CENTREPOINT Humanities Edition 8, (1) 117-126
TEXT LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF OFO AWURE
By
DR. BADE AJAYI
Department of Linguistics and Nigeria Languages
University of llorin
Ilorin, Nigeria.
1.
Introduction
Ofo, the Yoruba incantatory poetry, is a verbal aspect of African
magic, used to procure non-therapeutic needs of man (of. Dopamu 1977).
Ofo is the spoken word believed by Africans to produce magical effects,
when used by man to control the world around him. An Ofo may be good
or bad. The good incantations such as, the incantation for attracting clients
(afero), for escaping from calamity or misfortune (afore), for poison
antedotes (opore), for activiating memory (isoye), for (aporo) self-defence
(madaarikan), for good luck/fortune (awure) are used to procure the total
well-being of man while the bad incantations such as ogede and aasan are
used to kill, harm or cause misfortune to people in the society. Essentially,
Ofo is used in almost every sphere of human activities - social, economic,
political and medical.
Textlinguistics is an application of linguistic principles to the study
of a text (written or spoke). Apart from textlinguistics, other approaches to
literary studies include socio-logical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic and
speech acts theories, while a sociolinguist, sociologist or psycholinguist
will be interested M studying the social uses of text or the pragmatic
activities of the speaker or hearer, "Speech Acts" theory is noted for its
identification and classification of types and dimensions or functions
speech (cf. Austin 1962, Searle 1969 and 1976). A textual analyst, on the
other hand will be more .interested in analyzing the communicative
function(s) and message as well as the mode of conveying the information.
The primary objective of this paper, therefore, is a description of that
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category of the Yoruba Ofo called awure, with a view to identifying its
stylistic features and functional values.
2. Theoretical Framework
Every description of language should be grounded on theory,
whether it describes language form or language use (cf. Lamb, 1966). A
study on language may be founded on an existing theory or a modification
of such a theory or formulation of a new one. It is even possible for a
study of texts to involve two or more models. But if a study intends to
make any appreciable mark on language use within a limited scope and
space, it should restrict itself to a particular model. For the purpose of this
study, therefore, integrated theory of textlinguistics (ITME) proposed by
Awoyale (1991) offers the most convenient model for us to employ in our
investigation. The four major principles of integrated theory of
textlinguistics are grouping, prominence, cohesion and semantic
interpretation. The principle of grouping concerns the selection and
assemblege of events, participants and language elements, the major
ingredients employed by a literary artist. In grouping also is considered
how much information to put together into one sentence and how to group
sentences into larger units of paragraph and episode. Prominence is a
concept that is of great importance in textual anaysis. Halliday (1973:113)
conceives of prominence as linguistic highlighting, a phenomenon
whereby some features of the language of a text stand out in some way.
And like any other language, Yoruba has some stylistic devices for
signaling that one item is of more significance than its neighbours, the
devices include rate of information, space allocation, depth of treatment,
location or placement of an event, a participant or a language element. The
prominent participant and event will be presented more vividly in
graphical form. Cohesion on the other hand, concerns the ways in which
the components of surface text are mutually connected within a sequence.
In particular, cohesion concerns how the major ingredients (participants,
events and language elements) in a text relate to other ingredients already
mentioned in the discourse.
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3. Textlinguistic Analysis of Ofo Awure
Apart from the medicinal preparations or charms, the Yoruba use
Ofo awure to possess money, children, wives, love of people, to make
good sales and to secure some other blessings that make life worthy of
living. Simply put,.Ofo awure means an incantation or charm used for
good-luck or fortune.
Our representative text to be used to probe the textlinguistic
features that characterize this category of the Yoruba incantation is here
below:
S. 1
S. 2
S. 3
FC
PI
S.4
S. 5
P2
S. 6
P3
FC
S. 7
S. 8
S. 9
S. 10
S. I 1
S. 12
S. 13
S. 14
S. I5
S. 16
Agbe ni i gbe're k'Olokun 1
Aluko ni i gbe're k'Olosa 2
Odidere-Moba-Odo Omo Agbegbaaje-ka ni 3
naa ni i gbe're k'Oluwoo;
Ela-lwori, .gbere pade lona dandan
Olojo-Esinminrin-kuntelu-telu
Je k' Aje wa ku sile bayii
Ibiokabasi,
Igba eranko ni ba nibe ti i je;
Ifa ere kii-je k' ebi ko
Oju kan tesa 6 ba'jokoo si
Laa gbe' re tiree wa ba
He ni ataso 7 n joko t'okerekere i wo to
lleTatapo ijokode'di:
Ajigbore ni t'aatan;
Ojumo kii mo k'aatan 9 mo gbore
Olojo-oni tatemi lore
Gbogbo omi 10 ni i fori fOlokun;l5
Gbogbo abata ni i fori fOlodo, ''
Ise gbogbo agbara l2 ba se
Olodo ni i fi sin;
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P5
S. 17
S. 18
S. 19
S. 20
S. 21
Osin lo ni ki won wa sin
Aso alapo loga 14 i gba;
Ti gbo ti'ju ni j gbonwu eegun
Omode ilu, agba ilu, e waa fire gbogbo sin mi o
Ire gbogbo lagbara fi sin olodo.
