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Yoruba Studies Review

Introduction: Yorùbá Philosophy and Contemporary Nigerian Realities

Friday December 14, 2018

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

Thursday December 13, 2018

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

Wednesday December 12, 2018

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

Tuesday December 11, 2018

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

Monday December 10, 2018

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

Sunday December 9, 2018

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

Saturday December 8, 2018

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

Friday December 7, 2018

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

Thursday December 6, 2018

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

Wednesday December 5, 2018

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

Tuesday December 4, 2018

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

Monday December 3, 2018

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 December 2, 2018

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

Saturday December 1, 2018

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

Friday November 30, 2018

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 […]
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