Rhetoric of Respondents in Goodluck Jonathan's 2015 Campaign Speech: A Cultural Discourse Analysis Perspective

Abstract

This paper analyzes the rhetoric of respondents (a dialogic communicative practice in Africa) in a 2015 campaign speech of former Nigerian resident Goodluck Jonathan. Framed within cultural discourse studies, performance studies and rhetoric, the paper foregrounds the place of orature in the campaign speech and demonstrates the relevance of employing culturally conscious and reflexive tools in the analysis of African texts. Through a careful analysis, the paper finds out that Jonathan's speech exhibits the following rhetoric of respondent's structure: opening and closing formula, dialogic discourse, the use of surrogates to accomplish rhetorical goal and the use of direct and indirect calls. The study concludes that the rhetoric of respondents remains alive and continues to serve the communicative needs of contemporary African society as it is demonstrated in Jonathan's speech. Hence, the need to always recognize culturally divergent forms of speech performance across cultures and investigate meaning-making as it is situated in specific cultural communities, especially in an African context.

Keywords: Africa, rhetoric, orature, performance, discourse