Legal Appraisal of Child Rights Law In Lagos State Of Nigeria

Legal Appraisal of Child Rights Law In Lagos State

The issue of child rights is poorly defined in legislation and by the courts, partly because many nations have not decided how much of such rights to grant to children. For one to comprehend what a child right is, the terms ‘right’ and ‘human rights’ will have to be defined. The term ‘right’ is often used to describe any advantages conferred on a person by a rule of law (Akwara et al., 2010). Rights are those things to which one is entitled or allowed; freedoms that are guaranteed. Child Rights are human rights. They are wide-ranging and include entitlement to a name and nationality; freedom from discrimination (race, colour, religion etc.); social security extending to adequate nutrition, housing, recreation and medical care; entitlement to free education and equal opportunities; protection from all forms of cruelty, neglect and exploitation and right to love, understanding and affection (Freeman, 1983). Similarly in Nigeria, the different human rights are enshrined in the 1999 Constitution in Chapters II and IV. For instance, Chapter II states that every citizen shall have equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law. Chapter IV of the Constitution lists certain Fundamental Human Rights which are inalienable rights of all Nigerians whether they are adults or children. These rights are rights to life, respect for the dignity of a person, liberty, civil rights and obligations, privacy, freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Others are rights to freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information, freedom of association, movement, entitlement to community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion and right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria.Child rights, therefore, are human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors, including their rights to association with both parents, human identity as well as the basic needs for food, universal state-paid education, health care and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child, equal protection of the child civil rights and freedom from discrimination on the basis of the child’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability, colour, ethnicity, or other characteristics.1 Child rights are basic entitlements every child in the world should be able to have. All children have the same rights irrespective of their colour or race. All rights are connected to each other and are equally important. Interpretations of child rights range from allowing children the capacity for autonomous action to enforcement of children being physically, mentally and emotionally free from abuse. Other definitions include the rights to care and nurturing (Bandman, 1999)

Design and Implementations of Immunization Alert System

Abstract

Immunization plays a significant role in the lives of children, by providing strong immune system, and also, fighting against the preventable diseases such as polio, chicken pox, Pneumococcal, rotavirus, HIB, Pertussis, Tetanus and measles. In time past, manual methods have been used in collecting data from mothers and cards were used in reminding mothers about their children immunization. This cards collected can be misplaced by nursing mothers since not all of them will carry the cards wherever they go; but with the development of the repository mobile immunization reminder system (RMIRS) through SMS, the stress of mothers mastering or carrying their children’s immunization card will be minimize to its barest level. Hence, the aim of this work is to develop a repository mobile immunization reminder system for nursing mothers with the use of a modem in order to remind the mothers of their children immunization date. This in turn help in assisting in making life easy and reducing the danger that could be incurred if not immune from the preventable diseases. The system was developed using C# programming language and MS ACCESS database. The database serves as a repository where the records of the child and the mother’s phone number are stored. Also, a standard communication program was customized in developing this work.

Web Based Immunization Alert System

PORTRAIT OF FEMINISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN SELECTED NOVELS OF AFRICAN FEMALE WRITERS

PORTRAIT OF FEMINISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN SELECTED NOVELS OF AFRICAN FEMALE WRITERS

INTRODUCTION.

