Cultural conceptulisations in Elijah Akintunde’s Yoruba ballad gospel song Ijo Odi ‘Dance of the Deaf’

Abstract What kind of actions or reactions can sudden good news elicit in the experiencer? How can these actions/reactions be cognitively interpreted by others? Is there a nexus between social realities and the gospel? Using these questions as a spark, this article critically examines the cultural conceptualisations in Ijo Odi, a Yoruba gospel ballad by Elijah Akintunde. Drawing insights from Cultural Linguistics, this study argues that cultural symbols and structures (schemas, categories, and metaphors) are deployed in gospel music to capture the message of liberation from socio-economic challenges. Specifically, DANCE and DEAFNESS are mapped to express the kind of PERPLEXITY and ABSURDITY that characterise reaction to SUDDEN PLEASANT NEWS. The song also invokes cognitive schemas and cultural memories of dance, cultural class categories and metaphorization of dance and its internalized network of cognitive associations in the Yoruba world view to project the message of prosperity as a miracle. The study concludes that language is firmly grounded in cultural cognition and the complex socio-economic lives of Nigerians can be captured in the negotiation of spirituality in gospel songs. Future research may explore how the artistic performance of other music genres equally evoke cultural imageries in communicating other diverse issues.