Yoruba Culture Research Articles

A Review of Toyin Falọla. Cultural Modernity in a Colonized World: The Writings of Chief Isaac Oluwole Delanọ. Pan-African University Press, 2020, 739 pages. Toyin Falọla and Michael O. Afọlayan eds. Isaac O. Delanọ A Dictionary of Yoruba Monosyllabic Verbs Edited with an Introduction. Pan-African University Press, 2020, 538 pages. Toyin Falọla and Michael O. Afọlayan eds. Selected Works of

Yes, the Yoruba Studies Review has asked me to write a “comprehensive review of the three books released on Chief Isaac Delanọ.” However, because Toyin Falọla had already committed 739 pages for an unsurpassed chronicle and review of the times, life, works, and classics of Doctor Isaac Oluwọle Delanọ, it would be pretentious of me to claim any attempt to do a comprehensive review of the three books. What I will do is to make a modest introduction Book Review 296 Bola Dauda of Delanọ’s long buried or an unheralded intellectual legacy. While Samuel Ajayi Crowther laid the foundation for the transition of Yoruba culture from oral to written literatures, Delanọ provided the guideline manuals, the methodological rubrics, and the compass and roadmaps for the studies and development of modern Yoruba orthography, linguistics, anthropological historiography, literatures, spirituality, and nation building. He was the first Administrative Secretary of the Ẹgbẹ Ọmọ Oduduwa, a cultural organization that became a political party in Nigeria at the dawn of Nigeria’s independence in the 1950s.

Bọlanle Awẹ: The Matriarch of Feminist History

At the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the University of Ibadan, famous historian, Professor Bọlanle Awẹ was conferred with a well-deserved honorary doctorate degree. For both Professor Awẹ and even Nigeria’s premier university, this great honor is a fitting tribute to mark the anniversary of the institution of learning that has been central to the intellectual history of Nigeria. The University of Ibadan has done well to select Professor Awẹ for this honor. Her earnestness and intelligence are beyond doubts. There is no gainsaying disputing her warmth, her magnetism. I have known her since the 1970s—she remains consistent in the exhibition of positive values, in the promotion of Yoruba culture, and the advancement of the scholarly enterprise.

The Role of the Family in the Restoration and Preservation of Yoruba Cultural Heritage

Yoruba people have a unique cultural heritage which engulfs every aspect of their lives; hence, guides them in their daily activities. It was borne in their heart, incise in their offspring, and pass from one generation to another. Unfortunately, this cultural heritage is almost lost today, as civilization has denigrated almost all these cherished cultural values in Yoruba communities. Undoubtedly, the family where the whole cultural decadence started from has great roles to play in restoring and preserving these cultural values. This is the thrust of this work. The essay is therefore approached from historical and ethical perspectives with phenomenological methodology to examine the cherished Yoruba cultural heritage. The findings of the work show that moral training through informal education; means of identity; communal responsibilities; ascribed roles; etc., are missing among the youths today. The paper adopts Mary Jo Hatch’s theory of cultural dynamics to examine the changes in Yoruba cultural heritage, the causes of decadence of this heritage; and the role of the family in enthroning Yoruba cultural heritage among the youths today. The essay recommends that family needs to rise for the restoration and 70 Awofeko Oyebanjo, and Shogunle preservation of these cultural heritages to combat the socio-cultural threat confronting the society.

Dramatists and Poets as Agents of Yoruba Culture: A Study of Hubert Ogunde’s and Femi Abodunrin’s Works

In many ways, people reveal their language, culture, identity, traditions and beliefs through the contents and themes of their performance arts, in addition to other identity moulding and retaining paraphernalia. However, for failing to fit into the mould of the West, the culture and traditions of peoples of African descent have been erroneously misunderstood and, in some cases, even scorned. Beyond the aesthetics and the utilisation of Africa’s oral traditions in passing down African histories and ways of life to current and future generations, the Yoruba artist’s utilisation of performative art forms such as drama and poetry to first, reassure the Yoruba themselves and then, educate the world about Africa’s cultures has become necessary. This article is an exploration of the narratives and nuances in the works of Hubert Ogunde and Femi Abodunrin as tools in the propagation of a Yoruba cultural outlook. It further takes a closer look into how the works of these writers could influence new narratives about Yoruba creativity as cultural agency from Africa’s own perspective. The study reveals the relevance of the artistic, performative and literary works of Ogunde and Abodunrin as agencies of propagation of Yoruba culture in the twenty-first century.

