| This thesis is a formalist study of the selected Songs of Fatima Lolo Bida and Hawawu Kulu Lafiagi and the state of oral songs in Nupeland in general. It investigates the Nupe Praise Song by analyzing its structure, theme, content, form and other poetic devices deployed by the singers. This study of the Nupe Praise Song also highlights the inherent literary qualities. The research is premised on the fact that oral art forms, by their nature as unwritten materials are not always properly appreciated and documented in an environment dominated by the culture of writing and printing. Significant quantities of materials have been lost from the almost inexhaustible store of Nupe rich tradition of oral artistry. A reasonable number of Nupe performers lived and died without any attempt to document their works for posterity. Again, only little was done to portray the aesthetics of the people‟s culture. And the little too was anthropologically attempted by foreigners who were by all standards ill-equipped to understand and appreciate the African way of life. To this end, the major objectives of the study are: to illustrate the functional and literary status of the selected songs and to demonstrate that the study of Nupe praise song is not only academically challenging but also quite distinctive in its style of performance. The research deploys essentially interview approach in its data collection and analysis. The responses from the interviewees form the major findings and conclusions of this research. The songs were transcribed using an orthography that is as phonetic as possible and a translation that is near literal so as to maintain a balance between the original sense in the source language and clear meaning in the target language. The theoretical framework designed for this work was combined approach, that is, formalistic, humanistic and empirical. This is because the approach is more literary, analytical and descriptive in nature |
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