In its oral and written forms, literature has constantly served as one of the major instruments in mirroring reality and society. Literature remains a consistent tool in the representation, comprehension and interpretation of fields of human endeavour such as religion, class struggle, politics, human situations, social conflicts and Gender relations. No wonder then, gender relations, especially feminism has laid hold on literature as a veritable machinery for gender activism Men discovered the gold mine in literature quite early and for ages tapped its resources to carve a niche for the male gender in politics, culture and religion. At the same time the male gender used the resources of literature and criticism to invent prejudices, stereotypes and superstitious beliefs and heaped them on the female gender. While women laboured under this burden for ages, men were busy upstaging them in every field of life. Few instances have however existed where certain female figures due to their exalted royal, military, economics and cultic backgrounds have through individual efforts raised their heads above water in their respective societies and eras. Literature has equally recorded cases where powerful women in various races have astutely and subtly cornered for themselves rights and priviledges which ordinary women and even ordinary men could never dream of. Such positions were like personal identity cards which neither outlived them nor were enjoyed by other women during and after their lifetime. These examples are today literature, in history and literary achieves. They remained a tiny minority. The above injustice was not to last any longer (Charlotte1993:84):
Feminism began as a general social and political movement and came to include literary theorists and critics as the movement continued… literary feminists began to see both in books and in the larger social context that produces and consumes books, the need for a critique of a culture they called patriarchal…
As a result of the courageous objection to male biases in literature and criticism, the latter part of our century saw a militant move by feminist critics to position women as protagonists or at least as major characters in literature; as writers of poetry, drama, novels and as readers and consumers of literature. Hitherto, feminist literary critics always see in male works a figment of male chauvinistic imagination about women, an impression that is totally contrary to real women in a real world. Simon de Beauvoir, a French writer published a book titled The Second Sex in 1949. She discovered that men are always exalted while women are consistently downgraded in Literature and myth. All positive values and qualities are attributed to men while women are apportioned the negative and secondary values and qualities. Similarly feminist critics analysed a selection of male writings and gave kudos to Shakespeare and Chaucer for creating strong and admirable female characters. Kate Millet, on the contrary, in her 1970 publication titled Sexual Politics attacked male writers like Henry Miller, D. H. Lawrence and Norman Mailer for their mysogyny and triumphalism in favour of the male gender. Yet female writers like Virginia Woolf in a 1924 essay titled “A room of one’s own” frowns at the paucity of ‘rooms’ for women writing in the Canon. A readily explanation was proffered by Elaine Showalter who coined the term gynocritics, as a veritable effort by feminist critics to stand in solidarity with writers of feminist literature who had been unjustly evaluated and interpreted. Showalter aims at proving that the female writer, reader and critic have come of age as far as literary experience is concerned. In this regard she published The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, literature and Theory in 1985. French feminists like Luce Irigray and Julia Kristeva, on their part insisted on language that is gender neutral.

WOMEN IN AFRICAN LITERATURE

In African Literature and criticism, womanisim is documenting and uplifting women’s activism and experiences. The African feminist prioritizes his project thus: He emancipates the African women by first documenting her positive and negative experiences under the African and foreign patriarchal cultures. On the positive angle, the African women have played unique and active roles in the African society as queen, warrior, priestess, mother, wife, skills and crafts person, herbalist and sorcerer. The African women have had negative experiences too. Some of these negative experiences that have impacted her full and wholistic development were: ancient and modern polygamy; child and forced marriage; levirate, widowhood; female genital mutilation and mother-in-law injustices and violence. The African female writer also includes in her documentation and emancipatory activism such negative experiences as male economic, psychological, political, and socio-cultural violence against women. This documentary project covers the past lived and the present living experience of women.
Normally life in the society is such that no person gets his or her right without a fight. Hence African feminists had to be militant and combatant as we could see in Sembene Ousmane: Les bouts de bois de DieuGuelwaar; Buchi Emecheta The Joys of Motherhood; and Aminata Sow Fall’s L’ex pere de la nation.
Furthermore, the African feminist sought to create a space in literary criticism and fiction for writings and creation that would be strictly speaking African Women. There was need, namely for African womanisits to make such an entry into literature which hitherto had been the exclusive preserve of the masculinist. Having thus gained entry into African literary and critical creation, the African feminist is highlighting and propagating women writing and experience so as to correct all forms of male stereotypes and prejudices that have hitherto being directed against women.
African feminism does not only dwell on the stigma and name-calling of the past and the present; and especially on the injustices and victimization suffered by women under patriarchal cultures. One of her major tasks is to study and criticize all fields of human endeavour, as well as to do a thorough self assessment and soul-searching of her own existence so as to ensure dynamism and relevance in the world of literal and critical thinking(Adebayo,1996:9):
African feminists must highlight the need for new meanings, new practices and interpretations to enhance a dynamic African feminist discourse.

WOMEN IN ANGLOPHONE AFRICAN LITERATURE

Flora Nwapa was a trailblazer when she published the epoch making novel, Efuru in 1966; she was the pioneer Nigerian woman writer to apportion positive and symbolic roles to female characters. Nwapa created a female character that is a responsible, serious minded woman merchant. Efuru, as she is called is a role model; a woman of substance and high society lady that every mother would pray to have as a daughter. Efuru is a self-made woman who distinguished herself as a model of a mother, a wife and a pious devotee of Uhamiri, the local deity. Infact a female character in the novel addresses her as (Nwapa, 1966:57)) “a woman among women.”
Nwapa’s female characterization is in stark contrast to Jagua Nana, a 1961 publication of Ekwensi in which the female character was a harlot. She is also in contrast to Ayi Kwei Armah’s Estelle who colluded and collaborated with her husband Koomson in corrupt practices in L’ Age d’or n’est pas pour demain (1976). Efuru also contrasts with Leah, illicit liquor dealer in Peter Abraham’s Rouge est le sang des Noirs (1960). Most of the male writings of the era starting from Wole Soyinka’s The Interpreters of 1965 to Elechi Amadi’s The Concubine of 1966 had powerful male protagonists, and lowly esteemed female characters. As if to prove that no body ever gets his or her right without a fight, Nwapa in her two other subsequent publications: One is Enough (1981) and Women are Different (1986) introduced some militancy and a no-nonsense attitude into her characterization. The issue at stake as far as the feminist nature of the novel is concerned, are the female characters’ reaction to certain obnoxious cultural practices like forced and arranged marriages, polygamy, male matrimonial infidelity and male use-and-dump attitude towards their spouses. Thus in One is Enough, Amaka calls it quit in her marriage with Obiora, Dora in Women are Different proves that a woman can still forge ahead in life even when abandoned by her husband. When her husband retraced his steps back to her, she accepted him but with the condition that he will now play the secondary role in her matrimonial life.
Flora Nwapa insists that women writers must create works of fiction that mirror the realities of female experiences in the African society(Nwapa, 1984:14):
The Nigerian male writers fail to elevate women to their rightful plane. They overlook the safeguards with which custom surrounds her: the weight of feminine opinion, the independence of her economic position, the power she wields by the mere fact that she holds the pestle and the cooking pots. They fail to see all these things because they are men and are influenced by the colonial administration’s Victorian type prejudices against women.

A Legal Analysis Of Job Security Law in Nigeria

A Legal Analysis Of Job Security Law in Nigeria

Under applicable laws, workers generally harbour a variety of expectations as regards their jobs. The most paramount of these expectations is, perhaps, the right to job security. There is, however, a struggle between employees and employers over this right. This struggle is a species of the larger struggle over property rights in a society where owners are often allowed to exercise their rights without regard to the rights of others. Hence, this research engages the friction between employer’s power to hire and fire at will and the employee’s right to job security. This research argues in support of departing from the regime of viewing job security as a contractual right to a status guaranteed right. While it may be asserted that status guaranteed right has been largely achieved in the public sector, the same cannot be said of the position in the private sector except in cases where the employee is terminated for his involvement in trade union activities outside the usual working hours. The research also analysed the provisions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention on Termination of Employment and the contribution of the National Industrial Court (NIC) to job security in Nigeria.The research carried out a comparative analysis of job security using South Africa, Kenya and Ghana.

Job Security Law in Nigeria: Towards a Transition from Contract to Status 

The basis for the comparative model is the fact that these countries share the same common law background with and are all emerging economies like Nigeria. The research reveals that in these developing countries, especially South Africa, the right not to be unfairly terminated is well entrenched in the Bill of Rights as contained in their respective Constitutions. On the basis of this, the research concludes that there is a need for Nigeria to embrace this model development through direct application of international best practices on job security and the enactment of unfair dismissal legislation.

