ENGAGING IDEOLOGY AND THE PERFORMANCE OF ACTORS IN THE POLITICAL MEMES OF NIGERIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

            Meme is a platform where socio-political issues and ideologies are engaged. This has not been sufficiently explored in previous linguistic studies, which have focused more on the multimodal, discourse and stylistic features of memes in achieving satire. This study examines the ideologies in Nigerian and South African memes, juxtaposing the political situations of both nations, which have been on headlines for various controversies. The socio-cognitive contextual approach is adopted, using Peirce’s ‘sign,’ Lesley Jeffries’ Critical Stylistics and Jacob Mey’s pragmatic acts as theories. Thirteen memes, out of thirty, downloaded from Facebook and Tweeter, were randomly selected, and analysed using the qualitative top-down approach. The results reveal that memes in Nigeria and South Africa condemn corruption among political agents. Consumerism, materialism, dislogism, and renegism are portrayed as the driving ideologies of political leaders in Nigeria and South Africa. The study concludes that the memes represent the political situations of both milieus.