


































CHAPTER THREE.cdr


Introduction

 The Tiv people have an avalanche of creative expressions 
among which the singing art is one. Panegyrics is a sub-genre of 
Tiv songs which has not received adequate critical attention. In 
Tiv praise songs, the persona usually assumes a poverty-stricken, 
pitiable, vulnerable, abased, and needy posture that positions him 
or her for salvation or redemption from such unsavory ordeals. 
The plights or abased posture of the persona is what is referred to 
as abjection, while the attendant help he or she anticipates or 
receives is tagged relief in this study. Beyond meaning-making, 
the raw materials constituting the grand design of the structural 
frame of Tiv panegyrics is provided by the organic interaction 
between abjection and relief.

The invocation or revelation of the abject state of the 
persona arouses toxic, gory emotions that are cleansed at the 
threshold of relief. Through praise songs therefore, the Tiv people 
have been, all the while, exploiting the therapeutic fullness and/or 
advantage of literature in that, like tragedy, ill-emotions are 
aroused in the panegyric architecture but catharsis takes its turn 
through the attendant relief that ensues. Tiv praise songs as such, is 
a privileged borne of art that is licensed to re-present abjection.

To this end, the effort of this study is to open new vistas for 
Tiv orature in critical consideration and nudge scholars to 
reconsider the literary wealth that lay fallow in the pool of 
undocumented, unpopular, unstudied and neglected Tiv artistic 
products and song artists. This study therefore, is to examine how 
abjection and relief are artistically manipulated to fashion the 
aesthetic construct of praise. It is against this backdrop that 
abjection and relief shall be critiqued in Targule's “To Have 
Someone is Good” and “To be a Man is Not a Day's Job” to 
showcase how the perils, plights and/or ordeals of the poem 
persona and his quest for relief constitute the ingredients for plot 
structure and for the design of  Tiv praise songs at large.

Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise 
Songs: Reflections on Targule's Oral Poems

Bem Collins Atyev
Department of English and Literary Studies,

Faculty of Arts,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka

bematyev@gmail.com
08038449721//08071009005

Abstract

This study employs Julia Kristeva's theory of Abjection to explore 
abjection and relief as panegyric architectonic in the praise songs 
of Julius Targule. Abjection and relief as appraised herein, blur the 
boundaries of theme and style. As content and form therefore, 
abjection and relief synergize to constitute the grand design or 
architectural and even structural framework with which the 
ornament of praise is fabricated. Abjection and relief are two sides 
of the coin of Tiv praise songs, in that, the former is only a means 
to the veritable end of the latter. The re-presentation of abjection 
and relief in Tiv praise songs therefore, is a poetic style, a manner 
of speaking, or an artistic demeanour; and this aids in critical 
access into the fundamental nature of Tiv praise song composition 
and study. Abjection cuts across all and sundry, irrespective of 
gender, race, or class. It is not just an individual, experiencing a 
pathetic predicament but a communal code that symbolizes or 
epitomizes the general condition of societies. The burden for this 
study is also to make up for the gap in the scholarly neglect of Tiv 
praise songs and unpopular panegyric song artists as well as the 
segregation of theoretical tools for orature studies. This critical 
goal is what informs the choice of the panegyric sub-genre, the 
unpopular, unstudied song artist, and the theory of abjection that is 
used as analytical tool for this study. 

Keywords: Abjection, Relief, Panegyric, Tiv, Songs

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems

1 2

mailto:bematyev@gmail.com


Anglophone reception of her work. Since then, a number of 
studies about the significance of abjection in cultural life emerged, 
from within and outside literature as well as the visual arts. The 
Kristevian concept of abjection builds on the traditional 
psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, 
whose studies often narrowed in on the experience of the 
disintegration of personal distinctions, through neurosis in Freud 
and Psychosis in Lacan. (See Gross 2 and Cecelia 181-88).
 From Kristeva's above-mentioned text, few, out of the 
basic elements of abjection such as: hallucination, fantasy, 
lack/want, nakedness, destitution, shame, poverty, death, deferred 
hope, mockery, beggarliness, degradation, backwardness, 
stagnation, hunger/starvation, sufferings/struggles, helplessness, 
and abandonment/rejection, to mention just eighteen are explored 
in the studied songs as indices of abjection that constantly buffet 
the persona and clefts a vent for relief.

