The Cleansing oracle as an Entertaining Artefact in Contemporary Nigerian Song

ABSTRACT

Oyinkansola Sosanya 1 Dr. Oluwafunminiyi Mabawonku 2

University of Ibadan, Ibadan Federal College of Animal Health & Prod. Tech, Ibadan
E-mail: gracedamii@gmail.com niyimabs@hotmail.com

Corresponding author is Dr. Oluwafunminiyi Mabawonku2.

Abstract
Songs are verbal manifestations of the people’s worldview. They are coded verbal elements used
in almost everyday lives. This study attempts to show how satire becomes an entertaining
cultural artefact in Nigerian contemporary songs as its use coupled with the stylistic devices’ aids
meaning and aestheticism in the songs. This paper, therefore, sees satire as a tool of social
conflict and as an arrowhead for the Nigerian contemporary songs. It examines how satire is used
in deconstructing and correcting the vices in the society; explains how it serves as a pivot stand
and as a ‘cleansing oracle’ in the contemporary Nigerian society.

The oral art uses satire as a pivot to describe, explain and analyze the social nation as captured in
the samples of Nigerian contemporary songs to comment on the symbolic interactions’ and
structural-malfunctionalism of the debased society in order to correct the ills therein. Satire
consequently becomes the angst, a tool used in cutting expression of remarks to bring to
limelight issues that are integral to the survival or upliftment of the society from the jugular
angle that it has ebbed into. The oral art remains the lubricant to Nigerian life and culture.
1.0 Introduction: Satire as a Cultural Tool in Literature

Human beings are perceived as social being as they are known to change over time. This change

in man perhaps motivated Stuart Hall in 1968 at Birmingham Centre in the United Kingdom to

come up with its pioneering work on cultural study with special emphasis on cultural

construction. To him, cultural characteristics are not inherent but constructed by people. What

this means is that things like race, gender, or disability do not really exist but they are concepts

or beliefs that people have created in order to organize their cultures or societies. In essence, he

posits that what is culturally acceptable in a given society may not be acceptable in other climes

if imported therein as each culture may have to construct its own cultural mores.

The cleansing oracle involves the technical way of critiquing the society as a result of the

hegemony which the imposition of the cultural construct has placed on it. Hegemony arises as a

result of the dominance of a cultural influence of a group or culture over other groups or cultures

particularly in the construction of identity or conforming to social norms. In other words,

satirical pieces which are prescriptive are aimed at evaluating the society so as to correct the

ridiculous, monstrous, wicked or absurd acts which are contextual in the society. The satirical

pieces are referred to as the cleansing oracle in this paper. These contextual acts as cultural study

sees it as posited by Turner recognizes that “any given phenomenon is already connected to a

vast range of other phenomena in significant ways as injustice breeds strife, avarice, corruption,

nepotism, class division, etc in the society (81).” That satire is a technical way of critiquing and

riddling the society of these phenomena means that the cleansing oracle effectiveness depends

largely on the satirists’ skillful use of techniques like anecdote, humour, suspense, curiosity,

proverb, wit, metaphor, aphorism, sarcasm, extended metaphor, verbal irony and paradox.

2
Satire is as old as man in the society. African traditional society thrives on morality as the culture

prescribes what is good or bad. In other word, people are very conscious of the need to uphold

moral deeds in the society as vices like stealing, dishonesty, killing and corrupt practices are

frowned at. Several methods can be used in satirizing wrong deeds or acts in the society. These

include composition of songs and usage of abuse, proverbs and riddles, staging of drama that

ridicules evil deeds, as well as telling of stories where vices are condemned. This means that

satire is a potent tool of oral literature in African oral performances.

In contemporary Nigerian society, satire has become the focal point of some hip-hop songs. Like

in scripted literature, Nigerian hip-hop song writers have taken their songs beyond mere

entertainment. Through their songs, they have attempted to condemn vices in the society with a

view to proffering solutions by encouraging the citizens of the country to embrace what is

deemed as an acceptable way in the society. A critical look at some of these hip hop songs shows

that the song writers employ some satirical techniques to express their indignation about what

they abhor and perceived to be abnormal in the society. These song writers in their use of satire

as a lampoon are at ease while expressing their annoyance in songs. They consequently enjoy

some freedom of speech which Hugh Tracey opines that “one can say in songs or verses what

one could not say in prose without offence (4).”

