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The Yorùbá are one of the major ethnic groups in West Africa, with Nigeria being the homeland for the majority. The Yorùbá poet Niyi Osundare's work is influenced by the Yorùbá animist worldview, which venerates the spoken word. Such influence is evident in his depiction of the spoken word as an extraordinary sort of person, a superperson. One central artistic feature of his poetry is the adaptation of devices of Yorùbá oral literature. Therefore, most studies of his poetry privilege its link to Yorùbá oral poetry. However, the use of devices found in Yorùbá folktales in his verse has not been subjected to detailed study. One implication of this is that, despite magical realism being a major artistic feature of Osundare's poetry, critics have largely overlooked the fact that he is a magical realist poet. In his collection The Word Is an Egg (Ibadan: Kraft, 2000), Osundare relies substantially on the folktale as a model to frame his message on the personhood of the spoken word. In this article, I use the lens of magical realism to explore how he uses an adapted Yorùbá folktale to depict the message that the spoken word is a superperson who deserves to be treated with respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the concept of oral traditions (oral literature) in Africa, and its relevance to human development. It draws attention to the richness of indigenous knowledge contained in oral literature and demonstrates how the characters of individuals within a community can be molded by the values embedded in oral literature. The paper argues that the issue with development, especially in Africa, is that it is often seen only from the viewpoint of industrialization or productivity, thereby neglecting the need to transform the human mind. Oral literature is at the center of human development because, like the function of literature itself, it promotes ethically driven actions, by educating on what ought to be and not just what is. It concludes that any discussion on development and social change in Africa, and possibly beyond, will be incomplete if adequate attention is not given to the oral literature or traditions of the African people. Every knowledge-led development strategy of any nation must be built on a solid foundational core of an understanding of values. As Africans, to craft a better future, we need to understand the lessons of our past, and this is to be achieved by a reconsideration of the values and principles enshrined in the oral traditions of these communities and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The publishing industry in Nigeria is one that has undergone different phases. The first phase was that of Oral Literature, where literature and story-telling were only communicated verbally. Presently, the publishing industry in Nigeria has grown beyond story-telling. It has evolved into a more dynamic form that is now internationally recognised. From 1986, when Nigerian author Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, to date, many factors have contributed to the growth of literary publishing in Nigeria. From local book festivals to international awards, despite the many challenges facing the country, such as political and economic instability, poverty, and unemployment just to mention a few, young people who are passionate about literature are choosing to write and publish their stories the way only they can and because of this, many writers of Nigerian origin are more prominent than ever before internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of African feminism, particularly Nigerian women, and feminist history, is large and expansive, covering significant topics and innovative methods and sources; yet many areas remain unexplored. In this paper, I investigate the landmarks in scholarship on women and feminist history in Nigeria and make a case for new directions. Women and feminist histories in Nigeria have focused on deconstructing the category of "women" arguing that this category and its corresponding social and cultural characteristics are western inventions. More so, that gender and gender relations were fluid concepts that did not lead to exclusion based on anatomical sex. In addition, other scholars have examined social practices like marriage, bride-price, and child labour while others have attempted critical biographies of elite Lagos women and analyzed the gendered nature of colonialism. I argue that a new research agenda must go beyond these topics in search of themes, methods, and sources to explore untapped sources and rare methodologies to chart a new course in the scholarship on Nigerian women and feminism. Underexplored topics include but are not limited to fame and protest in the pre-colonial era, sexualities scholarship that goes beyond binaries, gender and the environment and technologies of power such as guns in precolonial Nigeria. In terms of sources, new frontiers need to mine orality and oral literature to recover the voices of non– educated women who are not part of Christian cosmopolitan networks, Muslim women whose exploits in women and feminist history have been silenced by excessive attention to Christian women. Literary sources like novels and poetry, and visual evidence from photography have not received critical attention in women and feminist