Arts & Culture
Jury Announces Winner Of J. A. Atanda Prize For 2021
Published
1 year agoon

Babcock University, the Yoruba Studies Review, and the Jury of the J. A. Atanda Prize have announced the winner of the 2021 J. A. Atanda Prize for the Best Essay on the Yoruba. The winner will receive a certificate, citation, and a sum of $500. The J. A. Atanda Prize represents a stable and enduring platform for promoting and further developing Yoruba Studies.
The prize celebrates the legacy of Professor Atanda to the study of Yoruba history. Joseph Adebowale Atanda was a passionate historian who dedicated his scholarship to Africa’s historiography, especially Yoruba. Popular among his publications are The New Oyo Empire: Indirect Rule and Change in Western Nigeria, 1894-1934; An Introduction to Yoruba History; and Baptist Churches in Nigeria: Accounts of Their Foundation and Growth. More than two decades after his demise, his scholarship remains relevant.
The finalists were selected from a list of short-listed essays chosen by the Editors of the Yoruba Studies Review. The finalists and the eventual winner’s selection were according to a professional and rigorous set of guidelines covering data quality, originality, contributions to knowledge, and Yoruba Studies. The finalists presented original ideas and high-quality data on the Yoruba language, culture, and society.
READ ALSO: BOOK REVIEW:Camouflage: Best Of Contemporary Writing In Nigeria
2021 Jury Members
Chair: Dr. Akinloye Ojo, University of Georgia
Members: Professor Segun Ogungbemi, Independent Scholar
Dr. Bose Afolayan, University of Lagos
Secretary to the Jury: Kaosarat Aina, University of Ibadan
The winner of the 2021 J.A. Atanda Prize for the Best Essay on the Yoruba is Dr. Michael Oladejo Afolayan for his essay:
Ọmọ tí a kò kọ́: Globalization and Cultural Education among new Generation Nigeria-Yoruba
Michael Afolayan’s paper is a comprehensive exploration of the semantic, phonological and philosophical implications of the Yoruba verbal particle Kọ́ which, contextually, could mean ‘to teach or instruct,’ ‘to learn,’ ‘to build,’ or ‘to anchor or to hang’ in the Yoruba language. Afolayan draws attention to an influential aspect of Yoruba indigenous epistemology by highlighting the play on the tonemic and semantic complexity of the language in the use of Kọ́ in a particular Yoruba proverbial, Omo ti a ko ko ni yoo gbe ile ti a ko ta (“the child that is not taught will eventually sell the house that is built”). The paper outlines the case for the high socio-cultural value that the Yoruba people place on the appropriate upbringing of a child based on the compelling argument that building a child’s mind is more consequential than building a physical structure. Highly ambitious and didactic, the major strength of the paper is its persuasive argument for the essential transference of cultural education as the foundation for Yoruba nation-building, especially against the backdrop of the looming crisis amongst the new generation of Yoruba people apparently comfortable with violating the norms and values of the society and generally failing to embrace Yoruba cultural literacy. Outlining what Afolayan identifies as the vicious cycle of culpability and loss of the conscience of shame and guilt, the paper proposes half a dozen solutions to remedy this looming cultural crisis amongst the Yoruba both at home and in the Diaspora. The paper exceptionally exposes that which is good in the Yorùbá and present original ideas constructively to highlight the positive in Yorùbá language, culture, and society.
Read more authentic news on our social media platforms
Related
You may like
-
Olaopa: The Self As A Patriotic Reformer – The Tales Of A Memoirist
-
Reflection on The Unending Quest for Reform, Tunji Olaopa’s Memoir
-
The Unending Quest For Reform – Tunji Olaopa’s Intellectual Memoir: A Commentary
-
A Savage Outing In The Name Of Electioneering
-
Unending Passion For Reform: A Peep Into My Memoir And The Future Of Nigeria
-
BREAKING: Abacha’s Ex-chief Of Staff Oladipo Diya Dies
Arts & Culture
Toyin Falola, Memories Of Africa: Home And Abroad In The United States
Published
1 week agoon
March 19, 2023
By Olusegun Olopade
Toyin Falola, Memories of Africa: Home and Abroad in the United States (Atlantic Migrations and the African Diaspora) | © March 2023
Book Details
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (March 24, 2023)
Language: English
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1496843487
ISBN-13: 978-1496843487
Memories of Africa: Home and Abroad in the United States suggests a new lens for viewing African Diaspora studies: the experiences of African memoirists who live in the United States. The book shows how African Diaspora memoirs beautifully and grippingly depict the experiences of African migrants over time through political, social, and cultural spheres. In reading African Diaspora memoirs from the transatlantic slave trade period to the present, a reader can understand the complexity of the African migrant legacy and evolution.