This work is, therefore, an X-ray on the use of satire, a cleansing oracle as an entertaining

artefact in Contemporary Nigerian song. The song examined is This is Nigeria by Falz. Efforts

would be made to explore how the selected hip-hop song writer has been able to employ the

satirical devices to decimate his cultural affinity in establishing his thematic concerns through

the use of Ronald Paulson (1967) modem.

3
1.1 Satire as the Societal Cultural Hind Leg

This paper employs cultural study as its tool of analysis. Cultural study is a broad theory that

emphasizes the place of culture as aesthetics, a taste, as artistic development and as spiritual

deliverance. It emphasizes the place of morals, manners, beliefs and habits of humans as social

beings as constituting distinct, definable and investigable cultures. According to David Oswell,

“cultural study allows or provides the fertile soil through which these related notions of culture

become articulated and distributed (27).” In the words of Tansey and O’Riordion, Cultural study

is, “a way of interpreting how and why individuals form judgments about danger, pollution and

threat (83).” The point of the study however is to show that such judgments are not formed

independently of social context but in cultural construct. Its central aim is to produce detailed,

contextualized analysis of the ways that power and social relations are created, structured and

maintained through culture. The research effort is therefore, part of an evolving social debate

about rights to know, justice for those likely to be affected by damage or loss of peace of mind,

and about blame, responsibility and liability. Hence, a fundamental principle of cultural study

therefore, is that knowledge is neither neutral nor objective as portrayed in the literature of the

society and this is entrenched in its language usage which is mirrored by its culture. Language,

in essence therefore, serves as the codification system for a society’s culture, the culture being

represented and realized largely through its literature. Cultural study, therefore, emphasizes the

need for radical change in the society.

The choice of the study, therefore, is borne out of the desire to explore how Falz, the

contemporary Nigerian song writer has explored satire as a tool for conveying his annoyance

towards the ills in the nation and how he detonates the cultural tendencies in the body of his

songs in the society. Oyin Ogunba in Literary Art and Literary Creativity concludes that, ‘‘the

4
only area of oral literature which is genuinely fruitful of creativity today is the satire’’ (3). It can

be used as a form of taunt on commenting on political problems, religious hypocrisy, moral

decadence, leadership injustices and exploitative tendencies of those in position of authorities. Its

uses address the imbalances or lopsidedness in the society. To summarize it all, Ogunba says,

‘‘the literature of a people is integral to the life of the people and usually grows from within

(6).’’ Therefore, the use of satire in cultural studies is a potent tool in the analysis of

contemporary Nigerian song, a piece of oral literature. Hence, a detailed study of the

contemporary song shows that it is suffused with cultural values in an ever-changing society

which characterized human living.

The peculiarity of this work from existing works is that the research effort is rooted in its desire

to intervene in ‘real world’ events as part of a broader struggle alongside or on behalf of the

disenfranchised and/or oppressed segments of the society. The research effort is borne out of the

desire to address a serious political problem of some sorts like a social injustice that needs to be

corrected, a major structural or institutional inequality that needs to be challenged, a hierarchy of

power that needs to be leveled. The exploration of satire as the cultural hind leg of the society in

the contemporary songs is a radical interdisciplinary form of intellectual and political work that

operates both inside and outside the academic settings. This becomes significant as the

theoretical framework for the research effort is chiefly concerned with human beings in the

society and the topical issues it focuses on. The theory itself is a human science.

The bulk of materials used in this paper are derived from the written sources. A compact disc

containing the finished works of the contemporary artist is used and analyzed thereof. What

differentiates this work however from others is its literariness and cultural significance of man in

his biosphere which is an ever-changing human society that is highly prescriptive and heavily

5
laced with philosophical witty sayings. This is the poser of this present effort from the past

works.

