Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1988484
Wendo Nabea
Abstract The theft of resources during the grievous period of the Covid-19 pandemic, by stakeholders entrusted with mitigating the pandemic, significantly undermined efforts to combat the disease. This led to disillusionment among many Kenyans. One would expect disillusioned people to remain dejected and melancholic, but, intriguingly, Kenyans responded by starting to disseminate internet memes parodying and lampooning the government’s preventive protocols, to the amusement of many people. This article, in departing from extant critical studies on other forms of humour in Kenya, such as stand-up comedy, seeks to investigate internet memes produced during a time of crisis. An internet meme can be described as a multimodal artefact of social commentary disseminated via the internet. It is visual and subject to reformulation or replication by a number of social media participants. Memes have become a ready tool for dissecting and countering the actions of the authorities in Kenya in the face of Covid-19, and this article focuses on the discursive counter-power of internet memes related to Kenyan Covid-19 protocols. Drawing on semiotics theory, the researcher studied twelve internet memes, purposively selected in view of the objectives of the study from a corpus of seventy-two memes that address preventive measures. The results show that the internet memes on coronavirus infections in Kenya served to satirise and consequently subvert the government’s position in handling the disease. It also shows that victims of government sanctions and police brutality were placed in the spotlight through morbid humour, a welcome relief for people living in a state of despondency.
{"title":"The Discursive Counter-Power of Internet Memes in Response to the Management of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Kenya","authors":"Wendo Nabea","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1988484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1988484","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The theft of resources during the grievous period of the Covid-19 pandemic, by stakeholders entrusted with mitigating the pandemic, significantly undermined efforts to combat the disease. This led to disillusionment among many Kenyans. One would expect disillusioned people to remain dejected and melancholic, but, intriguingly, Kenyans responded by starting to disseminate internet memes parodying and lampooning the government’s preventive protocols, to the amusement of many people. This article, in departing from extant critical studies on other forms of humour in Kenya, such as stand-up comedy, seeks to investigate internet memes produced during a time of crisis. An internet meme can be described as a multimodal artefact of social commentary disseminated via the internet. It is visual and subject to reformulation or replication by a number of social media participants. Memes have become a ready tool for dissecting and countering the actions of the authorities in Kenya in the face of Covid-19, and this article focuses on the discursive counter-power of internet memes related to Kenyan Covid-19 protocols. Drawing on semiotics theory, the researcher studied twelve internet memes, purposively selected in view of the objectives of the study from a corpus of seventy-two memes that address preventive measures. The results show that the internet memes on coronavirus infections in Kenya served to satirise and consequently subvert the government’s position in handling the disease. It also shows that victims of government sanctions and police brutality were placed in the spotlight through morbid humour, a welcome relief for people living in a state of despondency.","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"117 - 134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73057336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1991108
K. Pancham
{"title":"All the Tokoloshes Are Dying","authors":"K. Pancham","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1991108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1991108","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"22 1","pages":"143 - 144"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89752067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1997371
Adam Levin
{"title":"History, Trauma and Shame: Engaging the Past through Second Generation Dialogue","authors":"Adam Levin","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1997371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1997371","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"82 1","pages":"152 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73272333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1978654
M. Malaba
{"title":"President’s Report: Council Meeting and Annual General Meeting 2021","authors":"M. Malaba","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1978654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1978654","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"36 1","pages":"155 - 155"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80071112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1991103
Finuala Dowling
{"title":"(Still) Lovely Beyond All Singing","authors":"Finuala Dowling","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1991103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1991103","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"84 1","pages":"142 - 142"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76956247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1987646
Idom T. Inyabri, Romanus Aboh, Eyo O. Mensah
Abstract This article investigates humour as a crucial instrument for the expression of young people’s perceptions regarding Covid-19 in Nigeria. The article relies on creative digital data sourced from the online environment (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp) and discusses these data based on thematic categories to demonstrate how young people use humour to express doubts about the existence of the virus and to downplay its deadly global threat. The article uncouples the manner in which humour as a performative idiom is heuristically exploited to signify collective sociopolitical discontent with a political establishment that is disconnected from its people. Drawing insights from multimodal critical discourse analysis and performance theory, the article engages digital comic narratives, skits, and memes as dialogic new media texts that sustain indigenous comic oral performances for collective socio-psychological healing and to engage in political satire. Beyond these, we conceive of digital humour and its responses to the Covid-19 pandemic as one more creative enterprise in which social media provide a platform for young people to engage a conservative system.