Method of Data Collection
 The two songs under study, alongside several others by the 
same author were collected in a video (and some, audio) recording 
using a handset and a radio recorder. The two songs were first 
performed in the early 1990s and were performed again for 
documentation in February, 2017 by Targule Julius at his 
residence in Tse-Agberagba, Mbakyondo, Gwer-West Local 
Government Area of Benue State.

Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architectonics in Targule's 
Songs
 This segment examines abjection and relief in “To Have 
Someone is Good” and “To Be a Man is Not a Day's Job” by 
Targule, to ascertain how these elements are exploited as 
construction materials for Tiv panegyrics.

“To Have Someone is Good”is a praise song by Targule, 
wherein, the poetic voice indirectly projects the cliché that “a tree 

A Glossary Review of Related Literature
 Copious corpus of critical works exists on Tiv orature, a 
few on Tiv oral poetry and a very few on Tiv oral 
panegyrics.Apegba Ker affirms this when he says: “quite a good 
number of books have been written on various aspects of the Tiv 
people and society […] but Tiv oral literature and particularly Tiv 
oral poetry and songs have so far been given a step-motherly 
treatment” (18).

Aside some Eurocentric, biased and non-incisive works 
about the Tiv culture and tradition by the likes of M. C. Abraham, 
Paul and Laura Bohanam and Charles Keil (see Ker 3 and Keil 
22/43); Iyorwuese Hagher (1981; 1990), Emmanuel T. Jenkwe et 
al (1998), David Ker (2002), Mbaiver Nyitse (2006; 2006), 
Richard Aondowase (2007),Ayem Shoja (2010), Godwin Yina 
(2011), Moses Tsenongo (2012), and Apegba Ker (2015) are some 
among the Tiv scholars giving voice particularly to Tiv oral poetry 
and panegyrics.

However, most of these scholarly views on Tiv oral poetry 
either relegate or limit structural analysis, or avoid the panegyric 
sub-genre or neglect the unpopular panegyric song artists; or are 
devoid of a critical contemplation on how abjection and relief are 
skillfully portrayed in Tiv panegyrics, thematically and 
stylistically. The current study fills this lacuna as it judges Tiv 
panegyric songs from the lenses of abjection to reveal the 
abasement of the poetic voice and his attendant reward as a 
deliberate literary style which modulates also, the tempers and 
emotions of the audience.

Theoretical Framework
 The theoretical tool employed to frame this study is Julia 
Kristeva's theory of abjection, which was propounded in 
“Pouvoirs de l'horreur: Essai sur l'abjection”, originally published 
in 1980. The translation, Powers of Horror: An Essay on 
Abjection, which appears two years later, profoundly shapes the 

3 4

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



that all of these in stanza one begins and ends in the realm of 
rumour, wishful desire, and hallucination. Tiv praise songs 
therefore, becomes a vent for experiencing the unattainable and 
for expressing the underserved.This resonates with Kristeva's 
views when paraphrased as: abjection transports the abject to 
clefts of non-existence and to realms of hallucination (see p. 1). 
Hallucination and fantasy therefore, become a license that the 
poetic voice uses to foreshadow and flashback at will; which also 
makes haphazard, the plot structure and as such, makes the 
framework of Tiv praise songs, complex or episodic in nature. A 
discourse on abjection and relief is therefore, a veritable mound 
for forging panegyrics.

“It is very good to have someone in this world” (Ln. 1) as 
such, becomes the best beacon of faith to anchor the persona's 
praise. Men of integrity and substance do not like letting people 
down, at least, not to public notice. Here is the persona, declaring 
publicly, that he has someone in this world – a magnanimous 
patron and benefactor of repute – John Nyisa; who is revealed to 
have tied down a pregnant dam for him. This is the height of 
implicated praise; it is calling forth those things that be not as 
though they were. It is literariness and sublimity at its 
quintessence, a license to make real, the unreal and to access 
currencies and/or privileges and even spend them before one gets 
them. This is a notable skill in the design of the artistic frame of Tiv 
traditional praise songs because, from the reality of the persona's 
abjectitude notwithstanding, he creates a foreshadowing bridge 
with which to connect with his dream or idealistic relief. 

