Human Rights Studies

Evolving Political Culture in West Africa: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Presidential Elections in Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana

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Ebim Matthew Abua1* , Enya Inok-Kuti Ebak2 , Gloria Mayen Umukoro3 , Ayeni Queen Olubukola4  & Bassey Ekpenyong Anam5  
1Department of English and Literary Studies, University of Calabar, Nigeria. *Corresponding author.
2Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies, University of Calabar.
3,4Department of Modern Languages and Translation Studies, University of Calabar.
5Institute of Public Policy and Administration, University of Calabar.

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 17, Issue 1, 2025. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v17n1.01g
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Abstract

This study examines the electoral gains achieved in West Africa by focusing on the presidential elections in Nigeria (2015), Liberia (2023), and Ghana (2024), respectively. Generally, elections in developing democracies are viewed as a ‘war’ with an ideological posturing of ‘win’ or ‘mar’ the process. However, the 2015, 2023, and 2024 presidential elections held in the three West African countries represent a paradigm shift from the usual rancorous aftermath of elections to a more peaceful atmosphere. The losers in these elections, who were sitting presidents in the three countries in focus, not only accepted their defeats but also congratulated their opponents—a feat that had never been achieved on the entire African continent. Data for the analysis were elicited from online reactions to the declaration of the elections in focus. For a more precise understanding, the data from the Nigerian elections are labelled as NGR, while those from Liberia are labelled as LBR, and the Ghana elections data are labelled as GHA, as captured in the analysis. The analysis reveals cases of political reawakening, consciousness, and maturity in a hitherto politically tense continent that is just emerging from ethnic and militia wars, military regimes, and truncated democratic experiences. This study aims to expand the literature on political maturity, which can help deliver political dividends rather than backbiting, warfare, disintegration, and acrimony. 

Keywords: CDA, Evolving Political Culture, West Africa, Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Presidential Elections.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Funding: No funding was received for this research.
Article History: Received: 18 January 2025. Revised: 24 March 2025. Accepted: 27 March 2025. First published: 30 March 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 by the author/s.
License: License Aesthetix Media Services, India. Distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Published by: Aesthetix Media Services, India 
Citation:Abua, E. M., Ebak, E. I., Umukoro, G. M., Olubukola, A. Q. & Anam, B. E. (2025). Evolving Political Culture in West Africa: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Presidential Elections in Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana. Rupkatha Journal, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v17n1.01g

Rupkatha Journal's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Quality education (SDG 4) Gender equality (SDG 5) Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) Reduced inequalities (SDG 10) Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) Climate action (SDG 13) Life on land (SDG 15) Peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG 16)

From Shadows to Spotlight: Unveiling the Saga of Manual Scavenging in India

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Nihal Raj1* , Manish Tiwari2  & Suyasha Singh Isser3
1Research Scholar, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Patna. *Corresponding Author.
2Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Patna.
3Assistant Professor, Amity Institute of Social Sciences, Amity University, Noida.
 
Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 16, Issue 2, 2024. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n2.03g
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Abstract
With the announcement of “The Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993,” the practice of manual scavenging became illegal in India. The manual scavenging problem as a practice is prolonged because of the lack of technological progress and political and administrative will to implement reformative laws on the ground. The Indological text has a particular interpretation of manual scavenging, constituting the basis of caste ideologies and practices. Using qualitative data, the present study encapsulates the transformation of manual scavenging from an overlooked issue to one that demands attention and understanding. It sets the tone for a comprehensive exploration of the historical, social, and policy dimensions surrounding manual scavenging in India. The paper argues that most of the legislative and executive decisions have landed on the terrain of totemism, purity & pollution and are heavily ritualised in the ideological framework, contributing least to the practice.

Keywords: Manual Scavengers, Textual History, Unclean Occupation, Workplace Humiliation, Human Rights, Dignity.

