Emerging history of an active Historian: Toyin Falola, the man, the mask and his muse
If there is ever a forest of words, a man with a mask may be lost in it; if his muse does not ferry him out of the woods. On the same metaphoric premise, a man with a robe of words will attract tongues from far and near. Some tongues may dip theirs into a musical pool and draw out a song or a chant. Some others may just encode their thoughts into words that could be read now or in the future. When self is lost and identity suffers from crises, facts are known to cut lies into size.
This self-appointed task is not as heavy as the timber from a real forest and I must confess that since a copy of this 900-page tome arrived my mail box, I have neither rested nor contemplated putting the load down. I have hauled the book around as my new tablet of stones. In this book, one man becomes both subject and object of intellection. In some chapters (52 in all, meaning you can read one per week!) he is the center of discourse and in others, as expected, the main pillar of the narration becomes marginal in a bid to reconstruct his past, make sense of the unfrozen present and help readers chart a course to a yet to be lived future. So tell me how does a community (made of mostly 48 professors and lovers of books) write the emerging history of an active historian; one whose professional and personal lives intersect in very interesting ways. Professor Toyin Falola from afar does not have the symptomatic look of a crazy artist or the absent mindedness of your typical professor. He is a man of sartorial elegance whose clothes speak in non-equivocal terms. You may say this indigene of Ode- Aje in Ibadan, is a cultural ambassador with posting to the world by his carefully chosen words, and you will not be too far from the truth.
So without keeping you in suspense let me introduce you to "Toyin Falola: The man, the mask, the muse" edited by Niyi Afolabi and published by the Carolina Academic Press, USA. Since most books come complete with their own narratives; is it not apposite to allow the editor lay the tracks of this aspect of the review in his own words. "The book's conceptual miracle occurred while I was seating at the new faculty orientation at the University of Texas at Austin in the summer of 2008 and somehow traveled subconsciously down memory lane. It was a momentary flash from the inner spirit that had to be rescued from unintended oblivion." The editor's voice like that of a seasoned pastor summons the heart to be the organ necessary for the reading and digestion of this book of many voices. The condition under which the vision to this book came to life also mirrors a part of the struggle the main tree in this forest had to withstand. Professor Falola has stories of persecution, perseverance, and persistence to tell. His stories are told from multiple dimensions. One interesting aspect of these articles is that strands of data are used in re-constructing the life and ideas of a man who looks at the past with a keen eye as he renders his perspectives of how we as Africans got to where we are today. Falola, and others have put to eternal rest that Africa had no history before the colonial intervention. According to Oyeniyi, Falola provided evidence in his doctoral thesis of many years ago "that pre-colonial Ibadan economy was indeed modernized and modernizing before the colonial intrusion" (page 226).
Apart from the academic path-breaking works, the reader can get up close to the professor's journey in the university system and at the same time begin to construct the emerging school of thought fondly referred to by Professor Lovejoy as Falolaism.
The love and joy of Falolaism is that the seeds of Falolaists have been carefully laid and in no distant time the intellectual world will begin to see these fruits standing tall in lecture halls professing ideas about the pre-colonial complexity of Africa and Africans in the diaspora. Since this is a review and not a re-count, I will not fall for the temptation of giving out what Falolaism is all about. You will have to journey through the many layers till you get to page 225, there Bukola Oyeniyi lays out how the Falola River started to fill up in terms of his intellectual radicalism and foresight in breaking away from the pack.
So who is Professor Falola? Can a reader get to peep into the turgid world of this man of many parts? In a very random format, I intend to call up just three contributors to speak the man to textual life in a way our minds can cope with the mountainous helping of intellectual delicacies served within a colorful jacket. First on my list is Felix Ekechi who examines the contributions of Professor Falola in his six-page treatise titled "The Toyin Falola factor in Africanist Historiography." That factor is like a rod and a staff that have cleared bushes of the past by creating, sustaining, and fueling the pathway for the much needed "Africanization of knowledge." Baba Ekechi should know because his eyes from a distance witnessed the 'Falola River' as it was filling up. Though the Yoruba people say that the river that fills up in one's life time cannot drag one along, I am certain that if the words of Elder Ekechi do not drag one along its textual path, the lone picture and its caption ('Historian of African culture') on page 120 of the book will surely add another one thousand words in the process of decoding the picture. The image shows Professor Falola standing in front of a mask in complete Yoruba attire and without his trademark glasses. Without insisting on a particular interpretation, I will submit that the choice of this specific image (of the one hundred and twenty others in the book) and the text underneath it reinforce each other in a very profound way. It more than illustrates the title of the book with an uncommon visual profundity. In another review, it will be worthwhile simply focusing on the various pictures, what the pictures mean, and their locations within the book.
If you allow me the luxury of randomly pulling out another contributor from the hat, the choice will be that of Robert Dibie. His paper combines Falola's scholarship and vocation in his submission. He adorns his subject with the designation of the Historian of Africa, a tribute friends and fans say is well deserved. Robert Dibie, a Dean and professor, derives his praises not only from Professor Falola's teaching abilities but also from the quality of students who have passed through him in one way or another. Since there is no professor without ideas he or she professes, Robert Dibie frontally confronts Falola's treatment of colonialism submits that Falola's books "deconstruct the African cultures that have been disrupted, replaced, and resurrected in the past ten decades." Though Professor Dibie does not explicitly express the Yoruba cultural principle which warns that if 'people of deep knowledge' do not assist each other, they should expect the visitation of shame within their rank and file; he more than states the leadership style of Falola as a model worth replicating.
If there is a part of this book that presents the unmediated voice of professor Falola himself, then it is chapter thirteen where the editor of the book engages the master of prose, poetry, and performance in dialogue. It is in this part of the book that everyday talk takes over from the ivory tower type of twisted talk. Even the picture (on page 137) reinforces the cultural 'rootedness' of the man by momentarily stirring the reader away from a stereotypical visual representation of a western academic. The picture seems to reinforce the down-to-earth perspectives of the man.
In this short review, the constant conspiracy of time and space will not allow a review of the five parts of the book. It parades intellectual giants as well as emerging trees who may one day become choice kings and queens of the future. As readers confront Africa's painful past told in a series of ways, so too will they feel the textual electricity in his works and learn a thing or two about "historicity, creativity and reflections."
My only regret about this book is a personal one. It was published after my first encounter with Professor Falola. Had the book been published before that encountered at Florida International University in Miami, I would have known what to say, and how to show deeper respect the "dean of African studies."
If you meet professor Falola on the streets of Ibadan (or Austin-Texas) hail him as Isola (just as Baba Ekechi would),or if you are brave enough let out Ekun oko Bisi and blame Bukola Oyeniyi for it. You may even dip your tongue in one of his many poems since 'mouth is sweeter than salt' but be ready to salt away before you are confronted by a 'spirit among the living', the living spirit who connects the past with the present. You may not see his rich robe of words but the wardrobe where his books are stacked can never be hidden. If you meet him on screen (or on the Internet) where text is the spirit of communication remind him of the sub-text of Falolaism or shall we just simply say facts-lola?
Kole Odutola, teaches Yoruba at the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
It is published today in the Guardian (August 8th 2010)
<http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19323:emerging-history-of-an-active-historian&catid=74:arts&Itemid=683>
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