2.0 Satire as a Cultural Weapon

Satire is an ideological weapon that reflects and refracts the society. According to Karin Barber,

“literature plays an important part in shaping and crystallizing the views held by the members of

the society: views about the world, about man, and about society. And it is in the light of views

like this that the social order is both maintained and changed (4).” From Barber's opinion, it is

clear that literature does not just reflect or show us the picture of the society; it goes on to

suggest ways to better the society. Satire as a cultural weapon is used to achieve this goal. Satire

is a technical genre that is used to comment against irregularities and abnormalities in the society

and to bring people back to the world of reality where laws and orders are maintained. The

satirists, as Quintero says, “encourages our need for stability of truth by unmasking imposture,

exposing fraudulence, shattering deceptive illusion, and shaking us from our complacency and

indifference (27).” To maintain and ensure there is social order in the society, satirical pieces are

often put in place and used.

Satire has become a critical cultural weapon in contemporary Nigerian society. It is not out of

place to emphasize that every human culture has a satirical element. In other words, in every

human culture, there are acts that are aimed at condemning vices and commending virtues in the

society. A society cannot exist without some laws guiding the behaviours of the people. These

laws serve as regulatory vehicles in the society. If these vehicles are not well driven, the society

is bound to experience misrules. In a nutshell, satire is used in contemporary songs as ideas for

social integration, national development and as social commentary.

6
2.1 Satirical stances in Falz's This is Nigeria

The song This is Nigeria by Folarin Falana with the pseudonym Falz has satire as its focal point.
It is a contemporary song that depicts the situation of the contemporary Nigerian society. It is a
satirical reflection of the ills in modern day Nigerian society. In other words, the Artist brings to
light the socio-cultural deviances that have bedeviled the society. The Artist has been able to
comment on all the corrupt practices in almost all the sectors in the Nigerian society. The song
This is Nigeria is however an adaptation of Childish Gambino’s Grammy Award winner musical
titled This is America. Gambino’s song was an award winner in America in 2018 as it was
adjudged to be a clear depiction of the American society under the Donald Trump’s
administration.

The song begins with a sarcastic pointer, ‘Extremely poor’. This is a way of foregrounding his

thematic thrust which is the verbal expression of his disillusionment and disentrancement with

the state of things in his country. It is a way of showing that the situation of the country is

appalling as it is beyond human understanding. The level of poverty prevalent therein is

unbearable as it is a form of hyper-poverty. The beginning of the song also indicates that the

situations the masses find themselves in is pitiable and out of control. He therefore aphoristically

depicts an attack on the health sector in the country: ‘The medical facilities are poor’. Although

the expression seems short and simple, it is loaded with meanings. It is a lampoon on the health

care delivery service sector of the country. The popular maxim that “Health is wealth” could not

be said of the sector in Nigeria. This is not unconnected to the poor and archaic tools paraded as

medical facilities in Nigeria. The development and wellness of a country depends to a large

extent on the physical and psychological fitness of the masses. In other to ensure a balance in the

development of a society, the citizens must have access to good medical facilities. The reverse

7
however is the case in Nigeria as only the few privileged ones could always travel out of the

country to seek for better medical attention.

Falz traces the roots of Nigerian problems to the emergence of the Whiteman in Nigerian

society. To him, the Whiteman (the colonial Lords) had left us and we had gained our

independence as history had made us to believe. However, the Whiteman is still with us and

rules us by proxy. This is in form of “neocolonial capitalist system” which he metaphorically

likens to a ‘predatory system.’ He seems to agree that due to the foundation upon which the

nation is built, corruption is an informal education that every child learns without a fee! In other

words, corruption has become free-for-all in the nation as everybody is involved either directly

or indirectly in the heinous act. This probably therefore, is why he remains emphatically

assertive that “everybody be criminal”.

Furthermore, he attacks the injustice that seems to have taken over the entire society. Injustice in

this case has to do with the act of being fair to the privileged at the expense of the less-

privileged. He captures this succinctly in the song as he retorts:

…which is founded on fraud and exploitation

And therefore you are bound to have corruption.
Many criminal cases are settled in Police Station.

This is a lampoon that underlies the injustice on the part of the executive arm of government. A

criminal is supposed to be charged to court to face the wrath of the law since his act has violated

the laws of the land and inimical to the peace and progress of it but unfortunately, some of these

‘privileged criminals’ go scot free as the Police would collect “executive tithes” from them.

From cultural theoretical perspective, hierarchy has come to play. Greed which is the rule that

separates and constrains individuals has come to the fore here. The ‘privileged few’ that seems to

8
be on the favourable side of the law would be set free while the dispossessed and the isolated

masses would remain in the web of suffering though their offence is mildly incriminating when

compared to the deeds done by the ‘privileged few’. To this kind of injustice, he remarks:

When looters and killers and stealers

Are still contesting election o
Politicians wey thief some billions
And billions no dey go prison o
even when many masses suffered for “stealing” a sachet of water!

In addition, he further condemns the injustice and deliberate ploy to cleverly wrap up dishonesty

and fraud in an array of many colours with a view of making it a national effigy. He made a

caricature of the situation where “animals” are declared wanted for “swallowing” a national

monument while the human-culprit in the “animal-stealing-act” is discharged and acquitted. In

derision, he uses pun and rhetorical questions to express his distaste:

This is Nigeria
Wey da Madam Philomena?
Money vanish from your office
Thirty six million
You talk say na animal

The use of the word “Philomena” is a good example of pun. It is a punographic depiction of the

woman in question as a ‘phenomenon’. This is his way of expressing his disgust about the high

wave of crime and fraudulent practices in the nation. To him, those who perpetrate crime and

other sharp practices in the country are “remarkable” people as the level at which they operate as

well as their deeds are monumental phenomenon! They are phenomenal specialists that are

unbeatable in criminal acts!

9
In a related development, he humorously condemned the level of joblessness in the nation.

According to him, joblessness resonates in a threefold ministry namely: idleness, poverty and

criminality. This threefold ministry corroborates the popular maxims that ‘the devil makes use of

an idle hand’ and that ‘an idle hand is the devil’s workshop’. He succinctly captures the maxims

attestation as he says:

Just because I’m on TV now

Person wey get no work
Is checking to see
If my watch is original

This is extremely hilarious and ridiculous. It is an indication that the people are suffused with

joblessness, idleness and poverty! Who else would have the time to monitor other people's

originality or genuineness if everyone has been busy with a job? A situation whereby some

people could be so concerned and preoccupied with assessing the Politicians’ dressing on the

audio-visual sets, evidently shows that, most of the people are disillusioned, idle, unemployed

and are at the lowest rung of the ladder economically in the nation. Even the agile able-bodied

people who are gainfully employed are not intellectually engaged. Some of the people still get

themselves involved in “multiple jobs” just to make a meaningful living against all odds.

Ironically however, the government that could not do the needful in revamping the dwindling but

drowning situation in the country still goes on to tag the younger generation as being “lazy”:

No electricity daily o
Your people are still
Working multiple jobs
And they talk say we lazy o

10
All these plaques that have bedeviled the nation are cultural constructs which operates both

within and outside the academic settings in the nation. The Artist attempt to intervene in the ‘real

world’ events of these cultural constructions through his use of satire is therefore a part of the

broader struggle alongside the oppressed segments of the society.

Insecurity is abhorred by the Artist. Although by the comity of nations the country is believed to

be less security conscious, the truth remains that the internal wrangling bedeviling the nation is

yet to be resolved. It looks unfortunate that the country that renders security aids to other

countries could not bail itself out of insurgencies that daily berserks her. This inability is

attributed to be the result of irresponsibility on the part of governance. The Artist registers his

anger:

There is plenty wahala sha

Fulani herdsmen still dey slaughter
Carry people dey massacre

It is so disheartening to note that the Police who are supposed to be the dependable chief security

agents are also equally frightened by these insurgents that have prevailed in the society. Rather

than working together with the general public by being on the alert always, the Police also

perpetrate evil and align with the insurgencies to carry out their dastardly act. This is

demonstrated with the lyric: Police station dey close by 6!