LEGAL CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF ASSET SECURITIZATION IN NIGERIA

LEGAL CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS OF ASSET SECURITIZATION IN NIGERIA

Abstract

 
Asset securitization is one of the new methods of financing beyond the horizon of the traditional equity and debt financing and it is still untested waters in Nigeria. This study  is set against the background of possible utility of asset securitization in Nigeria and adequacy or otherwise of the existing law in structuring asset securitization given the peculiarities of the transaction. It adopted the analytical research approach involving analysis of case law and statutory provisions as well as secondary sources of law and scholarly writings by application of the power of reasoning. The study discussed and identified the areas of utility of asset securitization in Nigeria. For instance, providing access to banks funds to match their regulatory capital requirements and their financial obligations; possibility of investment in asset securitization under the National Pension Commission by its Regulation on Investment of Pension Fund Assets; the possibility of asset securitization helping in addressing the challenges in the housing sector; and possible utilization of asset securitization in facilitating access to immediate funding from the capital market to address the infrastructural problem. The study established a link between asset securitization and security interests and therefore discussed the challenges of priority and enforcement of security interests. The study found the asymmetric relationship between perfection and priority of security interests as unsatisfactory. It found that the existing rules of priority is complex, cumbersome and is not conducive to emergence of asset securitization. The study also discussed enforcement of mortgages and charges, the security interests found by the study to be relevant to asset securitization. The various challenges of enforcement of security interests like abuse of interlocutory injunctions and preliminary objections, recourse to court even in self-help remedies, undue delay and cost of enforcement, complex and cumbersome procedure for foreclosure and issue of agency of receiver/managers were highlighted and discussed. The relevant provisions of the Lagos State Mortgage and Property Law were also considered and while the study was critical of some of its provisions, it recommended some of it for adoption by other states. The legal frameworks for structuring asset securitization under the existing law were discussed as well as the challenges and risks attendant to asset securitization such as transfer of asset risk; re-characterization risk; insolvency/claw back risk; and risk of the underlying security. The possible legal and contractual means of mitigating the legal risks were discussed but were found unsatisfactory. The study therefore advocated the need for specific legal and regulatory frameworks on asset securitization as well as reform of the law on priority and enforcement of security interests. In addition, having found that enacting a law on asset securitization had to contend with the federal nature of the Nigerian Constitution given that different aspects of law applicable to asset securitization straddle legislative competence of both the federal and state legislature, the study advocated that asset securitization be made a distinct legislative item within the competence of the federal legislature.
 

AN EXAMINATION OF TENSE ERRORS IN ENGLISH ESSAYS AMONG STUDENTS

AN EXAMINATION OF TENSE ERRORS IN ENGLISH ESSAYS AMONG STUDENTS

Adejare and Adejare, states that tense is the linguistic feature of handling time relations in speech and it differs from language to language. To them, tense is a linguistic feature usually characterized by abstraction with language specific rather than universal. According to them, traditional Grammar assumes that since there exists three time frames, there must be three tenses referring to the three time frames, thus, the past, the present and the future tense.
 
Tense is the form that a verb takes to show time, or an aspect expressing time relation. Hornby, (78) defines tense as “a verb form or series of verb forms used to express time relation. By time, we mean a universal non- linguistic concept which has three dimensions, the present the past and the future and time is a continuous process that is from a day to the next.
In expressing time relation, tense system is used to indicate the different time at which an action is viewed as happening.
Contributing in the same vein, Palmer, defines tense as a linguistic reference to time. This definition differs from language as it is believed that some languages have an elaborate indicator to time while others don’t.
 
Orji, (30) states that “traditionally, there are up to 16 tenses in English, today, however linguistics have seen through the traditional flaw, which is that traditional grammarians equated “tense” with “time.”
Every race or every generation has three (3) times namely; the present, the past and the future, so time is a universal concept.
 
Thus palmer’s idea of 3 forms of tense is considered the theoretical framework within which this study is made. However, other tenses as in Orji,  are incorporated as generated from the three basic tenses mentioned above.
 
According to Quirk and Greenbaum, (24 – 25) “that there is a choice of the past, present and future and that choice may be repeated and each new choice taking the place of the previous one at its departure.”
Leach and Svartvik, (81), state that most tenses in English have several uses, because the present tense, past tense and future tense can be used to indicate different times. To this effect therefore, students find it difficult to differentiate the term reference or verbs forms.

