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- ItemFrom Celebration to Objectification: Analysing Korra Obidi’s 2025 International Women’s Day Instagram Dance Video(College of Humanities Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, 2025-04) Adenuga Tayo JoanThis study examines Korra Obidi’s 2025 International Women’s Day (IWD) dance video, posted on her Instagram page on the 8th of March 2025. Although previous studies have discussed female body representations and its implications in diverse creative works, the elements of objectification in short dance videos, intended to commemorate special celebrations, have been scantily explored. This study therefore moves beyond surface-level interpretations of celebration to explore the potential for objectification within the visual and performative content of Korra Obidi’s IWD dance video. Employing an interpretive research design and utilising content analysis as the primary method of research, the study scrutinises the video's composition, framing, and performative elements to discern the construction of female body objectification and its relation to the viewer's gaze. The theoretical frameworks underpinning this exploration are Laura Mulvey’s (1975) Male Gaze Theory and Barbara Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts’ (1997) Objectification Theory. Findings suggest that despite the video’s ostensible celebration of female bodies, it exhibits strong elements of objectification. The pronounced emphasis on specific body parts, coupled with the performative display of sexualised dance movements, constructs a visual narrative that prioritises the female body as an object of consumption. This study reveals how the video, while superficially intended as a celebration of women, inadvertently reinforces objectifying gazes, and potentially perpetuates objectification of female bodies within the digital sphere through certain visual and artistic elements. The study contributes to the ongoing scholarly discourse on the complex interplay between female agency, representation, and the pervasive gaze in contemporary digital culture, particularly within the context of celebratory performances intended to signify women empowerment.
- ItemMultifaceted Cultural Amplitude of Yorùbá Films: A Case Study of Aníkúlápó (2022), By Kúnlé Afoláyan(Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, 2024-06) Michael Olanrewaju AgboolaThis paper considers the capacity of indigenous films, this time Yorùbá Films, to exude cultural significance that popularises the centrality of the Nigerian tribe, not only within the West African sub-region, but globally. Many Yorùbá films that date back to the Aye series of Hubert Ogunde days, the Ajani Ogun of Ade Afolayan, Ti Oluwa ni Ile of Tunde Kilani, Agogo Ewo, and Saworo Ide of Kunle Afolayan, and many others are cultural hits. Therefore, this paper problematizes indigenous films' relevance in amplifying the cultural aesthetics of the tribes. With the analysis of Kunle Afolayan’s Aníkúlápó (2022) and functionalism as a theoretical framework, the study discovered that films produced in traditional languages can spread the aesthetics of indigenous culture, attract the patronage of other cultures, with its multifaceted socio-economic appurtenances. In particular, Aníkúlápó exudes rich aesthetics peculiar to the Yorùbá Culture, such as the transcendental exposition of the Ifa Oracle, with its rich poetry and pedagogical artistry, the beautifully woven Aso Oke (handwoven traditional clothes), the assorted and delicately designed pottery that also exemplifies occupational engagement of a people, and many others. Of greater significance is the medium of film which is potent enough as a means of communication to disseminate and spread cultures far and near. Consequently, the paper concludes, that the power of indigenous language films to advance culture due to their fluidity and visual potency is huge and should be continually explored, more so that it possesses the propensity to preserve indigenous languages.
- ItemExpounding the Frontiers of the Nigerian National Question: The Example of Ahmed Yerima(College of Humanities, Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, Nigeria., 2025-04) Michael Olanrewaju AgboolaAbstract The Nigeria national question has generated recurrent national conflicts since her independence in 1960, and has not abated. The agitations in different regions of the country, particularly in the south-east and south-south bear testimony to this. Consequently, this study examines this perennial problem from the lens of Nigerian dramatists, as exemplified by Ahmed Yerima’s play, Hard Ground. The study interrogated the play from the conceptual framework of the character of the state as espoused by scholars such as Naim (1977), Oyovbaire (1985); and others. The study discovered that Yerima has taken a bold step to dramatise the problem of violent agitation for resource control and self-determination. It also discovered that the management of the relationship between the state and the sub-nationalities by the state and its leading personnel is mostly responsible for the tension and conflicts that often arise. Yerima, though condemns the bloodletting occasioned by the expression of discontentment, there is uneven handling in the treatment of the problem as only the agitation is roundly condemned by the playwright, leaving out the state, considered the harbinger of the problem as a result of its coercion, oppression, and neglect of peculiar needs of the sub-nationalities. The study concludes that as long as the state maintains a coercive posture, the problem will linger. It, therefore, recommends that the state and its leading personnel pay more attention to the complaints of the sub-nationalities. An even handling of socio-political conflict in the dramaturgy of Nigerian playwrights will further help the situation.
- ItemA Dramatist’s Search for a Sane Society: A Study of Ayò Akinwálé’s This King Must Die(Cognizance Journal, Zain Publications, Stockholm, Sweden., 2025-03) Michael Olanrewaju AgboolaThe condemnable excesses of the political class in Africa, particularly Nigeria, have attracted the response of many creative artists, particularly playwrights. As the search for solution continues, Ayo Akinwale provides an interesting dramaturgical perspective that worths interrogating. Consequently, this paper examines Akinwale’s This King Must Die (2001) as a play that seeks to heal Nigerian society of its seeming insanity. With the employment of the Marxist materialist theory, the study discovered that Akinwakle adopts a clinical approach of diagnosis and prescription which reveals that the Nigerian political class is full of impunity of unimaginable magnitude, such as violence and bloodletting, bestiality, and fraud. Akinwale’s use of mythical and histro-political materials to present Nigeria’s movement in transition in the play also pictures the nation’s problem vividly. The paly however presents hope of restoration, though the ancestors are tired of excesses of the political elite. Notwithstanding, in line with the Marxist materialist theory, Akinwale insists that since the nation’s problems are the products of their actions and inactions, the solutions must emanate from a collective action of its people, and ironically, the political class would still be a part of the participants. The paper, therefore, concludes that though the society still need the political class, it has to purge itself of inordinate ambition, greed, and sense of impunity, and align itself with the wishes of the masses so it could justify the mandate given by the people.
- ItemInterrogating the Nigerian National Question in Selected Plays of Femi Osofisan(Department of Theatre and Film Studies, River State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, 2024-10) Michael Olanrewaju AgboolaThe Nigerian national question has been a perennial problem, excruciating and turbulent, often disrupting the peace of the nation and sometimes resulting in anarchy, arson, sabotage and retardation for the nation. This phenomenon is problematized by this paper and examined in selected plays of Femi Osofisan, particularly Another Raft and Once Upon Four Robers. The study used the Marxist theory by Karl Marx as a framework to interrogate the plays and found that the Nigerian national question manifests both in inter-group and inter-class forms. The subjects of conflicts are discovered to revolve around key factors, such as ethnic distrust, which is an inter-group phenomenon, intolerable poverty level, and hunger, occasioned by the twin scourge of uneven distribution of national wealth, and humongous acts of corruption, both of which precipitate class conflicts, thus throwing up class struggle. The study, therefore, concludes that if the trend continues unabated, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for peace and meaningful development to be achieved. It is, therefore, our suggestion that the state, exemplified by the political elite, requires urgent self-examination and self-adjustment that result in self-sacrifice, justice, fairness, transparency in the handling of state affairs, accountability, and concern for the well-being of the masses, to move the nation forward, ensure peaceful co-existence and earn the trust of all citizens, including the sub-nationals.