THETECHNOLOGY OF DỪNDỨN DRUMS IN YORUBA CULTURE

Musical instruments, no matter what culture on earth they are found in, often represent themost complex technologicaldevelopment of that particular culture. For instance, Dừndứndrums are the most famous traditional drums in Yoruba culture. It is the principal and themost popular type of instrumental music in Yoruba culture. It has a key role in traditionalevents, celebrations and functions that are dear for the culture e.g.birth, naming, burial andfuneral ceremonies. Dừndứndrum is used for various ceremonies because it is capable ofproducing music that is specific to an occasion. But what goes into its making that gives itsuch a potential? This paper thus attempts to discuss the origin, overall-shape, andconstruction, as regard the methods of attaching the skin to the body of frame of the drum,the tuning and the techniques of playing Dừndứn drums in Yoruba culture.

Culture in Biblical Interpretation: The Use of Yoruba Cultural Elements in Adamo's African Cultural Hermeneutics

African Cultural Hermeneutics is an approach in biblical interpretation that makes African socio-cultural context a subject of interpretation. This article shows how Adamo has deployed effectively Yoruba cultural elements in the development of this interpretative grid. This is done with a view to determining the extent to which he has engaged successfully the biblical text in a way that has translated to a better understanding of the Bible in Africa. A descriptive approach is adopted as the basic methodology for the article. Yoruba cultural archival resources such as traditions, songs, oracles, folklores and incantations (potent words) are appropriated to make the Bible come alive and relevant. For Adamo, these traditional resources have helped to elucidate the Bible and make its message meaningful for its average reader in Africa. Employing African cultural elements in the interpretative process should however be done with some measured caution.

Children’s Participation in Decision Making within the Family Context of Yoruba Culture

Children’s Participation in Decision Making within the Family Context of Yoruba Culture

Ilaje names: an appraisal of Yoruba culture

Naming is an intrinsic aspect of the Yorùbá culture. Beyond identification tags, it also serves as an anchorage to project culture, didactics and the destiny of a name-bearer, particularly in Ìlàjẹ communities of Oǹdó State, Nigeria. Notwithstanding, critics of Yorùbá names have overlooked the deep historicity and culture preservation entrenched into Ìlàjẹ names. This study, therefore, examines Ìlàjẹ names based on their linguistic and religious significance to consolidate the need for culture retention among the Yorùbá. The study employs traditional criticism as a theoretical construct to analyze the primary data, which were indigenous names collected through oral interviews from indigenes of Ìlàjẹ communities. The secondary data comprised of books, journals, internet articles on names. Findings reveal that despite modern civilization and western religion, Ìlàjẹ communities maintain indigenous names which bother on profound Yorùbá culture manifested in the names of their children and their ornate consequence within the broader spectrum of the Yorùbá culture. Ìlàjẹ names were categorized based on association with prominent Yorùbá concepts like destiny, death, religion, metaphysics, morality, children, kinship, social relations and wealth. The study though a contribution to existing knowledge on Yorùbá names is a unique interdisciplinary blend of culture and linguistics of Ìlàjẹ communities.

Indigenous Yoruba Popular Music As An Agent For Socio Re-Orientation: An Examination of Saheed Osupa’s Fuji Music

This paper explores Fuji popular music as a tool for socialization within the current Yoruba cultural setting using the content exploration approach mode. Much of the traditional elements are embedded in the lyrics of Fuji musicians. Each Fuji musician digs experiments with the Yoruba culture to make the brand of Fuji music distinct from others. Saheed Osupa is a Fuji musician whose lyrics are laced with different sorts of Yoruba socio-cultural values. These values include proverbs, folktales, folklores, riddles, witty sayings, etc. The paper concludes that apart from being a vibrant art form in the popular literature sub-genre, the contents of the Fuji music can also serve pedagogical and other educational purposes in the present-day setup.

The Role of Indigenous Films in Preserving Nigerian Culture: Analysis of Efunsetan Aniwura

Film is a powerful medium that can be used in transmitting different ideologies and preserving cultural values. In the western world, films have been used to strategically positioning foreign culture and selling it subtly on a global scale to other nations who eventually adopt western cultural values. This research investigates the role of film as a medium of preserving and promoting the appreciation of the Nigerian culture locally and globally through the exploration of historical events and local cultures. The methodological framework adopts a qualitative approach, using content analysis in investigating the film, Efunsetan Aniwura. Findings from this research show that films are an effective medium for preserving and transmitting cultural values. It is necessary for the government and stakeholders of the Nigerian film industry to continuously partner in creating and promoting content that educates locals and foreigners about Nigerian culture for the sake of cultural appreciation and posterity. Keywords: Nigerian culture, Indigenous films, Yoruba culture, Efunsetan Aniwura DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/65-03 Publication date: July 31 st 2021

Orí, Ayé and the ontogeny of society

ABSTRACT It is difficult for any scholar on Yoruba culture to escape contact with the extensive literature on Orí, a metaphysical, ontological predicate for the existence of human selfhood, and self-other relations. This is not only because much has been written on the subject by scholars of different disciplinary persuasions, but also because this scholarship claims to be advancing, a peculiar point of view that originates a new way of looking at situation in terms of certain local categories and possibilities of action. Yoruba belief that Orí is that to which other deities (for it could be raised as a deity) should defer: all, except God, the maker of all things. Thus, it is reverenced, because it is about the self and because it cannot be reduced to any position of inferiority in any human actions.