Comparative Analysis Of Oswald Mtshali's Just A Passer By And An Abandoned Bundle

Comparative Analysis Of Oswald Mtshali’s Just A Passer By And An Abandoned Bundle

CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The words of poetry are carefully chosen because they not only bear the deep emotions of the poet but also reflect his innocent views of matters. Poetry is life in writing or viva voce. Through poetry, poets expose the true identity and remote contents of their tender hearts. Whereas writers of other genres of literature express their emotion, the message of the poet sinks deeper and usually, it is only meant for a few.
According to geographical regions, poetry can be divided into African poetry, Asian poetry, Caribbean poetry, African American poetry, English poetry etc. Since poetry, as a genre of literature, draws her strength from the society, the peculiarities of the different societies would be reflected in the poems of such societies. The focus of this material is African Poetry.
In writing, many scholars trace the different beginnings of poetry in Africa. Ruth Finnegan dedicated so much in the study of oral literature in Africa which includes the African poetry. However, two main categories are distinguishable: the traceable beginning of poetry and the untraceable beginning of African poetry. The latter is often referred to as “time immemorial.” African poets write about African experiences, virtues and heritage. The experiences include slavery, colonization and apartheid. One of such writers who capture these experiences is Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali.
This work studies African poetry through the windows of Oswald Mtshali. The windows are accessed through two of Mtshali’s poem. These are: “Abandoned Bundle  and “Just a Passerby,” These poems are analyzed briefly with a highlighted extract. In conclusion, a critical judgment of Oswald Mtshali is made in line with the observations found in the analyses of the poems. This critical judgment is then related to Africa poetry at large.
Oswald M. Mitshali is one of black South Africa’s most talented poet. He was born in Natal and was a victim of the apartheid system which denied him admission into the University of Witwatersrand. But this did not dampen his desire for literary progress as he published his first volume of poems titled Sounds of the Cowhide Drum, which established him as a significant poet.
Mitshali’s poems are about the people and their life in a hostile society which he is part of. The theme of survival in a defiant and hostile society runs through a number of his poems. The quiet control and the colloquial tone is noticed when the poet writes of his peoples’ sufferings. There is no venom of hatred expressed but most of the themes are conveyed through distilled lyrical verses and ironic humour. Similarly, irony and cynicism are the main characteristic features of his poetry as can be seen in the poem below.
1.2 OSWALD MTSHALI BIOGRAPHY
Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali, (born 1940, Vryheid, Natal, South Africa), South African poet who wrote in English and Zulu and whose work drew deeply upon the immediate experience of life in the Johannesburg township of Soweto.
Mtshali worked as a messenger before his first collection of poems, Sounds of a Cowhide Drum (1971), won the Olive Schreiner Prize for 1974. After studying in the United States at the University of Iowa and Columbia University (New York), Mtshali returned to South Africa in 1979 and taught at a private school in Soweto. His second volume of poems, Fireflames (1980), was banned by the South African government because it was dedicated to the schoolchildren of Soweto, an obvious reference to the uprising there in 1976. Mtshali later edited the nonfiction work Give Us a Break: Diaries of a Group of Soweto Children (1988).
Mtshali’s poetry inevitably reflects his harsh experiences under the apartheid regime. He observes with a bitter and sardonic eye the grimy beer halls, the crowded trains, the slum housing, and the harsh working conditions that make up the lot of black Africans in South Africa. His bitterness finds expression in brilliantly controlled lines etched with an acid irony. Mtshali’s poetry is remarkable for its evocative imagery, and his confident and unexpected similes have a rich emotional impact.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The East African poet Oswald Mstshali’s selected poem will be analysed thematically and stylistically.
Specifically, the study will

  1. Examine the theme of the poems.
  2. Identify the poetic techniques employed.

 

SYMBOLS AND IMAGES IN SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY OF DENNIS BRUTUS AND OSWALD MBUYISENI MTSHALI

SYMBOLS AND IMAGES IN SOUTH AFRICAN POETRY OF DENNIS BRUTUS AND OSWALD MBUYISENI MTSHALI

ABSTRACT

This study examines the use of symbols and images as poetic techniques in South African poetic writing. The poems seek to address the issues of socio-political injustice, apartheid, oppression and man’s inhumanity to man in the society, a kind of counter – attacking the apartheid system of the South African society, which allows for inequalities and abject poverty of a section of the society while the other section thrives in affluence. At the end we discover how Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali expose the terrible state of affairs in South Africa through their revolutionary implantation of symbols and images.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Abstract
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Biography of Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Justification of the Study
1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study
1.6 Methodology
End notes
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Poetry as a Societal Outlook
2.2 The Sociological Approach
2.3 Apartheid in South African
End Notes
CHAPTER THREE:
(A) Symbols and Images as Poetic Techniques in the
Poem of Dennis Brutus “a Troubadour I Traverse”
End Notes
(B) Symbols and Images as Poetic Techniques in the Poems of Oswald Mtshali
End Notes
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
4.1 Summary
4.2 Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendices

CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas, this literary device is used by poets to create a mental picture in the mind of readers, it is also used to widen their reasoning faculties see Northrop Frye “Anatomy of criticism” (1957) describes four types of symbol i.e Symbol as an image, a metaphor, a sign and it representation of an idea, this work is based on the symbolic image on Frye (1957) with reference to the sociological archetypes used by the selected poets.
An image is a mental representation of anything not actually presented to the senses but which appeal to our senses through words. Thus we often speak of “seeing” something in the “minds” “eye” some times we may run over a tune in our mind.
Writers of poetry always write with cryptic expressions to coach their themes, poetry is one of the most difficult genres of literature because of its use of symbols and other literary devices. The use of symbol makes poetry not easily accessible by readers, according to Sam Adewoye (1988):
Poetry constute a bazzar of fear confusion
for its reader especially students of poetry
Culler however believes that poetry has a complex effect which are very difficult to explain” (1981:37). Culler believes poetry has some elements in it which makes it difficult and not easily accessible.
According to him, poetry is one of the most difficult genres of literature because of the use symbols images, the diction, and other literary devices. Charles Bodunde (1999).
Poetry is a highly orderly artistic creations, a
cumulative verbal entity through which a poet
express a vision of life, hidden to the less imaginative
The statement above by Bodunde expresses the fact that a poet talks about things happening in life, in his environment and things happening in the globe hidden to the less imaginative, according to him a poet uses his poetry to express his own view of what is happening in the society. Furthermore, the high artistic creation in the verbal entity is a pointer at symbolism in poetry.
Poetry is the spring that stirs the mind. It uses
the language that is highly imaginative which
explains the reason why it is not always
understood by everyone.
Jones meant in the above statement that the use of diction, some literary devices and phonological elements makes use of highly imaginative languages, literary devices such as simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, allusion, symbolism among others in the poem and this literary elements make poetry a difficult course for students especially students of poetry and practical criticism. It is for this reason that our T.S. Eliot is of the view that:
“Poetry is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality in their poems but they write from experience which they have had earlier in life, they visualize societal ills using symbols through their poems they profound solutions to the ills poets therefore do not write their poems to express their personality but poetry is on escape from personality with references to Eliot once again:
Poetry has not a personality to express, but a
particular medium, which is only a medium
and not a personality, in which impressions and
expressions combine on peculiar and unexpected
ways, impressions and expressions which quite a
negligible part in the man, the personality. (1981:144)
As explained earlier that poets do not express their personality in the poems but they write on visible things in the human society, happenings, either positive or negative and trying to profound solutions to the negative ones.
This research work tends to see how two South African writers Dennis Brutus and Oswald oppression, corruptions and apartheid through the use of literary devices like symbolism and imagery in their poems. Dennis Brutus is a patriotic poet, he is a poet that has the masses in mind, through his poems he teaches and continues his campaign against racism and racial discrimination in South Africa using majorly the media of symbol and images Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali also writes about a people, a life and a hostile society. He knows very well and has experienced. He writes subtly about survival and the sufferings of his people. These poets have something in common and that is the fact that they both make use of local materials in their poems to portray their cultural background and to arrive at sociological theory of literature. This theory will fully be discussed in our chapter two.

