LANGUAGE, SOCIAL CRITICISM, AND ETHICAL POSITIONING IN HAUSA SONG: A STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF ƘOLOLUWAR HIKIMA BY NAZIRU SARKIN WAƘA

ABSTRACTThis paper explored the stylistic and ethical aspects of Hausa song Ƙololuwar Hikima by Naziru Sarkin Waƙa and the way language can be used to form moral discourses and social commentaries. The research used a qualitative and text based stylistic analysis, indicating that the most common tools used by the performer to deliver moral imperatives, to criticize social vices like greed and dishonesty and to portray himself as a community advisor include foregrounding, repetition, parallelism and evaluative lexis. To prepare data, it was transcribed in the standard Hausa orthography and English translation by sense to enable proper interpretation. The results indicate that the repetition and parallelism are strengthened by ethical messages, the evaluative lexis is encoded by approval and condemnation, and the linguistic decisions of the performer form the moral authority. The paper show that Hausa songs are not necessarily entertainment but are complex pieces of text that can outline community values, affect behavior, and even mediate social criticism. This study that places Ƙololuwar Hikima in the context of African oral literature contributes to the study of stylistics, African linguistics, and sociolinguistic analysis of morality in popular culture, and the timelessness of oral traditions as a source of morality.KEYWORDS: African oral literature, Ethical discourse, Hausa song. Stylistic analysis. Social criticism