IKINS E ENCRUZILHADAS

Este artigo problematiza a educação em diálogo com presenças, saberes e gramáticas subalternizadas pelo colonialismo. Destaco como o ataque a diversidade perpassa diretamente por ações que operam na blindagem e na precarização de princípios explicativos que resguardam outras sensações e experiências de mundo. Assim, a diversidade é fundamental para a emergência de rotas que afetem os seres em favor da vida, da dignidade, do bem viver e da justiça cognitiva e social (SANTOS, 2008). A educação é aqui pensada como um fenômeno cruzado entre experiência, aprendizagem, conhecimento e ética que tem como mote os princípios explicativos da cultura ioruba, em especial os orixás Exu e Orunmilá. Exu transladado para as Américas é o princípio dinâmico de toda e qualquer movimento, criação, comunicação e linguagem. Orunmilá versa acerca do conhecimento e das múltiplas possiblidades de interação com o mesmo. Ambos são aqui invocados como disponibilidade filosófica e pedagógica para propor giros enunciativos, políticos e epistemológicos que lancem a crítica da educação como um sentir, fazer e pensar necessário para a inscrição de caminhos plurais, responsáveis com a diferença e potentes para a descolonização.

Al-Ghuluwu fi al-amsal al-arabiy

Abstract Al-Ghuluwu fi al-amsal al-arabiy (Postproverbial) is a new trend in modern Arabic studies. It is a way to gain the perceptions of learners of the language into Afro-Arabic and Yoruba cultures in contemporary times. Through the learning of the subject matter, University of Ibadan students of Arabic Language and Literature explore how much common philosophy is shared between postproverbial expressions in Arabic and Yoruba languages. Afro-Arabic postproverbial demonstrates the trends of modernity within the culture. It absorbs and transforms wisdom accumulated over the few years with the experience of students in their various localities. This paper investigates the exposure to postproverbiality in Arabic among the students of Arabic language and literature who are predominantly Yoruba in the University of Ibadan and how the practice of postproverbials transforms their perceptions and values of Yoruba and Afro-Arab cultural concepts. Thus, two questions are raised: to what extent does the use of postproverbials in the Arabic literature course in the University of Ibadan shed light on Yoruba cultural aspects not regularly covered in Arabic Proverbs? How does the use of postproverbials in the Arabic literature course promote a new understanding among the students and make them discover and reassess their values and preferences in the modern time? The theoretical framework of the paper is adopted from A. Raji-Oyelade’s “Postproverbials in Yoruba Culture: A Playful Blasphemy”. The result of this study indicates that students employed their basic knowledge of Arabic language, coupled with their Yoruba cultural background, to re-create a number of postproverbial texts within the context of Arabic culture. It also exhibits their level of consciousness in the modern times.

The Dùndún Talking Drum of the Yorùbá Community in South-West Nigeria

Numerous drum ensembles characterize the music landscape in Nigeria. The dundun of the Yoruba, however, provides a unique exemplar for the understanding of indigenous art forms in Nigeria in general and the Yoruba culture in particular. Given the significant role of the drum among the Yoruba, the paper gives a detailed introductory insight into the dundun tradition with a specific focus on the definition and origin, the dundun ensemble formation as well as the musical and socio-cultural functions of the drum. The paper aims to contribute to the preservation and appreciation of indigenous music and musical instruments.

Yoruba personal naming system

The Yoruba, like many other ethnic nationalities in Africa, have developed personal naming traditions, practices and patterns that represent the beliefs, expectations and circumstances surrounding new births. This article examines this aspect of the Yoruba culture, set as models and practiced by members of every Yoruba speech community. It discusses the typology of Yoruba personal names by focusing on their sociolinguistic features, and the impact of Western culture, Christianity and Islam on these names. The data collected for the study were drawn primarily from participant observations and oral interviews in addition to previous studies on Yoruba personal names. Textual data were sourced from the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO) lists of Yoruba candidates and admission lists of four universities. This article is based on indexicality theory which purports that the referent of a name is determined by the context. It is revealed that these names tell stories of families’ socio-economic backgrounds, represent customs and religions, reflect dreams, as well as predict the child’s future path. Yoruba personal names, therefore, mirror their cultural norms and social imaginaries.