1.2 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DENNIS BRUTUS AND OSWALD MTSHALI

 
Dennis Brutus was born in Salisbury Rhodesia in 1924 of mixed parents while Brutus was a child he migrated to South Africa and lived in port Elizabeth, his early education was irregular but his mother introduced him to English poetry reading from early writers like Tennyson and William words worth.
He eventually entered into fort Hare University as an adult and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree, subsequently he taught English and Afrikaans for fourteen years I South African High Schools but his active par nation led him to his dismissal in 1962 and his arrest in Johannesburg. Dennis Brutus is a poet that has the masses at heart and who is in solidarity with the oppressed corresponding faith in their aspiration for revolutionary change. He uses poetry to make the people see the anomalies in the society. This is the art in service of man. Is functions is to act as an irritant a catalyst. By so doing, this art can provoke man to change the world he lives and through this he changes himself.
A writer plays an important role in the society that is embraces the human condition in its totality and this exposes same to man to effect a change. This Brutus has done in his poetry as he put experiences of the masses together in verse form. Truly, one can say that Brutus is that of commitment to the aspirations of the disposal masses. His collection of poems include: A troubadour I traverse…, the sum on this rubble, after exile (four selections) Nightsong: city, A common hate enriched our love and us. It is the constant image of your face.
Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali
Oswald Mbuyiseni is one of the most talented black South African poets writing today. He was born in 1940 in Vryheid. Natal where he had his early education, like most young people of his age he left for Johannesburg after matriculation. He was not merely drawn there by the bright lights, he was not merely drawn there by the brought lights, he had a serious purpose. He wanted to gain admission into the University of Witwaterstrand. But the long arm of apartheid caught up with him. He could not be admitted and he had to content himself with earning a living.
Mitshali writes about a people, a life and a hostile society he knows very well and has experienced. Few poets have so shrewdly and subtly hammered on the theme of survival. The great quality of Mtshali’s poetry is if colloquial tone and control; the emotions are never indulged and allowed to run away with the poet when he is writing about the sufferings of this people. Rather, his theme is conveyed through distilled lyrical verse and ironic rumour. And this is what gives poetry its credibility, an engaging simplicity that enables if to make its point through cutting irony and cynicism this collection of poems include sounds of a cowhide Drum (1971), fire flames, Amagoduka at Glencoe station, An abandoned bundle etc.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Writers do not just set out to write, they write in reaction to their daily encounter or societal events, either to condemn, Satire, Disapprove or approve. This present research work intends to see how these poets have been able to use these poems to react to the societal events.
This present study intends to expose the symbols and images as a literary devices used by the poets to explain as a literary devices used by the poets to explain hidden meaning of their poems. Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali both adopts the sociological approach of the literary analysis in analyzing their poems. In so doing the work will:
Investigate how the poets have been able to potary the beauty of Africa and how they have been able to show their patriotism to their mother land through the use of symbols and images as their major literary devices.
Examine the common ground in terms of thematic coverage, stylistics, phonological devices and literary elements in their selected work.
How they use symbols and images to enshrine African culture and world view, and also how they use these literary devices to attain the overall message of their work.
Lastly, we will look at the relevance of the use of symbols and images in their poems to the readers.

1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

This research work would establish the efficacy of the sociological approach as a relevant theory of literature.
There has been some research works on the poems of Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mbuyisen Mtshali but this present study will look into their use of symbols and images as a poetic technique and also the way these poetic techniques have been able to expose the hidden meaning of their poems and arrive at a reasonable thematic preoccupation.
The quality of Mtshali’s poetry is its colloquial tone and control; the emotions are never indulged and allowed to run away with the poet when he is writing about the suffering of his people also Mtshali use symbols and images to expantiate more and give the readers a clearer meaning of his poetry. Also Dennis Brutus has a great quality as his style belongs to the main tradition of English poetry, he also has a subtle art and controlled passion and this account for the positive impact he is able to make through his poetry.
The above things are what this present study will look into.

1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

Although Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali both South African writers have written several poems their poem have different thematic preoccupation but this research work will focus on poems having Racial discrimination themes, theme of survival, theme of suffering, and theme of oppression. Our focus in this project will be the study of the following poems:
Dennis Brutus: “A troubadour I traverse”
Oswald Mbuyisen “An abandoned bundle”
“The birth of Shaka”.

