Abstract:
Societies tend to imbibe and inculcate different ideologies through several media, as ideology does not operate in a vacuum. Since ideology refers to that human condition under which people operate as conscious actors, it becomes a veritable medium through which human consciousness works; as such, our conception of religion, politics, morality, art and science is deeply influenced by our ideology. Louis Althusser, in his theory of interpellation, explains how societies are subject to various ideologies through what he refers to as Ideological State Apparatuses (ISAs). These ISAs, such as the religious ISA, educational ISA, the political ISA and the cultural ISA, are veritable tools that subject people consciously or unconsciously, thereby creating an identity for them. The cultural ISAs, which include the family, educational and religious institutions like the mosques and churches, are responsible for inculcating morals, norms and values in the society to which people are expected to accept. These cultural ISAs also spell out gender roles according to the tenets of the society. Men and women, boys and girls grow up with the ideas of the kinds of roles they are expected to perform, and anything contrary will be termed as unacceptable. It is against this backdrop that this paper argues that the ‘Yar Tsana traditional performance, which functions as a cultural ISA subject, little girls to gender roles like nurturing babies, cooking, other house chores and general home management. The paper exploits the content analysis approach to establish that the Hausa Traditional Drama- ‘Yar Tsana, which is performed by little girls of Hausa extraction, depicts gender roles that are an exclusive preserve of the female gender in the Hausa society.
Keywords: Gender Role, Interpellation, Traditional Drama, ‘Yar Tsana
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2026.v05i02.013
author/Bala Abdullahi & Mubarak Galadima Soba
journal/Tasambo JLLC 5(2) | February 2026 |
