Emotions on Air: Exploring Metaphorical Expression and Language Preservation in EkeGusii Community Media

Indigenous languages encode emotional experience through culturally grounded metaphorical systems that reflect shared histories, values, and worldviews. While previous studies on Ekegusii have examined emotion metaphors primarily in textual or elicited data, less attention has been given to their performance, circulation, and sustainability in contemporary indigenous media. This paper explores the role of community media, particularly radio, as a critical site for preserving and revitalizing EkeGusii emotional metaphors through storytelling and everyday broadcast discourse. Anchored in Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), which posits that abstract thought is systematically structured through embodied metaphorical mappings (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), the study also draws on recent theoretical developments highlighting CMT’s relevance across linguistic contexts and pedagogical research (Chavoshan & Fernández, 2025). Informed additionally by Indigenous Language Media scholarship, the study analyses selected Ekegusii radio programs, including narrated stories, talk shows, sermons, and call-in segments, to examine how metaphors of emotion are deployed to construct meaning, negotiate social relationships, and foster communal identity. Findings reveal that EkeGusii community media function as dynamic storytelling spaces where traditional emotion metaphors, rooted in bodily experience, environment, and cultural practice, are recontextualized for contemporary audiences. Repeated broadcast use ensures these metaphors remain intelligible to older generations while becoming accessible to younger listeners, supporting intergenerational transmission of both language and cultural knowledge. The paper argues that language preservation via media extends beyond lexical retention to the maintenance of indigenous conceptual systems, particularly those governing emotional expression. By foregrounding emotion metaphors as communicative resources in EkeGusii community media, this study contributes to debates on indigenous language revitalization, storytelling, and media as alternative public spheres, demonstrating how community radio bridges oral traditions with present-day communicative practices and shapes the future of indigenous emotional expression.