Content and Editorial

Abstract

Editorial
There are ten papers and a book review in this volume of Lagos Notes and Records spanning literature, linguistics, music, and philosophy. In literature, Khushwant Singh’s 1956 novel Train to Pakistan is the inspiration for P. Panda and S. Mohanty’s “Trauma in Train to Pakistan”, which uses trauma theory to explain the social and psychological condition of citizens following the partition of India in 1947. Through the characters’ fictive lives the novelist depicts some of the anguish that is a direct result of the creation of a separate Pakistani State, and it is such depiction with which Achebe, Langston Hughes and Ngugi wa Thiong’O to the African Renaissance” in which the author argues for a ‘sustained regeneration of the African ethos and psyche’ via the propagation of the genuine pan-Africanist sensibilities articulated in the creative oeuvres of the three writers. Soyinka’s plays: A Study of Fabricated names and Characters in Selected Works”. Here the authors show a link between the names of Wole Soyinka’s fictive characters and the themes of two of his plays on power and its abuse, A Play of Giants and King Baabu. Ultimately, they establish the playwright’s rootedness in the Yoruba weltanschauung. Yet another offering from literature is Joy M. Etiowo and Effumbe Kachua’s “National Reconstruction and Commitment in Nigerian Theatre: A reading of Femi Osofisan’s Morountodun and Other Plays and Tess Onwueme’s The Reign of Wazobia”.

Modestus N. Onyeaghalaji and Osimiri Peter point out “The Role of Philosophers in Public Affairs”, nothing that applied ethics, political philosophy and existentialism are only some of the many years in which philosophers offer “the requisite analysis, critique and vision articulation” so crucial in the public sphere. In a similar vein, Jeffery M. Shaw provides: “A Short Summary of the Religious vs. Science Debate”. In “Demystifying the Compositional and Performance Elements of Nigerian Vocal Art Music”, Sunday Ofuani identifies some essential Nigerian elements of musical composition as rhythm, tonality and repetition, among others. He suggests that contemporary musical scores can be enriched with such infusions. Of the two papers contributed from linguistics, Chuka Chukwube’s “Mending Relations with Washington: How Ready is Moscow in the 21st Century?” examines the historical dimension of Russian studies, while Kehinde Oladeji’s paper, entitled “Vowel Harmony in the North-East Dialects of Yoruba” supports the hypothesis that proto-Yoruba had 10 vowels and complete vowel harmony. This conclusion is reached after a comparison of North-East Yoruba dialects with those of the NorthWest, South-West and South-East of Yorubaland, as well as with Standard Yoruba. Finally, for formal linguists, specifically syntacticians, Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi provides a stimulating review of Jessica Coon’s (2013) Aspects of Ergativity.

Muyiwa Falaiye, Ph.D.

Editor-in-Chief and Dean, Faculty of Arts