International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities最新文献

{"title":"Challenges of Democracy and Development in Africa, South of the Sahara","authors":"Joseph Aketema","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.14","url":null,"abstract":"Development thrives when democratic principles and governance are exuded by leaders. There is a challenge in the democratisation processes looking at the development deficits of Africa. Postcolonial leaders of Africa, south of the Sahara have struggled desperately to live up to their political expectations—a reason why many would argue, results in the snail pace development of their respective countries. Democracy nourishes strong institutions, transparent governance, accountability and equitable distribution of resources. However, what is commonly noticed in the least developed states in Africa south of the Sahara is a practices of clientelism, prebendalism, ‘clanisation’ and patrimonialism. This paper examines the link between democracy and development. It discusses some of the lapses of political leaders and how that impedes the political, and development agendas of Africa, south of the Sahara. The discussion concludes that should Africa, south of the Saharan leaders continue to promote token gestures of democracy to the masses, their development agenda will never be met. It is, therefore, important to stress by way of recommendation, the strengthening of institutions to ght corruption, and freedom of press and citizen’s speech, be critically encouraged. ","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121907300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of Covid-19 Social Distancing Protocol on the Private Sector Dance Troupes in Lagos State, Nigeria","authors":"A. Udoka","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.13","url":null,"abstract":"The conrmed case of Covid-19 in Lagos State made it the epicentre of the virus in Nigeria. To this end, the federal government adopted public health protocols to curb its spread which included social distancing at the end of March 2020. The response measure of social distancing had grave consequences on the services of the private sector dance troupes in the state. This study adopted the exploratory research design. The population comprised private dance troupes based on a random selection of troupes that could be reached through mobile phones and other social media platforms. The objective of the study was to provide data on the impact of the social distancing measure on dance service providers in Lagos State and to establish the place of dance in the state’s political economy. The findings showed that the Covid-19 social distancing measure impacted negatively on 100% of dance service providers in the private sector during the period under review and that this sector was neglected as a matter of the socio-economic policy of the state. It was recommended that the policy of the government should not be discriminatory against dance operators in the private sector; a policy that addressed the plight of such operators should be formulated; alternatives that leveraged digital technology should be explored to scale up modes of dance presentations that guaranteed job and social security for all times in the sector. The study concluded that the deleterious impact of the measure of social distancing on the dance economy of the private dance troupes of Lagos State could have been mitigated if there was a policy framework that guaranteed culture security which would have benetted both the private dance troupes and Lagos State economy during the first four months of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124933013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Heritage Management and Community Engagement: The Story of the National Museum, Benin City, Nigeria","authors":"Austine Emifoniye","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.23","url":null,"abstract":"Heritage management is essential to the preservation of a people’s tangible and intangible culture. The heritage of a people may change over time or become extinct in the absence of conscious preservation, as is evident with many African cultures. Central to the preservation of heritages, is the engagement of communities in a dynamic process of continuity. The Great Benin kingdom engineered this process with the institution of the guild system, which served the royal court of the Oba (king). Although the guild is no longer practised strictly as court art today, the system is preserved as community art centres run by descendants of the ancient guild. Artisans in Benin City, play an important role as custodians of the culture and system, while the National Museum, Benin City houses some of the important relics of the Benin kingdom. This article looks at the history of the National Museum, and the structure in place for heritage preservation. It also examined the role played by Igun bronze casters who are important custodians of the arts and culture of the Benin kingdom. The study is qualitative research that relied on historical content and ethnographic methods, interviews and online publications for its data. Much of the ethnographic data was collected while the researcher was engaged in fieldwork in Benin City. His observation of the Benin guild workers, informal interviews and visits to the National Museum, Benin City are important parts of the data. Data collected were evaluated from observation assessment, text and interview analysis. The findings are presented within the general content of the essay. The study concludes that, although the National Museum, Benin City is an institutionalized heritage management organ of government, the preservation and continuity of important aspects of the tangible and intangible heritages of the Benin