{"title":"Laughing at the Pandemic: Youth Performance and Digital Humour in Response to Covid-19 in Nigeria","authors":"Idom T. Inyabri, Romanus Aboh, Eyo O. Mensah","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1987646","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1987646","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article investigates humour as a crucial instrument for the expression of young people’s perceptions regarding Covid-19 in Nigeria. The article relies on creative digital data sourced from the online environment (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp) and discusses these data based on thematic categories to demonstrate how young people use humour to express doubts about the existence of the virus and to downplay its deadly global threat. The article uncouples the manner in which humour as a performative idiom is heuristically exploited to signify collective sociopolitical discontent with a political establishment that is disconnected from its people. Drawing insights from multimodal critical discourse analysis and performance theory, the article engages digital comic narratives, skits, and memes as dialogic new media texts that sustain indigenous comic oral performances for collective socio-psychological healing and to engage in political satire. Beyond these, we conceive of digital humour and its responses to the Covid-19 pandemic as one more creative enterprise in which social media provide a platform for young people to engage a conservative system.","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"47 1","pages":"105 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80988620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1987648
Ogochukwu Ukwueze, Chetachi Igbokwe
Abstract “We play too much in this country” is a popular and handy response to funny statements or events and an affirmation of Nigerians’ aptitude for humour. This comic impulse in the Nigerian unconscious has been variously seen as a means of releasing stress, coping with harsh realities, critiquing social and political situations, and even enhancing democracy. While acknowledging these observations, two more fundamental questions arise: Why does humour proliferate in Nigeria? And how does this tendency work against the nation? To attend to these questions, we explore three forms of humour: jokes, conversational humour, and accidental humour. The data analysed in this article were collected from Twitter, Facebook, and reports on national events in Nigerian newspapers. The analysis is anchored on Todd McGowan’s theory of the comic as a coincidence of lack and excess. The findings show that the increasing production of humour in various forms is a symptom of a fundamental lack, a defectiveness in the country’s socio-political and socioeconomic reality, and that these playful responses to situations trivialise the problems, weaken confrontational impulses, and heighten legal and moral laxity. Thus, as Nigerians we are “amusing ourselves to death”.
{"title":"Playful Subjects of Lack: The Underside of Humour in the Nigerian Unconscious","authors":"Ogochukwu Ukwueze, Chetachi Igbokwe","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1987648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1987648","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract “We play too much in this country” is a popular and handy response to funny statements or events and an affirmation of Nigerians’ aptitude for humour. This comic impulse in the Nigerian unconscious has been variously seen as a means of releasing stress, coping with harsh realities, critiquing social and political situations, and even enhancing democracy. While acknowledging these observations, two more fundamental questions arise: Why does humour proliferate in Nigeria? And how does this tendency work against the nation? To attend to these questions, we explore three forms of humour: jokes, conversational humour, and accidental humour. The data analysed in this article were collected from Twitter, Facebook, and reports on national events in Nigerian newspapers. The analysis is anchored on Todd McGowan’s theory of the comic as a coincidence of lack and excess. The findings show that the increasing production of humour in various forms is a symptom of a fundamental lack, a defectiveness in the country’s socio-political and socioeconomic reality, and that these playful responses to situations trivialise the problems, weaken confrontational impulses, and heighten legal and moral laxity. Thus, as Nigerians we are “amusing ourselves to death”.","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"75 1","pages":"8 - 20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85719215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1986981
Martin Okwoli Ogba
Abstract Previous studies in educational pedagogy and commercial marketing have focused on the perceived impact of humour in dissolving barriers to positive consumer behaviour. However, the function of humour as a sensitisation tool during a pandemic is yet to attract scholarly attention. The article addresses this gap by examining the strategies some popular Nigerian comedians have resorted to in the social media landscape to sensitise citizens to the need to adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols. The study draws on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), a theory of persuasion which postulates that persuasive information is processed through two distinct psychological routes: central and peripheral, the first leading to positive reception and the second to negative reception. Through exploring purposively sampled skits, the study uncovers the strategies deployed to counter harmful conspiracy narratives about the pandemic in Nigeria. It is argued that the positive responses on the part of certain characters to the comedians’ humorous messages imply that these skits are an effective sensitisation tool. The article concludes that because most Nigerians lack confidence in government policies due to increasing socioeconomic failures and clumsiness in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the strategies used by the comedians to sensitise audience members to safety protocols are more creative and effective than the government’s messaging. In effect, the comedians become strategic partners in the war against Covid-19.
