Tiv Political Cosmos in Songs: A Stylistic Analysis of Select-artistes

Abstract

Democracies around the world are evolving ways to politically and innovatively influence voters’ perception of candidates presented by political parties for elections. Part of these new ways is in the use of political songs, composed mainly to patronise a particular candidate. Extant studies, both linguistic and non-linguistic, have examined the use of songs for political campaigns, and have argued that songs are potent tools for marketing and demarketing candidates in a political contest. However, there are scant studies on Tiv political songs (TPS); much of these have a non-linguistic orientation. This paper, therefore, examines the Tiv political worldview in songs with a view to establishing the stylistic features of the songs. Using Leech’s (2005) Grand Strategy of Politeness as the theoretical base, songs were randomly selected from three purposively selected Tiv artistes: Gabon Akuhe, Mfater Kaha and Bemdoo Kaki. Data were subjected to a qualitative method of analysis. The study identified seven functions performed by TPS: defamatory, confrontational, satirical, eulogic, prideful, condemnatory and sometimes prophetic. The study reveals that artistes are paid to compose songs that contain opponent’s misdeeds, while their patrons and sponsors are stylistically eulogised, much of this is done through the use of metaphors. The study, thus, concludes that, while politics seems to be interest-driven, there should be a change of the approach in the language of composition of songs to reduce verbal abuse, political friction, hate speech, and crisis among the Tiv.