Thanks Adeshina.
May I be worthy.
On the paradigm in question, the paradigm is not Falola's.
It is developed by Adepoju from studying the work of Falola.
There is nowhere in his hundreds of publications where Falola explicitly describes or even alludes to such a paradigm as I am developing.
I am not even referring to Falola's ideas per se, but to deductions I have made from studying his creativity.
My discussions of his ideas would be based on my observations of his personal creative culture.
Even then, those discussions would not be annotations but reconfigurations, transforming the given into something new.
So, oga Adeshina, I am not annotating Falola.
There is no writing of mine that simply annotates Falola.
My writings interpret and reconfigure Falola's work, at times taking it beyond its own universe of reference to locate it in relation to broader coordinates.
The paradigm I reference at best draws from what you have read of my work on Falola but is not subsumed by what you have read so far.
I am constructing a vision of human development inspired by the work of Falola and even going beyond that work.
Without Bangura and Falola as distinctive correlates, Bangura's books on Falola and the Falola interpretations in those books won't exist. Same with Plotinus, Plato and Neoplatonism. Bangura and Plotinus would have been within their rights to add their names to the constructs they perceived and reshaped. You are aware of course, that neither Bangura nor Plotinus is simply restating Falola or Plato, they interpret and rework what they have read.
Falola expositors may choose whatever levels of identification they choose.
My own universe of the greatest human achievements is framed by such people as Leonardo da Vinci and Aristotle, Ibn Sina and Ibn Arabi. Einstein features at the level of reconstituting understanding of the physical structure of the cosmos.
I think the work of a person able to engage in depth with all aspects of African Studies should be studied in terms of its contributions to understanding the character of reality in a manner that is universally relevant, not only reality as seen by people from a particular continent, while giving allowance to the contextualities involved in framing reality.
I am also inspired by the Abiola Irele, Nimi Wariboko, Rowland Abiodun, Babatunde Lawal, Olabiyi Yai nexus of African scholarship.
I am locating Falola's achievement within this nexus of the proximate and the other not so close but correlative constellation of masters.
Those who wish to interpret Falola in terms of other universes of achievement are free to do theirs. I am keen on such trans-historical and intercontinental coordination.
I am also inspired by the scope of the manner in which the West promotes its creatives. There exist all kinds of books on Aristotle, Plato etc-children's books, mid level books, various kinds of products etc. Through such means, these figures penetrate deeply into the collective imagination.
African creatives outside literature and film, on the contrary, remain at the level of high scholarship.
Even at that level, how many Nigerian students know about Toyin Falola, the way people used to know of Ade Ajayi and Kenneth Dike of the famous Ibadan History School , whom I have never read but whose names I know?
Having spent more than a decade in Nigerian university education, I never came across Falola's name until I encountered it in the SOAS, University of London library in 2004, where I saw the same name recurring across various disciplinary sections of the library.
There is actually a lot at stake in this issue. Beyond Adepoju hitching his name to that of Falola or Adepoju's $5.
It would be good to have you paying the $5 and coming to see what Adepoju is really saying.
Truth is, I can construct an entire university system based on or inspired by Falola's work, whether or not I add my name to the pedagogical process so developed and people will gladly pay well to attend.
Such efforts, seminar, course or university as I propose, are different from regurgitating Falola or annotating Falola, regurgitation being the effort that aligns with your example of those selling prints of others art.
What is being described here is reconfiguration, the creation of a complex from foundations visible within the emergent superstructure.