Ire gbogbo
(Fabunmi, 1972:13-14)
It is the Agbe 3 bird that carries blessing
to Olokun4;
it is the Aluko ' bird that carries blessings
to Olosa
It is the Parrot of Moba river, the-offspring of the one carrying
calabash of trade who carries good forune to the king of Iwo;7
Ela-fwo re 2, carry good fortune to me on my way
The owner of Esinminrm river full to the brim;
Let wealth come to my residence now!
Wherever the Oka snake hides, it meets two
hundred preys there to feed on
The manner of crawling of the python does not
make it go hungry;
It is where Esu 8 stays permanently that his own blessings; are
brought to him 10
It is the house that the weaver stays at while
the Okerekere 9 moves to him
It is at the house that the seat awaits the
sitting-buttock;
The dump-pit is a perpectual beneficiary
There is no day the dump-pit does not receive
its own gift
Mighty Creator please gives me my own blessing/gift 15
All Waters pay homage to the Olokun
All swampy lands pay homage to the river deity
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All the labour that erosion ends up doing
It is the river deity that is the beneficiary
It is Osin 10 that commands them\ to serve me;
It is anybody's clothes that a chamelion wears;
Both the forest and the jungle team up to spin the Eegun " cotton
wool;
Both the young and old in the town, come and serve
me with all blessings;
For the erosion serves the river deity with all blessings,
All blessings.
3.1 Grouping
The first task before a text analyst is to identify and group the
ingredients employed by the writer or speaker. Tables and b below show
the identified participants and events respectively.
Table A. Grouping of Identified Participants
Serial Number Participants
No. of Occurrence
No. of Lines
1.
Eye
3
3
2
Olodo
5
5"
3.
Oluwoo
1
I
4.
Orisa
5
4
5.
Apofo
6
6
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6,
Ejo
4
3
7.
Alaso
2
1
8.
Eroja ihunso
3
3
9.
Atapo
1
1
10
idi
1
1
11
Olojo oni
1
1
12.
Omi
3
3
13.
Oga
1
1
14.
Tigbo-tiju
1
1
15.
Ara ilu
4
2
We would have further grouped related participants to compact me
above table but we found that such grouping will not enable us realise the
accurate number of occurrence and line occupied by each participant
.
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Table B: Grouping of Identified Events
Serial
Number
Events
1.
Ipe fun ire
No. of Sentence No. of Lines
(Call for blessings)
2.
2
5
5
3
3
8
8
Ipe fun ore
(Call for gifts/presents)
5.
I
Ipe fun ifa
(Call for advantages)
4.
4
Ipe fun aje
(Call for money)
3.
4
Ipe fun sinsin
(Call for people to serve)
In table a the first identified participant is Agbe bird which occurs
only once in one line. Olokun (the divinity of the ocean) the next
participant, in order of sequence occurs two times in two lines. And as it
can be clearly seen on the table. Apofo (the ofo reciter) signalled by
persona, pronouns is the protagenist or major participant because his name
has the greatest number of occurrence and space. The functional
Participants are Olokun, ere, olodo, Esu, alaso, omode ilu and agba as the
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table shows. All other participants (21 in number) each of which occurs
once in a single line, are minor participants (see table a for details)
Several events occur in the text such that almost every sentence
has its own event. But all the events have been grouped to compact them
into larger units (see table b above). By this means we are able to show the
most prominent event on the theme-line. s
The text/ contains 25 lines, 21 sentences and 5 identifiable
paragraphs. Fourteen of the sentences are focus constructions, 2 Kii negative construction and 4 imperative clauses (all marked on the original
text). Relative clauses are embedded in a few of the focus contractions to
limit the scope of the topicalized NP objects –oju kan and Ise gbogbo
respectively. These constructions are interwoven for artistic value. The
text starts with focus sentences followed by imperative clauses and then
kii - negative sentences as we have them in lines 1 - 8. Essentially, the
focus constructions and negative constructions express affirmative
statements which the reciter uses as a point of argument.
