COVID-19 A Heuristic Justification of Presidency as a Rhetorical Institution

Main Article Content

Frieda Nauyele Nanyeni-Kanyemba

Abstract

When a country is faced with a crisis, the President, as the chief policy maker and Head of State, is the first person expected to act. With the power vested in him by the Namibian constitution in the article 26 (1), Hage Geingob, the President of Namibia declared a State of emergency on 17 March 2020 in response to the global pandemic Coronavirus (COVID-19). A national crisis is one of the important occasions of a presidency as a rhetorical institution. In this regard, words are an important source of power. Therefore, this paper analysed the language and rhetoric of emergency used by Geingob as his political tool to respond to this pandemic. The analysis is guided by the rhetorical theory (Bitzer, 1968) and Aristotle’s rhetorical proofs of ethos, pathos and logos. It is important to note that national crises such as COVID 19 are linguistic constructions in the sense that it is largely through presidential rhetoric that the country deals with them.

Article Details

How to Cite
Nanyeni-Kanyemba, F. N. (2023). COVID-19: A Heuristic Justification of Presidency as a Rhetorical Institution. Namibian Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Communication Studies, 16(2), 31–41. https://doi.org/10.59677/njlc.v16i2.35
Section
Articles
Author Biography

Frieda Nauyele Nanyeni-Kanyemba, International University of Management

Frieda Nanyeni-Kanyemba holds a PhD, that examined Presidential Rhetoric Studies (UCT), and an MA English (UNAM). She is a senior lecturer in the Centre for Languages and Communication at the International University of Management (IUM), She is a blind reviewer for the Journal of the University of Namibia Language Centre (JULACE) and for the Namibia University of Science and Technology NAWA Journal of Languages and Communication. Her main research interests include rhetoric, languages, communication, politics, and law. Contact Frieda at f.nanyeni@ium.edu.na\ friedananyeni@icloud.com

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