This book traces Dàdàkúàdá’s history and artistic vision and discusses its vibrancy as the most popular traditional Yoruba oral art form in Islamic Africa. Foregrounding the role of Dàdàkúàdá in Ilorin, and of Ilorin in Dàdàkúàdá the book covers the history, cultural identity, performance techniques, language, social life and relationship with Islam of the oral genre. The author examines Dàdàkúàdá’s relationship with Islam and discusses how the Dàdàkúàdá singers, through their songs and performances, are able to accommodate Islam in ways that have ensured their continued survival as a traditional African genre in a predominantly Muslim community. This book will be of interest to scholars of traditional African culture, African art history, performance studies and Islam in Africa.

Through an engaged analysis of writers such as Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Niyi Osundare, and Tanure Ojaide and of African traditional oral poets like Omoekee Amao Ilorin and Mamman Shata Katsina, Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah develops an African indigenous discourse paradigm for interpreting and understanding literary and cultural materials. Na'Allah argues for the need for cultural diversity in critical theorizing in the twenty-first century. He highlights the critical issues facing scholars and students involved in criticism and translation of marginalized texts. By returning the African knowledge system back to its roots and placing it side by side with Western paradigms, Na'Allah has produced a text that will be required reading for scholars and students of African culture and literature. It is an important contribution to scholarship in the domain of mobility of African oral tradition, and on African literary, cultural and performance discourse.

African Oral Literature: Its Philosophical Thoughts Conveyed in Yuruba Society explores the ways that the Yoruba people of Nigeria have made remarkable contributions to the world’s civilization. Yoruba philosophical, religious tenets, artistic tenets, ideas, and icons have helped to transform religious beliefs and practices and the arts. When considering the study of Yoruba oral traditions, one learns how its philosophical concepts are the bases for an interpretation of what constitutes their aesthetic performance in art forms. This book introduces distinguished Yoruba cultural historians documenting the full spectrum, which extends beyond the visual art form. Through oral tradition, the effigy with its ako naturalism is not judged for its photographic realism, but for its efficacy within the context of the ako traditional ceremony, which is intended to make the end of this life and the beginning of the next one honorable and dignifying for one's parents where good will is needed by those still on earth. About the Author Howard James Jordan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948. He is a lifetime member of the following associations: The Buffalo Soldiers, 24th Infantry Regiment of New Jersey; The Buffalo Soldiers 9th & 10th Horse Cavalry Association of Baltimore, MD and Los Angeles, CA; Disabled American Veterans (DVA) and Veterans of Foreign Wars, Dept. of New Jersey. Howard’s hobbies include writing, reading history, dancing, roller skating, horseback riding, traveling, wood carving, and painting. He also taught art in Nigeria Secondary Schools, was a research assistant at Nigerian University, and taught special education in Philadelphia Public Schools.

This research monograph discusses the understudied and often misunderstood aspects of West African culture and religion especially that of the Yoruba people and their Book of Enlightenment (Ife-Ifa) together with its metaphysical importance to the Yoruba as a source of philosophy, religion and literature. Coverage includes chapters on Yoruba origins and ancestry as described in the Ile-Ife, the cultural and trading centers, The Advent of Sacred Literature, referring to the importance of the oral literature. Next, ethical values are discussed and contemporary African anthropological and social science research is analyzed as a tool to describe Yoruba ethical values. The Royal Scrolls are discussed and their role in developing a written language and a school of philosophy is investigated. Material on naming [Olodumare and other divinities], family life, and the dispersal of the oral tradition to other neighboring regions conclude the work.