{"title":"Humour as a Sensitisation Tool in Nigerian Comedy Skits about Covid-19","authors":"Martin Okwoli Ogba","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1986981","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1986981","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Previous studies in educational pedagogy and commercial marketing have focused on the perceived impact of humour in dissolving barriers to positive consumer behaviour. However, the function of humour as a sensitisation tool during a pandemic is yet to attract scholarly attention. The article addresses this gap by examining the strategies some popular Nigerian comedians have resorted to in the social media landscape to sensitise citizens to the need to adhere to Covid-19 safety protocols. The study draws on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), a theory of persuasion which postulates that persuasive information is processed through two distinct psychological routes: central and peripheral, the first leading to positive reception and the second to negative reception. Through exploring purposively sampled skits, the study uncovers the strategies deployed to counter harmful conspiracy narratives about the pandemic in Nigeria. It is argued that the positive responses on the part of certain characters to the comedians’ humorous messages imply that these skits are an effective sensitisation tool. The article concludes that because most Nigerians lack confidence in government policies due to increasing socioeconomic failures and clumsiness in handling the Covid-19 pandemic, the strategies used by the comedians to sensitise audience members to safety protocols are more creative and effective than the government’s messaging. In effect, the comedians become strategic partners in the war against Covid-19.","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"11 1","pages":"93 - 104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89889644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1986983
N. Lotfy, Mary E Soliman
Abstract One of the unique comedic expressions that evolved during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Egypt is a Facebook page called “Coronavirus”. What is exceptional about the memes published on this page is that the author adopts the persona of the coronavirus to explore issues of the pandemic in the Egyptian context. Moreover, followers of the page fully participate in this make-believe scenario that the author has established. In addition, most of the posts mock the illogical actions undertaken by both the public and the state. Memes have been created, and shared, by Facebook users, not only as comic relief but also as a means of documenting events during the pandemic. This article aims to analyse different memes created by the “Coronavirus” Facebook page in the Egyptian context. The discussion is based on content and visual analysis. Memes were contextualised in relation to real incidents or decisions criticised by the author of the page, or the meme creator. The discussion also examines the different styles and types of humour employed by the author of the page to deliver his/her message in a comic way.
{"title":"Humour in the Time of the Coronavirus: A Content Analysis of Egyptian Comedic Expressions on Facebook","authors":"N. Lotfy, Mary E Soliman","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1986983","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1986983","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract One of the unique comedic expressions that evolved during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Egypt is a Facebook page called “Coronavirus”. What is exceptional about the memes published on this page is that the author adopts the persona of the coronavirus to explore issues of the pandemic in the Egyptian context. Moreover, followers of the page fully participate in this make-believe scenario that the author has established. In addition, most of the posts mock the illogical actions undertaken by both the public and the state. Memes have been created, and shared, by Facebook users, not only as comic relief but also as a means of documenting events during the pandemic. This article aims to analyse different memes created by the “Coronavirus” Facebook page in the Egyptian context. The discussion is based on content and visual analysis. Memes were contextualised in relation to real incidents or decisions criticised by the author of the page, or the meme creator. The discussion also examines the different styles and types of humour employed by the author of the page to deliver his/her message in a comic way.","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"14 1","pages":"60 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90629044","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10131752.2021.1989752
Kimingichi Wabende
Abstract The words, the phrases, and the faces of those delivering news regarding the Covid-19 pandemic from the Ministry of Health—new cases, number of deaths, number of recoveries, and efforts towards “flattening the curve”—became a routine television feature in Kenya. This drove Kenyans to adapt to an abnormal situation as the new norm. Kenyan comedians, especially Eric Omondi, built their jokes around the personalities that delivered the Covid-19 messaging and the expectations and fears of Kenyans regarding the effects of these special Covid-19 announcements. This article, in contrast to the extant literature’s treatment of ethno-centric humour, seeks to explore online jokes surrounding the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 announcements and the monthly presidential addresses, as expressed by Eric Omondi, a Kenyan comedian. The aim is to understand how Kenyans made sense of the pandemic through the creation of incongruous humour.
{"title":"Making Sense of the Pandemic: Kenyan Covid-19 Jokes and Online Liveness","authors":"Kimingichi Wabende","doi":"10.1080/10131752.2021.1989752","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10131752.2021.1989752","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The words, the phrases, and the faces of those delivering news regarding the Covid-19 pandemic from the Ministry of Health—new cases, number of deaths, number of recoveries, and efforts towards “flattening the curve”—became a routine television feature in Kenya. This drove Kenyans to adapt to an abnormal situation as the new norm. Kenyan comedians, especially Eric Omondi, built their jokes around the personalities that delivered the Covid-19 messaging and the expectations and fears of Kenyans regarding the effects of these special Covid-19 announcements. This article, in contrast to the extant literature’s treatment of ethno-centric humour, seeks to explore online jokes surrounding the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 announcements and the monthly presidential addresses, as expressed by Eric Omondi, a Kenyan comedian. The aim is to understand how Kenyans made sense of the pandemic through the creation of incongruous humour.","PeriodicalId":41471,"journal":{"name":"English Academy Review-Southern African Journal of English Studies","volume":"66 1","pages":"46 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3,"publicationDate":"2021-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83998220","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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