Foregrounding Politics in Yorùbá Written Poetry: A Discourse Stylistic Perspective on Party Politics, Thuggery and Electoral Reformation in Dúró Adélékè’s Aṣọ Ìgbà
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.64348/zije.2026331Abstract
This study examines the foregrounding of political themes in modern Yorùbá written poetry through a discourse-stylistic analysis of Dúró Adélékè’s Aṣọ Ìgbà (1997). Employing an integrated framework that combines stylistics and critical discourse analysis with Yorùbá indigenous poetics, the research investigates how linguistic and rhetorical devices repetition, proverb, moral binaries (ìwà rere vs. ìwà búburú), rhetorical questioning, imperative mood, and eschatological warnings critique the pathologies of party politics, political thuggery, electoral malpractice, and leadership irresponsibility in late twentieth-century Nigeria. The analysis reveals that Adélékè discursively constructs politics as a moral domain, where corruption, thuggery, and rigged elections constitute ìwà búburú that destabilize communal harmony (àlàáfíà) and undermine democratic legitimacy. Stylistic foregrounding serves dual purposes: denunciation of systemic vices and implicit prescription of ethical reformation through vigilant citizenship, divine accountability, and restoration of just governance. Drawing on selected poetic excerpts, the study demonstrates how the poet employs culturally resonant discourse to expose the complicity of party structures in violence and deceit while advocating for electoral integrity as a pathway to societal renewal. The findings position Aṣọ Ìgbà as a significant socio-political text within Yorùbá literary tradition, functioning simultaneously as critique, moral instruction, and call for democratic reform in a context marked by recurring electoral crises.
References
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