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Linguistics and literary studies approach the same object language from different perspectives. In spite of their shared interest, these fields of research are still separated by a border that is all too rarely crossed. The discipline of stylistics, however, has tried to exploit the common ground between the two domains. This dissertation will attempt to bridge the gap further by examining how linguistic theory can contribute to the elaboration of literary interpretations of selected works by three Nigerian authors. This study takes as its point of departure the Bakhtinian view that language is inextricably linked to its development in society. The medium carries the ideologies to which it has been attached throughout history, leaving speakers with the difficult task of appropriating words for the expression of their own intentions. This socially based perception of linguistic codes finds echoes in post-colonial theory, which has paid attention to the ideological implications behind the imposition of the colonial language in the former British Empire, to which Nigeria belonged. Post-colonial movements of linguistic decolonization have taken many forms and, in the literary field, the responses given by African authors have been among the most remarkable. The first chapter of this dissertation provides an overview of the question of language in African literature, an issue that has divided both writers and critics for decades. It is discussed here in relation to the definition of African literature and to more general considerations on the subject of categorization. The second part of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of the methodological choices that have informed the analyses conducted in the rest of the study. It is argued that linguistic investigations into Nigerian fiction should take into account the many culturally specific strategies that can be found in the countrys literature, but should also extend their scope to stylistic techniques that are not directly linked to the literary works post-colonial status. The second chapter focuses on the novel Another Lonely Londoner, a rarely discussed work by the little-known author Gbenga Agbenugba. The narrative is written in an experimental style that mixes English with Nigerian Pidgin and includes elements of Nigerian English, Black British English, Cockney and Yoruba. Extensive analyses of the interaction between English and Nigerian Pidgin are undertaken from sociolinguistic and grammatical perspectives, each time with the view of assessing the impact of the languages on the novels possible literary interpretations. The other codes, varieties and linguistic influences contained in the book also receive systematic treatment, and it gradually appears that all these elements combine to produce a complex polyphonic piece. The third chapter provides an examination of selected works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The investigation into Adichies writing constitutes the point of methodological articulation of this study. The first part follows the way paved by the analysis of Agbenugbas novel, and further looks into issues relating to cultures and linguistic codes, among which the themes of language and food in some of Adichies short stories, and the presence of Igbo, codeswitching and proverbs in her novel Purple Hibiscus (2003). The second part of the chapter departs from explicitly cultural models and investigates the narrators use of language with a variety of theories, borrowed for instance from functional grammar and cognitive linguistics. This combination of approaches aims at demonstrating that literary, cultural, social and cognitive methods can complement each other to produce a coherent interpretation of Adichies work. The final chapter compares Ben Okris second novel, The Landscapes Within (1981), with the authors revised version of the same book, Dangerous Love (1996). A general introduction outlining the changes that have taken place between the two narratives is followed by a discussion of some of the stylistic aspects that distinguish Okris earlier novel from his later text. The chapter then takes a cognitive turn, and tries to establish the importance of metaphor in the novels, especially in Dangerous Love. This analysis of metaphor leads to the creation of an interpretative framework that forms the basis for a textual analysis of some of the novels narrative sequences. The conclusion reaffirms that the adoption of an eclectic methodology has contributed to the exploration of Gbenga Agbenugbas, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies and Ben Okris approaches to the notion of identity. In the light of these results, possible lines of research are evoked. La linguistique et les études littéraires abordent le même objet le langage ou la langue selon des perspectives différentes. Malgré leur objet commun, ces domaines de recherche restent séparés par une frontière qui nest que trop rarement franchie. La stylistique a toutefois tenté dexploiter lespace partagé par ces deux disciplines. La présente dissertation tâchera de poursuivre cet effort en examinant les manières dont la théorie linguistique peut contribuer à lélaboration dinterprétations littéraires ; ces dernières porteront, en loccurrence, sur des textes choisis dans luvre de trois auteurs nigérians. Cette étude prend sa source dans la conception bakhtinienne selon laquelle le langage est inextricablement lié à son développement au sein de la société. En effet, le médium charrie les idéologies auxquelles il a été attaché au fil de lhistoire, laissant les locuteurs aux prises avec une tâche difficile : celle de sapproprier les mots pour exprimer leurs propres intentions. Cette perception des codes linguistiques, fondée sur une approche sociale, trouve des échos dans la théorie post-coloniale, qui sest intéressée aux implications idéologiques de lutilisation imposée de la langue coloniale dans lancien Empire britannique, auquel appartenait le Nigeria. Les mouvements post-coloniaux de décolonisation linguistique ont pris de nombreuses formes et, dans le champ littéraire, les réponses apportées par les auteurs africains comptent parmi les plus remarquables. Le premier chapitre de cette dissertation offre un aperçu général du problème de la langue dans la littérature africaine, lequel divise écrivains et critiques depuis des décennies. Ce thème est ici mis en relation avec la définition de la littérature africaine, ainsi quavec des considérations plus générales portant sur la question de la catégorisation. La seconde partie de ce chapitre consiste en un examen des choix méthodologiques qui ont sous-tendu les analyses menées dans le reste de cette étude. Largument avancé dans cette section est le suivant : toute exploration linguistique de la fiction nigériane devrait prendre en considération non seulement les multiples stratégies culturellement spécifiques présentes dans la littérature du pays, mais également souvrir aux techniques stylistiques qui ne sont pas directement liées au statut post-colonial des uvres littéraires. Le deuxième chapitre est consacré à Another Lonely Londoner, une uvre rarement traitée par la critique et due à un auteur méconnu : Gbenga Agbenugba. Le roman est rédigé dans un style expérimental mêlant langlais au pidgin nigérian et incorporant des éléments danglais nigérian, danglais parlé par la communauté noire en Grande-Bretagne, de Cockney et de Yoruba. Des analyses approfondies de linteraction entre langlais et le pidgin nigérian sont entreprises selon des perspectives sociolinguistiques et grammaticales, dans le but dévaluer, dans chaque cas, limpact des langues sur les possibles interprétations littéraires du roman. Les autres codes, variétés et influences linguistiques contenus dans le livre font également lobjet dune étude systématique, dont il ressort progressivement que tous ces éléments se combinent de manière à produire un texte complexe et polyphonique. Le troisième chapitre examine une sélection duvres écrites par Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Lexploration de ces dernières constitue le point darticulation méthodologique de la présente étude. La première partie suit la voie tracée par lanalyse du roman dAgbenugba, et investigue plus avant certaines questions relatives aux cultures et aux codes linguistiques, parmi lesquelles les thèmes de la langue et de la nourriture dans certaines nouvelles dAdichie, ainsi que la présence de ligbo, lalternance codique et les proverbes dans son roman Purple Hibiscus (2003). La seconde partie du chapitre sécarte des modèles explicitement culturels pour explorer, à laide dun éventail de théories notamment empruntées à la grammaire fonctionnelle et à la linguistique cognitive, lusage que le narrateur fait du langage. Cette combinaison dapproches vise à démontrer que les méthodes littéraire, culturelle, sociale et cognitive peuvent se compléter pour produire une interprétation cohérente de luvre dAdichie. Le chapitre final compare le deuxième roman de Ben Okri, The Landscapes Within (1981), à Dangerous Love (1996), la version du même livre revue par son auteur. Une introduction générale exposant les grandes lignes des changements qui se sont produits dun texte à lautre précède un examen de certains des aspects stylistiques qui distinguent le premier roman dOkri du second. Le chapitre prend ensuite une dimension cognitive, et sefforce de souligner limportance de la métaphore dans les romans, particulièrement dans Dangerous Love. Cette étude de la métaphore mène à la création dun cadre interprétatif sur lequel se fonde lanalyse textuelle de certaines séquences narratives extraites du roman. La conclusion réaffirme que ladoption dune méthodologie éclectique a permis dexplorer la façon dont Gbenga Agbenugba, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie et Ben Okri abordent la notion didentité. À la lumière de ces résultats, des pistes de recherche possibles sont évoquées.

The enhanced discursive opportunity structures that the Internet enables has inspired a momentous revolution in the Nigerian media landscape. This dissertation chronicles the emergence and flowering of the citizen and alternative online journalism of the Nigerian diasporic public sphere located primarily in the United States. Using case-study research, it profiles the major diasporan online citizen media outlets and highlights instances where these geographically distant citizen media sites shaped and influenced both the national politics and policies of the homeland and the media practices of the domestic media formation. The study makes the case that while it is customary in the scholarship on sovereignty, state-civil society relations, and diaspora studies to emphasize domination and one-dimensionality in cultural flows, the participation of members of the Nigerian digital diaspora in the politics and discourses of their homeland, from their exilic locations in the West through the instrumentality of online citizen media, illustrates that citizens, especially in the age of the Internet, are not mere powerless subjects and receivers of informational flows from the institutions of the state and corporate mass media but can be active consumers and producers of informational resources and even purveyors of political power in ways that amply exemplify trans-local reciprocality. It also argues that the Nigerian diaspora media might very well be a prototype of an evolving, Internet-enabled, trans-local, and mutual informational and cultural exchange between the educated deterritorialized ethnoscapes of peripheral nations whose exile in the West endues them with symbolic and cultural capital and the private institutions and governments of their homelands. The study recommends a comparative study of the online citizen journalism of Third World virtual diasporas in the West.

In this study the authors wanted to find out what role networking and knowledge play for a Swedish company that wants to enter the Nigerian market. This was done by using a qualitative approach and conducting interviews with HQS AB a Swedish company that entered Nigeria, the Swedish Trade Council and the Nigerian Embassy. No studies have previously been done about the internationalization process for a Swedish firm entering Nigeria therefore this essay provides empirical findings that can be useful for Swedish firms that want to enter Nigeria and for researchers within international business. The result from this study indicate that HQS AB had a successful market entry to Nigeria mainly because networking help them get in touch with partners that could add value by providing valuable connections that eventually helped HQS AB to start their business in Nigeria. Moreover, by attaining tacit knowledge in Nigeria, HQS AB managed to handle challenges in Nigeria such as the complex bureaucracy system and the business culture in the country.

This study seeks to assess the correlation which exists between exchange rate of Nigerian naira and Unites States dollar and oil price on the basis of monthly data from 1999-2009. The research employ the fundamental variables which were assumed to be the monthly spot crude oil price, monthly exchange rate of Nigeria naira and monthly exchange rate of United States dollar. The empirical result adopted the ordinary least square using regression analysis and also the correlation model which shows that there is a weak/negative relationship between exchange rate and oil price as there are other factors that brings about changes in oil price other than the exchange rate. The activities of cartel pricing policy and oil speculators too have come to greatly affect the price of crude oil, and it will be interesting to examine the impact speculators have on the change in price of crude oil against the normal drivers of crude oil price.

This thesis investigates the practice of high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria. Examining its colonial histories, its philosophical incongruities with African indigenous education, and its neocolonial foundations, it argues that high-stakes testing in Nigeria facilitates the erosion of a critical African worldview. It demonstrates that through high-stakes testing’s reproduction of social and regional inequalities, the unethicality of its systems and practices as well as its exemplification of Freire’s concept of normative and non liberatory education as the “practice of domination”; high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria seamlessly fits into the neo-colonial and neoliberal logic of education as a site of psychological colonization and the material exploitation of the people by the ruling elite.

This thesis investigates the practice of high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria. Examining its colonial histories, its philosophical incongruities with African indigenous education, and its neocolonial foundations, it argues that high-stakes testing in Nigeria facilitates the erosion of a critical African worldview. It demonstrates that through high-stakes testing’s reproduction of social and regional inequalities, the unethicality of its systems and practices as well as its exemplification of Freire’s concept of normative and non liberatory education as the “practice of domination”; high-stakes standardized testing in Nigeria seamlessly fits into the neo-colonial and neoliberal logic of education as a site of psychological colonization and the material exploitation of the people by the ruling elite.

In temperate zones most breeds of goats are anestrous and anovulatory during spring and summer, but start cycling as day length decreases during the fall. In tropical zones, indigenous goats, such as the Pygmy and the Nigerian Dwarf, tend to cycle throughout the year. Some studies have indicated that dwarf breeds become more seasonal when they are raised in temperate zones, while others maintain that they are capable of breeding throughout the year. In this study, Pygmy and Nigerian Dwarf goats became more seasonal in Quebec. The majority of the animals were cycling during December and February, but a significant proportion exhibited anestrus during October, May, and June. Several hormones, including prostaglandins (PG), progestagens, and gonadotropins (eCG, FSH, GnRH, hCG), have been used for the control and synchronization of estrus and ovulation in goats, but limited research has been conducted with dwarf breeds. In this study, dwarf goats were synchronized in November, March, and July with a 10-day MAP sponge coupled with 125 mug cloprostenol i.m. 48 h before sponge removal and 300 IU eCG i.m. at sponge removal. A seasonal shift was detected in the intervals to the onset of estrus, the LH surge, and ovulation following sponge removal. These intervals were shorter in November and July than in March (P < 0.05). The intervals between the onset of estrus and the LH surge and between the LH surge and ovulation were found constant throughout the different seasons. The administration of 50 mug GnRH at 24 h after sponge removal improved the timing and synchrony of the LH surge and ovulation in dwarf goats (P < 0.05). The knowledge acquired from this research may serve to improve reproductive efficiency in dwarf goats by facilitating the determination of an optimal time for breeding, artificial insemination, and oocyte and embryo recovery.

Land-use change has become a force of global importance and has gained status as the most important driver of ecosystem degradation. The resulting creation of habitat edges has pervasive impacts on the distribution and persistence of species in forest ecosystems. Responses of species to edge effects can be highly dependent on ‘response’ traits, which may in turn co-vary with ‘effect’ traits that determine rates of ecosystem functioning. Therefore, non-random loss of species due to traits conferring higher susceptibility to extinction may also result in the loss of functionally-important species across a habitat edge gradient. Likewise, response and effect traits may be important in determining reassembly of communities in regenerating habitats, which may provide insight into potential scenarios of functional responses to restoration efforts. To test for potential off-site effects of adjacent matrix habitat restoration on dung beetle communities, I compared dung beetle community structure and species trait composition across Afromontane forest edges adjacent to degraded and regenerating matrix habitat at Ngel Nyaki forest reserve in Nigeria. I also measured dung removal rates across habitat edge gradients to investigate the relative off-site impacts of matrix restoration on dung beetle-mediated ecosystem processes. I found significant effects of adjacent matrix condition on edge response functions in dung beetle abundance, species distributions, and trait composition. Beetle abundances were markedly higher in forests adjacent to regenerating matrix, whereas the largest differences in trait composition were found between degraded and regenerating matrix habitat, indicating the presence of ecological filtering processes in these areas. Furthermore, I found that species traits determined community structural responses to environmental change and this had strong flow-on effects to rates of dung removal. Shifts in trait distributions explained dung removal rates above and beyond total beetle mass, suggesting that neutral processes alone could not explain functional efficiency. In particular, habitat regeneration resulted in the assembly of communities with high total beetle mass and on-average smaller beetles, which was optimal for functional efficiency. In conclusion, the restoration of adjacent matrix habitat was shown to effectively mitigate edge effects on dung beetle community structure resulting in the re-establishment of important associated ecosystem processes.

This thesis is concerned with inscriptions of gender and space in the novels of two African women writers, Mariama Bâ and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, particularly Bâ’s So Long a Letter (1981) and Scarlet Song (1986) and Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (2004) and Half of a Yellow Sun (2006). The exploration of representations of gendered identity is thus integrated with an awareness of space/place. By exploring the demarcation and enunciation of space within my chosen texts, I hope to provide new perspectives on the question of gendered identities and relations. The theorizing of gender identities and relations thus gains a new orientation from its application in relation to the theorizing of space and spatiality. As many theorists have argued, space is an important aspect to consider because it is not a neutral site: it becomes invested with meanings and encodes particular values and relations of power which can be contested and negotiated. This is particularly evident when looking at questions of gender identity, roles and relations. ‘Geographies of gender’ are established not only in the coding of spaces as ‘masculine’ and feminine’ but also in the kinds of sociality which they encourage and the power-relations they encode. If space is central to masculinist power, it is also important in the development of feminine resistance. Drawing on a range of theorists, I endeavour to pursue a gendered analysis of space/place through a reading of particular locations (the home, the street, the village) as expressive of power relations, gender identities and roles. I also consider how space/place is differently experienced and inhabited by men and women as well as how dominant constructions of space/place, which are also invested with meaning and power relations, come to be negotiated or contested. In all four novels explored in this thesis, the home is revealed as a dominant site of inscription, a space which tends to reflect and reinforce dominant social identities and roles. In this sense, the home is often figured as a site of patriarchal and gendered oppression, a central domain in which normative definitions of gender are established and reinforced. What is also clear, however, is that way in which the home also becomes a site for the contestation and renegotiation of gender identities and roles, a place where conventional identities can be challenged and new identities explored. In this sense, the home is revealed as a major site of contestation in which the tensions between different experiences and interpretations of space based on contrasting cultural definitions of power relations, gender identities and roles are played out. If the ordering of space is an important means of securing dominant gender relations, it also provides the means for negotiation and resistance. This is reflected not only the alternative ii examples of home explored in these novels but also in liberating spaces such as the school, the beach and the university. In the destabilisation and destruction of the home, the links between self and place becomes apparent as new identities are formed and conventional roles are redefined.