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Funding: No funding was received for this research.
Article History: Received: 21 March 2024. Revised: 17 April 2024. Accepted: 21 April 2024. First published: 22 April 2024
Copyright: © 2024 by the author/s.
License: License Aesthetix Media Services, India. Distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Published by: Aesthetix Media Services, India 
Citation: Raj, N. & Tiwari, M, & Isser, S. S. (2024). From Shadows to Spotlight: Unveiling the Saga of Manual Scavenging in India. Rupkatha Journal 16:2. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n2.03g

Rupkatha Journal's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Quality education (SDG 4) Gender equality (SDG 5) Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8) Reduced inequalities (SDG 10) Sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) Climate action (SDG 13) Life on land (SDG 15) Peace, justice, and strong institutions (SDG 16)

Toleration and Tolerance as Human Challenges: The Voice of an Eighteenth-Century Dramatist, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, for the Twenty-First Century

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333 views

Albrecht Classen
University of Arizona, Editor-in-Chief, Humanities, MDPI, and Editor-in-Chief, Mediaevistik

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 15, Issue 3, 2023. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.21
[Article History: Received: 19 August 2023. Revised: 30 August 2023. Accepted: 1 September 2023. Published: 4 September 2023]
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Abstract

In light of countless problems, the modern world faces, especially religious fanaticism, violence, and hatred, it is high time to reflect on some of the older literary statements once again that had already voiced critical concerns about the principles of human interaction determined by good communication, love, and tolerance. Maybe surprisingly, when we turn to Lessing’s Nathan der Weise (1779), we come across a major literary document in which those ideals are formulated convincingly and dramatically. While German scholarship has already discussed this play for a long time, it deserves much wider attention because of its strong advocation of those ideals, which we are in the highest need as of today.

Keywords: Toleration; tolerance; Gotthold Ephraim Lessing; Nathan der Weise; Enlightenment; religions; truth; love
Sustainable Development Goals: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Citation: Classen, Albrecht. 2023. Toleration and Tolerance as Human Challenges: The Voice of an Eighteenth-Century Dramatist, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, for the Twenty-First Century. Rupkatha Journal 15:3. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v15n3.21

Racial Prejudice and Gender Discrimination against Northeast Indians amidst COVID-19

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Debbie Lalrinawmi1 & Shuchi2
1Research Scholar, Department of Basic Sciences & Humanities Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Mizoram. Email id: debbierinawmi91@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor, Department of Basic Sciences & Humanities Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Mizoram. Email id: shuchi.hss@nitmz.ac.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.32
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Abstract

The outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic has been largely racialized. With its origin rooted in China, Asians across the globe experienced labelling to be responsible for the pandemic. Asians or mongoloid looking individuals suffered discrimination, and contempt worldwide. In India, the pandemic restored and re-established the social problem i.e. racialism against the Northeast Indians which has been tackled over the years. While most of the Indians have non-mongoloid looks, the Northeast Indians are mainly Asiatic race. As such, they have Asian looks though Indian in blood. The fight of the Northeast Indians has been double. They have to fight against the virus as everyone, and against the negative mindset of their fellow Indians against them. The Indian government, as such, promptly established a committee to look into the matter. But there has been no law against it which makes it hard to act accordingly. Besides the racial affliction, there existed gender discrimination which doubled the affliction of the women of northeast Indians.

Keywords: Racism; gender discrimination; Covid-19; Northeast Indian

Afghan Women and the Taliban: Tracing Questions of Legal Rights, Insecurity and Uncertainty in Select Texts vis-à-vis the Current Crisis

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766 views

Anupama B.N.1 & Payel Dutta Chowdhury2
1Associate Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India.ORCID: 0000-0003-3540-6396, Email: anupama.bn@manipal.edu
2Professor & Director, School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, REVA University, Bengaluru, India.ORCID: 0000-0002-2999-0533, Email: payeldutta.c@gmail.com

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.26
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Abstract:

The status of Afghan women has been a subject of academic interest primarily because of the strict patriarchal hegemony that they have been subjected to. Afghanistan has seen enormous changes in the last four decades due to multiple invasions, wars, and terrorism. 15th August 2021 marks a significant transition in the Afghan socio-political scenario with the Afghan government collapsing as Taliban took over Kabul. The Taliban’s initial public statements after seizing power included assurances on allowing women their rights within the framework of Shari’a Law. Against this backdrop, this paper examines the actual status of Afghan women’s legal rights and security concerns at present after the completion of one year of the Taliban take-over. The study delves into an exploration of the changing dynamics of women’s status in real-life vis-à-vis such portrayals in select literary texts by Khaled Hosseini and Atiq Rahimi to understand how their narrative spaces mirror the socio-political conflicts in Afghanistan. Drawing upon Gender Studies and discourses concerning masculinity and femininity, particularly studies conducted on women and violence, and the UN Women’s reports on gender alert published in December 2021 and August 2022, this paper aims to explore the fictional space in relation to the real-life scenario in Afghanistan.

