Table Of ContentToyin Falola and African Epistemologies
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Toyin Falola and African
Epistemologies
Abdul Karim Bangura
TOYIN FALOLA AND AFRICAN EPISTEMOLOGIES
Copyright © Abdul Karim Bangura, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-49516-7
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
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this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-50486-2 ISBN 978-1-137-49270-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137492708
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bangura, Abdul Karim, 1953– author.
Toyin Falola and African epistemologies / Abdul Karim Bangura.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Falola, Toyin—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Falola,
Toyin—Influence. 3. Knowledge, Theory of—Africa.
4. Philosophy, Yoruba. 5. Africa—Study and teaching. I. Title.
DT19.7.F35B36 2015
960.0722—dc23 2014032960
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: February 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C O N T E N T S
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
Introduction 1
One An Emerging Biography 17
Part I Africa in the Configurations of
Knowledge
Two African-Centered Conceptualization 43
Three Pluralism and Religious Tolerance 59
Four Postulates on the African State 77
Five Axioms of African Migrations and Movements 85
Part II The Yoruba in the Configurations
of Knowledge
Six A Mouth Sweeter than Salt: A Fractal Analysis 99
Seven Yoruba Gurus and the Idea of Ubuntugogy 121
Eight Pragmatic Linguistic Analysis of Isola 137
Part III The Value of Knowledge: Policies
and Politics
Nine The Power of African Cultures: A Diegetic Analysis 155
Ten African Peace Paradigms 185
Eleven Pan-African Notions 203
Twelve Using E-clustering to Learn and Teach about
Toyin Falola 217
Conclusion: An Interpretative Overview 235
vi Contents
Appendix: Notation Conventions 241
List of Works by Toyin Falola 243
Notes 249
Bibliography 277
Index 293
I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Images
0.1 Portrait by Dr. Aderonke Adesanya, 2007 2
1.1 Toyin and Bisi Falola, Obafemi Awolowo University, 1975 18
1.2 Toyin and Bisi Falola, Austin, Texas, 2012 18
1.3 Toyin with wife and children, 2011 19
2.1 Speakers and dignitaries at the 2012 Second
International Toyin Falola Annual Conference (TOFAC)
in Lagos, July 23, 2012 44
6.1 Ibadan in the 1950s 100
6.2 Ibadan in the 1960s 100
8.1 Falola standing in front of the TOFAC big banner,
University of Ibadan, July 2011 138
9.1 Falola, second from left, with chiefs of Ibadan and the
governor of Oyo State at the 2012 Annual Adegoke
Adelabu Lecture 156
12.1 Book presentation to Adekunle Ajasin University 218
12.2 Toyin Falola receiving an honorary doctorate from City
University of New York-Staten Island, 2013 218
12.3 Falola receiving an honorary doctorate of literature,
Adekunle Ajasin University, March 2013 219
Figures
5.1 Phase plane plot simulated at ODE23 92
5.2 Phase plane plot simulated at ODE23 and ODE45 93
5.3 Phase time plot 93
6.1 Log–log plot order vs. disorder in A Mouth Sweeter than
Salt Binary logistic: y = –0.105 + 0.303 R2 = 0.015;
p = 0.737 117
12.1 Falola E-cluster 227
viii Illustrations
Tables
1.1 A typology of Toyin Falola’s single-authored books 35
5.1 African immigrants and educational attainment in the
United States, 1960–2011 89
5.2 Correlations between billionaires in the United States
and African immigrant variables 94
6.1 Univariate statistics by types of presuppositions in the text 115
6.2 t-Test: paired samples test and correlations 115
9.1 A diegetic categorization of the chapters in The Power of
African Cultures 182
P R E F A C E
The impetus for this book arose at the Ninth Annual Africana Studies
Conference, organized and hosted by Professor Akinwumi Ogundiran,
chair of Africana studies at University of North Carolina Charlotte, and
convened at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte April 13–14,
2011, to which I was invited to participate. At the end of the last day of the
conference, Ogundiran reserved many tables at a restaurant and invited all
of the participants for dinner. Seated at our table were Dr. Toyin Falola,
Dr. Garvey Lundy, Ogundiran, and me. During our conversation at the
table, Dr. Lundy stated that he had seen a few of my essays dealing with
Falola’s work and that they were all theoretically and methodologically
grounded. Lundy then asked what attracted me to his work. I made the
bold statement that “Mwalimu [Honorable Teacher] Falola is no histo-
rian.” The statement was greeted with pindrop silence. After almost a
minute, Lundy asked a follow-up question about my claim. My response
sounded along the following line: “Falola is more of a scientist than a
historian and has therefore contributed much more to the African/Black
Intellectual Renaissance than most people realize.” I added, “While he
does not use scientific jargon extensively in his work, it is nonetheless
undergirded by a plethora of scientific postulates, linguistic tenets, and
fractal complexity that need to be fleshed out in one volume. While there
are five important festschriften on Falola and his work, there is a need for
a single-authored volume that can be useful as a textbook.” It is my hope
that I have provided such a book here.
I also hope that I have developed clearly articulated rubrics and over-
arching concepts as the foundational basis for analyzing Falola’s work.
The four major rubrics are: (1) biography and knowledge production, (2)
Africa in the configuration of knowledge, (3) the Yoruba in the configu-
ration of knowledge, and (4) the value of knowledge in terms of policies
and politics. In addition, each chapter is located within a broader episte-
mological perspective. The chapters undertake critical interpretations and
explanations of Falola’s writings. They first define concepts and clearly
delimit their theoretical or methodological scopes or both. This is done
by examining these concepts as they have developed in the literatures of
the relevant disciplines. Falola’s ideas are extended into greater realms of
meaning by employing analytical tools from the fields of political science,
