For centuries, one of the most effective weapons of political combat, especially in very hierarchical societies, has been the deployment of invective. Recipients feel devalued, ridiculed and humiliated. Issues are evacuated and emotive responses takeover the political terrain. Sir Louis Phillip Odumegwu Ojukwu, OBE (1909 – 1966), Nigeria’s first billionaire who lent his car for the use of Queen Elizabeth, abandoned politics the day a “common thug” abused him at an NCNC meeting. Sanusi Dantata also abandoned politics when a thug insulted him while he was presiding the inaugural meeting of the Kano branch of the National Party of Nigeria in 1978. Political actors have always known it, vituperations lubricate political machines assembled to exclude or drive out opponents. Of course, the use of vile language does not succeed in driving out hard core politicians because they know the game and respond with the same tactic. This is the problem we are facing today.
During election periods, professional purveyors of vile language, musicians for the most part, are at the top of their game as they receive huge monetary rewards for insulting the opponents of their patrons. This point was well made in the essay “Rarara’s invective barbs: Innuendoes, body shaming and Kano politics”, by Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu. The artist Dauda Adamu Abdullahi Kahutu, with the stage name of Rarara has been seen for a long time as the master in the genre of the invective song in Hausa. Professor Adamu defines it as a literary device in which one attacks or insults a person or thing through the use of abusive language and tone. The objective is to generate negative emotions against a targeted person. Since 2010, Rarara has been a master of popular Hausa invective oral poetry. For a good price, he uses his skills to abuse, insult and body shame anyone he is paid to insult. Including of course former masters and associates.
