the spirit any implication for shortcut mentality in Nigeria? This article argued and insisted that Hegel’s dialectical evolution of the spirit has remarkable implications for shortcut mentality in Nigeria. A critical look at Nigeria today simply portrays a country beset by shortcut mentality in her quest for civilization. This is evidenced in many contemporary issues menacing our country today. The issues of get rich quick syndrome, quick fixes, examination mal-practice, Ponzi schemes, betting sites, corrupt practices, utopian prosperity gospel etc. are easily noticeable in almost every part of Nigeria. All these ills which have led to the malfunctioning of the economic, religious, educational, agricultural, and administrative sectors of Nigeria, are certainly the offspring of shortcut mentality. This shortcut mentality presupposes people not following the right and gradual path of change and development. It entails abhorrence of labour as well as suffering. Hence, the researchers employed analytical and hermeneutical methods to explore the implications of Hegel’s dialectical evolution of the spirit to shortcut disorder in Nigeria. This article argued that application of Hegel’s dialectical evolution of the spirit contributes enormously in combating the problem of shortcut mentality in Nigeria. Hence, the researchers recommended creativity, mutual recognition as well as positive attitude to labour and suffering as solutions to the issue of shortcut mentality in Nigeria.

Key Words: Hegel, Spirit, Shortcut, Change and Nigeria

From Multiculturalism to Humanistic Secularism: Harnessing Nigeria's Cultural Diversity

2020-04-28T11:55:18+00:00

The Nigerian state is deeply polarised along ethnic and religious contours, with a widening gulf between the poor masses and the rich few, which reflects the culpability of the ruling elite. However, the actual character of the class struggle is often blurred by the politicization of ethno-cultural and religious differences in a manner that undermines political order and national unity. Ethnicity and religion are thus usedby the political class to manipulate the citizens' consciousness of their ethno-cultural and religious identities to serve the masked parochial class interests. This has made the political arena very volatile and conflict-laden. Stemming the tide of this incessant clash of values and violent ethno-religious conflicts requires a creative adaptation of multiculturalism and secularism. This paper defended a sophisticated understanding of state in the globalization era, which includes citizens' appreciation of their cultural differences, mediated by consciousness of their shared humanity and a strong commitment to the ideals of a civilized community. It argued for a genuinely humanistic secularization of state affairs, harnessing of the country's diverse cultural heritage, and promotion of religious accommodation rather than cultural assimilation and the interference of religion in state affairs, or vice versa.
Key Words: multiculturalism, humanistic secularism, cultural diversity, cultural integration, national unity