Sound and Sense in Select Ibibio Lullabies

Abstract

This paper sets out to examine select traditional Ibibio lullabies for their sound effects and the sense (impressions), they create in the ears and minds of the infant audience. To fulfill this objective, the researcher undertook field work with the help of an assistant, and recorded ten (10) lullabies through interaction with five specialists who are professional baby minders. The ten songs form the texts that have been analyzed in this paper. The theoretical framework for this study is the Cultural Approach, with a strong bias for the literary devices deployed by the performers in the songs. The finding of this study is that the performance of lullabies as credible tools of child rearing among the Ibibio is fast dying out, as its performers today are mainly elderly women—grandmothers, who at some point in their lives had engaged in the art as mothers, paid baby sitters or grandmothers taking care of their grandchildren. The analysis of the few texts of this subgenre collected from the field, have proven that lullabies are rich in aesthetics and other stylistic devices. On the whole, these lullabies prove to be credible poetry, just as any found anywhere in the world. For this reason, this study takes the position that more studies should be undertaken on this neglected aspect of Ibibio oral literature, while also devising a means of collecting, documenting and preserving texts of this subgenre that are still in circulation, for the coming generation.