In 1998 a group of scholars with Catholic, Anglican and Jewish background gathered at a symposium to review Humanae vitae 30 years after its publication. On the 40-year anniversary of Humanae vitae in 2008, the issues raised in that controversial encyclical letter still border and affect humans especially in the light of modern scientific and biotechnological development. This book is a contribution to that debate in the sense of being unbiased and from an African perspective meant to balance the «sense and insensibilities» from both polarities of the world. It is an X-ray through a hermeneutical-anthropological «Weltanschauung» (worldview) of the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria.

Ethnosensitive Dimensions of African Oral Literature: Igbo Perspectives is a collection of nineteen essays spanning all genres of African Oral literature, from the poetic genre to the rhetorical genre. Part One of the book is introductory, and includes three essays that are of a general kind, touching all aspects of the genres, while Part Two includes six essays concerned with the poetic genre. Part Three, made up of two essays and concern the prose genre while Part Four, of two essays, examines the drama genre. Part Five, made up of three essays, addresses the rhetorical genre, and Part Six has three essays that cut across all the genres. The contributions examine the implications of ethnocentric imperatives of oral literature in relation to nationalistic demands.

First published in 1966

Ecocriticism has matured beyond nature writing, beyond writing about nature. The essays in this volume look at the broader cultural, historical, sociological, and psychological implications of ecology in written, visual, and sound culture. In keeping with our sense of a global community, these essays are representative of international scholarship on ecology and the environment, and display the range of insight of which this criticism is capable. Focusing on popular culture, this volume is in the vanguard of our collective reflections on the directions in which our various societies are going.

Medical exploitation often occurs because a patient does not understand the nature of his or her illness. Consequently the patient falls prey to simple explanations, like nails in the body causing pain or obstructing the normal progress of labor and delivery. The aim of this book is to improve doctor-patient communication in Igbo language by establishing an Igbo medical vocabulary, which both the doctor and patient can understand and speak. Ancillary objectives include the following: • Assignment of names to some organ systems of the body that are currently unnamed in Igbo language, and explanation of their functions; • Assignment of names to disease-causing agents such as virus and bacteria, which are not visible with the naked eye; • Introduction of the concept of chronic disease such as hypertension and diabetes, which can only be controlled but not usually curable; • Introduction of modern cell biology in Igbo language. We have met many challenges in writing this book. First, we found that the Igbo language is rich in naming external parts of the body, but lacks words for some internal organs and organ systems, such as the endocrine organs, the retculoendothelial system, the vascular system, the lymphatic system, etc. It even lacks the concept of cells and tissues, so that organs are only understood as they appear to the naked eyes. Second, we noted that some organ systems are lumped together in Igbo language, even though each system has its distinct group of diseases. For instance there are no words to differentiate string-like structures in the body. Thus nerves, arteries, veins, tendons, ligaments, lymphatic vessels and even fascia are collectively known as akwara. Our charge was to name these parts individually in Igbo. Third, disease causing agents not visible with the naked eyes, such as bacteria and viruses are not known in Igbo language, and needed newly minted words. Perhaps the most difficult challenge we faced is the fact that Igbo language lacks the flexibility of the English language, which borrows its medical terms very liberally from Greek and Latin roots, to create words that did not exist in the language. For instance the word atherosclerosis is derived from the Greek root, athere, meaning gruel or dirt, and skiros, meaning hard. Since Igbo language lacks such close interaction with other languages, English-to-Igbo interpretation of medical terms becomes necessarily descriptive and long. Where we have interpreted a medical term with more than one Igbo word we have tried to preserve the essence of the term. For instance we have named atherosclerosis Atịtị ọwa ọbara, meaning dirt in the blood channel. We have emphasized the concept of chronic disease in contrast with the well understood model of acute illnesses. In this regard we have highlighted hypertension (Obara Mgbanni Elu) stroke (Ọtụọ ọkara), diabetes (Ọrịa shuga), heart attack (Ọkụkụ mkpụrụobi) and heart failure (Okuko afọ mkpụrụobi). This is particularly important because chronic diseases require lifetime treatment, unlike the familiar model of acute diseases, such as malaria (Ịba anwụ nta) or appendicitis (Amahịa mgbakwunye eriri afọ) that requires only brief or intermittent treatment. Since Igbo culture is technologically challenged, we have difficulty coming up with a language that reflects the technology of modern medicine, such as x-ray, ultrasound, centrifuge, CAT scan etc. We have not addressed medical technology in any detail in this issue. In introducing the fundamentals of modern concept of cell biology and genetics in Igbo language we have made it possible for secondary and post secondary school students to understand the structure and functions of the cell organelles the way they never did before. It is a significant departure: from memorization of just words, to explanation of th

The aim of the rebirth of the sacred arts of Igbo African spirituality by Sirius Ugo Art is to restore the glory of African methodology, and unveil the hidden African intelligence in our spiritual systems. As we are the ones witnessing the beginning of Uga Anwu, the age of enlightenment, it is our duty to lay the foundations of Anwu for the next generation. All the arts in this book were shot and digitally created by Sirius Ugo Art. They were all based on the fashion, designs, and decorations of the ancient Igbo people. Spirits are not human beings, however, spirits are manifested in human form because humans are spiritual beings experiencing materialism. The colors of the deities are also well-known in ancient Igbo. When a spirit is pure white, it represents purity, or the moon and sun. When a spirit is green, it represents life, health and Fertility. When a spirit is red, it represents blood, war, and power. When a spirit is dark in color, it represents dark energy. When a spirit is blue, it represents water, and air. All the deities work with one or two of the four elements. For example, Agunkwo works with Eke, while Nneono Oshimiri works with Orie. There are over seven hundred thousand Igbo deities. It would be impossible to create the arts of all Igbo deities, because that would be one claiming to understand all the energy forces in the universe, which is impossible. However, all the energy forces (Umu agbara nine) of the universe are different manifestations of Chukwu na Nnechukwu. Igbo people do not believe that humans created umu agbara. Igbo enlightens us that Umu Agbara (Energy forces) existed before humans. And that humans came to recognize them and work with them to become Agbara as well. A human being becomes Agbara through self Illumination.

In Gender and Sexuality in Kenyan Societies: Centering the Human and the Humane in Critical Studies, edited by Besi Brillian Muhonja and Babacar M’Baye, contributors explore the application of ubuntu/utu responsive perspectives and methods to critical studies. Through the lens of ubuntu/utu, the contributors to this Kenya-focused volume draw from the diverse fields of postcolonial studies, literary studies, history, anthropology, sociology, political science, environmental studies, media studies, and development studies, among others, to demonstrate the urgency and necessity of humane scholarship/research in gender and queer studies. By centering decolonial approaches and the human and humane, concentrating on subjects and identities that have been largely neglected in national and scholarly debates, the chapters are subversive, complex, and inclusive. They advance within Kenyan studies themes and elements of alternative, non-binary, variant, and non-heteronormative gender identities, sexualities, and voices, as well as approaches to doing knowledge. Underscoring the timeliness of such a text is evidence rendered in sections of the collection highlighting the significance of ubuntu/utu-centric scholarship. Challenging the erasure of the human in academic works, the chapters in this volume look inward and locate the voices and experiences of Kenyan peoples as the pivotal locus of analysis and epistemological derivation.