Self Destructive Fantasy Being Floated by Some Nigerian Practitioners of Yoruba Spiritualities Banning Non-Initiates from Doing Academic Study of the Field
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Ayobami Ogedengbe on Facebook:
"a memo is supposed to be issued to all institutions of learning that non-adherents/initiates should not be allowed to make presentation or write literature for Ìsèse, Ifá-Òrìṣà in the Academia because they are not qualified"
Its long since I read something more ridiculous.
Such a ridiculous idea can emerge only among Nigerians in Nigeria.
I thank God I was enabled to study in England where my study of Yoruba spiritualies and thought systems took off in earnest.
Such ridiculous bullying as that being proposed in that short sighted vision can be proposed only by people who don't understand academia.
Now, let's look at Yoruba Studies in general and Yoruba spirituality in particular.
I want anyone to present five major scholarly books on Yoruba spirituality published by anyone in Nigeria, whether adherent or initiate of the spirituality in the last 11 years.
Let me list the ones I know and state the locations of the writers and what I know of their religious culture.
1. Dec 2024- Global Yoruba: Regional and Diasporic Networks by Toyin Falola. Published by Indiana University Press.
A comprehensive survey of Yoruba history in relation to Yoruba spirituality and philosophy across the centuries in Nigeria and the diaspora.
Falola has never presented himself as a practitioner of Yoruba spirituality in any formal sense.
2. The Yoruba:A New History by Akinwumi Ogundiran. 2020. Published by Indiana University Press
A pioneering effort at mapping the development of Yoruba philosophy and spirituality, in relation to the social, economic and political spectrum of Yoruba history from earliest times to the 19th century.
Ogundiran has never identified himself as a practitioner of Yoruba spirituality.
3. Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art by Rowland Abiodun . 2014. Published by Cambridge University Press.
A foundational text at the intersection of Yoruba aesthetics, metaphysics and ethics.
Abiodun has never identified himself as an adherent or initiate of traditional Yoruba spirituality.
4. City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination by Jacob Olupona.2011. University of California Press.
A majestic study of Ile Ife, the spiritual centre of the Yoruba, in terms of its complex spiritual identity.
Olupona has never described himself as an adherent or initiate of Yoruba spirituality.
5.Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance ed. by Jacob Olupona and Rowland Abiodun. 2016. Published by Indiana University Press.
6.Vigilant Things: On Thieves, Yoruba Anti-Aesthetics, and The Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria by David Doris. 2011. University of Washington Press.
A powerful study of the Yoruba spiritual object known as aale.
I am not aware of David Doris presenting himself as an adherent or initiate of Yoruba spirituality.
7.Yoruba Metaphysics: Spirituality and Supernaturality by Toyin Falola. Forthcoming in April 2025. Ohio University Press. Visible online.
Falola has never presented himself as an adherent or initiate of Yoruba spirituality.
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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/5a3b51fa-6bdd-4330-b947-734a3dd39f79n%40googlegroups.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment