Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Culture yoruba'

The status, roles, and interactions of three dominant African ethnic groups and their descendants in Cuba significantly influenced the island’s cubanidad (national identity): the Lucumís (Yoruba), the Congos (Bantú speakers from Central West Africa), and the Carabalís (from the region of Calabar). These three groups, enslaved on the island, coexisted, each group confronting obstacles that threatened their way of life and cultural identities. Through covert resistance, cultural appropriation, and accommodation, all three, but especially the Lucumís, laid deep roots in the nineteenth century that came to fruition in the twentieth. During the early 1900s, Cuba confronted numerous pressures, internal and external. Under the pretense of a quest for national identity and modernity, Afro-Cubans and African cultures and religion came under political, social, and intellectual attack. Race was an undeniable element in these conflicts. While all three groups were oppressed equally, only the Lucumís fought back, contesting accusations of backwardness, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and brujería (witchcraft), exaggerated by the sensationalistic media, often with the police’s and legal system’s complicity. Unlike the covert character of earlier epochs’ responses to oppression, in the twentieth century Lucumí resistance was overt and outspoken, publically refuting the accusations levied against African religions. Although these struggles had unintended consequences for the Lucumís, they gave birth to cubanidad’s African component. With the help of Fernando Ortiz, the Lucumí were situated at the pinnacle of a hierarchical pyramid, stratifying African religious complexes based on civilizational advancement, but at a costly price. Social ascent denigrated Lucumí religion to the status of folklore, depriving it of its status as a bona fide religious complex. To the present, Lucumí religious descendants, in Cuba and, after 1959, in many other areas of the world, are still contesting this contradiction in terms: an elevated downgrade.

Travel writing criticism has sometimes suggested that little travel writing has been produced by Africans. This thesis shows that this is not the case, through a literary study of writing about travel published in Yoruba-speaking southwestern Nigeria between 1914 and 2014. This is a study of writing about domestic travel – Nigerians travelling within Nigeria – and of both Yoruba- and English-language texts. It is both a study of conventional ‘travel writing’ such as first-person travelogues, and of the motif of travel in writing more broadly: it encompasses serialised newspaper columns, historical writing, novels, autobiography, book-length travelogues and online writing. As well as close readings, this study draws on archival research and an in-depth interview with travel writer Pelu Awofeso. This is not an exhaustive study but rather a series of case studies, placed in their historical context. I examine southwestern Nigerian writers’ re resentations of laces within Nigeria and changing communal identities: local, translocal, regional and national. I explore their ideas about the benefits of travel and travel writing, knowledge and cosmopolitanism. I argue that we can read these texts as products of a local print culture, addressed to local readers, as well as in relation to the broader travel writing tradition.

This thesis explores four contemporary literary transformations of the topos of agbonrin and efon, antelope (woman) and buffalo (woman) respectively, in D.O. Fagunwa's Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale and Igbo Olodumare, Amos Tutuola's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, Mobolaji Adenubi's "The Importance of Being Prudent", and Ben Okri's three abiku narratives. The Famished Road, Songs of Enchantment, and Infinite Riches. The introductory chapter raises theoretical issues regarding the notion of a topos itself and examines how these resonate with central Yoruba concepts. Furthermore, it provides an overview of Yoruba cultural beliefs associated with the figures of antelope (woman) and buffalo (woman) and comments on contemporary literary transformations of this topos in general. Each of the consecutive chapters represents an in-depth analysis and interpretation of one contemporary author's literary transformation of the topos of antelope (woman) and/or buffalo (woman). By putting each writer's deployment of the motif of agbonrin and efon in a biographical, historical and socio-cultural perspective, I explore how he or she - more or less consciously - invests it with new meanings and, in the process, transforms it, and how the topos of antelope (woman) and buffalo (woman) thus comes to serve manifold symbolic or metaphoric purposes, reflecting on and expressing a whole range of issues. Not only is the topos as such continuous beyond the precolonial period but it also assumes a new relevance with respect to the socio-cultural and political anxieties generated in the colonial and post-colonial climates. The contemporary literary transformations explored in this thesis all mediate and negotiate personal, socio-cultural and political anxieties in the wake of sustained contact with the West, especially through Christian missionary activity and colonialism. The thematisation of gender relations plays an important symbolic, metaphoric and metonymic role in this respect, since the way in which each writer's literary transformation of the motif of agbonrin and efon relates to the issue of women and female agency in Yoruba culture, or, more generally, in Nigerian culture, is an important means of communicating and conceptualising change.

This thesis focuses on the contributions of the Yorùbá culture to the development of modern Nigerian popular music. It traces the origin, conception and growth of popular music styles in Nigeria and highlights the underlying Yorùbá cultural cum linguistic influence that nurtured their growth within the urban space of Lagos city. It examines how contemporary Nigerian popular music practitioners appropriate the Yorùbá culture in negotiating their musical and national identities and counteract popular music homogenization through the creation of hybrid musical styles and cultures. The work adopts a multi-dimensional research approach that involves cultural, musicological, historical, anthropological and socio-linguistical tools. Adopting the participant-observer method with Lagos as the primary fieldwork site, additional data were sourced along with interviews of key informants through bibliographic and discographic methods. The study reveals the importance of Lagos as a major factor that contributed to the development of Nigeria‘s popular music practice as exemplified in genres like jùjú, fújì and afrobeat, and discovers that the Yorùbá language has gradually become the dominant medium through which artists express their musical identity as typified by current mainstream hip hop music. Extending earlier work by scholars such as Barber, Waterman and Euba and recent works in hip hop linguistics by Alim and Omoniyi, the thesis contributes to the growing body of research within popular music through the discipline of ethnomusicology, especially in the emerging area of academic inquiry into indigenous African hip hop culture.

This thesis studies print culture in colonial Lagos against the background of the public sphere, and brings together a variety of English-language and Yoruba-language newspapers. Such an approach allows for highlighting the practicalities of newspaper production and foregrounding the work accomplished by newspapermen in a changing 'information environment' and political context. It offers insights into Lagos politics, contributes to the history of the educated elite, and to more global histories of communication. Using newspapers as well as archival records, and focussing on events that strikingly reveal dynamics in the public sphere, this thesis narrates a nuanced history of a discursive field which was, amongst other things, central for Lagos politics. This thesis complicates a Habermasian notion of the public sphere as an open discursive space, and not only highlights that the public sphere was an arena of contested meanings, but also illustrates axes along which the composition of this social structure was negotiated. When newspapers emerged in the late nineteenth-century, discussions in the press were largely restricted to the elite. The economy of recognition that was at play in the public sphere was to change in the 1920s. This thesis highlights how newspapermen and contributors sought to carve out niches for themselves in the public sphere in new ways and how their becoming a speaker in this discursive field was challenged and contested. It highlights the nuanced ways in which newspapermen and contributors convened publics through their papers: how they did so around particular issues, in distinction from each other, and how they adapted the convening of publics to new political dynamics in the 1940s. This thesis gives insight into the complex relationship between English-language and Yoruba-language newspapers, and moreover illustrates how the practicalities of the newspaper business were coming to bear on dynamics in the public sphere.

Biyi Bandele est un écrivain d'origine nigériane dont l'œuvre novatrice et très riche reste encore peu connue du milieu universitaire en France. Aucune étude de grande ampleur n'a encore été consacrée à sa production et le présent travail essaie de combler ce grand vide. Cette étude qui s'appuie principalement sur les quatre romans de l'auteur a pour objectif de montrer que Biyi Bandele est un romancier carnavalesque et que tout son effort consiste à s'interroger sur les conditions de vie de ses concitoyens nigérians, la nature du pouvoir politique et ses modes d'exercice et les raisons pour lesquelles la construction d'une vraie nation semble impossible au Nigeria tant d'années après l'indépendance. A travers ces diverses interrogations, Biyi Bandele peint surtout un pays dont l'état de déconfiture et d'anomie est tel qu'il semble inconcevable d'en rendre compte avec les moyens traditionnels du roman réaliste européen. Mais grâce à son exceptionnel talent de conteur, Biyi Bandele réussit à nous faire prendre conscience de cette réalité grâce à une langue riche, et un nouvel art de conter inspiré des traditions yoruba et d'autres éléments de la culture populaire nigériane
Biyi Bandele is a Nigerian writer whose innovative and very rich writings are still little known by academics in France. No large-scale study has been devoted to his writings yet, and this work tries to make up for this gap. This study which is mainly based on the four novels written by Biyi Bandele aims at showing that he is a Carnivalesque novelist and that all of his effort consists in raising questions about the living conditions of his fellow countrymen, the nature of political power and its functioning, and the reasons why nation-building seems impossible in Nigeria so many years after independence . Through these different questions, Biyi Bandele mainly portrays a country in shambles, in such a state of anomy that one can no longer rely on the means of the Europen realist novel to render its situation. But thanks to his exceptional talent as a storyteller, Biyi Bandele manages to make us become aware of this reality by inventing a rich language and a new way of telling story inspired by yoruba traditions and other elements of Nigerian popular culture

The African Understanding of marriage is undoubtedly to be numbered among those customs and usages which must be integrated into the Christian tradition to help towards the creation of a genuinely African Christianity. Christian marriage in Africa finds itself torn between three major demands, namely: the claim of the Gospel as interpreted by Western Christianity, the claims of African tradition, and the claims of modern men and women. This is due to the problem created by the standard which the African Church inherited from the Western Christian Community and its past, made worse by much uncertainty as to the place or implications of the standard for men and women in Africa today. For many decades, Western Scholars have defined and described the African traditional beliefs, institutions and practices in terms contrary to their own faiths and experiences. Early missionaries, explorers, and other foreign investigators branded the religious practices and traditional institutions of the African peoples in such unacceptable and derogatory terms as animism, paganism, heathenism and fetishism. Anything that did not come from the "civilised" world was labelled "primitive". Modern researches based on more thorough sociological, anthropological, linguistic, and theological verifications have demonstrated the inadequacies of the former theories. Through this study, the researcher has demonstrated that the traditional Yoruba institutions and practices like marriage and family life, can and should serve as a point of contact for a kerygmatic proclamation. We must continue to explore ways to put such cultural information at the disposal of the reflecting minister and faith community both critically and practically. The study has suggested at least three postures from which the conversation between the religious tradition and cultural information might begin: (a) the religious tradition challenges the culture; (b) the religious tradition is challenged by the culture; (c) the religious tradition uses the resources of the culture in pursuit of its own religious mission.

Esta dissertação constitui-se de um estudo da cultura material de origem africana em que se investiga a produção, circulação, utilização e descarte de objetos africanos e afro-inspirados, aos quais eventualmente no Brasil agregam-se novos significados. Tratamos particularmente de duas produções características dos iorubás: as máscaras gueledé e os edan ogboni. Alguns desses objetos constam em coleções no Brasil, e seu uso em cultos religiosos afro-brasileiros do Recôncavo Baiano, no passado, é mencionado na literatura especializada. Na Nigéria e no Benim as máscaras de madeira denominadas gueledé e as estatuetas de liga de cobre edan são insígnias de duas importantes instituições tradicionais dos iorubás: a associação Gueledé e a associação Ogboni, respectivamente. Esses objetos estão associados a entidades espirituais (Iyami e Onilé) que segundo a cosmogonia desse povo são as grandes mães ancestrais da humanidade. Alguns pesquisadores se valem da presença desses artefatos no Brasil para fundamentar a hipótese da reestruturação dessas instituições iorubás no Recôncavo Baiano, no final do período colonial. Outros autores, indo além, associam a suposta \"sociedade Ogboni brasileira\" com episódios das revoltas dos malês. Tomando-se a análise do ciclo de vida desses artefatos como instrumental metodológico, verificamos, no entanto, que o aparecimento dessas peças aqui no Brasil pode ter se dado não por causa da transplantação dessas instituições tradicionais africanas, mas por questões ligadas à permanência dos aspectos mais profundos da cosmologia iorubá dentro dos próprios terreiros de candomblé, e também pela disputa por reconhecimento e poder entre os mais antigos deles, evidenciando a potencialidade que esses artefatos têm de transmissão e preservação da memória coletiva de um terreiro. Neste estudo, além do ciclo de vida das peças, levam-se em consideração aspectos morfológico e tecnológicos da produção desses artefatos, em que se incluem os espaços que lhes são associados, bem como aspectos do universo simbólico que deu sentido a essas peças e animou seu ciclo de vida.
This dissertation results from a study of the material culture of African origin, in which the manufacture, circulation, use and discard of African and African-inspired objects are investigated. Two kinds of characteristic yoruba production are focused: the geledé masks and the edan ogboni statuettes. Some of these objects are found in Brazilian collections, and their use in Afro-Brazilian religious cults in Recôncavo Baiano in the past is mentioned in the experts\' writings. In Nigeria and Benin the wooden masks called geledé and the cooper alloy statuettes edan are insignia of important traditional yoruba institutions: the Geledé Association and the Ogboni Association, respectively. These objects are associated to spiritual entities (Iyami and Onile) who, according to the cosmology of this people, are the great ancestor mothers of the humankind. Some researchers allege the presence of these artefacts in Brazil in order to prove the hypothesis of reestructuring of those yoruba institutions in Recôncavo Baiano at the end of the colonial period. Other authors go even further, associating this supposed Brazilian Ogboni Association to the Malê rebellion (1809). Using the analisys of the life cycle of those artefacts as a methodological tool, we found that the apparition of those objects here in Brazil may be due not to the transplantation of those traditional African institutions, but to issues linked to the permanence of the most profound aspects of yoruba cosmology inside the own terreiros de candomblé, and also to the dispute for recognizement and power among the oldest of them, so showing the potential these artefacts have to transmit and preserve the collective memory of a terreiro. In this study, in addition to the life cycle of those pieces, morphological and technological aspects of their production are considered, including also the spaces which are associated to them, as well as aspects of the symbolic universe which provide meaning to these objects and animated their life cycles.

Cette thèse porte sur la description d'une forme théâtrale que les habitants du sud-ouest du Nigeria appellent le Yoruba théâtre. Le point focal de mon analyse est une pièce intitulée odu-ifa. Cette pièce a été représentée le 12 février 1998 au national théâtre à Lagos. Ce genre théâtral représente sur scène des motifs littéraires tirés de la mythologie yoruba. Odu-ifa est le lieu de la production d'une construction identitaire. Cette construction est inhérente au nationalisme culturel yoruba. Cette construction relève d'une fiction du type culture. Elle est le résultat d'un certain assemblage de la mémoire collective qui est lié à l'élaboration d'un récit de type historique. L’objectif de cette rhétorique est de rendre légitime le statut d'une bourgeoise locale et les frontières d'un état indépendant (ou d'une région à l'intérieur de la fédération nigériane). Le Yoruba théâtre est cependant une forme instable. L’expression paroxystique en est la dérive accidentelle d'un jeu d'acteur en transe de possession. Cet événement (rare mais possible) révèle la complexité de l'organisation sociale yoruba. Il devient ainsi possible de décrire un aspect du fonctionnement de cette société en soulignant le type de travail culturel qui y est à l'oeuvre. Celui-ci répond à une "logique" qui évolue a l'intérieur d'un système contingent de contraintes.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD
This research charts the political and visual economies of asọ ebì in urban Lagos from 1960 to 2010. Under political economy I address the politics of asọ ebì dress in Lagos: the contestations surrounding the use of asọ ebì among friends, family members, organizations, among others. Under visual economy I engage the role of photography and other visual cultural practices in the practice of asọ ebì. From the 1960s asọ ebì began to be redefined in line with the cultural and socio-economic changes that came with late global capitalism. Within asọ ebì practice in the city of Lagos meanings of friendship, solidarity, camaraderie and wealth have undergone radical transformation as more people migrate to the city after Nigeria’s independence. From the 1970s through the 1980s, individuals were compelled by the economic conditions to adopt new modes of asọ ebì practice. For example new types of textile materials used for asọ ebì expanded to include cheaper textiles imported from China and elsewhere. Instead of offering aso ebi free, individuals sold it to their friends and within such transactions, politics of exclusion and inclusion ensued. From the 1990s through the 2000s, the rise of digital photography and the emergence of radical printing technology ushered a new mode of fashioning asọ ebì. In the process, photography and fashion magazines became a means of negotiating sartorial elegance and cosmopolitan modernity. In this thesis, therefore, the central argument resides in the contestations surrounding the use and meanings of asọ ebì within these transformations in the city of Lagos.

One of the most obtrusive features of Yoruba studies has been its clear pattern of regional preferences and biases in its scholarship. This pattern is reflected in the present concentration of studies on the southwest, the northwest, the central subgroups of Ife, Owo, Ijesha, Egba, Ijebu, Oyo, and Ilorin on one hand, and the paucity of works on the northeast and southeast subgroups of the O-okun Yoruba, the Igbomina, the Ikale and the Ilaje on the other. There is no other subgroup where this particularistic trend in Yoruba studies and especially, art historiography can better be observed than with the scholarly neglect of the O-okun peoples, the most northeasterly of the Yoruba subgroups. An important goal of this thesis is to foreground the multi-culturalistic tendencies among the Yoruba and underscore the necessity to provide comparable scholarly attention to neglected subgroups, the O-okun peoples in particular.

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A presente tese parte de uma análise do conceito da identidade yorubana mundializada, referido no estudo atual como a yorubanidade e definida como o pertencimento étnico, ideológico, político, simbólico, cultural e religioso, ao chamado Mundo Atlântico Yorubano, no qual predomina o imaginário, a cosmologia e a filosofia dos yorubanos, povo africano originário do Golfo do Benin na África Ocidental, de onde se espraiaram para as diversas diásporas afro-Atlânticas tornando-se, desde o século retrasado, o componente mais significativo na base da construção da identidade cultural e religiosa das sociedades Afro-Americanas, tais como Brasil, Cuba, Trinidad e Tobago, Haiti e Jamaica dentre outras. O estudo sustenta a tese de que, mais do que uma simples oralidade, a oralitura, definida como processos e mecanismos mnemotécnicos embutidos na concepção dos textos yorubanos, foi o principal responsável pela transmissão, retenção e preservação da cosmologia yorubana, presente, de forma padronizada, no mundo Atlântico como processo civilizatório ao qual se filiam milhões de pessoas. A tese chega à conclusão de que, através da atuação de vários agentes da yorubanidade no mundo contemporâneo, distribuídos nos dois lados do Atlântico, que sabem aliar seus conhecimentos tradicionais às ferramentas tecnológicas da Pós-Modernidade, a gnose e os saberes da yorubanidade ganham cada vez maiores e melhores condições para intervir no horizonte cultural mundial, tornando-se, dessa forma, uma opção para a deshomogeneização cultural do mundo globalizado, que, normalmente, tende a padecer sob uma forte dominação da cultura estadunidense.
Salvador

This thesis is concerned with the interpretation and representation of non-Western religious material culture in Western museums. Specifically, it focuses on Yorùbá traditional religious material culture exhibited nowadays in museums in the United Kingdom. The research aimed to investigate how members of the Yorùbá Diaspora, living in the United Kingdom, related to their traditional religious heritage, presented in museums. At the same time, the study intended to explore the perspective of museum professionals, involved with the displays exhibiting traditional Yorùbá religious objects. The thesis counts of two main parts. The first part is concerned with the theoretical framework of the study. After presenting the main issues of the research and the existing literature review, it continues by clarifying the social function of symbols (particularly religious symbols) and by offering an historical excursus of museum displays exhibiting African material culture (from the 19th century until now). The second part is concerned with the description and analysis of four different projects (a temporary exhibition set by the researcher herself; a set of interviews and focus groups with members of the Yorùbá Diaspora; a set of interviews with museum professionals and an analysis of ten museum displays exhibiting traditional religious Yorùbá objects) which have been the investigative tool of this research. The research has a qualitative approach and it has been based in the United Kingdom. The thesis suggests that, notwithstanding the efforts of museum professionals, in museum displays traditional Yorùbá religious material culture loses its distinctiveness and become absorbed into a global pan-African representation. Additionally, members of the Yorùbá Diaspora in Britain seemed to have a conflictual relation towards to traditional Yorùbá religion.

This is a study of the relationship between music and spirit possession among the Yorùbá of the South-Western part of Nigeria. Through the ages, philosophers and scholars have been interested in the relationship between music and trance possession, especially the question of whether music triggers, influences or sustains trance or spirit possession, and if so, how. This thesis seeks to focus on the relationship between the music used in worship practices where possessions take place, and how the music might initiate and drive the possession states. Spirit possession is a phenomenon which springs from and is associated with the social and belief systems of different people. However, the Aládurà church (an Independent African Church - AIC) worshippers dissociate themselves from the possession practices that are experienced among the Yorùbá indigenous traditional worshippers, while the traditionalists claim that the spirit possession practised in the Aládurà churches originated and has its roots in the traditional practices. This suggests an inherent difference in the two belief systems even though the possession experiences among them are characterised by similar presentations. Following the theory that spirit possession practices are culturally determined, this research seeks to identify the specific cultural elements in the music used in Yorùbá worship traditions where possessions take place, not as a cause and effect, but how music affects the possession process. My study, therefore, sets out to investigate what could be a common factor between the two structurally and contextually different types of music used by the two sects of worshippers with the aim of identifying the common factors in the music, which seem to be the link between the two worship groups. Key words: Music, Spirit Possession, culture, worship.

This thesis examines the history of Anglican and the Methodist churches’ collaboration in Western Nigeria during the era of the missionaries and after. The intention is to establish the approach that the early foreign missionaries bequeathed to the mission-oriented churches has been a particular problem, which has inhibited the emergence of a truly African or Nigerian form of unity particularly between the Anglican and the Methodist churches. A critical evaluation of the churches’ collaboration in Nigeria would suggest that what obtains is institutional and doctrinal unity introduced by the missionaries. While this study appreciates and commends the efforts of the early missionaries for laying these collaborative and ecumenical foundations, the study holds that it does not go far enough especially in attaining its potential to positively affect the sociocultural, religious and political challenges facing contemporary Nigeria society. Such an effective collaborative spirit is achievable only when it is contextualized, employing local and indigenous approaches including indigenous theological education. This thesis does not condemn western contributions because there are aspects of western culture that are still relevant in the context of global collaboration. However, it stresses the need for the understanding of ecumenical collaboration from different cultures particularly in Yoruba speaking region of Nigeria, so that, instead of looking up too much to the West for leadership in ecumenism, it should grow in the Nigerian climate and culture

Son innumerables las semejanzas culturales entre Cuba y Bahía en las características de la composición étnica y cultural en las cuales el aporte de varias razas que vinieron de las mismas regiones geográfica crearon una mezcla cultural que presenta puntos comunes en la música, la danza, la culinaria y principalmente en lo que se refiere a la religión de los afro descendientes. También la literatura, integrando el lado simbólico de esas culturas, no podría dejar de recrear esa realidad. En este trabajo me propongo comparar dos novelas latinoamericanas de esas regiones. Ellas son O Sumiço da Santa del escritor brasileño Jorge Amado (1912-2001) y Cuando la sangre se parece al fuego del cubano Manuel Cofiño (1936- 1987). Las obras presentan puntos de convergencia de un diálogo intercultural del que participan las deidades de la religión yoruba, lo que permite que ambas presenten elementos de un confronto de culturas y razas que serán estudiados a partir de la categoría de lo sagrado africano. Para el estudio de lo sagrado dirigimos nuestro interés principalmente para los trabajos de Èmile Durkheim (1996) que define lo sagrado como un hecho social. Como lo sagrado africano aparece en las o obras utilizando el procedimiento de lo real maravilloso incluimos también esa categoría basando nuestro estudio en la obra de Irlemar Chiampi (1980) que incorpora el elemento magia dentro de la categoría de lo real maravilloso. Fue posible constatar que la interrelación de los personajes humanos con los personajes divinos, a través del procedimiento de lo real maravilloso posibilitó, en los primeros un entendimiento del pasado con el presente y la comprensión de las particularidades de una sociedad, en la cual la mezcla racial dio paso a una mezcla cultural que la caracteriza.
São inúmeras as semelhanças culturais entre Cuba e Bahia, nas características da composição étnica e cultural em que o aporte de varias raças vindas das mesmas regiões geográficas criaram uma mistura cultural que apresenta pontos em comum na musica, na dança, na culinária e principalmente no referente à religião dos afro-descendentes. Também a literatura, integrando a face simbólica dessas culturas, não poderia deixar de recriar essa realidade. Nesta pesquisa me proponho comparar dois romances latino-americanos dessas regiões. Eles são O Sumiço da Santa do escritor brasileiro Jorge Amado (1912-2001) e Cuando la sangre se parece al fuego do cubano Manuel Cofiño (1936-1987). As obras apresentam pontos de convergência de um diálogo intercultural do qual participam as deidades da religião yoruba o que permite que ambos apresentem elementos de um confronto de culturas e raças que serão estudados a partir da categoria do sagrado africano. Para o estudo do sagrado dirigimos nosso olhar principalmente para os trabalhos de Èmile Durkheim (1996) que define o sagrado como um fato social. Como o sagrado africano aparece nas obras utilizando o procedimento do real maravilhoso incluímos também essa categoria baseando nosso estudo na obra de Irlemar Chiampi (1980) que incorpora o elemento magia dentro da categoria maravilhoso. Foi possível constatar que a inter-relação dos personagens humanos com os personagens divinos, através do procedimento do real maravilhoso possibilitou, nos primeiros, um entendimento do passado com o presente e a compreensão das particularidades de uma sociedade, em que a mistura racial deu passo a uma mestiçagem cultural que a caracteriza.

This study is a critique of Aso Ebi in Owambe social uniform and social performance phenomena of the Yoruba culture of Nigeria in West Africa. The Aso Ebi phenomenon is a social uniform that is inextricable from the Owambe spectacle of the Yoruba culture, which, in itself, is a social performance. Aso Ebi is a fabric that is selected, made into garments and worn by groups of people who are related to one another in various ways such as family, friends or comrades. The uniforms are worn for social gatherings, especially celebrations, which are popularly called Owambe. These celebrations are very elaborate and loud, much like a grand spectacle put on to show wealth, unity and flamboyance. The research is the explanation of how the Aso Ebi and Owambe social uniforms manifest themselves and this manifestation is presented through a body of artworks. The artworks seek to expose the unseen actualities involved in participating in these social performances and issues of social survival within these cultural phenomena. The analysis addresses the impacts and influence of conformity in cooperative behaviour by an individual within his/her social identity and relationships. The main question this study addresses is whether the positive factors of unity, social order and expressive visual flamboyance of the social phenomena outweigh the negative impacts particularly on the individuals who participate in these social performances. This is done by acknowledging the experiences of the participating individuals in the conformity and transmission modes of these phenomena in this culture. The visual productions of the concepts in the research are achieved through performance, collages, photography and a sculptural installation. The significance of these emergent visual productions is that they shift the focus from the impression of the group to the conformity by the individual. This highlights the problems faced by the participating individuals in the pursuit and participation of this cultural phenomenon.
Department of Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology
M.A. (Visual Arts)

The study examines two selected Yorùbá movies, focuses on the oral tradition, feelings, and messages in them. Its purpose is to show that the classification or categorisation by previous scholars is not limited to Yorùbá movies; it is adaptable to other movies. Consequently, the study sets out to find an identity for Yorùbá movies and is able to accomplish its aim. It draws on copious examples of oral tradition genres in the selected movies, extract their examples from the movies, and use the extracts to make an argument that the unique way to identify Yorùbá movies is the Yorùbá oral tradition which frequents in the movies. In its attempt to find its focus, it highlights scholars’ ideas of oral tradition worldwide and narrows the concept to the Yorùbá paradigm. The dissertation contains information on research approach, theories, analysis, and findings. Also, it presents the weaknesses of the study and offers useful recommendations. Finally, the study asserts its claim and proves it with evidence from its data.
African Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

This study explores the dynamics at play in the nineteenth century interaction between European mission Christianity and the peoples and cultures of West Africa with Akan (Gold Coast) and Yoruba (Nigeria) lands serving as the model theatres of the interaction. It appreciates the fact that in a context such as West Africa, where religious consciousness permeates every aspect of life, the coming of the Gospel to its peoples impacted every aspect of the social and religious lives of the people. Chapter one sets the agenda for the study by exploring the dynamics involved in the transmission of the Gospel as it spread from Palestine to the Graeco-Roman world, medieval Europe, Enlightenment Europe and, later, Africa in the nineteenth century. It also defines the limits of the study to the period 1820-1892. Chapter two explores the religious and the cultural environments that gave shape to the modem European missionary movement. It highlights the features of the European Reformation that were factors in defining missionary methods in West Africa. It also emphasizes the subtle infiltration of Enlightenment ideals-the primacy of Reason, the way of Nature, and the idea of Progress-into missionary consciousness about Africa and its peoples. Chapter three delineates the religious and the cultural milieus of West Africans in contrast to that of European missionaries. It underscores the integral nature of religion to the totality of life among West Africans. It also contrasts the socio-political conditions of Akan land and Yoruba land in the nineteenth century while appreciating the rapid changes impinging on their peoples. Chapter four explores how the prevailing realities in Akan and Yoruba lands defined the fortunes and the prospects of the missionary message among the people. In doing this, it draws from four model encounters of mission Christianity with West African peoples and cultures. In Mankessim, the deception associated with a traditional cult was exposed. At Akyem Abuakwa, the contention between missionaries and the royalty for authority over the people led to social disruption. The resistance of the guild of Ifa priests to Christian conversion and the assuring presence of missionaries to the warrior class created ambivalence at Abeokuta. Ibadan offers us an irenic model of interaction between mission Christianity and West African religions as Ifa, the Yoruba cult of divination, sanctioned the presence of missionaries in the city. Chapter five reflects on the issues that are significant in the interaction of the Gospel with West African cultures. It appreciates the congruence between the Gospel and West African religious worldview. It assesses the impact of missionary methods on the traditional values of West Africans, appreciating the strength and the weaknesses of the school system, the value of Bible translation into mother-tongues, and the contextual relevance of the mission station method of evangelization. It also explores the meaning of Christian conversion in West Africa using the models of A.D. Nock, John V. Taylor and Andrew F. Walls. Chapter six concludes with Andrew Walls' three tests of the expansion of Christianity. The conclusion is that in spite of the failures and weaknesses of some of the methods adopted by European missionaries in evangelizing West Africa, their converts understood their message, domesticated it according to their understanding and appropriated its benefits to the life of their societies.
Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Language Practice, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015.
This research is designed to assess the validity of the Sapir Whorf hypothesis in relation to the linguistic and cultural notions of the Yoruba and Zulu language speakers’ via the evaluation of the culture enriched drama text The Lion and The Jewel by Wole Soyinka. The study, which uses both questionnaires and interviews to derive responses from participants, engages both the primary and secondary data throughout the chapters. The study queried both the hypothesis’ strong version, (language governs thought: linguistic classifications restrain and influence mental classifications); and its weak version, (linguistic classifications and their use influence thought as well as some other classes of non-linguistic activities) and their possible reliability. Participants’ ages were between 16 and 46 years old who all speak both English and isiZulu (isiZulu-speaking participants) and English and Yoruba (Yoruba-speaking participants). Questionnaires were used and interviews were conducted, the research questions were answered and the findings provided support for validity of the linguistic relativity hypothesis, that is, languages indeed influence thought. The findings also revealed that linguistic influence on cognition is not limited to different language speakers alone, but also same language speakers per level of exposure to other languages and concepts. Based on these findings, recommendations have been made. Among which is the soliciting more research on language and culture (acculturation and enculturation) such that societal peace, love, unity and development can be maintained and promoted in any monolingual, bilingual or multilingual society. Also, educators should be aware of the possibility of a psycholinguistic influence on thought and assimilate it into schools’ curriculum so that multiculturation is fully adopted and promoted in the schools.

