DON CALLS FOR REVIVAL OF INTEREST IN ORALITY, FOLKLORE
The 148th Inaugural Lecturer of the University of Calabar( Unical), Prof. Tony Ebebe Eyang has called for a revival of interest in orality and folklore, emphasizing their importance in promoting cultural knowledge, environmental sustainability, and human dignity.
Prof. Eyang made the call at the Godswill Akpabio International Conference Centre while delivering the institution's inaugural lecture on the topic, " Wisdom From The Lower Kingdom? The Moral Universe And Stylistic Paradigms In Anthropomorphic Lireture".
According to him, the revival of interest in orality and folklore will herald the needed harmony and promising steps towards protecting the dignity of humanity even as the tide of humanity ebbs.
This came as he described Literature and Language as ' Siamese twins, saying they are at the core of society's knowledge system for the propagation and transmission of ideas, cultural habits and moral principles.
Eyang, a Professor of Literary Stylistics and current Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic also stressed the need to focus more attention to the exploration and development of indigenous languages by not only writers and language scholars but also all those interested in human progress.
The Don called on other disciplines in the humanities to promote the modes of indigenous knowledge production and transmission by encouraging ' ethnographic researches.
This, he believes, will stimulate interest in the indigenous languages as bearers of rich and timeless values, philosophy, history and cultural wisdom.
The inaugural lecturer lamented that the practice of mandating students to collect and analyze proverbs in their languages and cultures, which was once a requirement for students of Use of English, has been discontinued.
He advocated for the re-introduction of this practice, saying it would provoke students intellectually and foster a deeper understanding of their cultural heritage.
Prof. Eyang also emphasized the need for greater scholarly effort aimed at canonizing, stylizing, and developing the hermetics of orality, suggesting that the available media of communication, including social media, can be utilized to give efforts in this direction the needed publicity.
He noted that the digital space can be explored for an electronic storage of these forms of expressions to further enrich the domain of African orality in ethnographic research within a complex, technologically advancing world.
The Don opined that the long-established practice in the Department of English and Literary Studies of Unical that requires students at the 300 level to undertake oral literature field research should be sustained, with equal close attention paid to the linguistic elements.
Prof. Eyang also urged the Department of English and Literary Studies Unical to sustain a balanced curriculum which bequeaths to the students an equally balanced attention to the rigours of language and Literary appreciation and analysis.
The Vice Chancellor of Unical, Prof. Florence Obi, in her remarks, described the inaugural lecturer as a ' reservoir of knowledge ' , saying he is one of the pillars of the current administration.
While commending him for delivering an apt and insightful lecture, she called on upcoming academics to tap from his wealth of knowledge as a precursor for excelling in the academic world.
The lecture which was attended by a diverse group of academics, captains of industries, technocrats, and lawmakers, featured the presentation of a memento to the inaugural lecturer by the Vice Chancellor.