Author Toyin Falola argues that memoirs are significant not only in their interpretation of events conveyed by the memoirists but also in demonstrating how interpersonal and human the stories told can be. Memoirs are powerful because they are emotionally captivating and because important themes and events circulate around a particular person (in this case, the memoirist).
Undoubtedly, a memoir is significant because it can teach anyone about a part of the human experience, even if the “facts” are not described without bias. Through this sort of narrative, the reader cannot help but enter into the memoirist’s mind and, therefore, feel more empathy for them. In doing so, the reader can “feel” what the memoirist feels and “see” what the memoirist sees as clearly as is humanly possible. In this way, the historical events and life lessons become tangible and poignantly real to the reader.
Editorial Reviews
Memories of Africa makes a significant contribution to the study of the African Diaspora, African intellectual history, to our understanding of African autobiography, and more importantly to life studies. Falola provides fresh insights that will reinvigorate the field. — Olabode Ibironke, author of Remapping African Literature.
Memories of Africa opens a new dimension to the understanding of the experiences of home, space, and place, and their interactions in African and diaspora studies. — Adetayo Alabi, author of Oral Forms of Nigerian Autobiography and Life Stories.
Toyin Falola is Professor of History, University Distinguished Teaching Professor, and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. He has received over thirty lifetime career awards and sixteen honorary doctorates. He has written extensively on the African Diaspora, including The African Diaspora: Slavery, Modernity, and Globalization.
Related
Arts & Culture
12th Toyin Falola Annual International Conference On Africa And The African Diaspora (2023 TOFAC) Set To Hold
Published
2 weeks agoon
March 16, 2023
|
|
Related
Arts & Culture
Kenyatta University Holds Toyin Falola At 70 Conference
Published
2 months agoon
February 4, 2023
The Department of History, Archeology and Political Science of the Kenyatta University is set to hold a Toyin Falola at 70 Conference.
The conference with the theme “Post-Colonial Africa: Historical and Contemporary Realities” is scheduled to take place between May 10 and 12, 2023 at the Kenyatta University.
Description
Modern African economic, socio-cultural, and political realities have been considerably influenced and defined by colonialism. Colonialism created the foundation of the post-colonial. Since the start of the post-colonial and (especially) the post-cold war era, there has been increased academic interest in colonialism– both in the classic and the neo-colonial forms. There have also been considerable academic and non-academic efforts at decoloniality and decolonizing Africa. These efforts have led to studying and documenting African pre-colonial history, literature, and cultural intricacies to achieve self-determination and re-establish the African identity. It is, therefore, necessary and logically consistent with the above to study Africa’s past in relation to its present. Essentially, it is important that aside from examining the print of colonial pedagogy, methods, and philosophies, Africa is studied in the light of its actions, attempts at self-governance, and realities defined by its stakeholders.
READ ALSO: Toyin Falola Donates Over 500 Books To Kaduna State University Library
A considerable effort has been directed at researching, documenting, and analyzing Post-colonial Africa across different fields of the Arts and the Humanities. Through such efforts concepts such as neo-colonialism, political hegemony, economic instability, societal disillusionment, administrative lapses among others that touch on the African post-colonial condition have been explored by several researchers and academicians. However, the very basis of the evolution of knowledge and the foundation of the academic world is the consistent evaluation of knowledge, theories, and philosophies. As much as there has been enhanced scholarship around the aforementioned issues, there are still thematically important aspects of Post-Colonial Africa that are relatively unexplored or under-explored. New concepts, skepticism, and relatively new subject matters have developed with the continent’s evolution – particularly concerning socio-culture, administration, globalization, conflicts, diplomacy, and ideological paradigms. For instance, it may be important to define the extent to which pre-colonial Africa influences the post-colonial realities of its nation-states, regions, and Sub-regions, as it applies across respective fields.
