Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences | Department of Asian and African Studies | Regional Departments | African Studies | Further Information | 23.11. Africa Colloquium: YoruBaianidade – Culture and Tradition versus Modernity – Deconstructing the Clichés on Yoruba Identity in Africa and the Diaspora

23.11. Africa Colloquium: YoruBaianidade – Culture and Tradition versus Modernity – Deconstructing the Clichés on Yoruba Identity in Africa and the Diaspora

  • When Nov 23, 2022 from 04:15 to 05:45
  • Where IAAW, Invalidenstr. 118, 4th floor, room 410
  • Contact Name Dr. Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong, Prof. Baz Lecocq
  • iCal

Prof. Dr. Félix Ayoh’Omidire, Department of Foreign Languages, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.

Undoubtedly, the name Yoruba is associated very strongly with a lot of ethnographic, anthropological, religious, economic and even political connotations and significance within the contemporary global society. A simple tab on any search engine such as Google will yield hundreds of entries running to tens of pages of websites, images, videos, texts, books, events, seminars, etc. on various aspects of Yorubaness or being Yoruba in Africa, and in the diverse Latin American societies, which make up the historic diaspora of Yoruba-speaking peoples in the Afro-Atlantic World.

This Seminar presentation aims to take a critical look at some major elements (material, textual, images and others) which are germane to the Yoruba identity within the negro Atlantic space with a view to deconstruct some of the clichés, both positive and negative, that have endured over time and space. Our ultimate objective in this Seminar is to engage with what we consider as distorted notions of culture, tradition and modernity in the epistemological discourse on non-western societies with an overall intent of enabling a favorable reading of the emergent discourse on the Epistemologias do Sul (Boaventura de Sousa Santos).

Prof. Ayoh'Omidire is currently a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Chair of African Literatures and Cultures at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Organisation of the colloquium this semester: Prof. Dr. Baz Lecocq, Dr. Pepetual Mforbe Chiangong