As it has been shown on table b above, five unified events are
identified. The first events are identified. The first event is a call for
general blessings, the second events is a call for blessing of money, the
third for an unexpected blessing, the fourth for blessing of gifts while the
last event is a prayer that he (the reciter) might be served by the generality
of people.
The reciter enumerates some indisputable statements such as:
Agbe ni i gbere k'Olokun
Aluko ni i gbere k'Olosa;
Odidere-Moba odo omo Agbegbaaje-ka - ka ri naa ni i gbere k'Oluwoo;
It is the agbe bird thet carries blessings to
Olokun (owner of the ocean);
It is the aluko bird that carries blessings to
Olosa (owner of the lagoon).
It is the parrot of moba river, the off-spring
of the one carrying calabash of trade who
carries good fortune to the king of Iwo;
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The birds agbe, aluko and odidere are traditionally believed to be agents
of good fortune. Hence they are named in the Yoruba incantation meant to
bring good fortune. It is on this assertion that the reciter of the above Ofo
bases his intention, stated in the topic sentence:
Ela-Iwori. gbere pade mi lona dandan
Ela-lwori, carry good fortune to me on my way.
Three other sentences that supplement and emphasize the topic sentence
are:
Line 6 Je k’ Aje wa ku siie mi bayii i
Let money be surplus in my house
Line 15 Olojo-oni! Ta mi lore temi,
Mighty creator, please give me my own blessing
Line 23 Omode ilu agba ilu, e wa fire gbogbo fun mi.
Both young and old, in the town, come and
give to me all blessings.
The text contains several verbs but the primary verb and event that
assigns roles to the participants is the compound verb gbere (to bring /
carry blessings). The verb occurs 5times in 5 lines. It is used in the
habitual aspect as in :
Agbe ni i gbere k' Olokun
Aluko ni i gbere k'Olosa
3.2 Prominence
In our effort to group the participants as on table 'a' above, 29
participants are identified. Of these participants, the Ofo reciter (apo fo)
appears to be in a prominent position. The pronouns and pronominal that
refer to the reciter occur the greatest number of times'" and occupy the
largest space.lj Beloware two graphs: graph la showing the rate of
occurrence and the significance of the participants and graph Ib is the
chronological arrangement.of the participants.
Scale:1/2 cm - i occurrence
1
/4 cm - 1 line
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Eye olodo oluwoo orisa apofo ejo alaso alo ihunso atapb idi omi oga
tigbo-tiju ara
ilu
Number of occurrence Number of line
1a Graph of participants in Narrative sequence
Scale: 1/2cm - I occurrence
1
/4 cm - 1 line
Apofo olodo orisa ejo ara ilu eye elo ihunso alaso oluwoo atapo idi olojo
oni oga tigbo-tiju Number of occurrence Ib Graph of participants in
Narrative sequence
Graph 2a below reveals that the story starts from the beginning and ends
well. This is evident in the theme-line which beings and ends on the baseline.
Scale: '/2 cm - 1 unit
Ipe fun ire Ipe fun Aje Ipe fun ire ifa Ipe fun ore Ipe fun sinsin
Number of line Number of Sentence 2a Graph of Events in Sequential
Prominence
1
/2 cm - 1 unit
Ipe fun ire Ipe fuii aje Ipe fun ifa Ipa fun ore Ipe fun sinsin Number of
lines 2b Graph of Theme-line Events Number of Sentence
Since the reciter has used chronological pattern to build up the text we
shall<no more take the trouble to redraw the event graphs 2a and 2b
As revealed in graphs 1 and 2 the prominent participant is the reciter
(apofo) himself. The wish of the reciter that he be served by the generality
of people around him is the prominent event.
The reoccurrence of the item gbere (to bring/carry blessings) in the
first three lines of the discourse is thematic, and does not move the story
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forward. Nevertheless the thematic reoccurrence aims at showing the
significiance of the verb gbere in the context.
3.3 Cohesion:
.
Apart from the birds agbe, aluko, odidere and the snakes oka are ere,
the NPs numbered 1 - 15 in the text do not seem to relate nor follow a
hierarchy. What the participants have in common is that they are all
blessed or gifted in their own ways and/or by different agents. For
example, the agbe and aluko are the agents that bring blessings to Olokun
and Olosa respectively, so the reciter's choice of lexical items shows a
cohesive device. Similarly, the structural similarity of the first two lines of
the text exemplifies sentence cohesion.