Although John Nyisa Hemen urges the poetic voice to 
come, nevertheless, the want of clothes is a crucial challenge. To 
this, the daughter of Joseph Adinya, the wife of John Nyisa is 
beckoned upon to bear witness. In view of the song voice's abject 
poverty, nakedness has become his present continuous guest; as 
such, he cannot go out. And in simileic connotations, the persona 
likens himself to ikyoor, a large rat that moves about only at night. 

does not make a forest”. No one, in other words, is an island, and 
even islands are surrounded by bodies of water. To have somebody 
in this world thus is good, especially a worthy, wealthy fellow in 
the stature of John Nyisa. The song, “To Have Someone is Good”, 
under study, features abjection and relief as an architectural style. 
It is a concise praise song of 32 lines and 4 stanzas. The poem is 
founded upon the premise of an imagined hope; a fictitious 
assumption staged to conscript the commitment of the patron into 
the persona's larger-than-life sufferings. Beginning the first stanza 
of the poem with ballooned praise therefore, is a master craft 
literary style; a ploy or set-up, knitted by the poem persona to tow 
the patron on an accelerated eagle's wing of praise.

The plotting of the poem thus opens at the highest point of 
excitement – the climax – so that when the song's voice reveals his 
abjection, his plights, ordeals, predicaments and/or perils, at that 
steep slope of anti-climax, it will leave the already implicated 
patron with no choice than to oblige. The first stanza is therefore a 
poignant, undiluted inducement meant to sweep the patron off his 
feet and get him “drunk” to the point of offering a blank cheque to 
the persona, as seen in the sense group below:

 It is very good to have someone in this world
 I have heard that
 John Nyisa has hosted a song festival for me
 And has tied down a pregnant dam for me}x2 
 When that dam delivers a child
 I will in turn give the foal to Bem Ukule
 Tor Bem will ride baby horse
 While I will ride mother horse (Lns. 1-8)

In this imagined realm, in the days when as a symbol of 
wealth, nothing is priced more than a horse in the spatial location 
of the song, the persona fantasizes in ecstasy and celestial 
projections about his pregnant dam, and even already declares his 
will: to bequeath the foal to Bem Ukule, his son. It is fascinating 

5 6

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



that, the poem voice calls everyone with their rightful and 
appropriate name. Naming in Tiv praise songs thus is beyond a 
nomenclature used to pointing at people; it is one's status, worth or 
if you like, quality, or essence as well as stature and standing in 
society. Fictional figures in the praise songs under study are 
named, sometimes, to the fourth generations and to their deepest 
roots or hamlets to evoke what such people stand for and who they 
are known for, which in turn, forges an identity for the person in 
question at that material time.

For instance, the “someone” who calls the poem voice on 
line 16 is revealed to be a man from Sengev stock, by the name, 
Num, the son of Ikyôn from Ato's compound. And just in case the 
audience may forget, the persona adds that he also goes by the 
name Pever. Such deep, detailed, elaborate and precise 
identification and/or “naminfication” of personae in Tiv praise 
poetry is not arbitrary but an architectural sling to catapult the 
song's voice from abjection to relief.

It is worthy of mention also, that abjection keeps 
possibilities in sight but between the abjected person and the 
relief, there usually abound obstacles to prevent the abject from 
getting the desired relief. This is important to the development of 
the plot architecture of Tiv praise songs because the delay of 
salvation and its subsequent revelation serve as reagents of 
suspense within the plotting of Tiv praise songs. Despite this 
pressing and important call for instance, the persona cannot 
attend, for want of clothes; as such, “My mothers... (the symbol of 
care and unconditional, untiring love), you people should “…keep 
supporting me” (emphasis mine, Ln. 24). One day “…when I am 
no more, you people will at least, rest” (Ln. 25).

