Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - How Jesus was Born in Yorubaland

Wow. Ken. Thanks. Which work of Ba's is that?

My last comment about the story attracting scholarly debate is a fictive frame for setting up hermeneutic questions.

toyin

On 20 July 2017 at 22:20, Kenneth Harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

This is complicate d

 I'd prefer to say, as in your last option, of course they are human creations, with all the limits you suggested. But that you don't take that far enough. Maybe my favorite speculation on the crossing of the believer's view and the secular is Allen Roberts's inedible study of mouridism The Saint and the City. The spaces for belief constructing meaning could t encompass the reader more than you credit it. The binary belief unbelief is framed inadequately. Another ideal author who tackled this question brilliantly was hampate Ba

Ken

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 20, 2017, at 1:44 PM, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

The ontological status of the story, its identity as fact or fiction, has come in for much recent scrutiny among scholars.

Is it an example of brilliant word play, playing on sonic similarities between Yoruba and Hebrew words or an attempt to present what the composer believes to be factual? After all, some claims exist about Jesus' birth and history that are not part of conventional opinion received from the Bible.

At the centre of these  debates is the question of the character of ese ifa, Ifa literature. Is it inspired by the Ifa oracle, as some believers hold, a more liberal version of the spectrum of views at the climax of which is the position held by some that ese ifa are creations of the deity Orunmila from when he incarnated in Yorubaland at the beginning of the world? Are they purely human creations, as demonstrated by their often playful and whimsical character, as one view holds this story exemplifies? If they are purely human creations, projecting various agenda defined by individual and social dynamics, at what points do oracular insight and individual creativity intersect, if at all?

While some might be sceptical about the story inspiring such questions, the questions throw light on actual issues  at the intersection of views of Ifa devotees and scholarly inquiry, issues indicating the meeting points of  of Ifa hermeneutics and scriptural hermeneutics globally.

thanks

toyin

On 20 July 2017 at 19:18, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, Kenneth.

On 20 July 2017 at 19:04, Kenneth Harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:

Most enjoyable story

Thanks toyin

ken

Kenneth Harrow

Dept of English and Film Studies

Michigan State University

619 Red Cedar Rd

East Lansing, MI 48824

517-803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

http://www.english.msu.edu/people/faculty/kenneth-harrow/

From: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Reply-To: usaafricadialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 20 July 2017 at 12:37
To: Talkhard <talkhard@yahoogroups.com>, Nigerian Writers ANA <nigerianauthors@yahoogroups.com>, usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, Esan Community <Esan_Community@yahoogroups.com>, Afenmai <afenmai@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - How Jesus was Born in Yorubaland

A pregnant woman in Yorubaland needed the attention of a herbalist to help ease her pains at night. The herbal expert, however, urged her to let the herbs sleep, 'je kewe sun', in Yoruba, so the plants could be rejuvenated, their powers revived and adequately consolidated for use in the morning.

When the child was eventually born, he was named 'Jewesun', a contraction of 'je kewe sun', in commemoration of that incident before he was born, a practice of naming employed by Southern Nigerian cultures.

Eventually, he travelled to the Middle East in search of further spiritual knowledge beyond Yorubaland, and in Palestine, where he settled to study conjunctions between Jewish Kabbalah and Ifa, those who could not pronounce his name properly  transformed 'Jewesun' to 'Jesus'.

Retelling of an ese ifa, the literature of the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge and divination. 

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