M. Tech. (Fine Art, Department of Visual Arts and Design, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology|
My Masters of Fine Arts degree consists of two components: the dissertation and practical works in the form of sculptures displayed as an exhibition. This body of work explores myth, belief and ritual practices relating to birth, life and death of twins in Xhosa culture. The purpose of the dissertation is to enrich and reflect on both the understanding of Xhosa ritual practices and that of my own work. The study will hopefully add significantly to the body of knowledge about Xhosa Indigenous Knowledge Systems as relating to twins. UNESCO emphasizes that Indigenous Knowledge Systems are part of immaterial cultural heritage such as languages, music and dance, festivities, rituals and traditional craftsmanship, and this cultural heritage is important for the identity of a society (Kaya & Masoga 2008:2). The choice of employing autoethnography in this qualitative study is derived from lived experience. Born as a twin in a rural Xhosa community, I experienced some unusual practices during my upbringing and thus a qualitative research method is used, involving auto-ethnography. This methodological approach aims at exploration of personal experience as a focus of investigation. The study also looks briefly at Yoruba twins as a means of finding similarities and commonalties with those of Xhosa culture.
National Arts Council

M.Tech. Drama and Film Studies.
The aim of this thesis is to explore the concept of Africanisation in the context of the Yoruba culture of the South West of Nigeria. It seeks to study the nature and form of life among the Yoruba people through the lens of selected plays by playwright and novelist Wole Soyinka, focusing on the motivations for the culture that is observed among the Yoruba speaking people. This study seeks to answer two major questions using the qualitative research method. These questions are: What cultural hallmarks and identities of the Yoruba people are represented in the selected plays of Wole Soyinka, which are Death and the Kings Horseman, The Strong Breed and The Lion and the Jewel and how are these represented? And, what is Africanisation and how has Africa responded to it? In order to achieve the above aims, the thesis is written in two parts. The first part focuses on Africanisation and African Renaissance, while the second part focuses on the analysis of the culture of the Yoruba people as presented by Wole Soyinka in the selected plays. As a philosophy, Africanisation entails, but is not limited to, the art of producing and appraising a knowledge system based on African cultures for the benefit of Africa and the world at large. According to Makhanya, Africanisation is acknowledging and introducing knowledge systems that are rooted in and relevant to Africa next to other knowledge systems in the quest to discover, explain and produce knowledge (cited in Ratshikuni, 2010:1). The selected plays analysed are culturally rich Yoruba plays. Some of the ethos of the Yoruba people, including communal life, music and drumming, naming, sacrifice, and death, among others, as represented by the playwright are expounded upon and documented. vi The methodology employed to obtain data for this study is the qualitative research method. This entails content analysis of the plays with a view to studying the cultural content in the plays. In conclusion, the thesis argues that Yoruba culture has sufficient value that can be of great benefit to the unity and progress of Africa and the world at large. But first, Africa and Africans must embrace their cultural values, expose them to the world and allow some culture of the world to blend with it so as to create a greater, meaningful and global impact.