The religious gullibility and slavery in the society is another cultural construct that is criticized in

the song. In the lines:

My brothers and sisters

I want you to put your
Hands up right now
because your miracle

11
 is coming this week
If you believe,
Let me hear you say Amen…
Praise and worship we singing now
Pastor put hands on
The breast of his members
He is pulling the demons out
From the lyrics above, sarcasm is employed to reflect on the ways some of the religious bigots

exploits their congregation. The Artist is annoyed with the treachery of the religious leaders as

well as the gullibility of their followers and he goes on to query them by asking if just a raising

of hand brings miracles? This deceit cum treachery in a way has become a common practice of

the religious leaders in contemporary Nigerian society. It is also ironical that rather than the

religious leaders to speak to the destiny of their members through the laying on of hands on the

head, the leader resorted to sensuous feeling. With such an act, the avarice becomes multiple.

In decimating the cultural construct in the contemporary song through the use of satire, anecdote

is chiefly used to achieve this. Anecdote in this sense involves telling personal experiences to

explain what is perceived as a universal truth. This is evident in the lyrics where the song writer

and his supposed friends encountered the Police arm named Special Anti-robbery Squad:

SARS stop me for road

Any explanation you go talk am for station o
Sir am, Sir, look am sorry, am just a student.
Am a student of the University of Lagos
We are just coming from the club
OK, so my friend and I
No sir, I had my ID to prove

12
Here, a caricature picture of the Nigerian Police Force is presented as one who is wont to arrest

innocent citizens without giving them the opportunity to put up any defense. An identity card

that should speak volume when one is in a compromising situation has become useless and

meaningless. Although the scene is a recount of the Artiste personal experience, it is nonetheless

a national malaise, a common phenomenon in contemporary Nigerian society. This national

malaise which is man-made aligns with a fundamental principle of cultural study which believes

that knowledge is never neutral or objective. As a construct of man, knowledge can be twisted

and this is the reason why the meaning attached to an Identity card was compromised in the

excerpt above.

Democracy is taunted as “political hysteria”. Several undemocratic happenings take place on a

daily basis in the society. The Artist frowns at the way people normalize the abnormalities all in

the name of democracy. Fraudulent practices are the order of the day and are now acceptable in

the society. To this, he says, “Yahoo yahoo don tear everywhere//Now we act like it’s so cool”.

Nobody seems to be bothered by this angst any longer. His closing remarks are thoughtful and

insightful:

But what happens every day is that

The system has allowed it.
For instance, there is no law
That allows you to take money
From the church,
Invest in business,
And privatize it.
NO. It is only in Nigeria
Where you can take
Money from the church,

13
 Money contributed by poor congregation members.
You go and set up a university
That the members cannot attend.
Cannot send their children to
It is against the rule
And the law of God
It’s against the constitution.

Besides being thoughtful, the concluding remarks are an attempt to spur the people into action.

Like the Marxist ideologists, cultural theorists believe that the society should unite against these

exploitative tendencies. It is however ironical and absurd that even those who try to be noble are

“being castigated” by the lawless citizens.

2.2 Language Aesthetics in Nigeria Contemporary Songs

Language is an indispensable component of satire. It is a medium of expression and linguistic

tool through which literary artists convey their artistic visions and sensibilities. Just as aesthetics

is associated with beauty, it is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the understanding of

beauty and how it manifests itself in art and nature. Language aesthetics therefore, involves the

distinctive style employed by an artist in conveying the intended messages. The distinctiveness

of such style lies in the linguistic and poetic devices that add beauty, style and uniqueness to the

work. Tanure Ojaide affirms that “the value of a song or chant is articulated through figurative

language and exuberance of diction (57)”. The linguistic beauty of the contemporary Nigerian

satirical songs is often realized through devices like imageries, caricatures, hyperboles, high and

low burlesques, ironies, humours, apostrophes, sarcasms, parodies, lampoons, allegories,

travesties, antitheses, onomatopoeia, rhymes, alliterations, ideophones, pun, anaphora, rhetorical

questions, allusions, repetitions, proverbs and dialectical features from other linguistic varieties.

14
The Artist explored in this paper has succeeded in deploying some of these devices in his works.

Like literary artists, the Artist used language in a way that convinced and persuades his listeners

to embrace positive changes in the society.

