The Mother and Mother Tongue: Yorùbá Language Identity and Maintenance Strategies through Women’s Involvement in Folkloric Performatives

Abstract

This paper examines the roles of women in the maintenance of the ethnolinguistic identity of the Yorùbá people of Southwestern Nigeria. Language endangerment and subsequent shift from the use of the language, especially among the younger generation is a contemporary issue which calls for home and intentional efforts towards preserving the Yorùbá ethnolinguistic identity and ensuring its passage from generation to generation. It is worthy of note however, that women in the Yorùbá society continue to contribute their quota to the maintenance of the Yorùbá language and cultural identity through various avenues; such that they play vital role as the first teachers of their children through folkloric performances. Although the changes experienced in times, shows that folktale performatives have gradually moved away from the traditional moonlight tales especially in contemporary urban communities, to a new setting. The Yorùbá women still continue to engage the broadcast media (radio and television programmes) to disseminate folktales within the Yorùbá culture and thus promote the language. The involvement of women in the utilization of folktales through the broadcast media and the dominant use of the Yorùbá language during the broadcasts teach morals and also serve as strategies for the maintenance of the Yorùbá language, culture and identity. This is because Yorùbá folkloric performatives have been a vital means of indigenous language preservation especially among minority ethnic groups. Narratology theory was adopted as the framework. Data for the study were obtained from the programme charts of five private and government-owned radio stations in Ọ̀ṣun State. Content analysis was done to highlight the number and nature of the programmes involving women as folktalers, story tellers and how they contribute to the maintenance of the Yorùbá ethnolinguistic identity and preservation of the mother tongue.

Keywords: Mother Tongue, Identity, Yorùbá Ethno-linguistic Identity, Social dislocation, Yorùbá folkloric performatives, and Women

DOI: 10.7176/DCS/15-2-06

Publication date: July 30^th 2025