Ekajuk "Proverbial Cult of Obscenity": Lessons in Traditional Artistic Education, Emotional Catharsis or Profanity

Abstract

Human society has consistently viewed obscenities with revulsion and disdain, yet every human language makes use of obscene utterances in its every day interactions. In several cases, obscenities provide the best stock of artistic resources which portray the literary and aesthetic content that carry the cultural or artistic ethos of that community. Psychologists and literary scholars have proffered reasons that aim at explaining the functionality of these societal tendencies towards obscene language use. Many have posited that obscenities could have positive values of relaxation and expurgation in society. In the attempt to assess the usefulness of obscenities in Ekajuk Society in Nigeria, this writer discovered that, among the Ekajuk, obscene language use has, sort of, assumed a cultic status as a result of its restricted usage while at the same time providing opportunities for the elders to code and decode massages in proverbial parlance. Since proverbs are the highest form of artistic use of language in traditional society, the appearance of obscenities in proverbs can be said to be the Ekajuk elders' attempt, through language intensity, to achieve higher levels of attitude change in younger generations thus making for better societal cohesion. However, this has to be very subtly carried out in order not to institutionalize obscenities in the society and bring about moral decadence instead of the desired ethical rejuvenation of society.