The dominant language of the songs is pidgin, a sub-set of Creole. This makes the diction simple

and catchy as it attracts attention to itself and the message therein the songs. The simplicity of

the words used makes the intent of the songs accessible to all across classes and ethnic

formations. In other words, it helps the listeners to grasp with the thematic thrusts of the songs.

The songs are decorated with words like “poor”, “criminal”, “vanish”, “looters”, “killers”,

“stealers”, “thief”, “demons”, “wahala”, “slaughter”, “massacre”, “hysteria”, “perambulate”,

“big situation”, “die” and “tear”. These words help to convey ills and vices like sorrow,

destruction, confusion, corruption and strife which are prevalent in the socio-political realities of

Nigeria. In the same vein, some declarative sentences are used by the artists for emphasis.

Although this Artist did convey his thoughts in pidgin, the syntactic structures of some of the

sentences are declarative with the use of lexical verbs that portray compulsion, necessity and

reality. In This is Nigeria, for instance, Falz deploys declarative sentences like “The medical

facilities are poor”, “Everybody be criminal” and “There’s plenty wahala” to show that these

problems do cut across all sectors in the Nigerian society. These instances show the high level of

sufferings experienced and endured by the generality of the people in the society.

Several sound devices are used. Epiphora and anaphora are forms of repetition. Anaphora is a

form of repetition in which same word or phrase is repeated at the beginning of successive lines.

An instance is seen in This is Nigeria. An instance is seen in the lines below:

Look how we living now

Look how we eating now.

15
The repetition of the word, “look” at the initial stages in the lines quoted above is to draw the

attention of the listeners to the socio-political problems and maladies bedeviling the nation. The

use of “Amen” and “now” in the song are examples of epiphora. These are used for emphasis.

A great deal of sound devices of assonance and alliteration abounds in the songs studied. In the

songs, some vowels and consonant sounds are repeated for emphasis and to highlight their

musicality. These lines, from This is Nigeria, contain assonance and alliteration:

...which is founded on fraud

Many criminal cases are settled in police station
Pastor put his hands on the breasts of his members
Yahoo yahoo don’t tear everywhere
Dem dey talku talku
So so tory tory every year...
Loke loke eh baba Adeleke
I go obodo oyinbo

Ideophones are a group of words that look and sound unintelligible. It is however localized as

their meaning is location-bound. However, a critical look at them shows that they are not used in

a vacuum. Rather, they have become an inevitable feature of songs in contemporary Nigerian

society. Ideophones adds rhythm to the songs as it helps in ensuring its musicality. Besides, it

helps to achieve free flow of words during song rendition. In the songs, ideophones are used as

interludes as it helps the artist to take breath pauses even though the relaxation is abrupt. Below

are the examples of ideophones in the songs:

Ehee, ehee ehee e e ewo

Ehee, ehee ehee e e ewo
Ehee, ehee ehee e e ewo

16
The ideophone, “Ehee, ehee ehee e e ewo” as used in This is Nigeria is an expression of surprise.
It portrays the artist’s bewilderment and stupefaction at the way things happen in this nation.

Another syntactic device employed in the songs is apostrophe usage. This involves the use of

someone, usually ‘a third party’, being addressed as if s/he is present. This is one of the devices

that render contemporary Nigerian satirical song dialogic. The persons addressed could be the

generality of the people who usually constitutes the audience or victims like the politicians,

pastors, imams or policemen. In the selected song, the artist addresses the politicians “wey thief

some billions”; policemen who could neither secure themselves nor the masses; the pastors who

would lust after the female members rather than look after them; Fulani herdsmen who value the

lives of their cows more than human lives; PHCN for unavailability of power supply, and the

money launderers. These people are addressed directly as if they were present. The use of this

syntactic device in the song makes more vivid and lucid the precarious deeds and nefarious acts

inherent in the society/nation.