kingdom is been done also by the bronze casters who have continued with the ancient culture of bronze casting. This synergy, though informal, is a significant module, which may be adopted by other museums with similar structures. ","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129505739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"African Women Performing Men: Subverting Masculinity through Cross-Acting in Selected ABU Studio Theatre Performances","authors":"Victor Osae Ihidero","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.5","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the bodily politics of African women performing African men in the Nigerian acting scene. It appraises the complexities in conceptualizing masculinity and cross-acting vis-à-vis gender stereotyping. It argues against the backdrop that the female body is elastic and better positioned for cross-acting than the male body. It draws on the transitory conceptualizations of subversion to claim that the Nigerian female stage actor possesses a fluid ability to play eccentric male roles in ways that express the persona of the African male character. The paper argues that the fluidity of the Nigerian female stage actor is marked by three trimesters or trimetric factors; her innate ability to perform many roles as a woman, her ability to carry other bodies and to endure the pain of it; more so, attended by diverse bodily changes and lastly, her Freudian complex of desiring to become a man in challenging or turbulent situations. It avers that within the precinct of these triadic factors are elements which inhibit and/or propel the Nigerian female acting. The study used two experimental acting workshops from the Ahmadu Bello University Studio Theatre to affirm that the necessity of imaginative disruption in typecasting may be the mother of invention in acting. It concludes that while the African male actor needs an extreme form of physical, social and individual dislocation to effectively play the African woman, the African female actor only needs a supple routine in rehearsals to perform the male character and roles.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124655230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Consideration of Socio-Cultural Role of Women in Yeelen and Faat Kiné","authors":"Cecilia Avorkliyah, Prince Kumado","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.11","url":null,"abstract":"The study examines socio-cultural themes in African cinema with a specific focus on Souleyman Cissé’s Yeelen (1987) and Ousmane Sembeǹ e’s Faat Kiné (2000). The female characters epitomise the role of women within the Bambara culture as interlocutors and mediators between humans against their fellow humans and the deities. The enduring relevance of Faat Kiné (2000) cannot be simply glossed over when it comes to the travails of a ‘modern’ woman within the patriarchal constructed societies that characterise some traditional African states. The study concludes that traditional African women wield some influence in guiding the moral and spiritual direction of their children. In the case of Faat Kiné, Sembène appears to strongly suggest that education, and economic empowerment of females are the ingredients that lead to the collapse of male-dominated cultural and religious influence(s) within society. ","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114477287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mental Health Promotion for Internally Displaced Persons Using Drama Therapy in Makurdi Area, North Central Nigeria","authors":"Sunday Ogbu Igbaba","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.22","url":null,"abstract":"Trends in contemporary global arts practice have shown that experts in the field of mental health have long tapped into visual arts and music to help treat developmental disabilities and several other mental issues, including depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder, as well as schizophrenia and bipolar spectrum. Today, therapists are finding great benefit from another art form; drama.” However, the paradox in Nigeria, especially in the northern part is that drama technique as a psychotherapeutic practice does not exist in the protocol of mental health facilities. In retrospect, it is obvious that the poor status of mental health care in northern Nigeria is due mainly to lack of facilities, un-affordability and inaccessibility to health facilities. Against this backdrop of increasing mental health issues, especially post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD); resulting from insurgency attacks, communal clashes, herdsmen carnage, road accident and flood, which have given rise to various internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps vis-à-vis their psychological implication in the north. The need for the availability of drama therapy technique becomes highly imperative for affordable, accessible and effective mental healthcare promotion. The paper discusses the concept and practice of drama and theatre therapy techniques, and how they can be applied in psychotherapeutic sessions both at individual and group therapy levels. The improvisational approach which keys into various expressive art techniques shall be utilized. The approach is used to create believable characters out of IDPs themselves, through storytelling, songs, music, dance, etc., to enable them to get emotionally involved to establish a recall of the experience that brought about their disadvantaged psychological condition. This leads to clinical discussions that will facilitate the way forward in making individual and collective choices and decisions that will bring about not just mental health, but holistic well-being.