SOCIAL AND ARTISTIC VALUES IN SELECTED ARABIC POEMS IN YORUBALAND, NIGERIA
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Date
2023-01-06
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Department of Arabic, University of Ilorin
Abstract
SOCIAL AND ARTISTIC VALUES IN SELECTED ARABIC POEMS IN YORUBALAND, NIGERIA
By:
DR. ABDUS-SALAM BABATUNDE AMBALI
Department of Arabic, University of Ilorin, Ilorin
abdusalami.ba@unilorin.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
Arabic poetry composed by Yoruba Arabic poets is more of Islamic culture in its orientation. The poetic themes explored by the poets include panegyrics, description, admonition and elegy. Greeted with modern trends however, the literary productivity of the Yoruba Arabic poets started experiencing multidimensional influences. Social issues thus became literary themes especially ones that relate to major national challenges, but researchers are yet to give adequate attention to this new development in Arabic poetry in Nigeria. This study therefore focused on the poetic works of Yoruba Arabic poets on social issues. The objectives of the study were to: (i) establish the availability of Arabic poetry on social issues in Yorubaland, (ii) analyse their contents in the light of socio-economic and political development of Nigeria. (iii) examine the artistic features of the social poetry, and (iv) evaluate selected poems with a view to appreciating their conformity with literary norms in Arabic. The study adopted both historical and analytical methods. Through the historical approach, the biography of the poets, whose works were selected were documented, while the analytical method was used for exploring seventeen poems composed by thirteen poets on social issues. The parameters employed were literary, rhetorical and prosodic tools which based on Arabic classical theory.
The findings of the study were that:
i. availability of high standard Arabic poetry covered a wide range of social issues such as terrorism, politics, economy as well as educational challenges in Yorubaland;
ii. Arabic poets in Yorubaland effectively used Arabic poetry as a tool for promoting socio-cultural and peaceful co-existence not only at the local level but also at the national and international levels;
iii. the artistic aspects of the poems studied show that the Arabic poetry of the new generation of poets, particularly the university graduates such as Isa Alabi Abubakar, Abdulsalam Muhammad Usman, Usman Idrees Al-kankawi, Baqau Hashim, to mention but a few is of high standard, and
iv. most of the poems conformed with the Arabic prosodic rules, while a few of them deviated from the rules due to poetic constrains
This study concluded that Yoruba made use of their well furnished poetic works with appropriate choice of words, rhetorical devices, cohesion and coherence of the paragraphs as well as prosodic rules to contribute significantly to the social well being and development of Nigeria. The study therefore recommended that there should be more focus on the works of Yoruba scholars in Arabic for the benefit of the local and the international communities.
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Keywords
SOCIAL, VALUE, ARTISTIC, ARABIC, POEM, YORUBALAND, NIGERIA