Counter terrorism in africa: A speech act scrutiny of antónio guterres’ and dr. liz sherwood-randall’s remarks

In light of Searle’s (1969) taxonomy of speech acts, this paper scrutinizes two selected high-level remarks by António Guterres and Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall respectively at the occasions of African Regional High-Level Conference on Counter-terrorism and Prevention of Violent Extremism Conducive to Terrorism held on 10 July 2019 and the United Nations Security Council High-Level Debate on Counter-terrorism in Africa held on November 10, 2022. Using a mixed method, the study aims to identify, analyse and interpret the different speech acts in the selected remarks so as to decode the deep messages conveyed through them. The results reveal a predominance of assertive acts in both remarks with 58.82% and 73.52% followed by commissive acts, 17.64% and 16.17% and directive acts 11.76% and 05.88% respectively in Remarks 1 and 2. Expressive acts represent 09.41% and 04.41% while declarative acts are very low in proportions with 02.35% in Remark 1 but completely non-existent in Remark 2. The study contends that the predominance of assertive acts indicates the great trauma as well as the lasting damages that terrorism is causing to individuals, families and communities in almost all regions of Africa. The proportions of commissive acts suggest the strong commitment of the international community to work together with African leaders to tackle terrorism. This strong commitment is strengthened by directive acts through which António Guterres urges UN Security Council to provide sustainable financial support to African peace-enforcing and counter-terrorism operations while Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall requests recommendations from the high-level representatives of the UN, AU, Economic Community of West African States, and Group of Five-Sahel so that the United States can provide effective support to Africa.