The Use of Code Switching and Code Mixing in Nigeria (a Case Study: Hip-Pop Music)
Chapter One
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this research “The use of code switching and code mixing in Nigeria music” is to show and analyze why musicians in Nigeria code switch and code mix their indigenous language into their music for proper expression and the use of their indigenous language shows where they hail from as in part 7 the states they come from. Aside that indigenous language is used to give better meaning and explanation of their mind.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The process of globalization has been of a tremendous impact on African societies while the status-quo of expressive cultures have obviously not remained the same due to this factor with popular music gradually becoming hormogenized to fit into the Euro-American stereotypes. It is quite evident that the Nigerian popular music has been greatly influenced by the dictates and progression in the international scene due to global communication and cultural flows as exemplified by the popularity and proliferation of hip hop culture among the youths from the 1990s.
Also a critical look at language use in music reveals that English is the language of popular music, arguably a form of linguistic globalization (Shuker 2005: 127) while the glorification and promotion of foreign music styles especially hip-hop and its cultural expressions is almost making the local music practices less fashionable. This paper explores the Nigerian Popular Music practice through the current mainstream hip-hop and identifies how its practitioners have successfully formulated a sub-genre dubbed “Afro hip-hop” through hybridization whereby African identify is portrayed and maintained by asserting linguistic independence with the use of Nigerian Languages as a medium of delivery through Code Switching.
The Nigerian popular music over years has been greatly influenced by conditions in the international scene as evidence by the popularity of hip-hop a global phenomenon that has gradually become a dominant culture and sub-culture across the world. However, in discussing globalization and popular music one cannot but look at the angle of linked to this interconnectivity.
According to Turino (2000: 6) `the contemporary language of globalism rhetorically and ideologically links a particular cultural aggregate (Modernist Capitalism) to the totalized space of the globe, leaving people with alternative life ways no place to be and nowhere to go? This is an indication that the proliferation, dissemination and dominance of a particular (stronger) culture over the weaker ones if left unrestricted and uncurbed, will be inimical to the growth and development of the local cultures and musical practices.
The proliferation of hip-hop music outside America and especially in the third world is a clear indication of international cultural flow and potency of globalization which is almost making the local music practices less fashionable.
From 1990s, there has been a sudden rise in the development of hip-hp culture in Nigeria and other African regions from Kenya to Ghana, South Africa to Tanzania with players referencing American acts while subscribing to the global hip-hop nation.
In the midst of global influence and the propagation of the Euro-American culture, the Nigerian musician is now caught in a dilemma over how to remain relevant in the local context despite the continuous longing of his audience for foreign culture and life style.
This surge and thirst for hi-hop facilitated the establishment of MTV Base Africa in 2005 and also the incorporation of MTV Africa Awards (MAMA) which is now a yearly event. In Nigeria, the extent of the global influence on local music practice cannot be overestimated as it remains a powerful force that has pushed the hip-hop genre is the mainstream while also shaping the existing style. Here music practitioners are persistently pushing the boundary while constantly negotiating the terrain through compromise. This has led to the creation of fusion and cross over through hyhidization, a strategy designed for resisting the Euro-American cultural hegemony.
LANGUAGE
To start with, there are many ideas and postulations on the origin of language but each of these lacks valid-proofs when such questions as: “How, Where and who started language on the planet earth” are raised. However, the fact remains that the genesis of language is not best sought in the prosaic, but in the poetic side of human life possibly born in the counting days of mankind (Elusakin, 2010).
Language is a system of sounds symbols etc. for communicating thought. It is a specialized vocabulary used by a particular group. Generally, linguist see language as a means of communication, identification, categorization, perception, thinking, creative activity, technology, memory, transmitting, knowledge across space and time, grasping the abstract and supernatural and maintaining the society.
According to Dictionary.com, it defined Language as a body of words and the systems for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area, or the same cultural tradition: the two languages of Belgium, a Bantus language; the French Language, the Yiddish Language.
Language has also been generally described as the use of arbitrary, systematic, conventional, specialized vocal symbols in communication. By arbitrariness, we mean there is no natural connection between the symbol(s) and the thing, concept or idea it represents. In learning a language, therefore, one has to know certain sounds sequence that are related to certain objects, concepts or ideas. Thus, in the English language, the sounds represented by the letters dog/ dogX signify a carnivorous animal which barks.
This same concept is represented as /aja/ in Yoruba. This also explains why words that have the same form sometimes have different meanings. Thus, the letter b+a+n+k s could mean:
- Institution for keeping/ lending money
- Edge of a river or canal
- Long mound of earth/ snow
- Row (of lights)
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this Chapter the methods, principles and rules for regulating this project will be examined. This chapter will put us through to know the rules governing hip-hop music in Nigeria.
The Advance Learner’s Dictionary of Current English lays down the meaning of research as “a careful investigation or inquiry specially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge”. Redman and Mory define research as a “Systematized effort to gain new knowledge”. This chapter will make us discover answers to questions through the application of scientific procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth which is hidden and which has not been discovered yet though each research study has its own specific purposes.