histories of Nigeria. I argue that these new sources and topics will lead to an inclusive history that is mindful of power in the writing of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes a theoretical framework, based in the philosophy and aesthetics of Yoruba people (Nigeria), for interpreting urban photographic series. To do so I look at oriki, a form of Yoruba oral literature, and the ways in which it resonates and intersects with Western philosophical conceptualizations of place and urban and literary theory to engender a rich and complex sense of place. I argue this by exploring two series of cityscapes: Akinbode Akinbiyi's "Lagos: All Roads" which depicts Lagos Nigeria, and Mouna Karray's "Murmurer" depicting Sfax, Tunisia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely believed that lesbianism and homosexuality are foreign concepts and colonial imports to Sub-Saharan Africa. This popular view is not unconnected with hegemonic heterosexual orientation of the society. The pitfall of heterosexual orientation, which hinges on politics of sexual representation, is worth an academic investigation. Therefore, this study seeks to close the analytical gap by examining Yorùbá oral literature, which is regarded as the repertoire of their traditional and cultural beliefs and nuances, to unravel the subject of lesbianism and homosexuality from a sociological approach. Drawing on interviews and oral literature, this article examines the vital ideas of lesbianism and gay culture among the Yorùbá people of southwestern Nigeria. This article argues that the preconceived obscenity of lesbianism and homosexuality among the Yorùbá hinges on the culture of silence within the cultural milieu of the people. The study concludes that the representation of lesbianism and gay in diverse oral literature, as the repertoire of people's experiences and worldview, rubberstamped its presence and practices in the Yorùbá society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article focuses on folklore and storytelling of the Igbo tribe of southeastern Nigeria. The author argues that the study of folklore, folk songs, and heroic recitations reveal the underlying cultural group-knowledge of a society and are the basis of social and cultural interactions and communications. Igbo folk traditions portray the tortoise as the holder of wisdom and a trickster. The author considers how storytelling fosters a sense of culture, community, and shared values among the Igbo.

Many scholars, particularly in curriculum development and instructions and educators have increased their teaching repertoire, using stories. This innovation points at the enormous resources in the compass of fiction (oral and written literature), which can engender positive molding of pupils' competences and attitudes. Realizing, that the pulse and heartbeat of the world social cultural, economic and political relations have been greatly shaped by oral and written literature, perhaps more than any other disciplines, this paper explores some of the possibilities which through fiction may further allow the harmonious integration of disparate people of the world in a modern technology. Finally, the study examines concretely the implications and challenges of these huge resources in the universe of fiction to Nigeria's attempt at reforming its education sector with the vision to becoming an emerging economy model through the provision of sound education for its citizenry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African writers have a deepening susceptibility for social and political commitment as their texts depict socio-political events in their societies. Markedly, modern African literature arose to become part of the larger universal literary space; a weapon for re-establishing the cruelly denigrated African personality, and an effective slingshot against colonialism. Now, it is being employed as virus-resistant software; reflecting and refracting postcolonial disillusionment. Thus, African literature becomes an encyclopedic containment of the experiences of the people of the continent. It is within this space that we fixated on Nigerian literature. Tellingly, this paper tries to locate and establish the possibilities of unerring democratic ideals and good governance as the locus of postcolonial texts. Through pseudo-textual analysis practice, this essay seeks to contextualize post-independence pains and frustration. Finally, the paper offers a beacon of hope by calling on the people to transcend the post-independence of disillusionment, cynicism, fatalism, ethnicity etcetera, and to erect democratic governance based on positivist - oriented leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of dialectical anthropology with reference to the Igbos of Nigeria. It focuses on a specific aspect of Stanley Diamond, the founder of Dialectical Anthropology, his search for a future vision of humanity as an alternative to contemporary Western civilization. Diamond's concept of "the primitive" inverts the negative European-American perspective on the non-Western world. Political anthropology, in a radical departure from established academic convention, enables us with Stanley Diamond to recognize Igbo customs, their beliefs, oral literature, and artistic expressions, as political actions based on decisions made by people making history.