RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Toyin Adepoju is a genius!

Prof Falola:

Sir, you are entitled to your own opinion on who is a genius.  I support IBK's position on the character of a genius and in particular the legal implications of the peculiarities of Toyin Adepoju ( IBK being a lawyer.)

Adepoju has waved the banner of the support of the Moderator in our faces.quite too often that this admission is anticlimactic.  I am sure I introduced the concept of Esu into the the discourse of the forum years before Adepoju joined.  See my poet as Historian, Oyebade 2000) and I know my limitations not being an Ifa priest

I accept Esu is common patrimony but there is the matter of intellectual property when it comes to Ifa.  I think you should be bold to let him know only bonafide Ifa priests have the authority to compose Ese Ifa ( reminds one of late Faleti's play Sawo Segberi.  It is such conflict that is central to the play. ) Whatever Adepoju is composing cannot therefore be called by that name.  I will oppose this forever on principled grounds.

I do not deny that you have the right and power to hunt for talents but it should be genuine talents who uphold the traditions and ethics of scholarship as we know it.

I hope Toyin Adepoju proves you right in the end for the sake of the discipline of Comparative Literature which he and I share.  This is why what he claims and says under that banner matters and is of great consequence to my own scholarship:  I owe it a duty ( perhaps more than anyone else on the forum) to respond.  Guardians of my own discipline would confront me and say 'you were there when he made those claims and you said nothing.  It means you learned nothing from us!'

It is a forum.  We have the right to engage him.

Thank you sir.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

-------- Original message --------

From: Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>

Date: 02/12/2020 12:05 (GMT+00:00)

To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Toyin Adepoju is a genius!

This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu) Add cleanup rule | More info

Great ones:

 

Your humble moderator now has to intervene! I think the direction in which the Ifa argument is going is making me uncomfortable, the inability to accept creativity, the failure to see the Esu in Adepoju---no path is straight, nothing should be concluded. Esu is the god that I have also adopted, and I did the longest book on this unique Yoruba god. All attempts to "kill" Esu (to use the concept of "kill" that Wariboko deploys), has failed.

 

I discovered Toyin Adepoju—Toyin Adepoju did not discover me! It was when I began to read him—the eclectic nature of his writings, his ability to turn the micro into the macro, his extraordinary talent to tap into the Nino and convert it into the mega, that I sought him out. I seek out people. It is a small contribution to the concept of the "informal" and "people" that Dr. Adeshina Afolayan of the University of Ibadan contributed to this forum that led to my knowing him. I contacted him and said we should meet at Ibadan. This is intellectual leadership. You must seek out people.

 

First, I thought Toyin Adepoju was a woman. As Adepoju began to talk about the vagina, I thought s/he was a lesbian. His writings can be clueless as to his identity. He can be irascible. And so what? The God of Israel was also temperamental. Blasphemy!

 

Thinking that he was she, an invitation was extended to him by our Art Dept to come and give a lecture. I wrote to them that I don't think he was she! I did not know how that invitation ended. I reinvited him back to Austin to be part of the Nimi Wariboko conference, but that is another story.

 

I extended a book contract to him to write on Ifa, as I saw new edges and frontiers in what he was doing. He signed the contract, but he did not deliver. What a shame!

 

I sought to meet him in person. And we met in Lagos, then at Ibadan. I had lunch with him. He interviewed me. I took him to my pepper soup joint—alas! he does not eat animals.

 

I advised him to register for a Ph.D. I got him a supervisor. I assured that I would fully fund the Ph.D. I nominated myself as the External Examiner. I had a three-way conversation with his would-be supervisor whom I chose for him. He thanked me and said he is not interested.

 

We are dealing with a genius whose ways of thinking may be beyond our realms. He may be decades ahead of us in his thinking. In the early 80s, when my talents were unfolding, only one person in the entire University—Professor Olabisi Afolayan—was able to discover it! Only one person. A year after my Ph.D., he asked the University to promote me to a Senior Lecturer. Of course, they refused. But he was the only one who saw my talent.

 

Let us see Adepoju as a genius, cultivate him, promote him, and see where we all land. Where he wants to convert an opportunity into money, we must back off.

 

For all those who are quick to criticize others, Adepoju is not my friend. The day I told Adeshina that Nimi Wariboko is not my friend; he was in shock. Moses Ochonu is not my friend. I worship talents where I see them. Even if Nimi or Moses abuse me, it is of no effect. I am manifesting my personality to locate extraordinary talents. Should they abuse me, they are displaying their own character flaws.

 

In the words of the Zulu, "I have spoken!"

 

 

Continue with your debates.

Stay well.

TF

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/SN7PR06MB724732EE36CB579D34CBA26BF8F30%40SN7PR06MB7247.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.