Furthermore, Targule's “To Have Someone is Good” 
portrays death as the next of kin of poverty which, for so long now, 
has consistently maintained fellowship with the song's voice. This 
time around, if no one urgently helps him, death will succeed in 
paying for his dowry. And because the audience know the dread or 
horror of death… they should hurry and come to the persona's aid, 

Until nightfall, therefore, before his mothers will see him. This 
posture of abjection and quest for an urgent relief is architecturally 
depicted below in this wise:

John Nyisa Hemen urges me to come visit him
 Daughter of Joseph Adinya oh my mother
 The want of clothes has been my problem for long
 It is impossible for me to go out my mother
 I have become like ikyoor rat
 Until night fall before
 Mama, you people will see me (Lns. 9-15)

One of the prime indices of abjection is the want of clothing. When 
a man has come to a point when he cannot afford, at least, any form 
of cloth just to cover up his nakedness and protect himself from the 
harsh weather, or from shame, that person's poverty is at a chronic 
critical level that requires the emergency unit of neighbourly 
support. Consequently, abjection and relief become knotty ends 
on the architectural frame of Tiv praise songs as thus far 
demonstrated in Targule's song.

Just to prove how critical and un-hypocritical his 
condition is, the poetic voice reveals how that another man in 
Sengev, Ikyôn Num, also urges him to come, but the persona 
cannot go for the same reason of want of cloth. So that, in the 
instance of at least, two witnesses, the matter of his abjectitude 
will be confirmed. Just in order to avoid doubts, he presents a vivid 
description of this patron:

Someone else is inviting me in Sengev but
There's no cloth to wear and go
His name is Ikyôn Num
He is a man from Sengev Stock
From Ato's Compound
Pever has invited me (Lns. 16-21)

It is discovered from the above sense group that, the issue 
of identity and roots feature conspicuously in Tiv praise songs, in 

7 8

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



To this end, the persona is entangled with a want within 
want and in need of relief within relief. He, as a result, beckons on 
his mothers, the likes of the daughter of Adzege and that of 
Hwelegh to address his basic momentary need so that he can reach 
out for the larger relief awaiting him. “My mothers, keep 
supporting me//Someday when I'm no more then you people will 
rest” (Lns. 24/25). This is a contemplative, thoughtful, implicative 
set-up. It is like inciting their emotions and troubling the waters of 
their conscience. It is an appeal to the emotive bedrock of 
motherhood and humanity, so that the persona's relief from 
abjection will be sure.

Taken overall, the poem, “To Have Someone is Good” is a 
literary construct of praise that uses abjection and relief as an 
architectural style to build the poem technically, from its 
beginning to a logical close. Through the poem, one notices 
varying shades and colours of abjection, ranging from want to 
shame and death. However, by manipulating the figurative whims 
of hallucination, the persona is able to surmount all obstacles 
between his abject state and accrue requisite relief. At the end, 
such toxic emotions earlier aroused by the revelation of the abject 
ordeals of the poem persona are mopped up or purged; and he is 
seen riding his dam while his son, Bem Ukule, rides his foal.

Furthermore, “To be a Man is not a Day's Job” is also a 
panegyric poem by Targule that opens with a common aphorism, 
“to be a man is not a day's job”. But because some people pretend 
not to be aware of this fact, he beckons on Ayongo, son of Dzerena, 
his song patron to take note of them. To strengthen the trajectory of 
his intentions, he goes through Dzerena's wife, the daughter of 
Ugende, adjuring her that someday when they would have helped 
him, people will then stop mocking him. In other words, as long as 
they don't help him, his mockery and degradation as less manly 

to relieve him from his abjectitude as lamented below:
But death has wooed me
For too long
This time death will pay my bride price
Death has even posted a letter which has arrived
Chief  Ikyôn  Adem I didn't reject it
Death does a thing to someone that
The person can never forget (Lns. 26-32)

The metaphoric, symbolic and personifying figuration of 
death in the above sense group is only a bid to project its gothic 
reality to the audience and to give claws to abjection so that the 
requisite relief to bail the persona from it should be treated as a 
matter of urgency. A readership of Celine's Journey to the End of 
the Night also excavates such elements of abjection as: suffering, 
horror, death, complicitous sarcasm and fear as featured in this 
oral poem under study.

The poem persona is so destitute, so naked, so much in 
want that daylight wears an insignia of shame upon him and 
prohibits him from making an appearance in the day time. He has 
become like a rat ikyoor who only comes out at night. No matter 
how pressing his redemption knocks, no matter how close his 
relief looms on his abject essence, he cannot go out due to his 
incapacitation or want of clothes. The daughter of Joseph Adinya, 
wife of Nyisa, whom he regards as a mother must therefore, look 
out for him only at nightfall.