thanks
toyin
On Thu, 10 Sep 2020 at 20:51, 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--Oga Toyin,I salute you. I am aware of your scholarship, the great expositions you do on behalf of, especially, the Yoruba culture. I have equally read all your exposition of TF's work. What you are doing is similar to Bangura's work. Bangura has developed what he called Falolaism, without any attempt at adding his name to that theoretical framework. I am as confused as others as to why you need to have a Falola-Adepoju paradigm when all you're doing is annotating Falola's oeuvre. Saying "Falola-Adepoju paradigm" assumes a lot. For one, it signifies that such a paradigm could not have come to light without the conscious collaboration of the two sides of the hyphen. I wonder if this is really so. Just like you conceded, the paradigm is Falola's. So, what is your name doing riding alongside it, as if both of you bear equal responsibility for developing what you agreed is already developed?This goes beyond the pale of methodology into that of ethics. It is like riding on the achievements of someone and ascribing those achievements to oneself. And you're charging $5 for participation! In other words, you are about to start making money on what you did not help develop, but only annotating. On the street of Ibadan right now, you see so many guys selling artistic works, the intellectual properties of some. We could also argue that they are promoting these works--and pocketing the proceeds!For decency sake, you really should drop your name from the said paradigm and keep doing the great thing you're doing. We cannot expect TF to weigh in on this issue. And those who have weighed in are doing so from their reading of that hyphen between the two names. Something is significantly wrong in hitching your name to it. There are people who have done great expostulations of the works of the great intellectuals of the world. They do not add their name to what they are expostulating. You are of course familiar with neoplatonism, and the great work that Plotinus did in recreating Plato's philosophy. Yet, we did not read about Plato-Plotinus philosophy or paradigm in that trajectory of philosophical reconstruction. I am not sure we can even elevate your effort to that level. And yet, we have what we have.And i wonder whether TF requires raising his name to the level of Da Vinci and Einstein that you referenced. The Falola legacy is already spread as wide as possible. And a lot of people are engaging it at a most critical level.Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan
+23480-3928-8429On Thursday, September 10, 2020, 04:21:16 PM GMT+1, Gloria Emeagwali <gloria.emeagwali@gmail.com> wrote:Why do you call it the Falola - Adepoju paradigm and not the Falola paradigm?GE--On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 11:02 Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:Oga Afolayan,I salute you. It's good to hear others' views on one's initiatives even when they disagree with one.I have rethought the issue and chosen to proceed. I have described my motivations in a follow up post to this group.Is Falola's legacy speaking for itself an adequate projection of that legacy?Does the legacy of a cultural creator, particularly, or even of all kinds of creators, not need to be examined and foregrounded by other people, demonstrating the impact of that legacy beyond its creator, its immediate referents and originating contexts, and perhaps illuminating aspects of its significance that even the creator might not have thought of?The entire structure of scholarship, one approach to which is the development of new understanding of what is accessible to humanity, is based on that premise, hence the various books on Falola.I am taking Falola scholarship from its accustomed cultural and referential parameters into asking questions about the creative processes at play in the creation of the Falola phenomenon, and exploring how these processes can be adapted by others in their own lives.The artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, the physicist Albert Einstein, among others, are the subject of countless efforts to understand the nature of creative genius, distilling such understanding in a way that other people can learn from and possibly apply to themselves.Why not Falola?Must Falola discourse remain confined to abstract texts, rich as these are in grappling with the details and scope of his thought? Must it remain limited to discussions in rarefied scholarly books, priceless as these are but which most members of the public will not know about, talk less read?Is his achievement not relevant to humanity as a whole and therefore worthy of, even vital, for general human understanding?After all, the creative multiplicity demonstrated by his achievement may be likened to the entrepreneurial and technological multiplicity of an Elon Musk, one of the greatest technological entrepreneurs of all time, founder of Space X, Tesla Motors and more, all initiatives founded on a basic nexus of orientation, suggesting these great creative multiplicities may be seen as based on similar foundations.My vision is that of taking the Falola legacy to the larger marketplace of ideas,where it may rub shoulders with the achievements of the Elon Musks, the da Vincis, the Einsteins, the Ibn Sinas, Ibn Arabis and other polymaths of the Persian/Arab worlds, demonstrating an achievement that resonates with the high point of conceptions of human possibility represented by the European Renaissance vision of the Uomo Universali, the Universal Person, manifesting in their activity and self development the varied dynamisms of human possibility, as well as with Yoruba/African conceptions of self actualization within multiplicity of expression.As for the idea of charging people money to learn about Falola, I need clarification about that discomfort.Falola is an academic. Most of his friends are academics. Academics are people who work in an institution of leaning and are paid for their services.Falola's books and books about Falola are not produced for free or distributed free most of the time, they are commercial initiatives which cost money to produce and which people and institutions buy.Falola Studies is therefore part of an economic system of production, in which people are being charged to learn about and from Falola by buying his books and being taught by him, their economic contributions part of an economy empowering Falola to generate the knowledge and skill vital to sustaining that economy.Going beyond his current focus on more specific subjects in various disciplines, Falola may choose to teach people about ''techniques of creativity'', ''multidisciplinary productivity'' etc using his own experience as the foundation for such exploration, perhaps in dialogue with his rich explorations of other creatives in various essays, a good number of which are collected and framed by a philosophical discussion