Ontological Metaphors as Cognitive Tools for Socio-political Protest in Ebi Yeibo's Poetry

Abstract

This study examines the cognitive structures that underpin Yeibo’s metaphorical use of language and how these structures promote comprehension of abstract concepts in his poetry. The analysis is primarily descriptive and interpretative. We identified eight ontological metaphors across Yeibo’s poems and analysed them using George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). CMT gave us cognitive access to Yeibo’s thinking—a way into the mental architecture underlying his poetic choices. Our analysis shows how Yeibo’s conceptual metaphors clarify what might otherwise remain opaque—they make abstract political realities
cognitively accessible. Yeibo deploys natural forces and abstract concepts as active agents, turning them into vehicles to protest the social and political realities of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. His metaphorical mappings also reveal sensitivity to political leaders’ erratic, destructive behaviour in the Niger Delta. Yeibo harnesses natural forces and abstract concepts through ontological metaphors to expose socio-political oppression in the Niger Delta— his metaphors do political work.