In the text pronouns and pronominals are used to bring about a
cohesive relation. For instance in:
Oju kan [ t'Esu RC ba jokoo si] la a gbere tire ba a
Ile ni alaso n joko tokerekere I wo to o
It is where Esu stays permanently that His own blessings are
brought to his the pronouns re (his) and a (him) and o (him) respectively
refer to Esu and alaso on the same line. Similarly, the pronominal emi
(mine) as well as the pronoun mi (my) in one of the topic sentences:
Olojo-oni ta mi lore temi. Mighty creator! please give me my own
blessing" refer to the reciter of the incantation. So, apart from avoiding
unnecessary repetition which gives room for boredom, there is cohesion in
the pronouns/pronomials and their referents. The pronouns, pronominals
and the nouns they refer to are co-referential in the text. Consider the
following example.
Oju asa kii ribi
Oju awodi kii roran
An eagle does not experience evil
A hawk does not experience litigation.
Why does the reciter choose asa and awodi and not any other bird? Asa
and awodi are birds of the same species and they feed on chicks. Except
by accident the birds (asa and awodi) are not easily caught because they
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move at a very high speed. Hunters rarely kill them on the trees. A hawk
preys on chicks in the presence of people and before one takes note it
would have caught a chick and flown away. Just as an eagle or a hawk is
not easily attacked by hunters and some other people, the reciter uses
arobi charm and incantations so that he could outlive his opponents.
3.4
Semiotics of Ofo Awure
The text contains some utterances wnieh need to be decoded for
a better understanding of the discourse. The first three lines of the above
Ofo awure reads:
Agbe ni 1 gbere k'Olokun;
Aluko ni 1 gbe're k'Olsoa;
Odidere ... ni i gbe're k'Oluwoo;
It is the agbe bird that carries blessings to Olokun
It is the aluko bird that carries blessings to Olosa
It is the parrot that carries blessings to Oluwoo
Why does the reciter use the birds agbe, ahiko and odidere and not some
other birds? What is the Yoruba world view of this utterance? The
expressions, cited above connote that either the head, leg or the feather(s)
of each bird are parts of the ingredients for awure preparation. Ela-Iwori
symbol or configuration is to be printed on the medicinal preparations
before reciting the ofo. Here Eki-Iwori spirit carries good fortune to the
reciter on his way. Whereas in arobi incantatory type, Ela-Iwori might be
evoked so that it can remove evil from the reciter's way completely. The
implication of this dual role of some spiritual powers like Efa-Iwori Esu
and iya mi, is that each of them can be employed as an agent of fortune
and misfortune.
4. Findings
Using some of the principles of textlinguistic model the following are
realised to be distinguishing features of ofo awure
(a) The events, participants and language elements are carefully selected
and grouped by
the reciter
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(b) The text uses focus, negative and relative constructions to express
indisputable
statements of fact in Yoruba cosmology.
(c) The topic sentence is repeated four times in the text for emphasis. Each
of the sentences is a complete thought.
(d) Based on the number of occurrence and space allotted, the reciter the
prominent
Participant.
(e) Imperative clauses characterize the ofo text
(f) Cohesive relations are shown between pronouns/pronominals and their
referents, as well as sentence structures.
(g) The primary verb gbere has to do with the title of this category of
incantation –Awure
It should however be noted that some of the identified features are
general while others are specific. For example the stylistic features
itemized in a, c and perhaps are peculiar to ofo awure while the features
summarized in a, b, d and e are general to the Yoruba ofo, as discovered in
this study and larger work (Ajayi 1995) from \\hich this paper is drawn.
Essentially, this paper reveals some of the stylistic features that distinguish
the Yoruba incantations from all other forms of Yoruba oral poetry.
NOTES
1.
Event is an occurrence which changes a situation or a state within a
situation. Simply, an event is the predicate or proposition that happens
in the world of the participant.
2. Participant is a term that implies an animate, inanimate objects or an
idea that is directly involved in the activities taking place in a literary
text.
3. A kind of woodcock that controls the ocean
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4. Owner of the ocean
5.
Another species of woodcock in control of the lagoon
6. Owner of the lagoon
7.
A town in the present Osun State of Nigeria
8.
The Yoruba messenger sod, bailiff, demon
9. An instrument to which the weaving thread is tied, outside the weaving
boot
10. Meaningless utterance, merely played upon
11. A kind of cotton that crows in the jungles
12. The word "time" (as used in this study) is a limited stretch or space of
continued existence as the interval between two successive events or
acts. Time may also be described as a temporal position of events or
participants.
13. Space is a line or distance and an interval between two or more points
or objects. In the context of this study, space indicates the number of
lines in which a participant or its referent and /or an event appears in a
given text.
14. Ela-Iwori and Eji koko Iwori are two of the nicknames of Iwora Meji
(the third principal odu in ifa corpus) the ifa priests evoke during
divinatory and incantatory sessions.
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