Emerging Roles of Sociology of Language and Culture as Panacea to Incessant Conflict in Zamfara State, Nigeria

Abstract

The situation of crises in Zamfara state, North-west Nigeria has recently reached quite unprecedented heights so much so that hardly a day passes without horrible pictures and heartbroken details of excessive destruction and senseless killings on the television screen, radio broadcasting, newspapers, and magazine. Security in Zamfara state has become a major problem in recent times. Cases of abduction, kidnapping, terrorism, senseless killings, maiming, nihilism, burgeoning restlessness, banditry, and other others, have been undoubtedly rampant. Therefore, Zamfara citizens, despite the state apparatus to ensure the safety and protection of lives and property, are incessantly living in perpetual fear and worry. It is against this backdrop that the study tends to proffers other means of trying to resolve the scenario of crises and banditry through the sociology of language and culture as a panacea to incessant crises and banditry in Zamfara state, Nigeria. The objective of the study is, among other things, reasonably available data to identify how language and culture would lead to the achievement of peacebuilding across the state. The researcher employed the use of questionnaires, oral interviews, and formal interactions to elicit information from the inhabitants of the study areas where there are records of banditry and conflicts activities are extensive. The work employed the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis which holds that our thoughts are shaped by our native language and that speakers of different languages, therefore, think differently as its theoretical Framework. The study discovered among other things that the application of language and culture are stronger weapons than the arms and ammunition which are being employed by the federal government of Nigeria in attempting to resolve many crises in Zamfara state.