Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2019 3:56:57 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>; yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com <yorubaaffairs@googlegroups.com>; yorubanation@yahoogroups.com <yorubanation@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Let's count the Tiger's Teeth Together: A Review by Olayinka Oyegbile
This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (walegazhal@gmail.com) Let's count the tiger's teeth together
https://thenationonlineng.net/lets-count-the-tigers-teeth-together/
In documenting the Agbekoya rebellion of the seventies, Falola has done a great service to the country and especially the Yoruba nation because many have lost sense of history or don't even know history at all. He has with this successfully documented the lore, gods, myths and belief of his people in such a way that one would appreciate his deep and firm knowledge of his origin, a trait that is today no longer the case with many because we see anything traditional as fetish and pagan practices.
He gives a detailed background of Ogun, the god of iron. He tells of how it was revered and respected in the pantheon of Yoruba gods, about how it was among the gods that was powerful and whose word were laws: "Trust in Ogun is legendary. No one would swear by Ogun's name and embark on a mission of deceit. In the hierarchy of the Yoruba Orisa, Ogun was on top. This was a god who respected only two of his peers and looked down on others." So what happened to its power? We allowed our foreign gods to whittle down our own powerful Ogun because we want to do as we like?
Falola writes eloquently about what Ogun is to the Yoruba, and how he had to withdraw from school and be recruited as a carrier of messages for the women and men who were getting themselves prepared for a long battle ahead –the Agbekoya rebellion.
In the book we meet very many interesting and intriguing people who the author tries to unravel. We meet the long suffering women who were the backbone of the Agbekoya rebellion of those days. It throws into sharp relief the place of women in the Yoruba world view. They are a segment of the society that cannot be dismissed with a wave of the hand. All this is confirmed in history with the stories of Moremi, Efunsetan Aniwura and a host of others.
What with Mama Leku, Pasitor, and Bible and bell wielding Boda Gebu who was bent on driving out the traditional believers, it shows Pentecostalism did not begin today, at least from Boda Gebu's activities. In fact, in this ground breaking memoir after A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt, Prof Falola has gone further to demonstrate his footprints as a faithful chronicler of our lives. With records from the archives and his own eye witness account of the rebellion that shook a section of the nation, it is important to observe that what the nation is currently passing through is not new. As it is often said, those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it.
The views of traditionalists and Christians about each other did not escape his scrutiny as they both treat each others with suspicion; one viewing the other as an aberrant group and vice versa. Buoda Gebu, a Christian feels he has the right to place his hands on people's heads to 'sanctify' them while if Leku did, she was accused of trying to 'steal' people's memory! "Peaceful people making herbal medicines to prolong people's lives became bloodsuckers. Buoda Gebu must place his hands upon us, but if Leku did the same, she was accused of stealing our memory, converting our brains to juju". However, Leku was not perturbed by those who treat her with scorn and contempt; she simply dismissed them as "ignorant".
The book is not all about the fight for supremacy among religions, but a documentation of the power of the Agbe (farmers) who held the southwest under their influence during the military era when the country was fighting a civil war in the eastern part. What happens to those who break ranks and betray their people is clearly demonstrated in this book. A leader is only a true one when he listens to his people and feels their pulse. The leader of the Agbekoyas, Tafa Adeoye, who was like a legend at the start of the rebellion fell out of favour with his troop the moment he began to romance the powers that be, an enduring lesson to be learnt by leaders of today.
In Counting the Tiger's Teeth – An African Teenager's Story, Prof Falola, a respected Historian has shown all those Fela calls 'Vagabonds in Power', that there is power in our history. It is a book every literate Nigerian must read to be able to get a hang on where the rain started beating us. It is a book that must be put on the syllabus of our university system across all faculties. It should not be restricted to the humanities alone. It is a must read.
--
|
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/CAN-CUExo2QM23wQ896GKZbbUpB1UM9A7w7-WD4wQvYSRoL%3DArA%40mail.gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment