IGBO TRADITIONAL LIBATION AND THE SPEECH ACT PERFORMATIVE

Abstract

The paper examines the features of speech act performative in libation, using the context of the Igbo society, Southeast Nigeria. Speech act is a concept popularized by J. L. Austin to explain what speakers do with language. Part of the core aspects of the concept are the ideas of locution, illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect of utterances. However, it has been observed that both illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect of an utterance can be contextually influenced and determined. This forms the major thrust of the paper, that libation as the pouring of wine as sacrifice to a god contains features of speech act performative. The paper adopts the theory of ethnopragmatics to examine texts derived from participant observation of occasions of libation in Igbo society. The analyses of the texts indicate that libation in the Igbo society goes with verbal utterances; and the words are not merely uttered but deemed to be performed. It is the inherent force in the utterance that generates the feeling of spiritual satisfaction and assurance in both the performer and the audience.