A research project submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of arts in psychology through the Faculty of humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Socio-cultural factors and contexts influence sexuality and associated practices across the life course. Few studies have questioned what constitutes sexuality, sexual pleasure, and notions of risky sexual practices, and how elderly people engage in help-seeking for sexual health promotion and problem-solving. In response to the dearth of such research in Africa, this thesis explores the cultural interpretations, values, beliefs, and embodied practices associated with sexuality and help-seeking behaviour among urban-dwelling elderly Yoruba people (60–80 years and above) in the city of Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria. In addition, it investigates healthcare providers’ (biomedical and traditional) perceptions of sexuality and the prevention, treatment, and promotion of sexual health in old age. The thesis is rooted in Bourdieu’s social practice theory, Harré and Langenhove social positioning theory and an anthropological perspective on age-graded sexualities. From an interpretative constructivist framework, the thesis adopts an exploratory sequential mixed design. The design entails collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data in a single study. The choice of research design was informed by the perspective that diverse but relevant methodological positions opens the window into contextual understanding of sexuality in old age. The qualitative data consists of 12 vignettes based on focus group discussion (FGD) with three categories (60-69, 70-79 and 80 years and above) of 107 elderly men and women. From a thematic analysis, the FGD findings informed the conduct of 18 semi-structured interviews on equal proportion with elderly men and women (60+) and 11 semi-structured interviews with 2 healthcare providers (biomedicine and traditional medical systems). Subsequently, the thematic findings from the FGDs and interviews informed the development of a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered among 252 elderly Yoruba people (60+). The findings reveal a dominance normative beliefs and cultural expectations around bodily changes characterised the gendered differences in sexual experiences and expectations in old age. From the exemplary perspective, the ‘good old age’ connotes compliance with normative sexual orientations, beliefs, and practices. The qualitative and quantitative results affirmed the existence and engagement in penetrative and pleasurable sex at differentiated degrees for elderly men and women. The qualitative findings reveal a lack of consensus regarding the age elderly women or men should disengage from sexual activities. The survey shows that more women (75.8%) than men (54%) agreed that elderly people of their age should stop having sex. The qualitative findings also reveal that health challenges, psychosocial satisfactions in marriage, differences in sexual prowess, and financial independence affect engagement and desires in sexual activities. Two-thirds (60.3%) of the survey respondents also agreed that elderly men and women should engage in sexual activities if their health allows. The body as a ‘site of moral action’ places elderly women and men at differentiated positions within heterosexual normativity. From a disadvantaged stance, sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman can result in a folk sexual dysfunction known as idakole (poor erection and quick ejaculation) for men. Furthermore, sex with menstruating or menopausal women could cause loss of spiritual powers for men. These views resonate with some taboos on sex and efficacy of some traditional medicine. As a form of contestation, bodily changes during menopause represent a period of abstaining, suppressing or disengaging from obligatory sexual duties. It also affords women the avenue to avoid the experience of oyun iju (a socially constructed folk pregnancy). As a counter reaction, menopause also provides valid positions 3 for some sexually active elderly men to seek new intimate relations with younger women. By expounding on the privileged position of men, the findings portray a normative view that elongates men’s sexual retirement until death. Without doubting the possibilities of losing sexual prowess with age, the use of traditional aphrodisiacs was perceived to improve sexual performance and pleasures. Such measures are scarce for women, except those that could aid male’s sexual pleasures when used by women like ado dun (pleasurable and irresistible vagina sex). In this light, the thesis argues that the differentiated gendered framing of bodily changes and sexuality take the body as a moral and health site to arrive at an interpretation of old age that could influence ageing experience as ‘good’ or ‘miserable’. The findings also show that the premium on penetrative sex and pleasures create differentiated opportunities for elderly men to contract sexual infections. The possibilities of contracting sexual infections among sexually active elderly people was not doubted. Gonorrhoea, syphilis and magun (a folk sexual infection) emerged as common examples of sexual infections among old and young in the study settings. Gonorrhoea and syphilis can be treated via biomedicine and traditional medicine. Magun and HIV are untreated sexual infections but are preventable through sexual abstinence and use of traditional medical measures. Traditional preventive measures such as onde (amulet), ajesara (incisions and digestible concoctions) perform dual functions: prevent disease and guarantee pleasurable sex. Both qualitative and quantitative results reveal that condom use can prevent sexually transmitted infections. However, condom use was also conceived to reduce sexual pleasures for men and women. In this direction, the survey results affirm that condom use can reduce sexual pleasures for elderly men (77.8%) and women (22.2%), respectively. More than average (55.7%) of the female and about one-third (44.3%) of the male respondents also perceive the condom as more useful for younger people. 4 With the possibilities of contracting sexual infections, the qualitative findings affirm that aetiological explanations around a sexual health problem can act as a constraint and also facilitate medical help-seeking. Also, shameful feelings, stigma, and unstable or poor financial conditions inhibit responsive help-seeking. More than one-third (49.6%) of the survey respondents perceived doctors’ indifference as a constraint. This was followed by shame (22.6%), neglect from other family members (10.7%) and neglect of children (10.3%). Contraction of sexual infection in old age can also lead to withdrawal of quality support from significant others. The thesis argues that the social framework of the exemplary elder influence post-reproductive sexual health outcomes within the study context. Healthcare providers from the two medical systems acknowledged the need for post-reproductive sexual health care services. Such services were, however, perceived along the gender divide as more elderly males than females expressed and sought help from both systems. The provisions of post-reproductive sexual health services within the biomedical system attracted some pluses. A few of the female participants acknowledge the efforts of biomedical trained physicians and nurses in creating awareness on how to overcome menopausal challenges. The findings highlight that socio-cultural understandings of the intersections among ageing, sexuality, and gender influence framing of sexual health needs and unequal sexual health outcomes in old age. The possibility of such influences lie in cultural conceptions of the ideal body and the appropriate timing of sexual activities. Such normative views therefore influence how elderly people make sense of bodily changes, their sexuality, help-seeking, and response to sexual health needs from health care providers. Healthcare professionals from both medical systems are also prone to the influence of normative social frameworks in responding to post-reproductive sexual health needs. With the need to achieve a healthy ageing population and the 5 existing gaps in post-reproductive sexual health services, this thesis argues that normative beliefs, values and practices around sexuality influence sexual experiences, practices, dispositions to sexual infections, availability and access to post-reproductive sexual healthcare services within the study settings. Public enlightenment around sexual rights across the life course are needed to complement a review of existing sexual healthcare services in Nigeria. It will also improve the therapeutic relations between professional healthcare providers and their elderly clients. These initiatives can position professional healthcare providers for responsive diagnosis, prevention and management of post-reproductive sexual health needs and a possible realisation of healthy ageing population in Nigeria.
GR2017

This thesis explores the cultural and the religious formation of Rev. Samuel Johnson and his response to the changing environment of West Africa, particularly Yorubaland, in the nineteenth century. Divided into two parts, the first part looks at the biography of the man, paying attention to his formative environment and his response to it as a Yoruba evangelist in the service of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). The second part explores the issues that were involved in his response to his changing milieu of ministry—encounter with Yoruba religions and Islam, the search for peace in the Yoruba country, and historical consciousness. The first chapter, which is introductory, sets the pace for the research by looking at the academic use to which the missionary archives have been put, from the 1950s, to unravel Africa’s past. While the approaches of historians and anthropologists have been shaped by broad themes, this chapter makes a case for the study of the past from biographical perspectives. Following the lead that has been provided in recent years on the African evangelists by Adrian Hastings, Bengt Sundkler and Christopher Steed, and John Peel the chapter presents Samuel Johnson, an agent of the CMS in the nineteenth century Yoruba country, as a model worthy of the study of indigenous response to the rapid change that swept through West Africa in the second half of the nineteenth century. Chapter two explores the antecedents to the emergence of Johnson in Sierra Leone and appreciates the nexus of his family history and that of the Yoruba nation in the century of rapid change. The implosion of the Oyo Empire in the second decade of the nineteenth century as a result of internal dissension opened the country to unrestrained violence that boosted the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Sierra Leone offering a safe haven for some of the rescued victims of the trade, “Erugunjimi” Henry Johnson, was rehabilitated under the benevolence of the CMS. At Hastings, where the Basel trained missionary Ulrich Graf exercised a dominant influence, Henry Johnson raised his family until he returned with them to the Yoruba country in 1858 as a scripture reader. The Colony of Sierra Leone, however, was in contrast to the culturally monolithic Yoruba country. Cosmopolitan, with Christianity having the monopoly of legitimacy, the colony gave Samuel and his siblings their early religious and cultural orientations.
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.