Introduction: Yorùbá Philosophy and Contemporary Nigerian Realities

Adeshina Afolayan Department of Philosophy University of Ibadan adeshinaafolayan@gmail.com Abstract Beginning from Marx’s understanding of the relationship between philosophy and reality, this Introduction to the special edition of the Yoruba Studies Review explores the inevitable but complex relationship that exists between philosophy and its place. Specifically, it is grounded on the urgency of interrogating Nigeria’s […]

Anchored in Justice: Yorùbá Philosophy and the Politics of a Diverse State

Segun Gbadegesin Department of Philosophy Howard University, United States agbadegesin@howard.edu Abstract As a major ethnic nationality in the multinational state cobbled together and christened by Lord Frederick Lugard, the Yoruba have been an integral part of the politics of the Nigerian diverse state since 1914. From the vicissitudes of the politics of nationalist struggles against […]

Contemporary Nigeria and the Deficit of Deliberative Democracy: Exploring the Indigenous Value of Àgbájọ ọwọ́ as Collegiality

Ronald Olufemi Badru Department of Politics and International Relations Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria femmydamak@gmail.com Abstract The paper advances three groups of interrelated claims. First, a fundamental deficit of democratic practice in contemporary Nigeria is that electoral choices/candidates are largely disconnected from the spirit of vibrant deliberation/ consideration by the Nigerian demos. Second, candidates that […]

Disability and Human Diversity: A Reinterpretation of Ẹni-òòṣà1 Philosophy in Yorùbá Belief

Omotade Adegbindin Department of Philosophy University of Ibadan, Nigeria tadegbindin@yahoo.com Abstract As an exercise in African philosophy, this paper examines and demonstrates the limitations of the two popular extremes in disability studies, namely, the medical and social models of disability. While the former is essentialist in rendering disability as a fixed condition and as an […]

Adapting Yorùbá Epistemology in Educational Theory and Practice in Nigeria

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems (Compcros) http://danteadinkra.wixsite.com/compcros toyin.adepoju@gmail.com Abstract What is the value of Yoruba epistemology, theory of knowledge, particularly its philosophy of perception, to humanity in general, and to contemporary Nigeria, in particular? How does Yorùbá epistemology connect with educational theory and practice in Nigeria? This essay recognizes but goes beyond […]

Demographics and the Irony of Existential Profiling in Yorùbá Thought: Policy Considerations for Nigeria

Wale Olajide Department of Philosophy Ekiti State University ashaolu54@yahoo.co.uk Abstract This essay interrogates what can be described as Yorùbá population philosophy, within the context of Yorùbá existential thought, and the effects it has on Nigeria’s population explosion. The essay explores the seemingly contradictory proverbs that both vindicate and vilify the act of giving birth to […]

Àsùwàda Principle and Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria

Yunusa Kehinde Salami Department of Philosophy Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria yunusalami@gmail.com Abstract This paper examines the àsùwàdà principle as an indigenous social theory, which is based on alásùwàdà, a body of doctrines according to which the creator of human beings and everything in nature, dá (created) individual human beings as à-sù-wà (beings who can only […]

Ọmọ Tí A Kò Kọ́: Globalization and Cultural Education among New Generation Nigerian Yorùbá

Michael O. Afolayan M & P Educational Consulting International mafolayan@yahoo.com Abstract This essay 1critically explores the semantic, phonological and philosophical implications of the sound “kọ”́ (build) in the Yorùbá proverb—Ọmọ tí a kò kọ́ ni yóò gbé ilé tí a kọ́ tà (the child that is not taught will eventually sell the house that is […]

The Depersonalized as Vanishing Hero and Heroine in Yorùbá Moral Placards

Olatunde Bayo Lawuyi Department of Archeology and Anthropology University of Ibadan, Nigeria oblawuyi2008@yahoo.com Abstract The paper critically examines the relationship between the idea of moral placards and the existence of Yorùbá heroes and heroines. It takes as its starting point the philosophical import of the Yoruba proverb. Ọjọ́ a bá kú là ń dère, èèyàn […]

Political Communication and the Nigerian Democratic Experiment: Critical Insights from Yorùbá Philosophy

Sharon Adetutu Omotoso Institute of African Studies University of Ibadan, Nigeria sharonomotoso@gmail.com Abstract Nigeria’s political sphere is fraught with violence, electoral frauds, unfulfilled promises and negligence on the part of the ruling class, hence political communication in Nigeria have been faced with hostility from electorates spurred by public distrust of the mass media. This essay […]

I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary

Abimbola Adelakun African and African Diaspora Studies Department University of Texas at Austin United States of America aa_adelakun@utexas.edu Abstract This essay will study how the Yorùbá conceptualize “ọ̀tá” or the enemy, a trope that recurs in various cultural phenomena such as music, prayers, and other social rituals. The Yorùbá worldview of the enemy has profound […]

Yorùbá Values and the Environment

John Ayọtunde Iṣọla Bẹwaji Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica tunde.bewaji@gmail.com Abstract This essay deploys Yorùbá ontology, epistemology and axiology to construct a Yorùbá ecological philosophy, or ecosophy. It argues that in contrast with the Judeo-Christian tradition of environmental anthropomorphic domination as the destiny of humanity or […]

Aristotle and the Ọmọlúwàbí Ethos: Ethical Implications for Public Morality in Nigeria

Sunday Olaoluwa Dada Department of Philosophy Ekiti State University, Nigeria sunday.dada@eksu.edu.ng Abstract This essay explores the philosophical affinity between Aristotle’s concept of virtue as character habituation and the Yorùbá ethical and ontological understanding of ọmọlúwàbí as the foundation for re-examining the philosophical foundation of democratic governance in Nigeria. Based on the Aristotelian insistence that the […]

Ìwà l’ẹwà: Towards a Yorùbá Feminist Ethics

Olayinka Oyeleye Department of Philosophy University of Ibadan Nigeria talk2yinka@yahoo.com Abstract This paper explores a narrative path towards foregrounding what it calls a gender-relative morality as a core dimension of female subordination. It takes a feminist approach to ethics, which stresses specifically the political enterprise of eradicating systems and structures of male domination and female […]

A Sartrean Approach to Ayé Ṣίṣe in Yorùbá Existentialism

Babalọla Joseph Balogun Department of Philosophy Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria talk2joey@yahoo.com Abstract The place of the world in the life of individual human being cannot be underestimated. This fact has culminated in the high esteem in which the concept of the world is held in the existentialist thinking. Using the Sartrean existentialist methodological approach, the […]

Epistemic Roots, Universal Routes and Ontological Roofs of African “Ritual Archives”: Disciplinary Formations in African Thought (Review Essay)

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems (Compcros) http://danteadinkra.wixsite.com/compcros toyin.adepoju@gmail.com Introduction: Why Write an Essay on an Essay? One may compose an essay on another essay, and possibly an even longer one than the essay being studied, long as that one is, when one is confronted with one of those things one has to […]

Encyclopedia of the Yoruba — Book Review

Toyin Falola and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds). Encyclopedia of the Yoruba. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2016. 371pp. Ibrahim A. Odugbemi University of Ibadan, Nigeria Encyclopedia of the Yoruba is a single-volume encyclopedia that is comprised of 285 entries of short essays written by 188 authors who are predominantly scholars and academic researchers from […]

Yorùbá Studies Review

Volume 3 :: Number 1 :: Fall 2018 ISSN 2473-4713 The Yorùbá Studies Review is a refereed biannual journal dedicated to the study of the experience of the Yorùbá peoples and their descendants globally. The journal covers all aspects of the Yorùbá transnational, national, and regional presence, both in their West Africa’s homeland and in […]

Yorùbá Studies Review

Volume 2 : Number 2 : Spring 2018 ISSN 2473-4713 The Yorùbá Studies Review is a refereed biannual journal dedicated to the study of the experience of the Yorùbá peoples and their descendants globally. The journal covers all aspects of the Yorùbá transnational, national, and regional presence, both in their West Africa’s homeland and […]

Palace Courtyards in Iléṣà: A Melting Point of Traditional Yorùbá Architecture

Stephen Fọlárànmí Ọbáfémi AwólỌ̀wọ̀ University, Nigeria folasteve@oauife.edu.ng Babásẹhìndè Adémúlẹyá Ọbáfémi AwólỌ̀wọ̀ University, Nigeria babaleya@yahoo.com Abstract The Yorùbá courtyard is an important architectural space in traditional Yorùbá architecture that has not received adequate scholarly attention. This paper examines the courtyards in the palace of certain chiefs and Ọwá Obòkun in Iléṣà, in southwest Nigeria. Fieldwork identified […]

Èdè Àyàn: The Language of Àyàn in Yorùbá Art and Ritual of Egúngún

Oláwọlé Fámúlẹ̀ University of Wisconsin-Superior ofamule@uwsuper.edu Kò séṇ í m’èdè Àyàn B í e ṇ í m ú k ò ṇ̀ g ó ̣ è ̣ l ó ẉ ó ̣ No one understands the language of Àyàn Better than the drummer who holds the gong in his hand – Yorùbá maxim From the Yorùbá […]

Healthcare Delivery among Yoruba Bonesetters in Southwest Nigeria and the Need for Collaboration with Orthodox Orthopedic Healthcare Services: A Mixed Method Study

Soladoye S. Asa Department of Demography and Social Statistics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria solaasa2000@yahoo.com; sasa@oauife.edu.ng Matthew O. Ilori African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria matthewoilori@gmail.com Lawrence A. Akinyoola Department of Surgery and Orthopaedic, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria aakinyoola@yahoo.co.uk Abstract This study covers three purposively chosen states; Ogun, […]

The Survival of the Yorùbá Healing Systems in the Modern Age

Ilesanmi Akanmidu Paul Department of History and International Studies Adekunle Ajasin University Akiungba-Akoko, Nigeria paul.akanmidu@gmail.com Abstract This study investigates the philosophy and tradition of the Yorùbá healing system and the reasons for its survival into the modern age. The introduction of western-style healthcare by missionaries—which became consolidated under colonial rule, from any point of view […]

Language and the African Philosophical Traditions

Kọ́lá Abímbọ́lá Department of Philosophy Howard University Washington, DC kolapo.abimbola@Howard.edu Abstract Are there universal principles, categories, or forms of reasoning that apply to all aspects of human experience—irrespective of culture and epoch? Numerous scholars have explored this very question from Africana perspectives: Kwasi Wiredu (1996) explored the philosophical issue of whether there are culturally defined […]

Constructing Identities: Amos Tutuola and the Ibadan Literary Elite in the wake of Nigerian Independence

Mackenzie Finley Department of History University of Texas at Austin mackenziejfinley@gmail.com Abstract With Nigerian novelist Amos Tutuola as primary subject, this paper attempts to understand the construction of sociocultural identities in Nigeria in the wake of independence. Despite the international success of his literary publications, Tutuola was denied access to the most intimate discourses on […]

The Transition from Yorùbá Metaphysics to Islamic Aesthetics in Ọláńrewájú Adépọ̀jù’s Poetry

Stephen Toyin Ogundipe Department of English Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. st.ogundipe@gmail.com; stogundipe@oauife.edu.ng Abstract This paper explores the poetry of Ọláńrewájú Adépọ̀jù, a major contemporary Yorùbá poet, based in Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria. Much of the scholarship on the poet focuses purely on his sociopolitical interest, but the development of his craft has been largely ignored. […]

Dialetics and Structural Organization in the Ẹ̀bìbì Festival Performances of the Ẹ̀pẹ́ People in Lagos State, Nigeria

Babatunde Olanrewaju Adebua Babcock University, Nigeria adebuab@babcock.edu.ng Mobolanle Ebunoluwa Sotunsa Babcock University, Nigeria sotunsam@babcock.edu.ng Abstract There is growing interest in the study of festivals by literary scholars in African orature. In Nigeria, the festival resources of the Ìjèḅ ú in southwestern Nigeria, specifically the Èḅ ìbì festival, has been given cursory multi-disciplinary attention in areas […]