Advances in Modern Nigerian Art and Urban Aesthetics: Osogbo Fence Beautification’s Experience

Fences and boundary demarcations are later additions to buildings, for fortification, while their ornamentation is an advancement in modern Nigerian art from the 1970s. Studies of wall decorations have focused mainly on facades of buildings and shrine walls, with little scope for ornamentations on fences of private residential buildings. This study investigates the trends in boundary demarcation in Yoruba culture, highlighting the innovations in the practice. It also classifies the forms and styles in the decoration on fences of domestic buildings, using Osogbo, a prominent city in the advancement in art and culture, since its inception. The study reveals rich and divergent styles of artistic embellishment in fences of private homes, in diverse materials. The ornamentation on fences are observed to evolve with the means of the owners and indirectly enhance the aesthetic of the environment. Keywords: Fence beautification, Fortification, Modern art, Urban Aesthetics, Osogbo. DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-4-01 Publication date: February 29 th 2020

English

Pawnship was both a credit system and an important source of labour in Yoruba land. It was highly utilised in the first half of the twentieth century Osun Division, sequel to its easy adaptation to the colonial monetised economy. This study examined pawnship as a labour system that was deeply rooted in the Yoruba culture, and accounts for the reasons for its easy adaptability to the changes epitomized by the colonial economy itself with particular reference to Osun Division in Southwestern Nigeria. The restriction here is to focus on areas that were not adequately covered by the various existing literature on pawnship system in Yoruba land with a view to examining their peculiarities that distinguished them from the general norms that existed in the urban centres that were covered by earlier studies. The study adopted the historical approach which depends on oral data gathered through interviews, archival materials and relevant literature. It is hoped that the local peculiarities that the study intends to examine on pawnship here, will make a reasonable addition to the stock of the existing knowledge on Yoruba economic and social histories.   Keywords: Pawnship, adaptability, Osun division, colonial economy, monetisation.

The Vitality of Yoruba Culture in the Americas

How did Africans create homes for themselves and maintain ancestral practices after being forcefully taken across the Middle Passage as enslaved people into various regions of the New and Old Worlds? In the Americas, they found themselves in a place clearly distinct from African cultural and geographical landscapes and were forced to adapt to strange climates and contend with alien cultures unfamiliar to those of their homeland. Rather than being completely steamrolled by colonial pressure, however, Africans of various ethnicities actively contended with the diverse influences of the colonial context. Such practices have, in turn, shaped the continued cultural diversity of the Americas to this day. This paper explores the diffusion and vitality of Yoruba culture, in particular throughout the nineteenth century in Brazil, Haiti, Cuba, and Trinidad and Tobago, where Yoruba forms of religion, Roman Catholic sensibilities, and indigenous cosmographies formed hybridized spiritualties and worldviews. This paper interprets historical evidence alongside secondary sources and contemporary cases in order to evaluate how the conjunctural forces brought about by slavery, colonialism, and inter-culturation occasioned the formation of Yoruba Atlantic and Afro-Latinx religions such as Candomble, Santeria, and Voodoo, as well as Orisha practices. This paper also examines how such spiritualties and worldviews have contributed to the complex social and cultural composition of the Americas in the modern world. It pays special attention to the conflictual and creative energies surrounding cultural diffusion and cross-cultural migration. Although various African ethnicities were brought across the Atlantic, Yoruba cultural practices have survived with a sustained intensity.

Ideology and Oladele Balogun’s perspective on parenthood and the ‘educated person’

Enormous but undue accentuation has been given to the acquisition of certificates and degrees over competence in Africa. Not only does this expand the gulf between thought and praxis, it also implies the compromised course of knowledge production and reproduction in Africa. As a result of the vegetative and epileptic nature of the development agenda in Africa, there has been as many theories as there are scholars who are seeking theoretical solutions but with almost nothing tangible. Oladele Balogun has shown intellectual concerns over this too but with a plausible panacea. Taking traditional Yoruba culture as his cue, Balogun sees a connection between ‘parenthood’ and traditional Yoruba perception of the ‘educated person’ as crucial elements for human development drive in Africa. While I concede that these in themselves are necessary, I contest their sufficiency. Hence, I add a third category – Ideology.Keywords: Oladele Balogun, Parenthood, Pedagogy, Yoruba, Ideology

Themes, Diction, and Prosodic Systems in Yoruba Lullabies

Lullabies are essentially sung for their soothing nature but, as this article shows, they have other important functions. One of the most important of these is that lullabies may provide much-needed language stimulation with important long-term consequences for future learning. This paper begins the work of addressing the dearth of scholarly research on lullabies, especially in the Yoruba (Nigeria: Niger-Congo) culture. It looks at the range of themes, dictions, and prosody that are intertwined to reveal Yoruba beliefs and world-views about children, starting with their time in the womb. The study uses a descriptive survey method to analyse data collected through participant observation. It shows that Yoruba lullabies not only offer insights into Yoruba cultural beliefs but also depend greatly on figurative expression and prosodic systems. These rich literary qualities identify lullabies as the earliest sub-genre of children's poetry.