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125213870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Les Causes de L’indélité des Femmes dans L’heptaméron","authors":"Musa Adamu Mamman","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.16","url":null,"abstract":"Entertainment is the inherent function of the novella (short stories), and historical facts are the inherent material of the novella. It is influenced by a narrative tradition that dates back to the fabliau and it is also influenced by the didactic moralism of the Exemplum. Besides entertainment, Marguerite de Navarre's L’Heptaméron presents a picture of the crisis in social morality, in spite of the fact that Christian morality was anchored in French society in the sixteenth century. The main thing is to appreciate the lessons learned from the frequent cases of rape, from the evil acts exposed by the author of L’Heptaméron.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124442856","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using Technology to Enhance Instruction and Learning in Musical Arts Education in Nigeria","authors":"Eyiuche Rita Modeme","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.9","url":null,"abstract":"Technology is a rapidly growing trend in the field of education today. Technologies have made rapid advances, and their applications to the music classroom have not been fully utilized. Researchers observed that the study of music in many parts of the world has gone far through electronic and computer technology but in Nigerian tertiary institutions, music teachers seem to use technology more for administrative tasks as opposed to music curriculum uses. This study, therefore, examines musical arts education and technologies. It discusses how technology could be used to enhance instruction and learning in the music classroom. The focus is on computer and internet usage for effective teaching and learning of music. The paper further considers technology and music education, types of technology devices, the benefits of technology in music education. The obstacles to the use of technologies in closing the gaps were fully identified. The study concludes that computerizing and networking music education in Nigeria tertiary institutions are imperative. It, therefore, recommends the mainstreaming of technology utilization (particularly the computer and internet) in music education system at all levels for the benefit of curriculum implementation and enhanced student learning.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"114 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114245788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Narrative as a Symbolic Social Act: Sexual Bribery and the Pragmatics of Resolution in J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Kunle Afolayan’s Citation","authors":"C. Sam","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.19","url":null,"abstract":"This paper explores pragmatic approaches to dealing with issues of sexual harassment within the academy. This is achieved through an analysis of the plot resolutions in two narratives, drawing on Frederic Jameson’s framework of the Political Unconscious. Within this context, the paper examines J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and Kunle Afolayan’s Citation asw symbolic acts that explore symbolic resolutions of social contradictions. The selected texts enable a reflection on the BBC’s October 6, 2019 documentary on sex for grades, and nurture a symbolic dimension to appreciating the complexities and power relations in sexual harassment reporting in the academy. The paper demonstrates that the two narratives engage in a broader dialogue with theoretical concepts to speak to the dynamics of mediated sexual scandals.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126700036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Is the African Cinema Definition ‘Real’ or ‘Idealistic’","authors":"Sarah Kuntoh","doi":"10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4314/ijcrh.v26i1.2","url":null,"abstract":"To a large extent, the world seems to have seen more films from the West than from anywhere else. In sub-Saharan Africa for example, it was not until the early 1960s that the Africans had the opportunity to stand behind the lens to tell their own story. Unlike the cinema of the West, ‘African cinema’ was borne more out of the resistance to its representation by the West. From Ousmane Sembene’s time till now, other filmmakers from Anglophone as well as Lusophone countries have made different films on different subjects about nation and culture. But in many scholarly writings, for several years, these national cinemas are not seen as such but are bundled up under the rubric of African cinema. Who defines African cinema, can we look at its constituents as national cinemas? Is the definition known before evolving? Are the films made in contemporary times in cosmopolitan settings losing their ‘Africanness’? Does the term African cinema possess colonial undertones? This article seeks to trace the beginnings of African cinema and its evolution and find out how the cinemas in sub-Saharan Africa especially kowtowing to the pigeonhole of the idealism of how the West defines it, or whether gradually the emerging stories from different nations are making the world rethink films from Africa in a different or ‘real’ way. The paper further considers the progress of filmmaking in Anglophone Africa, with a particular reference to Ghana and how this art wrapped in culture and ideology has defined itself over the years. The study adopts analytical and historicocritical methods.","PeriodicalId":297503,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Current Research in the Humanities","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130206934","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}