in his In Praise of Greatness.The world would benefit from such efforts. He may choose to do it within the context of his academic job, as a course offering, as an elective or as a seminar, as I experienced with a writer teaching meditation as a route to creativity, among many other optional seminars at University College, London.He could choose to do it outside his academic context, as Ato Quason is currently doing on YouTube with discussing criticism.He could choose not to charge, as Quayson has so chosen, or he could choose to charge, as Margaret Atwood is doing with her virtual seminars on art.The global social system runs to a large extent on principles of exchange for goods and services and people have significant discretion as to how to navigate this system.Falola is not doing any of these and I am doing it in relation to his relentless productivity, sustained and ceaselessly expanding over decades.Even if Falola does bring out such an initiative, mine will differ from his, because, I, as the person looking at his work, am different from himself, examining his work from within his immersion in it, and the references and styles of analysis we would use to demonstrate the larger significance of that work beyond its proximate referents would not be identical.Are those friends of Falola's concerned that my using Falola's name in the initiative means suggesting Falola is my partner, has given his blessing or I am taking advantage of his name?Falola's name has reached a level that it can be used by others. The resonance of the name has risen above the generality occupied by most of humanity, whose names, strategic as they are as markers of individuality, demonstrate varied levels of resonance, of different kinds of force within and beyond those directly acquainted with them.Just like we name theories in terms of the names of those who construct them, or who inspire them, we can do the same for Falola. How ethical is this use, becomes the question.I believe I have established my parameters for drawing my conclusions about what one may learn about Falola's creativity. My various writings on Falola, of which more are forthcoming, in the context of my published explorations on various philosophies, creativities and creative individuals, makes clear my cognitive enablement for this activity.I also want to move Falola scholarship from being limited to being part of academic offerings, such as a list of books on a reading list, to a stand alone yet multidisciplinarily integrative subject of study, a multidisciplinary complex of explorations of different subjects unified round a multiplicity of centres represented by forms of creativity, engaging these within a pedagogical context involving direct contact with people beyond such conferences as the Falola conferences, vital landmarks in Falola scholarship though they are.How do we move from what has been written on Falola, from conference discussions of Falola's work, to studying this work in a pedagogical context?Is Falola's oeuvre expansive enough to sustain or act as the inspirational matrix for a critical examination of approaches to various questions in various disciplines, examining how these diversities may be engaged with simultaneously from various disciplinary orientations, the entirety grounded in examinations of individual and group efforts to shape meaning out of reality, as described by Falola in In Praise of Greatness and as I highlight in a forthcoming essay on that book in relation to Yoruba theories of self and circumstance, free will and fate?I am interested in contributing to shaping an approach to Falola Studies that includes and goes beyond books and conferences on Falola's work to courses on this work, developing a structure of learning that includes and goes beyond the more general concerns of his scholarship to examining their emergence from the cognitive dynamism of a creative persona whose creativity may be explored by others and adapted to one's use.Great thankstoyinOn Thu, 10 Sep 2020 at 04:21, 'Michael Afolayan' via Yoruba Affairs <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com> wrote:Toyin Adepoju,I thought we already concluded a few months ago that this would not be a right channel for promoting TF's legacy. Falola's legacy already speaks for itself and some of his friends would be uncomfortable using his name to charge fellow academics to learn about him.Nothing personal. I'm worried about it sha; but the ball is in your court.Michael O. AfoláyanOn Friday, September 4, 2020, 6:47:35 AM EDT, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com> wrote:--Transforming Self, Unlocking GeniusThe Falola/Adepoju Paradigm of Human DevelopmentWebinar AnnouncementOluwatoyin Vincent AdepojuComparative Cognitive Processes and Systems"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"This webinar takes the work of one of the world's greatest scholars beyond theory, exploring how to adapt, in one's life, the phenomenal creativity of this polymath.The seminar deploys ideas of the intersection between individuality and multiplicity, between fate and free will in demonstrating how to unleash your own genius, like this man from the city of rust and gold, as the poet J.P., Clark describes the Nigerian city of Ibadan, has unleashed his.Great ideas of human possibility emerge from the intersection between Falola's monumental celebration of creative genius of various individuals, In Praise of Greatness: the Politics of African Adulation and African origin ideas of human being and becoming.We shall examine how to adapt, in our own lives, the achievements of a person comparable to the greatest polymaths in history but closer to contemporary reality than Leonardo da Vinci, painter, sculptor, scientific draughtsman and engineer, Aristotle, creator of the foundations of the Western educational system across disciplines, Ibn Sina, philosopher and pioneer in medical research and Setilu, synthesizer of mathematics, literature, herbalogy, philosophy, spirituality and art in the Yoruba origin Ifa system of knowledge.Unlock the genius within you by studying and applying principles of self understanding, locating yourself at the intersection of past, present, future and eternity, navigating possibilities beyond the shell your life might have become, cracking open the kernel of possibility to reveal your luminosity.''When a person says ''yes'', their innermost self, anchored in ultimate possibility, says ''yes!'' as the Igbo state.Learn to say ''yes!'' to the dragon that wishes to rise within you, flying towards the stars.The Falola/Adepoju Paradigm of Human Development is a system of growth developed by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, organised around a study of the achievements of polymathic scholar Toyin Falola.This introductory seminar will cost $5.Get in touch to register at toyin.adepoju@gmail.com or on WhatsApp at 08051439554.
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