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Institutional Repository of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

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Lost children: a critical analysis of child soldiering in uzodinma iweala’s beasts of no nation and Ishmael beah’s a long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier.
(KNUST, 2023-01) Otoo, Paul
ABSTRACT In the Child Soldiers International Annual Report (2017-2018), it is revealed that globally, over 10,000 children were formally released from armed forces and groups during 2017. Delivering his annual report on children and armed conflict to the Security Council in 2021, the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, revealed that more than 8,500 children were used as soldiers in the year 2020 in various conflicts across the world. Obviously, the high numbers of child soldiers witnessed over the years, especially in Africa is clearly indicative of the need for an unremitting discussion on the topic with the aim of ending this repugnant enterprise. It is for this reason that this thesis through textual analysis, anchored on the trauma theory and supported by the theory of literary realism, critically analyzes the child soldier phenomenon in Uzodinma Iweala’s novel, Beasts of No Nation (2005), and Ishmael Beah’s memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (2007). This research work concentrates on how the child soldier as a result of his traumatic experiences is rendered lost: a child who is robbed of his childhood and innocence and for that matter, transitions from a victim of war to a victimizer. By discussing the child soldier as the narrative voice, this research is able to explore the traumatic experiences of child soldiers through their own narrations. The child soldier’s loss of innocence and childhood is further highlighted after the war and during the period of rehabilitation. The difficulty experienced by the child soldier at this stage communicates how lost he has been rendered. KEYWORDS: Civil War, Child-soldier narrative, Child soldier, Trauma theory
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Discourse strategies in advertising language: a case of selected radio and newspaper advertisements in Ghana
(KNUST, 2023-02) Ahiale, Isaac Kwame
ABSTRACT Newspaper and Radio advertisements still provide an impressive return on investment for businesses. Aware of this, advertisers use language, actions and strategies to create a common ground with their audience. This study examines how advertisers, relying on cultural ideologies, use several discourse strategies of language to persuade their target audience. Classical Conditioning theory, the study primarily discusses how advertisers use both linguistic strategies and elements in the target culture to persuade their audience, with the view to unravelling how meaning is embedded in the advertising texts. Data is collected through general observation of how buyers are influenced by strategies such as persuasions, implicature, honorifics, conversational tone and verbal descriptions (rather than numerical measure/hard data), in advertisements on radio stations including Peace FM, Joy FM, Adom FM, Citi FM and Star FM, and advertisements in newspaper outlets including Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times. This study reveals among other things that:  Advertisers tend to employ endearment forms and familiar expressions to influence the buying behaviour of their audience.  Linguistic devices such as repetition, apposition, implicature, hedges, honorifics, and conversational tone normally characterize spoken and written advertisements.  Advertisers adapt linguistic features of communication to dominant ideologies in the indigenous culture so as to persuade the target audience.  Many advertising authorities have come to believe that advertising works best when it most closely approximates a dialogue between two human beings.
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An assessment of challenges facing Christians in the chieftaincy institution: a case study of the church of Pentecost
(KNUST, 2023-06) Adjei, Michael Kwaku
ABSTRACT Chieftaincy has been an integral part of the Akan Community even before the advent of Christianity. The Akan have developed their own leadership hierarchy which exists alongside the democratic structure of Ghana. Arguments raised by religious scholars suggest that there are areas of interest that the Church and the Chieftaincy Institution disagree with each other. Some Churches in Ghana for example forbid its members to be Chiefs, more so skin or stool functionaries leading to alienation of Christians from Chieftaincy issues to the extent that some Christian Royals do not accept the responsibility of leading their communities as Chiefs. In spite of the seeming contention between the Church and the Chieftaincy Institution, some Christians are Chiefs. This research therefore sought to find out whether Christians who are Chiefs have any challenges discharging their duties as chiefs and Christians at the same time or not. The study has shown that Christian Chiefs have some challenges in functioning as Chiefs and as Christians. It was discovered that Christian chiefs and royals are constantly in a dilemma as their obligations include pouring of libation, veneration of the black stool, animal sacrifices, observance of taboos and sacred days, appeasement of the smaller deities, polygamous marriages etc. which run counter to the doctrines, injunctions, and standard of conduct set by Christian faith. The results of the study obtained through interviews with the selected participants who were chiefs, royals and the clergy, show that in reality, the situation of chiefs and royals who are Christians in general and in particular worshiping as Christians in The Church of Pentecost in Ghana confirm the observations of Role Conflict theorists who identified a conflict between role and personality. As observed by Role Conflict theorists, the effect of role conflict is that the actor who is in the middle of conflicting demands fails in reality to fully be in conformity with the expectations from the various roles or statuses they hold. The situation that emerges is that, the individual may be compelled either to ignore or abandon one of the conflicting roles while accepting the other or he or she may be under the compulsion to compromise between the roles or actually do a physical or psychological withdrawal from the roles in contention. The methodological approach to the study was qualitative case study. The study used secondary and primary data. The secondary data includes analyses of both published and unpublished books. The primary data were acquired from fieldwork through the use of interviews. The research is relevant because the findings of the research would serve as a reference point or academic material for those who would want to research into the Chieftaincy Institution.
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The speech acts of persuasion: a case study of Pharmaceutical advertisement in selected Ghanaian media .
