Yoruba Creativity: Fiction, Language, Life, and Songs

by Toyin Falola (Contributor)

In songs, dance, and drama, the fame of the Yoruba of Nigeria is firmly established and universally acknowledged. Also with an established writing and literary tradition, the Yoruba have asserted themselves as a dominant force in the world of creativity, touching on various genres and producing men and women of fame. Such stars are represented here, as in the works of Wole Soyinka and Zulu Sofola. The power of language forms a crucial element of their creativity, with various authors examining the nature of Yoruba language and education, and the multiple uses to which language has been put to compose plays and songs. Chanters of words and famous recorders of music such as Haruna Isola and Fela Anikulapo Kuti are presented in this volume, not as competitors but as companions in the ever-expanding horizons of Yoruba eclectic manifestations of creativity. The future of the language, in the making of new idioms and dictionaries, is examined in an attempt to position the Yoruba and their cultures in the ever-changing world of cultural inventions.

Hardcover

First published December 1, 2004

About the author

Toyin Omoyeni Falola is a Nigerian historian and professor of African Studies. He is currently the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. Falola earned his B.A. and Ph.D. (1981) in History at the University of Ife, Ile-Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. Falola is author and editor of more than one hundred books, and he is the general editor of the Cambria African Studies Series (Cambria Press), Falola served as the president of the African Studies Association in 2014 and 2015.