As gleaned from Kristeva, on the topic of want as it relates 
to abjection, she observes how easy it is to pass too quickly over 
the word (5). Want therefore, stands out as the last born of 
abjection with fear as its watchword and phobia as its password. It 
is in that perpetual state of chronic want that abjection verifies one 
of its truest identities in the persona's life.

9 10

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



response of his patron because Dzerena's place, where he sings, is 
an arena where bashi – liquid cash – will flow (see Lns. 22-27). He 
is optimistic that this call of Ayongo is to host him and nothing can 
stop it. For it is only when he is uplifted from financial oblivion 
that his kinsmen, the Ugende natives will covet him. This is 
because, in this race of life, so many have gone ahead of him and 
seem to be more successful. It is only at such opportunities as these 
that the persona can redeem lost glories and wasted years through 
their assistances and (in the poetic voice's words), “deliverance” 
that he receives from his benefactors. This rain of relief from 
mocking abjection is therefore, what is strengthened further in the 
call of Ayongo. The call, of which he tells “Daughter of Ugende 
my mother[that]//It is a must go” (emphasis mine, lns. 13/14) is his 
pool of redemption where, he will garner the needed assistance 
that will silence his mockers.

Chagu Alhaji, son of Damkor alongside his wife, daughter 
of Magagbia also is in the arena. And the poetic voice has turned to 
him, informing him of his arrival. He presents a pathetic plight of 
his destitution to this patron of his, that, “The natives of 
Ugende//Have abandoned [him] in public” (Emphasis mine, Lns. 
38/39). In other words, he has been rejected, dejected and is 
afflicted with the plights of destitution. He has no helper and no 
place to lay his head. This too, is his tragedy, as will be seen below, 
that only Chagu Alhaji, in his financial prowess can redeem. This 
is the reason why he will not stop at anything until he becomes 
envy in the land:

You people should give me assistance
Let the natives of Ugende covet me
People have gapped me for too long a distance
Daughter of Mbalagh my mother
I have come for you to save me (Lns. 18-21)

Abjection is here seen to take the shade of backwardness. 

will continue.
This, therefore, is a worthy pedestal upon which to peg the 

nail of commitment and response-ability of the patron towards the 
poem's voice. The poetic voice presents himself as an object of 
pity and a laughing stock on account of his poverty and throws the 
ball to the courts of his patrons, that, someday, their help shall 
salvage or relieve him from the sarcastic laughter of people. This 
is what is captured in the sense group below:

To be a man is not a day's job
Ayongo son of Dzerena
Some people don't know, they are laughing at me
Daughter of Ugende my mother, no problem
One day you people will help me out
People will cease from mocking me (Lns. 1-6)

“To be a Man is not a Day's Job”, which opens with 
popular misconceptions that people hold about the persona due to 
his realities of want is therefore, a poem that uses the leitmotif of 
abjection and relief to knit it beautifully from beginning to its 
close.

To be a man requires collective, cumulative efforts at 
various junctures of life, and not even by the efforts or conjuration 
of a single person. But some people do not know or understand this 
fact, and so, they are busy laughing at the persona and mocking his 
abject condition; misconstruing his abjection for irresponsibility – 
how he cannot raise his shoulders in the gathering of men. Note 
that, the persona is already abject, but his abject state is worsened 
by the mocking laughter of people. In this tight corner 
nonetheless, he finds a vent for relief in the hope that someday his 
mothers in the likes of the daughter of Ugende and his patron, 
Ayongo, son of Dzerena will bail him out from people's mockery 
by assisting him.

The poetic voice, however, is quite sure of the favourable 

11 12

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



Their response with the requisite relief is therefore 
pertinent because if they don't, poverty is killing the persona. His 
abjection has become a thing of public ridicule and nuisance. He is 
not just a burden to himself but also to the entire community. The 
persona's abjection is seen here as a killing poverty:

Doctor Joseph Akuma Tôgô
Poverty is killing me
Daughter of Ikpya my mother 
See I have become a beggar
Who goes about begging people
At various family settlements
Even if I'm given little on the hand
I will receive with much appreciation (Lns. 28-35)

Abjection has so eaten deep into the fabric of his soul to the 
point that the poem persona has become a beggar who goes up and 
down begging, just for crumbs to keep body and soul alive. Three 
images of abjection are here invoked: death, the want of food and 
beggarliness. Poverty has ambushed the poetic voice roundabout 
to the end that it is killing him. As a result, he cries out for help 
because he sees, feels, thinks and eats poverty; the walking, 
talking poverty has placed a knife on his throat and is pulling it 
apart. It is only when his patron, Akuma Tôgô helps him therefore, 
that he will be delivered from poverty, death, starvation and 
beggary.

Furthermore, from the above sense group, for abjection to 
reveal its identity in the want of a most basic need as food is a 
sonorous call to all who could hear. The issue of the song persona's 
abject estate has become a state of emergency; thus no matter how 
small the help is, none should withhold. Everyone should bring in 
their quota to salvage him from this abject condition. 

Chagu Alhaji son of Damkor I have come

People have not only mocked and laughed at the persona, but they 
have also gapped him a long distance. Only the collective, yet 
committed help he receives from his patrons can deliver him from 
such abjectness. 

The good news however, is that this abject condition of his 
struggles, mockery, helplessness, poverty, backwardness and 
pitiable position has instigated a positive response from Chief 
Asoo Ikyôgen, who has also arisen in person, beckoning on his 
retinue of wives to come and relief the persona of his burden:

Chief Asoo Ikyôgen of Aga has arisen by himself
He's calling on the retinue of his wives to come out
To come and reward Ortiev's songs
With a spray of cash this time around
That he should forget about the
Sufferings of Tyôshin land (Lns. 22-27)

His abjection, in essence, is a reflection of the collective 
sufferings of the entire Tyôshin land. As such, rewarding his song 
with material and financial gestures is a requisite relief and/or bail 
from, not just his personal abjectitude, but a mop action from all 
the sufferings of his people. More so, the rise of Chief Asoo 
Ikyôgen, son of Aga, the worthy, wealthy fellow is a deep, 
figurative expression of the readiness to display wealth as well as 
the willingness to salvage the persona from backwardness and 
stagnation. The rise of his patron thus signifies the persona's rise in 
fortune as well as his resurrection from the sheol of poverty which 
marks the emergence of his deliverance. Note that, Ikyôgen's rise 
is with the entire retinue of his wives, and he calls upon them to 
come and reward the poetic voice, here identified as Ortiev. This 
reward should be with a spray of cash this time around so that he 
should forget about the sufferings that rise from Tyôshin land like 
vapour.

13 14

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



modern world.
Works Cited

Oral Sources
Agongur, Ukpachu. 97-103 Years; Interviewed in Mbakpa, Gwer-

th
West, 24  March, 2017.

Targule, Julius. 74 Years; Interviewed at Tse-Agberagba, Gwer-
th

West, 18 February, 2017.

Mbatsavmbaheenga, Biem D. 78 Years; From Avuramne 
Compound, Iche AdzeVillage,  Mbamar Hamlet, Udzer 
Kindred, Nyiev Ward in Guma LGA, Benue State. Interview in  

th thMakurdi on the 16  and 17  March, 2017.

Written Sources

Abraham M. C. The Tiv People. Government Printers, 1933.

Bohannan, L. Return to Laughter. Gallancz, 1954.

Bohannan, L. and Bohannan, P. Tiv Farm and Settlement. 
H.M.S.O, 1954.

---. Justice and Judgement Among the Tiv. Oxford University 
Press, 1957.

---. The Tiv of Central Nigeria. Oxford University Press, 1958

---. Tiv Economy. Northwestern University Press, 1968

Celine, Louis-Ferdinand.Journey to the End of the Night. (Trans. 
John H. P. Marks), Little Brown,  1934.

Gross, Elizabeth.“The Body of Signification”.In Fletcher, John; 
Benjamin, Andrew (Eds.)  Abjection, Melancholia 
and Love: The Work of Julia Kristeva.Routledge, 2012.Pp. 

Daughter of Magagbia
The natives of Ugende
Have abandoned me in public (Lns. 36-39)

The last element or shade of abjection we notice in this poem is 
that of abandonment and/or rejection. The poem voice is seen to 
have been abandoned like one infected with Hansen's disease to 
bear the brunt of his sufferings alone.

In this abject state of poverty, degradation, mockery, 
backwardness, abandonment, want of food, beggarliness, 
suffering and death nonetheless, one can gather and surmise that 
the persona cries out for relief so that he will be restored to normal 
fellowship with humanity; so that he can at least, feed and live; so 
that he can catch up with those who have gapped him in life; so that 
he can forget the sufferings of Tyoshin land; so he can stop 
begging; so that poverty will not kill him; so that he will be 
salvaged from mockery and for once, become envied by his people 
of Ugende; and so that he will make out something from life – to 
become a man.

Conclusion
 In consociation with the burden of this research, the songs, 
“To Have Someone is Good” and “To Be a Man is Not a Day's 
Job”have been appreciated from the viewpoint of abjection, to x-
ray a common denominator of abjection and relief as the 
panegyric architecture and building blocks that subtend those 
traditional praise songs from the beginning to end. The persona's 
abjection thus reflects the general abjectitude of mankind. As 
such, this study is a call unto action just the same way that the relief 
of the persona requires urgent, committed and communal 
response. Paying attention to all the issues of abjection and relief 
as portrayed and explored in the studied songs is significant as it 
will help individuals and society at large to cushion themselves 
against the pains, gory experiences or abjection that bile-ducts the 

15 16

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



Appendices
Transciption
“U Lun a Or Doo”
U lun a or hen tar ne doo tsô
Iyange m ungwa me,
John Nyisa ooo
Mirim imo dzerem ngô nyinya
U lun iyav ooo   } X 2
Nyinya la yange un a mar wan yô me gema
Wan la me na Bem Ukule ooo
Tor Bem a hendan wan nyinya
Mo di me hendan ngô nyinya ooo
John Nyisa Hemen kaa er, mo m gba zan zan an ooo
Wan Joseph Adinya, mama wam ooo
Ican ikyondo ngi ayongo a mo kpem
Ka kwagh u me due ze ngôm  } X 2
Mo m hingir inja er ikyoor
Tugh a ile ve
Mama ne nenge a mo ye

Or ugenegh ngu m yilan ken Sengev kpa
Ikyondo ngi i za nga
Iti na yô, ka Ikyôn Num
Ka or u shin Sengev
Hen ya u Ato  } X 2
Pever yilam ve eee
Wan ugenegh mama ngôm
Wan u Adzege ngôm
Ungô av nôngo nen a mo
Ayange me lu ga di tsô ne mem eee

Man ku shiôr mo
Ica kpa gba yum
Kwa ne ku a kemem
Man ku tindi leta nyôr
Tor Ikyôn Adem m venda ga

92-93
Hagher, I.The Kwaghhir Theatre: A Metaphor of Resistance. 

Caltop Publications Ltd., 2003.
---. “Performance in Tiv Oral Poetry”.Nigeria Magazine. Emacon 

Print, 1981.
Jenkwe, et al.A Study of Tiv Oral Poetry. AAU Vitalis Books, 

1998.
Keil, C. Tiv Song: The Sociology of Art in a Classless Society. 

Chicago University Press, 1979
Ker, A. Tiv Poetry and Politics: A Study of Tarker Golozo. Akia 
Books, 2002.

Kristeva, Julia. “Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection.” 
(Trans. Leon S. Roudiez), Columbia University Press, 1982
Nyitse, Maria. Form and Content of Tiv Songs. Aboki Publishers, 

2006.
---. Introduction to Tiv Songs. Aboki Publishers, 2006.

Richard, A, et al. Tiv Swange Music and Dance. Aboki Publishers, 
2007.

Shoja, A. Aesthetics and Social Vision in Tiv Oral Poetry: A Study 
of Oliver Ayeh. Climax Graphics, 2010.

Tsenongu, Moses. “Much Ado About Song-Party: A Study of the 
Tiv Oral Poems of IyoughUte”, Difficulty Dialogues in 
Development. Ibadan: Kraft Books, 2012.

Yina, G. Semiotics of Tiv Oral Poetry. Aboki Publishers, 2011.