- To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insight into it (studies with this object in view are termed as explorative or formulative research studies)
- To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a group (studies with this object in view are known as descriptive research studies);
- To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else (studies with this object in view are known as diagnostic research studies)
- To test a hypothesis of a casual relationship between variables (such studies are known as hypothesis – testing research studies
METHODOLOGY
It seems appropriate at this juncture to explain the difference between research methods and research methodology. Research Methods may be understood as all those methods/ techniques that are used for conduction of research. Research Methods or Techniques, thus refer to the methods the researchers use in performing research operations. In other words, all those materials which are used by the researcher during the course of studying his research during the course of studying his research problem are termed as research methods.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter related songs and code-switching features are critically analyzed.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
The hip-hop songs examined in this paper clearly reflect the cultural diversity and multilingual nature of the setting in which they are produced. Despite the fact that hip hop came to Nigeria from America, it has been largely domesticated to express uniquely Nigerian linguistic and cultural realities created by the code-switching features. The homegrown hip hop stars have popularized their brand of hip-hop to the extent that they are engaged by multinationals companies (e.g. MTN, Globacom), drinks producers (Nigerian Breweries, Nigerian Bottling Company) and so forth. In fact, we could not but agree with Bentahila and Davies(2002) that the employment of code-switching serves the dual purpose of globalization and localization of the music. While the artists gain more fans and. increase the sales of their albums in geometrical proportion, particularly among Yoruba speakers, the elite promote the music in various countries of the world; thereby making this music not just popular in Nigeria, but also among Nigerians in the Diaspora. This earns the artists more invitations to international music festivals in Europe and America to promote their music. It is also evident from our analysis that code-switching draws on more than one Nigerian language, thereby reflecting the ethnolinguistic diversity of the country. Itupale Online Journal of African Studies, Volume I, 2009 Page 20 of 26.
CONCLUSION
It is also important to note that one aspect of hip-hop culture, namely rap, is gaining acceptance in the Church, particularly among the youth. This clearly shows that as the hip hop culture evolves in Nigeria, it has no bounds. There is also an indication that the use of the local language – Yoruba – is spreading hip-hop faster than lyrics in English only. The mixing of Nigerian languages with English in hip-hop music may also be a subtle way of resisting the overbearing influence of English in the Nigerian social setting, especially among the educated. A Nigerian brand of hip-hop is popularly accepted not only among the educated, but also the uneducated youths because they can largely understand the message and identify with the culture. In addition, many African hip-hop singers have often been criticized for imitating American singers in their attempt to sing and rap. They are even accused of trying, unsuccessfully, to fake an American accent and rehash lyrics that have been recorded and performed by artists from overseas. This is because many of these singers fail to recognize the fact that rapping is a matter of uniqueness in style, and that most music lovers the world over appreciate something that is different from what they are used to. However, with this new wave of code-switching Nigerian musicians are establishing unique identities for themselves and their music. As their music gains more fans at home, the continued global influence of the Yoruba language (particularly in the United States, Britain and Germany) has also made a positive impact on Nigerian hip-hop music, and this has encouraged hip-hoppers to improve in their creative efforts at blending the languages in their music. To finish, the data presented here shows two kinds of code-switching features in the five songs, namely inter-sentential and inter-sentential. The songs however differ in the styles they exhibit in these code-switching patterns. Three of the songs (Ijo ya, Oruka and Olufunmi) have complete switches to Yoruba refrains. The kinds of switch in the verses differ. In Ijo ya Itupale Online Journal of African Studies, Volume I, 2009 Page 21 of 26 and Oruka, there are intra-sentential switches. While in Ijo ya, the switch is between Yoruba and NPE; in Oruka, the switch is between Yoruba and English. In Olufunmi, there are switches between the verse (English) and the refrain (Yoruba) and the bridge (English). In Tongolo Yoruba and NPE are mixed in the verses and the refrain. The raps have a Yoruba structure with occasional switches to English nouns and adjective complements. The general code-switching feature of the song, however, is intea-sentential. Omoge mi exhibits features of both inter -sentential and intea-sentential code-switching between English, Yoruba and NPE.
Future research needs to examine how more Nigerian indigenous languages are used in contemporary Nigerian music lyrics. It should become clear that Nigerian languages, especially Pidgin English and the so-called minority languages, are widely used in Nigerian music, and this is yet to be studied extensively in linguistic research. Studies of these kinds can pinpoint how indigenous languages are used in a musical piece, and to what extent such musical lyrics are more successful that those composed and sung entirely in English. The socio-semiotic aspect of Nigerian hip-hop music is another fertile ground of linguistic study that will further showcase the rich linguistic diversity of Nigeria.
RECOMMENDATION
The use of code mixing and code switching in Nigeria music industry has helped to promote our indigenous languages for both old and young in the society. Therefore it should be allowed and encourage among our artist to free style with our indigenous languages in other to communicate effectively to target audience and others.
Government should make law enforcement against piracy and thorough scrutiny should be made before any work of art is released because of sexual harassment among the youth and under age audience.
Parental guidance should be made effective in homes against the use of slangs and bad use of words used by artist in their music so that children will not emulate it.
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