Paper short abstract:

In Africa, the grandmother is the family matriarch who transfers inter-generational values to children through storytelling. In this paper, I conceptualise Iya Ile Ookan as a social media grandmother figure who facilitates traditional storytelling sessions on Facebook for didactic purposes.

Paper long abstract:

In African family structures, the grandmother is a powerful figure who disseminates indigenous knowledge and intelligence to children through storytelling. The storytelling sessions significantly help to transmit African epistemology from one generation to the other. However, in recent times, this storytelling tradition has suffered a decline due to a myriad of reasons. However, with the advancement of technology, the art of storytelling is being revived on social media. Iya Ile Ookan is a celebrity and grandmother figure on Facebook Yoruba. She writes mostly in Yoruba language, and constantly promotes the Yoruba culture and values through her posts. This paper ratifies the grandmother as an indelible icon in African storytelling traditions. It investigates how the Iya Ile Ookan virtual persona embodies the typical African grandmother to recreate the traditional storytelling setting and ambience on her Facebook page. Two of her story posts on Facebook are used as data for this study, which is foregrounded in the Yoruba aphorism – “Agba kii wa l’oja ki ori omo tuntun wo”, loosely translated thus – “as long as there is an elder in the market, a newborn baby’s head cannot be crooked”. Through contextual analysis, the paper explores the socio-cultural relevance of the story posts under study, while inferential analysis is used to interpret the reception and response of Iya Ile Ookan’s audience. An engagement with the posts reveals that Facebook functions as a viable platform for Iya Ile Ookan’s art of virtual storytelling and social commentary.

Paper short abstract:

I focus on popular culture in the discography of Temmie Ovwasa, a non-binary Nigerian music artiste. I contend that Ovwasa's self-outing and their representations of their experiences in their songs represent a deconstruction of the homophobic and misogynist space that Hip Hop culture vaunts.

Paper long abstract:

Spaces continue to be central to identity-formation and public representation. This acknowledgment has become even more vocal within narratives on queerness and self/other portrayal. In the more recent past, and following the rupturing of queer invisibility which has long been the reality within many homophobic spaces, literary texts and filmic productions have taken centre-stage in queer agentic proclamations. In this study however, I focus on popular culture with specific interests in the discography of Temmie Ovwasa, a self-outed queer-identifying non-binary Nigerian music artiste. I contend that Ovwasa's self-outing and their representations of their experiences in their songs represent a deconstruction of the homophobic and misogynist space that Hip Hop culture vaunts. Their discography further signals a disruption of heterosexual normativity within Nigeria's contemporary popular music front. I achieve the aim of the study through a discourse analysis of purposively selected songs from their three music albums. In the application of the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis to the lyrics, I pay close attention to the thematic preoccupation of the songs as well as how queer identity and agency are asserted by the artiste. I complement these with self-representations from their social media pages. While there is a recognition of the limitations which a chronically homophobic milieu enforces on their agency, Ovwasa also acknowledges the redemptive role which their popularity and visibility through their discography enables in the politics of representation and conquering of hither-to disabling spaces.

Paper short abstract:

The emergence of social media has brought creativity in content creations. One of the notable of these is skit making. I concentrate on two Nigerian binary skit makers (Isaac Aloma Junior and Bukky Odedina to analyze how characters are used to represent and/or construct gender in the Nigerian space.

Paper long abstract:

The art is a reflection of the society. Hence, whatever is created is the manifestation of the perception of their immediate surroundings. Recognizing this therefore suggests the continued debate and struggle for gender equity and equality among gender scholars and commentators who have lend their voices through the art of drama; film, literature (text), dance and music. In recent times, the social media tend to take the shine in the area of identity representation and construction. Through the adoption of the Visual Discourse Analysis (VDA) on the choice skit contents, this study pays close attention to the duality of man in his cosmic space in gender construction and representation in crossplay skits among these two skit makers. The study contends that the binary representations has led to stereotypes and identity formations and asserts that the acceptability of these humorous skits by the people portends positivity capable of inducing a futuristic harmonious existence between the two genders.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the gender style of address terms in Egyptian TV series (2020-2021) and approaches the data sample as a corpus of performed language. It investigates their linguistic creativity and social functions raising media makers' awareness of constructing gender identities on screen.

Paper long abstract:

As part of ongoing qualitative research on language and gender, this paper explores the gender style of address terms in Egyptian TV series (2020-2021). Within this context, a purposive sample of 75 interactions of six couples written by four Egyptian authors in three Egyptian TV series is analyzed linguistically. The study approaches the scripted data as a corpus of performed language demonstrating authors' perceptions of gender style, which may reflect broader societal perceptions. Research has shown a significant relationship between media makers' perceptions of gender styles in scripted performances and natural speech (Tannen, 1994, p. 139). Moreover, there is a strong relationship between gender portrayals in TV series and the stereotypical perceptions of audiences about gender (Herrett-Skjellum and Allen, 1996). This paper investigates the gender style of address terms with respect to significant aspects, such as age and social class, to include variant social groups in examining the portrayal of gender language production. It aims to reveal the construction of gender social identities in interactions through address terms and their linguistic creativity with respect to lexical meanings and social functions. The study reveals that terms of address are influenced by gender and function as a social indicator for class. The study raises media makers' social awareness of constructing social stereotypes about gender identities on screen. The study fills existing gaps in explaining how address terms work in performed interactions for better communication and understanding of language production.

Keywords: Gender, style, performance, terms of address, Egyptian TV series.