Does Adepoju have enough understanding of Yorùbá language to pinpoint these onomatopoeia in the original language, why they have been deployed in the particular way they were deployed and the particular effects instead of reading them in translation into English and shortchanging prospective students.
Generalities glossed over amongst languages dont help do they?
Can Toyin Adepoju translate the effect of the following if found in Ofò and explain the likely effect?
'Gbędę nií ro kókò lágbàrá
Gbędęgbędę ni kó rí fun ęgbę won.
Or
(This from an actual Ofò)
Won ni kánmàn kánmán ni kán ję lé
Wìrìwìrì lohùn ewìrì
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------
From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>
Date: 14/12/2020 23:24 (GMT+00:00)
To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Understanding and ShapingLifethroughStudying and Creating Yoruba Poetry of Laughter, Delight and Wonder
Response to OAA on Ofo.
Ofo operates in terms of basic literary principles of which onomatopoeia is only one.
These literary principles are evident in all literatures.
Their distinctiveness in ofo is the end to which they are directed, an end that ofo shares with other magical forms of verbalization.
In adapting the aesthetics of ofo for use outside it's originating context, the relevant conceptual context can be presented in a manner easy for a user to understand.
These concepts are actually universal concepts, expressed in particular ways in the Yoruba context and enriched through recognizing their parallels with similar ideas within and beyond the Yoruba context, the cognate African context close to the Yoruba, the larger African context and beyond Africa.
On Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 12:24 OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
--
Well stated, Dr Ogundayo.
Can anyone who is not fluent in Yorùbá aver to the onomatopoiec power of Yoruba to affect the mutual Yoruba hearer of the Ofo, as I demonstrated to the late Prof Oyin Ogunba, as part of the psychological efficacy of Ofo?
2. Can this subliminal effect of language be carried over to another language by a non speaker of the first language who would not recognise these nuances let alone be able to translate and convey these to potential students?
3. Would there be cognate lexicon in the target language to produce the same effect in the hearer/ student?
4. Would the world view that in part produced the psychological effect in a Yorùba hearer be the same as that of the foreign language hearer/ student and produce similar/ identical results as Adepoju alleges?
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Dr BioDun J Ogundayo <akande1098@gmail.com>Date: 12/12/2020 03:09 (GMT+00:00)To: dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Understanding and Shaping LifethroughStudying and Creating Yoruba Poetry of Laughter, Delight and Wonder
Esteemed participants,Silence is truly golden. I have "lurked" on this forum as many great minds have enlightened us. Especially about the intellectual and spiritual hubris garbed (or garbled!!) in the obvious robes of semantics, sophistry, and euphemisms, designed to bedazzle and bamboozle! In the manner of the deconstructionists and Derrida acolytes...
I am moved to state this. Words have power. Words are power. For the users of words to have the power of Ofo, they must be neophytes, initiates, and adepts at making the VERB work in specific and appropriate circumstances for specific and appropriate purposes. They must demonstrate not only knowledge of terms, but the humility to say them right, not necessarily correctly.Ofo also includes silence, or the ability to listen to the elements before acting.
Implicitly, esoterism is the defining and definitive nature of Ofo. I am not an Ifa initiate, but there is a whole odu on Oro as spirit. But as a student of language and translator,I know that the right word, pronounced with the right attitude, the right tone, at the right moment, begets the right result.
Even in our jaded, profane, banal, and quotidian drudgery, how we communicate involves some measure of esoterism, whereby the speaker and the hearer are in a complicit, knowing,"insider" relationship exclusive of all others... Consider the following and the obvious:1. Passwords and your computer. We all know how deathly frustrating it must be being unable to gain access to the computer/internet/social media/email... if you miss just one character, the ofo has no potency because it has been denatured...
2. PIN numbers (pardon the redundancy): Forget the sequence of numbers, mix up the numbers, and you don't get to pay the bill, or get desperately needed cash from the damn ATM!3. Diagnosis: Knowledge derived from you and your doctor (a profanely esoteric relationship in a culture obsessed with privacy). If you will not, do not, or cannot say what is the matter with you, the doctor with all his knowledge and expertise cannot proceed with a treatment. DIA-GNOSIS wisdom emerging from a dialogue between 2 insiders!4. Yoruba say "bi owe, bi owe..." You have to be an ologbon, an onmoran, (an insider) to be able to participate in community of wordsmiths. Again esoterism (of OFO).5. In one of the Harry Potter series, it would take Hermione's saying "Levy..Oosa!" the right way for the feather to lift up from the dining table and float away, after several futile attempts by the boys around her. Again and again esoterism of the spoken word( Ofo in Yoruba esoteric practice).6. Poets are adepts of the esoterism of the Verb in any culture--the griots, the bards, Plato's poets, cantors, preachers, (even charismatic politicians) are all practitioners of OFO in its countless iterations.7. In Catholic tradition and mass, even man has to ask God to say the word "and my soul shall be healed" the ultimate step before the body of Christ is consumed and the union of man and the divine is consummated. Esoterism of Ofo at its most fundamentally religious form.8. In Judeo-Christian tradition and mythology the world and we became through OFO. God spoke, uttered the Fiat Luxe, and the universe happened.
9. Allah commanded Mohammed, PBUH, an illiterate to recite and a whole new spirituality and theology (Qur'an) came forth.
Silence is GOLDEN. So is OFO. Don't trifle with OFO, or you will be consumed by its flames and power!
'BioDun
On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 10:08 AM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:
--
This is a misrepresentation of what Ofo as a cosmic force is about.
I remember when I had a tutorial with my HOD the late Oyin Ogunba on the use of Ofo..
He told me he had been invited to demonstrations of the magical efficacy of Ofo and that at the last moment the organisers prevaricated. He said he did not have any evidence of the magical efficacy of Ofo.