Social Media Marketing in the Yorùbá Video Film Industry

Olagoke Alamu Ekiti State University, Nigeria. Email: gatanfeani62@gmail.com Abstract The thrust of this paper is the critical evaluation of the level of acceptance of social media marketing in the Yorùbá film industry. In this age of globalization, many film marketers across the world have abandoned traditional media in favor of online forms of communication, which […]

Individualism, Communitarianism and African Philosophy: A Review Essay on Exploring the Ethics of Individualism and Communitarianism

Enoch Olujide Gbadegesin, Yunusa Kehinde Salami and Kola Abimbola A collection of critical essays on Professor Segun Gbadegesin, one of the most preeminent figures in African philosophy, is by no mean an insignificant feat. This is all the more so because the volume has the objective of achieving a multidisciplinary interrogation of Gbadegesin’s philosophical oeuvre. […]

Rowland Abiodun Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art

Cambridge University Press, New York, 2014, 386p. Four essays presented at a Roundtable on the book during 2016 African Studies Association (ASA) conference. Ẹlẹ́nu Rírì ati Àmù Ìyá Rẹ̀.1 Mọyọ̀ṣọ́rẹ Òkédìjí University of Texas, Austin moyo.okediji@utexas.edu Ar̀ òko ̣ yi ̀i ́ sẹ aỳ eẁ ̣ ò i ̀di ́ abájo ̣ ti ́ ọ̀ro,̀ […]

Yoruba Epistemology, Art, Language and the Universe of Meanings: A Meta-Analysis

Michael O. Afolayan Independent Researcher Òṣogbo, Nigeria mafolayan@yahoo.com Introduction I had the rare privilege of delivering in proxy the original paper of Professor Moyo Okediji at the African Studies Association meeting, where it was first presented on December 2, 2016. Although short in quantity, I consider it to be loaded in quality, contents, intents, intensities, […]

The Landbound Chicken and the Deliberate Chameleon yet have their Uses: Yorùbá Art History, Language, and Interpretation

Kathy Curnow Cleveland State University k.curnow@csuohio.edu Abstract Rowland Abiodun’s Yorùbá Art and Language contains many extremely valuable features, wrapped around a question he raises in its introduction: can foreign scholars ever truly understand a work the way its Yorùbá makers and users do? Language mastery certainly provides the native speaker with access to inestimable insights […]

On the Imperative of Language for Understanding African Art

Rowland Abiodun Amherst College roabiodun@amherst.edu I was deeply touched and honored by the roundtable organized at the 2016 African Studies Association Conference to focus on my book, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art (2014). I want to thank Professor Funṣọ Afọlayan for contacting and bringing together a formidable group of scholars […]

Toyin Falola@65 Conference: African Knowledges and Alternative Futures

Conference Report by Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju Compcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems Defining Experiences A defining moment for me at the Toyin Falola@65 Conference titled “African Knowledges and Alternative Futures” that ran from the 29th to the 31st of January 2018 at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, was the declaration at a paper presentation session […]

Toyin Falola@65 Conference: African Knowledges and Alternative Futures

Amber Murrey Department of Sociology, the American University in Cairo, Egypt Edith Phaswana Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute, University of South Africa. The Toyin Falola @65 Conference brought together scholars from across the African continent and the world from 29 to 31 January 2018 under the theme, ‘African Knowledges and Alternative Futures.’ Our focus reflected […]

Proverbs and African Modernity: Defining an Ethics of Becoming

Oyekan Owomoyela University of Nebraska Lincoln, Nebraska African proverbs have, for good reason, attracted considerable attention from scholars, both African and non-African. One notable testimony to such attention is the international conference in South Africa from which came a monumental collection of scholarly articles now available on CD and in print. Another evidence of the […]

Editorial Board Members

Fúnṣọ́ Aiyéjínà is professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago where he served as the Dean of Humanities and Education. He is a poet, short story writer, and playwright. His collection of short fiction, The Legend of the Rockhills and Other Stories, won the 2000 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, […]

Guidelines for Submission to Yorùbá Studies Review

Major Focus Yorùbá Studies Review is devoted to all aspects of the Yorùbá transnational, national, and regional presence, both in their West Africa’s homeland and in diasporic spaces, past and present. The journal embraces all disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and the basic /applied sciences in as much as the focus is on the […]