17 18

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



Sha adôa ya ve
Ana m sha we kpa me ngohol mo me laha ga ooo

Chagu Alahaji u Damkol mva ve
Wan Magagbya Tyô Ugende gbihim tembe ooo

Translation
“To Have Someone is Good”

It is very good to have someone in this world
I have heard that
John Nyisa hashosted a song festival for me
And has tied down a pregnant dam for me }x2
When that dam delivers a child
I will in turn give the foal to Bem Ukule
Tor Bem will ride baby horse
While I will ride mother horse

John Nyisa Hemen urges me to come visit him
Daughter of Joseph Adinya oh my mother
The want of clothes has been my problem for long
It is impossible for me to go out my mother
I have become like ikyoor rat
Until night fall before
Mama, you people will see me

Someone else is inviting me in Sengev but
There's no cloth to wear and go
His name is Ikyȏn Num
He is of Sengev stock
From Ato's compound    }x2
Pever has invited me
Daughter of Hwelegh mama my mother
Daughter of Adzege my mother
My mothers, keep supporting me
Someday when I'm no more then you people will rest

Ku ngu er kwagh a or
Mayange nan a hungul ga ooo

“U Lun Or ka Tom u Yange Imiôm ga”

U lun or ka tom u iyange imiôm ga
Ayongo u Zerena
Ior mbagenev fa ga mba senem eee } X 2
Wan Ugende ngôm kwagh ga ooo
Ayange tsa ne nôngo a mo ior a mem ilyam ooo
Mwa imo hen ape u
Bashi a duwe ve ooo
Ayongo u Zerena
Or Mba-Buande ngu yilan nem
Er, m za hen ya na un a nambem ishor ooo
Wan Ugende ngôm ka kwagh u a bunde ga ooo

Ior Kohol Asoo Ikyôgen
U Aga kpa ngum yilan aaa
Wan u Hwelegh m va ve ooo
Nôngo nen a-mo
Ityô Ugende ve tômun
Ior wundum ishiva lihe yum
Wan Mbalagh ngôm
Mva me yimam ooo

Tor Asoo Ikyôgen
U Aga kighir a mogh iyol na
Ngu yilan kasev nav u due ooo
I va nambe Ortiev amo aingye
A hungul kera a ican i tar u Tyôshin ooo

Dôkutô Joseph Akuma Tôgô
Ican ngi wuanem
Wan Ikpya mama wam yô nenge mo
M hingir bega u zenden zamber ior

19 20

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems



That he should forget about the
Sufferings of Tyȏshin land

Doctor Joseph Akuma Tȏgȏ
Poverty is killing me
Daughter of Ikpya my mother
See I have become a beggar
Who goes about begging people
At various family settlements
Even if I'm given little on the hand
 I will receive with much appreciation

Chagu Alhaji Son of Damkor I have come
Daughter of Magagbia
The natives of Ugende
Have abandoned me in public

But death has wooed me
For too long now
This time death will pay my dowry
Death has even posted a letter which has arrived
Chief Ikȏn Adem I didn't reject it
Death does a thing to someone that
The person can never forget

“To be a Man is not a Day's Job”
To be a man is not a day's job
Ayongo son of Dzerena
Some people don't know they are laughing at me
Daughter of Ugende my mother no problem
One day you people will help me out
People will cease from mocking me
I am singing in a place where
Bashicash will flow
Ayongu of Dzerena
The Mbabuande man is calling me
That I should come to his house
So he will host for me a song party
Daughter of Ugende my mother
This is a must go

Iorkohol Asoo Ikyȏgen
Of Aga is also calling me
Daughter of Hwelegh I have arrived
You people should give me assistance
Let the natives of Ugende covet me
People have gapped me for too long a time
Daughter of Mbalagh I have come for you to deliver me

Chief Asoo Ikyȏgen of Aga has arisen by himself
He's calling on his wives to come out
To come and reward Ortiev's songs
With a spray of cash this time around

21 22

COOU JOFOCUS: COOU Journal of Folklore and Cultural Studies, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2023
Bem Collins Atyev:  Abjection and Relief as Panegyric Architecture in Tiv Praise Songs:
Reflections on Targule’s Oral Poems


	Page 1
	Page 2
	Page 3
	Page 4
	Page 5
	Page 6
	Page 7
	Page 8
	Page 9
	Page 10
	Page 11