Keywords: Afghan women, Taliban, Legal Rights, Security, UN Women’s reports

Spectres of Caste/Contagion: Death Anxiety and Caste Anxiety in U.R. Ananthamurthy’s Samskara

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G. Thiyagaraj1 and Binod Mishra2
1 Research Scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee. ORCID: 0000-0002-4396-6062. Email: g._t@hs.iitr.ac.in
2 Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee. ORCID: 0000-0003-2364-6405. Email: binod.mishra@hs.iitr.ac.in

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.13 
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Abstract

The article critiques the traversal politics of caste and contagion through a critical dissection of what comes as a primarily biomedical excess of the outbreak—the dead body. It elucidates upon the becoming of the dead body into an untouchable where its “right to die with dignity” is deferred. The article reasons this stigmatisation of the deceased as a result of anxiety ensued in the living population facing the outbreak crisis. Through a close textual reading of U.R. Ananthamurthy’s novel Samskara (1965), the article elaborates on the othering discourse of outbreaks and discusses the type of socio-immune response exhibited by a casteist body politic. The novel centres its narrative around a plague-stricken Brahmin community where the contested dead body of pestilence triggers an endless debate of humanistic morals and ethics. By equipping the Derridean lens of hauntology, the article reads Samskara as an outbreak narrative which informs about the social unpreparedness and indecisiveness expressed by caste groups. The article discusses two types of anxieties expressed in such a caste-based society, namely death anxiety and caste anxiety. It mediates how these anxieties are produced in inversion, creating a unique pattern of social instability and inertia with relevance to the socio-political discourse of India. The epiphenomenon of inverted anxieties in India is presented as a subverted narrative from the global patterns of anxiety charged by microbial invasions. Finally, the article examines how the dead regains spectral agency in order to reveal the social pathology of a community doubly infected with caste and contagion.

Keywords: Dead body, Contagion, Caste, Anxiety, Spectres and Outbreaks.

The Artistic Narrative in Times of War: NENKA project of Ukrainian Visual Artists

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549 views

Natalia Gurieva1 & Victor Manuel Reyes Espino2
1Department of Art and Enterprise, University of Guanajuato, Mexico. ORCID: 0000-0002-1366-1292. Email: n.gurieva@ugto.mx
2Department of Art and Enterprise, University of Guanajuato, Mexico. ORCID: 0000-0001-9309-6387. Email: vm.reyes@ugto.mx

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.08 
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Abstract

Art is deeply linked and contributes to the fundamental axes of culture, that is, norms and standards of behavior, national traditions, principles of life and value systems. During periods of social crisis, art is one of the most vulnerable components, but at the same time a powerful catalyst for creative processes, as well as an expressive vehicle for a critical view of the current situation. Particularly in times of war, artistic expression is presented with a powerful life-giving potential and allows to accurately express the enormous emotional tension of people, whose lives have been disrupted by death, pain, and destruction. This is the case of Ukrainian artists who, through visual exploration, build a complex narrative that seeks to interpret and express the pain and hope of what happened in their native country and which, since 2014, has been experiencing the ravages of war.

Keywords: Ukraine, Artist community, Contemporary image, Art to highlight Ukraine War.

Psychological Trauma and Socio-Economic Burden of Girl-Child Marriage in Nigeria: Stephanie Linus’ ‘Dry’ as a Filmic Advocacy

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Mary-Isabella A. Chidi-Igbokwe1, Cindy A. Ezeugwu2, Cynthia Nwabueze3, Alphonsus C. Ugwu4 & Emeka Aniago5
1, 2, 3Theatre & Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
4Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
5Theatre & Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. ORCID id 0000-0003-3194-1463. Email: emekaaniago@gmail.com

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.06 
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Abstract

The need to proffer solutions to the consequences of girl-child forced marriages in Nigeria has continued to draw scholarly attention within the ambits of sociology, history, law and human-right, women and gender studies, health, and psychology studies. However, studies examining the application of Nollywood films as advocacy texts in this regard are scarce. In response to this gap, this study examines interpretively Stephanie Linus’ ‘Dry’ as a filmic advocacy text, portraying the psychological trauma and the socio-economic burden of girl-child marriages in northern Nigeria. Our interpretive analyses utilize theories espousing how denial of childhood can become traumatic to the child-wives and eventually become a socio-economic burden to their family, community, and country. The key observation is that ‘Dry’ typifies a proper and efficacious utilization of film as an advocacy platform to interrogate and communicate matters relating to health and wellbeing revolving around girl-child forced marriages.

[Keywords: child-marriage, filmic advocacy, girl-child right, northern Nigeria, trauma]

Insecurity and Anxiety in Northeast Nigeria and Boko Haram Agenda Conspiracy Theories: Lake Chad Basin’s Oil and Water Polemics

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Felicia C. Abada1, Mary-Isabella A. Chidi-Igbokwe2, Chinedu Ejezie3, Nneka Alio4 & Emeka Aniago5
1Social Science Units, School of General Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
2,4Theatre & Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
3Political Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
5Theatre & Film Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria. ORCID id 0000-0003-3194-1463. Email: emekaaniago@gmail.com

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.05 
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Abstract

In Nigeria and other nations with their territory being part of the Lake Chad Basin, anxiety is high and growing because Boko Haram’s “strident messages exacerbate intra-Muslim tensions and worsen Muslim-Christian relations in the region” (Thurston 2016: 5). In addition, because the agenda of Boko Haram appear jumbled and its sponsors indistinct, curiosity has led to the conceptualization of theories aimed at providing illumination. The study interpretively discusses how insecurity and anxieties in northeast Nigeria resulting from Boko Haram’s insurgency propel the articulation of several conspiracy theories explaining Boko Haram’s emergence, evolution and agenda, and the areas where lack of consensus subsists. The study classifies the theories into three categories, namely, the Freedom Fighter and Soldiers of Faith, Proxy Political Tool, and Islamic Caliphate Quest theories, and examines their suppositions and arguments to highlight the degree of plausibility. Substantially, the study expands the ‘Islamic Caliphate Quest’ theory to include the place of ‘oil’ and ‘water’ as likely variables that illuminate other trajectories.

Keywords: anxiety, Boko Haram, conspiracy theories, Lake Chad basin, oil, water

Mapping Caste Violence in the Domestic Front: Representation of the Caste Questions in Contemporary Malayalam Cinema

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894 views

V.K. Karthika
Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli (NIT Trichy). OCID: 0000-0002-6335-1153. Email: vkkarthika@nitt.edu

Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 14, Issue 4, December, 2022. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v14n4.03 
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Abstract

Conservative modes of representation of the Dalit lives and the caste questions in Malayalam cinema used to adhere to the stereotypical portrayal of caste-based violence as a tool to evoke pity, fear or laughter. However, recent movies emphasise the revolt of the subaltern both in personal and public domains of discourse. This paper attempts to analyse two recent Malayalam films, Puzhu (the Worm) and Malayankunju (The Malaya Child) released in 2022 that blatantly deal with caste-based violence operational in the domestic sphere. The critique is based on two major questions: how do caste identity and caste-based violence function in the domestic interiors and in what ways do the dominant patriarchal discourses complicate the subjective positioning of women within and outside the household?  The study identifies various elements that contribute to the construction of subjectivity of the Dalit and discusses the issues embedded in caste pride leading to catastrophe at the home-front through ostracisation and excision (either through murder or through mutilation) processes of those ones who do not conform to the dictated norms of casteists. Within the theoretical framework of structural and cultural violence, the paper analyses how caste-based violence and gender-based violence are types of structural violence, and discusses the legitimation of it sanctioned by various cultural elements.

[Keywords: Caste Questions, Caste Violence, Malayalam Cinema]

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