I reminded him that he was a ' foreigner' among the practitioners and they would be reluctant to share their secrets with him, like they would not with a westerner knowing he would encourage broadcasting it for gains without a return to the owners of the 'patent' ( I could not believe this came from an Ìjębú professor who were reputed among the Yoruba for their especial proficiency in the magical arts. I thought he was only telling me what western education allowed him to divulge and not what he actually believed. The Awo whom I consulted within the same period for effective remedy which I narrated here was actually in Ìjębú land.)
I reminded him that the verbal arts which he wanted to treat merely as literature has an esoteric side involving actual psysical potencies. He merely chuckled in his characteristic style.
What Toyin Adepoju seems to be misrepresenting falls along the same pathway: that the words alone will produce magical power. I do not believe this is possible.
How is Toyin Adepoju going to use the literary power of words to change the life of participants in a seminar? The Awo I consulted did not just heal me with the power of words contained in the Ęsę Ifá he chanted. He handed me a bottle containing herbs and tree bark in solution which actually did the healing.
An etymology of Awo comes in handy here. It means a covenant not to divulge the workings and formula of the products of a particular guild and therefore represents humanity's first attempt to evolve a copyright and patent system before western modernity. It was primarily evolved to prevent abuse by the laity and protect the earnings of members from activities of fakes.
What Adepoju is misrepresenting is what psychoanalysis describes as the fallacy of the omnipotence of thought. The literary effects of words cannot procure the remedy which Adepoju is using this forum to falsely disseminate.
Oyin Ogunba never told me that the literary effects of words can achieve the transformation in the problems in the lives of anybody. He never advocated that people should be taught how to construct Ofo so that it can provide a remedy for human problems..
Adepoju has gone a step further as usual in presenting himself as an expert in what he does not fully understand in order to make a fast buck.
The proposed seminar is therefore sham and a money making gimmick.
If he wants to teach literature and literary analysis of Ofo as Oyin Ogunba did then that is a straightforward issue. But he does not belong to any guild that knows the full circumstances of producing either Ìjálá or Ofò.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju <toyin.adepoju@gmail.com>Date: 11/12/2020 10:28 (GMT+00:00)To: usaafricadialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>, Yoruba Affairs <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>, wolesoyinkasociety@yahoogroups.com, Bring Your Baseball Bat <naijaobserver@yahoogroups.com>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Understanding and Shaping Life throughStudying and Creating Yoruba Poetry of Laughter, Delight and Wonder
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (toyin.adepoju@gmail.com) Add cleanup rule | More info
1. Mobilize Cosmic Force in Nature to Empower Your Life and Pursue Your Goals through Ofo, Yoruba Poetry of Incantations--
Would you like to learn to use affirmations that draw on the cosmic force that pervades nature in energizing your life and pursuing your goals?
Masters of verbal art among the Yoruba of West Africa developed powerful systems for this purpose, ancient methods this course will teach you how to understand and use.
Mobilizing patterns in nature through powerful imagery, they directed ase, creative, cosmic force, for the achievement of specific goals.
You can do the same too, with the guidance of this course.
The course will be taught in English.
2. Studying and Creating Ese Ifa, Literature of Laughter and Worship, Adventure and Delight
Some people, somewhere, laugh at their gods.
Yet they worship them.
No humans, no gods, they say.
Earth existed before the gods, they assert.
In this world, no one fights to defend any god or belief.
The sheer beauty of the celebration of nature in this world, the delightful variety in their depictions of the divine, funny and sublime, are glorious.
This is the world of ese ifa, one of the world's great bodies of literature.
It comes from the Yoruba people of West Africa.
Encounter this ancient and magnificent tradition and learn how to create such literature as those inspired masters.
No literary background is required.
The course shall be taught in English.
3.Forest as Cosmos
Learning from and Constructing Ijala, Yoruba Poetry of Hunters
Poised to bring down the magnificent beast, I yet marvelled at it's amazing grace within such brute power.
Hidden in the forest, lying flat with my gun pointing at at the baboon, I seemed to be doing him homage.
Is the life of a hunter a life for a thinking man?
This is a description from "Salute to the Baboon," a poem of Ijala, poetry of hunters from the Yoruba of West Africa, with a reflection on it's implications.
Wole Soyinka describes Ijala as celebrating the deity Ogun, as well as "animal and plant life, the relationships of growing things and the insights of man into the secrets of the universe.'
Abiola Irele depicts Ijala as expressing the world of the hunter seen as a navigation of the forest, peopled by animal and spirit powers, reflecting the variety and complexity of the cosmos.
Learn how to draw upon such rich insights, ancient yet ever fresh, in an increasingly complex world, as the world of work replaces the forest, the daily commute the navigations of the hunter, lockdown isolation replaces his long hours waiting for animals to appear.
You will learn how to understand this art and use it in making sense of your life, shaping it's meaning and outcomes.
The seminar will be conducted in English.
All interested parties may contact me for directions at to how to take advantage of these courses.
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/CALUsqTQ54njscUuLM6JCQVx9VhkV7vSkzSnHkVN4%2BiuCciCkCw%40mail.gmail.com.
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/DB6PR04MB29820949F698B349A078520EA6CA0%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
--
--
There is no fear, but joy. Excellence is Virtue.
'BioDun J. Ogundayo, PhDArokesagun
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/CACkhLWYvYko8U47jd6EUSUR%3DmjYz1A_Q9B6OEaTveQWA96d1iw%40mail.gmail.com.
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/DB6PR04MB29827DDBE2A25400BBAFBA5CA6C80%40DB6PR04MB2982.eurprd04.prod.outlook.com.
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/CALUsqTSpHa7gPmEtV1P0eLZEXfNK5hZJ5H_81xMnYzfCcHASpg%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment