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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 807

Part of Session 116: God in the City (Other abstracts in this session)

MY CHURCH IS BETTER THAN YOURS : Language, Religion and the Cityscape in Southwestern Nigeria

Authors: Salami, Lasisi Oladipo
Submitted by: Salami, Lasisi Oladipo (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, NIGERIA, Nigeria)

According to Bloor and Bloor (2007), language is an integral part of the control possessed by a given organization that exercises the most power, control and influence over the way we live and think. In Nigerian cities today, the church has found language use, whether in prayers, evangelism, radio and television announcements or jingles, to be central to the direction the life of the faithful takes, and particularly in trhe achievement of the good life in the face of rising poverty and unemployment and its attendant fall-outs.

In this paper, I will attempt to describe and examine signage on wooden boards and buildings indexing churches in the cities of Ile-Ife and Ibadan in Southwestern Nigeria. Using the framework of the sociology of language and religion, I examine specifically language use as expressed in church names such as ":Mountain of Fire and Miracles", "Winner's Chapel" and "Fountain of Life Church" on signboards and church buildings in order to be able to demonstrate that though language is employed in these places to label the churches, the texts and signs used embed narratives of divine power and the social realities of the community of practice.

Reference

Bloor, M. and Bloor, T. (2007) The Practice of Critical Discourse Analysis: An Introduction. London: Hodder Arnold.