Other relevant aspects of the post-colonial African reality like identity dynamics and minority politics, institutions and sub-institutions in Africa, diaspora dynamic, administrative evolution in Africa, Post-colonial gender dynamics in Africa, intercultural realities of distinct nation-states in Africa, cultural awareness, and preservation in Africa, decolonial legal education and practice, ideological politics in post-colonial African, among others. The COVID-19 pandemic presented new dynamics to interpret and understand the place of post-colonial Africa in the world in light of global power politics and diplomatic spate over the causes of COVID-19, vaccine politics, and international travel restrictions. COVID-19 highlighted the need to rethink post-colonial Africa’s readiness to respond to global challenges independently.
The Department of History, Archeology and Political Studies through the Research and Innovation Committee (DRIC) plans to host a conference that is directed at answering the conceptual questions that underline some key aspects of post-colonial Africa – as defined by the necessary contextual factors and underlining theories. The conference is expected to feature different themes and introduce concepts, arguments, and theories that are well-adjusted to current African realities.
The department also wishes to use the occasion to celebrate the 70-year life journey of Professor Toyin Falola, a world renowned Distinguished Professor of History and the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Falola has dedicated his entire academic life, with over 150 titles under his name, reflecting on the African condition both in historical and contemporary terms. In March 2022, the Department hosted Professor Falola, who gave thought provoking lectures on “Decolonization of Africa Studies”. As a department, we are keen to use the conference to continue enriching our conversations around this and related themes, enhance our scholarly connections and collaborations, establish new research and publication partnerships as well as strengthen existing ones.
Sub-themes
The conference sub-themes will include but are not limited to the following:
- Decoloniality, and decolonization, as it intertwines with post-colonial studies
- Internationalization in the African region – key factors for consideration should include Pan-Africanism as examined through the lens of its basis, the status quo, and possible ways forward.
- Post-colonial economy and the role of the nation-state in establishing independent regional control
- Resource control as it affects neo-colonialistic affiliations and European hegemonic influence in Post-colonial Africa
- Liberal ideological predispositions and the socio-philosophical future of the African Nation states – with considerations to the influence of the youth demography
- Developmental politics in Post-colonial Africa
- Gender dynamics and politics in Post-colonial Africa
- Post-colonial Literature and the future of the arts in Africa
- Migration, conflicts, and peace actions in post-colonial Africa
- Regional collaboration and diplomatic politics in Post-Colonial Africa
Participation
The conference is expected to attract participation from academicians, researchers, experts and practitioners in the area of African history and other related humanities and social science disciplines. These shall be drawn from mainly Kenyan and other African institutions as well as from outside the Africa continent. The conference will allow for a blended mode where some participants will be present on-site at Kenyatta university while others will present online.
READ ALSO: Where Did All The Money Go?
SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Prospective participants are encouraged to send abstracts of between 250 and 500 words, including their full contact details (title, name, address, email address and telephone number) as well as their institutional affiliation by 30th February, 2023 to: haps-research@ku.ac.ke
Final Output
Authors of accepted abstracts will be notified by 5th March 2023 and asked to prepare full papers to be presented during the conference. The official language of the conference will be English. Papers presented at the conference will be peer reviewed and published in an edited volume.
Important Dates
27th January, 2023: Call for Papers/Abstracts
30th February, 2023: Deadline for Receipt of Abstracts
5th March 2023: Notification of Acceptance of Abstracts/Papers
15th April 2023: Deadline for receipt of Full papers
20th April, 2023: Registration begins
1st May, 2023: End of Registration
10th to 12 May 2023: Conference Dates
Read more authentic news on our social media platforms
Related
NEW TIMES CULTURE

Olaopa: The Self As A Patriotic Reformer – The Tales Of A Memoirist

Reflection on The Unending Quest for Reform, Tunji Olaopa’s Memoir

The Unending Quest For Reform – Tunji Olaopa’s Intellectual Memoir: A Commentary
Top Stories
-
Opinion4 days ago
With Us, Not For US
-
Opinion3 days ago
Religious Mumu
-
Opinion1 day ago
Unending Passion For Reform: A Peep Into My Memoir And The Future Of Nigeria
-
Opinion1 day ago
A Savage Outing In The Name Of Electioneering
-
Latest News5 days ago
BREAKING: Ekweremadu, Wife Found Guilty Of Organ-trafficking In UK