Exploring Pan-African Unity and Development in Yoruba Arabic Literature

Abstract

This article examines the theme of Pan-Africanism in Yoruba literature in Arabic and analyzes the perspectives of Yoruba literati on how unity of the African nations and leaders could function in evolving a new Africa that would withstand socio-economic and political challenges. The article investigates the following questions: how might the views and insights of Yoruba writers and critics benefit Africa in achieving unity for development? And how might Yoruba Arabic literature on Pan-Africanism contribute to switching and shifting the paradigm of development in Africa? To provide answers to these questions, I selected the works of three Yoruba Arabic scholars namely, Adam al-Ilorī, Isa Abu-Bakre and Abdul Aziz Azakawī for analysis. The article benefits in its discussion from historical, descriptive and analytical methods. Employing several historical and analytical methods, the article draws on some of the views of prominent Pan-Africanist intellectuals such as Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, Frantz Fanon, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka among others. I argue that the selected Yoruba Arabic writers consider unity as vital to the economic, social and political progress of Africa just as requisite ingredients for its renaissance.