(KNUST, 2023-02) Agyakoma, Sarfo Mavis
ABSTRACT Advertisers of pharmaceutical products use language to communicate with their customers to persuade and influence them. This study was, therefore, conducted to investigate the speech acts used in the advertisements of pharmaceutical products in selected Ghanaian media. A total of forty (40) English and Twi adverts from radio and television on pharmaceutical products constituted the data set for the study. The data was analyzed using Searle‟s (1969) classification of illocutionary speech acts and Rank's (1991) Model of persuasion. The study found that pharmaceutical advertisers used representative, declarative, directive, commissive, and expressive acts respectively to communicate the most to buyers. Again, the study showed how speech acts facilitate the achievement of persuasion in adverts. Advertisers mostly use attention-getting and desire-stimulation techniques as the strongest persuasive intentions. The findings have implications for the speech act theory about advertising and research on pharmaceutical advertising
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A Study of Turn Taking in the Chest of a Woman by Efo Kodjo Mawugbe and The Dilemma of a Ghost by Ama Ata Aidoo
(KNUST, 2023-02) Nyantakyiwaa Boakye, Mary
ABSTRACT This study employs the qualitative data analysis method to explore how characters in the drama texts In the Chest of a Woman by Efo Kojo Mawugbe and The Dilemma of a Ghost by Ama Ata Aidoo take turns. It again investigates how the characters in the drama texts give up the turns they take and lastly look for what the characters do with the turns they take in the drama texts. The findings show that on how characters take turns in the two drama texts, the methods used are speaker selection, self-selection and self-continuation. It is found that certain adjacency pairs are employed to invite others to take the next turns in the plays. It is seen also that amongst the Nine (9) adjacency pairs found, question and answer dominant. Issues such as power, age, authority and social class are portrayed in how questions are asked in the drama texts, In the Chest of a Woman and The Dilemma of a Ghost. On how turns are yielded in the two drama texts, the findings revealed that characters gave up their turns via three (3) ways. Some characters left their turns after asking questions or making requests. Other characters in the two drama texts yielded their turns after being interrupted by others. Lastly, some characters yielded their turns after making statements which were marked by periods or exclamation marks. On what characters in both plays do with the turns they take; it was revealed that characters took their turns to achieve four (4) functions of language. They include referential, expressive, directive and social. It is seen from these functions that issues such as power and control are exhibited in how certain turns are taken.
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Investigating the Impact of Pentecostalism and Charismatism on the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana
(KNUST, 2023-01) Gyeni, Isaac
ABSTRACT A cursory look at the activities in the Methodist Church suggests identifiable traits of Pentecostalism and Charismatism in the Church, and more specifically Methodist Church Ghana (MCG). From the research finding, it has been discovered that some members of the MCG are not comfortable with certain religious tendencies in the Church. While attempting to discover the form and content of the Church’s current spirituality, there is, therefore, the need to identify the influence of Pentecostalism and Charismatism on Methodism. The problem this study sought to investigate was the perception that Pentecostalism and Charismatism are greatly influencing the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana. Thus, some activities of the traditional Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana has been questioned. The study investigated the impact of Pentecostalism and Charismatism on the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana. The study employed simple random and purposeful sampling to select forty (40) respondents from the Circuit. Hence, semi-structured interview was employed to gather data for the study. The study is useful in the sense that the findings of the study would contribute to the literature on the impact of Pentecostalism and Charismatics on the Methodist Church Ghana. The field findings showed that several reasons have accounted for the Pentecostal and Charismatic influences in the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana, namely dullness and lack of spiritual fulfillment in the church, speaking in tongues, spiritual warfare, divine healing, gifts of the Holy Spirit, and interest in and enjoyment of the traditional Pentecostal and 5 6 Charismatic worship. The field findings indicated that some aspects of the teachings and practices of the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana are closely linked to key characteristics of Pentecostalism and Charismatism. It was, furthermore, found out that Pentecostalism and Charismatism have both positive and negative impact on the Circuit. Based on the findings of the study it is recommended that: A key to understanding the growth of the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana is the use of ‘lay’ individuals by ministers; awareness should be made among members concerning the dangers of seeing all spiritual manifestations as coming from the Spirit of God; attention gradually should not be shifted from the main focus of the vision and mission of the Methodist Church Ghana to things of secondary importance; spontaneity should give way to structure; and the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana should not lose its lay orientation. On the basis of the findings of the field survey the thesis concludes that in spite of the influence of Pentecostalism and Charismatism on the Enchi Circuit of the Methodist Church Ghana, the church should not deviate from the traditional Methodist beliefs and practices, and members of the Circuit should not lose their identity as Methodists. Members should conform to the traditional teachings and practices of the Methodist Church Ghana. They should be “responsible Methodists”.
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Our Past, Our Guide: A Study of the Performance of Apoↄ Festival Songs of the People of Techiman in the Bono East Region of Ghana
(KNUST, 2023-03) Nyarko-Takyi, Gertrude
ABSTRACT This study examined the content of songs performed at traditional festivals in Ghana. The song texts are information source mostly forsaken in the study of traditions and cultures, yet, they hold a significant part of oral history. This paper specifically analyses the song texts of Apoɔ festival songs which is performed by the people of Techiman. Apoɔ song texts are enriched with ethical and moral values. This study examines how these positive values are used to control the behaviour of the indigenes of Techiman. The paper relies on primary data gathered through personal interviews conducted with citizens of Techiman, songs recorded through participant observation and their transcription. The study also examines Apoɔ songs from the perspective of performance drawing on the major theories of Richard Bauman. Some of the findings are that despite the incursion of foreign culture and modern methods of controlling the society, Apoɔ festival songs are still used as a medium for social control in the Techiman Municipality. It is concluded that the society has got its own in-built mechanism for morality. Chiefs and policy makers must therefore work assiduously to help sustain our rich heritage which seems to be diminishing in recent times. Apoɔ festival songs reveal the virtues and vices, as well as project the culture, customs and traditions of the people of Techiman.