Academic literature on the topic 'Yoruba Christian literature'

This article discusses the debates about Islam and Muslim behavior in colonial Lagosian newspapers from the 1920s to the 1940s. It argues that the content of debates about Islam varied depending on the language in which they took place: while Islamic debates in English advocated reforming both Islam and Muslim behavior through practices that reflected British and Christian missionary values and aesthetics, Yoruba-language discourses centered on the moral obligations of the individual to the wider community.

Poised between its Emirate heritage and the mixed-religious culture of fellow Yoruba-speakers, the city of Ilorin has long served as a centre of Islamic learning in Yorubaland. In the colonial period Yoruba Muslims became strongly aware of the need to compete educationally with Christians who had access to Western education, Ilorin also became a location for the modernisation of Islamic schooling. This article explores two pedagogical models that were successfully established in Ilorin during the colonial and post-colonial period, the Adabiyya and Markaziyya. While the emergence of these madrasa-type educational systems reflects some epistemological changes away from embodied learning, the variation between different models illustrates that there are many different ways in which Islamic education can be modernised. The article also highlights that practices of embodiment continue to play an important role in Ilorin, which demonstrates the ongoing importance of Sufi values in modern Islamic education.

Song is a universal phenomenon and significant aspect of Yorùbá literature usually constructed systematically using words that reflect either negative or positive linguistic connotation. Existing studies established their scope of usage in several areas of endeavors but have hardly addressed their negative implication for using them in socio-political scenario of Nigeria which sometimes seems to be counterproductive and having overbearing effect on peace and stability of the Nation. The paper adopts Marxist theory for its ability to explain reason for political and economic crisis in government and what the oppressed members of society must do to liberate themselves from such crisis. Eight protest songs were purposively selected from the Nigerian political scenario of the past for having sufficient usage of the Yorùbá protest songs imbued with curse, hate expressions, abuse, derision and ridicule/sarcasm. In order to strike a balance, four corrupt coinages of the Christian songs and the other four corrupt coinages of the Yorùbá traditional songs were eventually subjected to stylistic analysis. In all, politics, financial fraud and jubilation were expressed and contextualized in curse, ridicule/sarcasm, derision, hatred and abusive utterances all of which are capable of destabilizing peace and unity of the country. Yoruba protest songs in this paper are corrupt coinages of both Christian and Yorùbá traditional songs used to express socio-political issues in Nigeria and conveyed through curse, hate expressions, derision, sarcasm, abusive utterances and also reflect ingenuity-constrained stylistic choices.

The aim of this article is to highlight some African women’s problematic sex life, even in their married lives, as a result of prescribed and lengthy periods of abstinence from sex – especially during pregnancy. Literature studies, especially on Yoruba sexual practices, showed that forced abstinence from sexual activity during pregnancy is rife and that many women seem content with the situation, probably as a result of their internalisation of patriarchal beliefs and values, prescribed as a means of socialisation. This phenomenon of abstinence from sexual intercourse during pregnancy by the women in some African societies is the focus of the study. The article examined the following: views of sex amongst Black African people, medical views of sex and views of sex in Christian tradition. Also examined at length was the phenomenon of abstinence from sex in an African context. The findings led to a critical evaluation of the phenomenon and a search for pastoral guidelines that could facilitate transformation, intimacy and committed sexual life in African families.Die doel van hierdie artikel is om die problematiese seksuele lewens van sommige vrouens in Afrika na vore te bring. Die probleme kom voor ten spyte van die feit dat hulle getroud is omdat lang tydperke van onthouding, veral tydens swangerskap, vir hulle voorgeskryf word. ’n Literatuurstudie, veral oor die Yoruba se seksuele praktyke, dui daarop dat gedwonge onthouding van seksuele aktiwiteite gedurendede swangerskap heersend is. Verder kom dit ook voor asof baie vrouens nie daarmee probleme ervaar nie, waarskynlik as gevolg van hulle geïnternaliseerde patriargale oortuigings en waardes, wat vir sosialiseringsdoeleindes voorgeskryf word. Hierdie studie fokus op die verskynsel van onthouding van geslagsomgang gedurende swangerskap deur vrouens in sommige Afrika-gemeenskappe. Die artikel ondersoek die volgende: Swart Afrikane se tradisionele seksbeskouing, die mediese seksbeskouing en die Christelike tradisie se seksbeskouing. Die verskynsel van seksonthouding in ’n Afrika-konteks word ook ondersoek. Die bevindinge lei tot ’n kritiese evaluering van die fenomeen en die soeke na pastorale riglyne wat transformasie, intimiteit en toewyding in seksuele verhoudings in families in Afrika sou kon fasiliteer.