Oratory in Farefari Culture

Abstract

Oral genres in Farefari form part of the fundamental instruments of growth and development of Gurenɛ. As one of these genres, oratory helps to enhance the listening and oral skills of children for effective communication. The Farefari community has resources such as folktales, libation prayer, divination, conflict/dispute resolution, marriage and performance of funerals. These activities play key roles in the acquisition of linguistic competences and cultural values for effective speech delivery. In the past, the youth in the community participated effectively in these verbal art forms. However, the infiltration of foreign cultures into the traditional set up of the society has negatively influenced the lives of the youth. These days the youth are less interested in the traditional folktales and riddles. Rather, they often glue themselves to foreign movies being shown on television, youTube and other electronic media outlets. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the various dynamics of oratory including the types and structure of oratory, literary devices used and how oratory is delivered in Farefari culture. The Classical Rhetoric and Dell Hymes’ communication model (SPEAKING) were used to form the foundation of the study. I employed a qualitative research approach to collect the data using interviews, observation and native speaker intuition. A Sony IC voice recorder ICD UX50F was used to collect the data, transcribed and translated into English equivalences. I used a purposeful sampling technique to select twenty-five (25) participants, comprising twenty (20) men and five (5) women. The results from the data revealed that, oration is firmly anchored on the principles of conviction and persuasion based on the classical rhetoric theory. Five canons of oratory namely; inventory, arrangement, style, memory and delivery were identified. The data also showed that there are three types of oratory (deliberative, judiciary and epideictic) in Farefari culture. Again, the data revealed that many of the orators used simple sentences in order to drive home the supplications they are bringing before their ancestors. Apprenticeship was noted to be one of the surest ways of acquiring oratory skills for effective speech delivery.