Dialectical features from other language varieties are also used to add aesthetic flavours to the

selected songs. Although the dominant language used is pidgin, words or a group of words from

Yorùbá language are deployed by the artist. In This is Nigeria, Falz uses the expression “There’s

plenty wahala sha”. “Wahala” is Yorùbá word meaning “problem”. It is a term with frightening

implications. The artist uses it to show that the socio-political problems of the nation are

hypercritical. ‘Sha’, is also another Yorùbá word. Its use is like an adverb to reinforce the action

of the doing word. Hence, it reinforces the word ‘wahala’ (problem) as something that cannot be

overlooked! These dialectical features not only add flavours to the song, it also enhances its

clarity as it points to the cultural background of the artist.

17
3.0 Conclusion

In this study, efforts have been made to show that satire has indeed become an arrowhead in

contemporary Nigerian songs. Like the traditional oral artistes who were renowned for their

cultural responsibility and creative prowess to identify, highlight, ridicule, condemn and correct

vices as well as commend virtues in the society, contemporary Nigerian artist have taken music

beyond the mere gesture of entertainment and relaxation to engage in the dialectical function of

examining socio-cultural and political realities affecting the progressive development of the

collective society. He has shown through his arts that the society is full of vices and indicate the

urgent need to rid it of oppression and oppressive forces which are culturally constructed by man

in the ever-changing human society.

The Artist, Falz has been able to direct his annoyance and grievances towards the societal ills

and to prescribe a near idealized society that is devoid of chaos, oppression, injustice and

poverty. He comments on the vices through the use of satirical devices like humour, rhetorical

means, metaphors, witty sayings, sarcastic irony and anecdotes. He aligns with the cultural

theoretical perspective that the concern of the creative artist is not just an outcry against these

vices but a desire to create awareness, a change and instill revolutionary spirit in the people.

The study has also attempted to show that, although the desire to instill revolutionary spirit in the

people by condemning the vices, maladies and injustices in the society is the thematic thrusts of

the Artist, this could only be achieved through the eye of the earth. Language, which serves as

the ‘eye’ of the society, its codification system is tactfully explored to pointedly draw attention to

the maladies yet without infringing or slandering any constituted authorities in the society. It is

however noted that as satire remained a masked effigy, ‘an unknown soldier’ cleansing the

18
‘mess’ in the society. Its tenor of presentation and mode of discourse align to form a strait-jacket

in puncturing and detonating the targeted vices, thereby serving as correcting, educating and

entertaining roles in the society. This could however not be said to be the function it served in

Falz This is Nigeria as he stripped satire of its mask, gouge its eyes and displayed its nudity in

the market place. Satire to Falz ceased to be esoteric but becomes an isotope. Little wonder

therefore that the Government of Nigeria has to place a ban on his music. The selected songs are

not only didactic, they are also appealing. This is not unconnected to the uniqueness of the styles

used by the artist. Through the styles, the poetic-cum-linguistic aesthetics of the songs is brought

to the fore.

19
 Works Cited

Barber, Karin. Why Do we Need a Sociology of Literature. Paper presented at the

Sociology of Literature Seminar. University of Ife, Nigeria, 1978.
Print.
Falana, Folarin. This is Nigeria. Bahd guy records, Lagos, 2018.

Ogunba, Oyin. ‘Literary Art and Literary Creativity in Contemporary Africa’.

Inaugural Lecture Series 36, University of Ife, Nigeria, 1978. 1-28.
Print.

Ojaide, Tanure. Poetic Imagination in Black Africa: Essays on African Poetry.

Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1996. Print.

Oswell, David. Culture and Society: An Introduction to Cultural Studies. London:

Sage, 2006. Print.

Paulson, Ronald. The Fictions of Satire. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1967. Print.

Quintero, Ruben. “Introduction: Understanding Satire” in R. Quintero (ed). A

Companion to Satire. New York: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2006.
Print.
Tansey, James. & O’riordan, Terrance. “Cultural Theory and Risk: A Review” Health Risk and
Society. 1.1 (1999): 71-90. Print.

Turner, George. British Cultural Studies: An Introduction. Routledge, Sydney, 1996.

Print.

Tracey, Hugh. Chopi Musicians: Their Music, Poetry and Instruments. (Rev. ed).
London: Oxford University Press, 1974. Print.

20
21