Use of Non-verbal Cues as Alternative to Verbal Communication Before Tyrants in Selected Yoruba Films

Abstract

In human communication, the use of nonverbal cues, otherwise known as nonverbal communication, has been as prevalent as the use of verbal communication. It has also been argued that, where conflicting signals arise from a simultaneous use of both modes, nonverbal cues are taken more to be in alignment with the true intention of the speaker by the listener. In spite of this, it appears that communication scholars are disproportionately paying more attention to verbal communication. This study, therefore, took a look at how people communicate using nonverbal cues where verbal communication could lead them to serious trouble in two Yoruba films—Saworoide and Basorun Gaa that feature two major tyrants. The study, anchored in Charles Moris’ Semiotic theory, through Critical Discourse Analysis, isolated instances of the use of nonverbal cues in response to repressive and oppressive situations and utterances, and proffered meanings attributable to the cues. The study found that the two films were awash with such instances of compulsive communication in the face of tyranny thus revalidating the meta-communicational axiom of the pragmatics of human communication by Watzlawick, Bavelas, and Jackson that one cannot not communicate.