Satire, Agency and the Contestation of Patriarchy in Ibibio Women’s Songs

ABSTRACT

The article explores the way Ibibio women in Akwa Ibom State, South-eastern Nigeria use satirical songs to challenge (or endorse) conservative gender ideologies and stereotypes in a bid to access power and agency within their patriarchal society. Drawing on ethnographic qualitative data sourced through participant observations, semi-structured interviews and metalinguistic conversations with twenty participants, and analysing a corpus of fifteen songs, the study demonstrates – from an ethnopragmatic paradigm and an African feminist perspective – that satirical songs are creative cultural resources that speak to the dynamics of women empowerment. The article identifies three main tropes in which the songs are framed: social challenges of marriage, asserting agency and contesting patriarchy. The study concludes that satirical songs represent cultural material with which marginalised women express their views and exercise agency against cultural forces that often subjugate them. In this way, these songs provide a veritable site for expanding the frontiers of feminism.

KEYWORDS:

• women
• patriarchy
• satirical songs
• African feminism
• agency
• performance
• ethnopragmatics
• Ibibio

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers of this article and the editor for contributing perspectives that really improved the quality of our thesis and argument in this paper. We thank Ukeme Etim and McQueen Phillip for acting as the liaisons between the participants and the researchers. We thank all the participants who were involved in this study. We also appreciate Ben Nyong for editing an earlier draft of the paper and for referencing assistance. The remaining errors are ours.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Idom T. Inyabri

Idom T. Inyabri is an associate professor in the department of English and literary studies, University of Calabar, Nigeria. He teaches courses in African literature (oral and written). He is a postdoctoral fellow of African Humanities Program of the American Council of Learned Societies. He has been hosted by the University of Western Cape as a research associate. His latest publications have appeared in Journal of Anthropological Research, Journal of Black Studies and English Academy Review.

Imeobong J. Offong

Imeobong J. Offong is a lecturer in the department of linguistics and Nigerian languages, University of Calabar. Her research interests include pragmatics, discourse studies and sociolinguistics. As a doctoral student, she is currently undertaking an ethnopragmatic study of idioms in Ibibio, a language spoken in the south-eastern region of Nigeria.

Eyo O. Mensah

Eyo O. Mensah teaches structural and anthropological linguistics at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He is currently a senior fellow and guest professor at the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA), University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana. His research interests include morphosyntax, pragmatics, language and naming/identity, language and gender/sexuality and youth language. His latest publications have appeared in English Today, International Journal of Language and Culture, Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, Gender Issues, Journal of Black Studies, Linguistics Vanguard, South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, English Academy Review, Sexuality and Culture, Language Sciences, Sociological Focus and Anthropological Quarterly.