LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 5 May 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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A Speech Act Analysis of Abiku Names among the Yoruba Nigerians

Idowu Odebode and Adenike Onadipe

Abstract

This paper attempts a speech act analysis of Abiku names from the socio-pragmatic perspective of the Yoruba, one of the three principal ethnic groups in Nigeria. The basis of the study is to prove that names, particularly the Abiku names, serve as means of communication rather than the common function of identification which they are believed to be performing. The Abiku names elicit certain illocutionary acts which are unique and far-fetched in other naming contexts. The paper submits that unlike other names, Abiku names are therapeutic, magical and ‘semogenic’ i.e. they are rich in meaning and have socio-pragmatic significance.

Key Words: Abiku, semogenic, Yoruba, Soyinka, still-birth

1. The Abiku Phenomenon

One of the Yoruba naming strategies that present the philosophical belief in death, reincarnation and life after death is Abiku (names). Abikus are special children believed to possess certain mystical powers to come to the world when they like and go back to the spirit world at will; hence, they are believed to be spirits. An Abiku is different from a stillbirth because the latter dies in form of miscarriage and, therefore, was not procreated into the world at all. The Abiku, alternatively, was born and s/he can stay for as long as s/he wishes, then dies and later revisits the family again during the next pregnancy. This circle continues for as long as the Abiku wants or the family devices a means of tying the child down. Soyinka (1967:28) captures this situation better when he posits that Abiku is “wanderer child. It is the same child who dies and returns again and again to plague the mother”. John Otu is quoted by Akingbe (2011) as saying that an Abiku has ambivalent loyalty to both physical and mythical realms which strive to claim him simultaneously. “It is in the bid to satisfy the yearnings of these two seemingly disparate worlds that he keeps going and coming endlessly.” (Akingbe 2011:182)

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Idowu Odebode
Department of English, College of Humanities
Redeemer’s University
Kilometer 46, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway
Redemption Camp
Mowe
P.M. B. 3005, Redemption Post Office
Ogun State
Nigeria
West Africa
iodebode@yahoo.com

Adenike Onadipe
Department of English, College of Humanities
Redeemer’s University
Kilometer 46, Lagos/Ibadan Expressway
Redemption Camp
Mowe
P.M. B. 3005, Redemption Post Office
Ogun State
Nigeria
West Africa
sidor09@yahoo.com
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