1.6 METHODOLOGY

This research work aims at examining the use of symbols and images as poetic techniques in the works of South African writers example of Dennis Brutus and Oswald Mtshali.
The sociological approach to literary analysis to Bayo Ogunjimi (1968) is visioned as follows:
Sociological approach has more relevance
because the inevitability of social mobilization
in the sociological approach suggest dialectic
of history in literature. Race, class and historical
moments are the parameters for evaluating the
society through literature by the scholar in this
type of school. They believe its inappropriate to
separate dietetics from traditionalism. (2000:191)
The sociological approach remains a relevant approach in the analysis of Dennis and Mtshali’s work because that has helped in the exposure of the setting, themes, character types etc.
The writers use of socio cultural credentials of South African blunt but subtly and in a simple direct sentence. We are going to be focusing on the themantic, preoccupation of the selected poems: Brutus’s A troubadour I traverse’ and Mtshali poems.
symbols and images as poetic techniques in south african poetry, the example of dennis brutus and oswald mbuyiseni mtshali

THEMATIC AND STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR’S POEM

THEMATIC AND STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR’S POEM

Leopold Sedar Senghor

Senghor born in Senegal is one of the oldest and most prominent of African poets.  A poet philosopher, scholar and statesman Senghor is also the greatest exponent of the philosophy of NegritudeNegritude as an ideology was merely developed as a reaction to cultural deprivation that African poets experienced in Europe.  This led the educated elite to revive through literature, the cultural values, and identify the beauty of Africa by extolling their ancestral glories.  This led to the use of traditional imagery, symbols and rhythm,  Negritude has passed through a number of phases and was at times accused of over sentimentalism.  Nevertheless Senghor’s poetry gained great importance and won many international prizes for his contribution to African literature as a whole and African poetry in particular.

I WILL PRONOUNCE YOUR NAME

I will pronounce your name
I will pronounce your name, Naett, I will declaim you , Naett!
Naett, your name is mild like the cinnamon, it is the fragrance in which
the lemon grove sleeps,
Naett, your name is the sugared clarity of blooming coffee trees
And it resembles the savannah, that blooms forth under the
the masculine odour of the midday sun.
Name of dew, fresher shadows of tamarind,
Fresher even than short dusk, when the heat of the dusk is
silenced.
Naett, that is the dry tornado, the hard clap of lightning
Naett, coin of gold, shinning coal, you my night , my sun!—
I am your hero, and now I have become your sorcerer, in order to
pronounce your names.
Princess of Elisa, banished from *Futa on the fateful day.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To Decipher the theme of the poem.
To analyse the main poetic device employed by the poet.
 

THEMATIC AND STYLISTIC ANALYSES OF OSWALD MTSHALI’S JUST A PASSER BY

THEMATIC AND STYLISTIC ANALYSES OF OSWALD MTSHALI’S JUST A PASSER BY

INTRODUCTION:

The East African poet Oswald Mstshali’s poem will be analysed thematically and stylistically.
Oswald M. Mitshali is one of black South Africa’s most talented poet. He was born in Natal and was a victim of the apartheid system which denied him admission into the University of Witwatersrand. But this did not dampen his desire for literary progress as he published his first volume of poems titled Sounds of the Cowhide Drum, which established him as a significant poet.
Mitshali’s poems are about the people and their life in a hostile society which he is part of. The theme of survival in a defiant and hostile society runs through a number of his poems. The quiet control and the colloquial tone is noticed when the poet writes of his peoples’ sufferings. There is no venom of hatred expressed but most of the themes are conveyed through distilled lyrical verses and ironic humour. Similarly, irony and cynicism are the main characteristic features of his poetry as can be seen in the poem below

OBJECTIVES

To examine the theme of the poem.
To identify the poetic techniques employed.

JUST A PASSERBY

  • I saw them clobber him with kieries,
  • I heard him scream with pain
  • like a victim of slaughter
  • I smelt fresh blood gush
  • 5 from his nostrils,
  • and flow on the street.

  • I walked into the church
  • and knelt in the pew
  • “Lord! I love you.
  • 10 I also love my neighbour. Amen”

  • I came out
  • my heart as light as an angel’s kiss
  • on the cheek of a saintly soul.
  • Back home I strutted
  • 15 past a crowd of onlookers.
  • Then she came in –
  • my woman neighbour:
  • “Have you heard? They’ve killed your brother.”
  • “O! No! I have heard nothing. I’ve been to church.”

THEME AND STYLE IN THE POEM

This is a very ironic and sarcastic piece of poetry through which the poet expresses the helpless condition of.…….. (PURCHASE FULL WORK)