University of Alberta Yoruba Folktafes: Cultural Plurality and Oral Narratives Abdul-Rasheed Na

261 Pages·2000·12.41 MB·English

University of Alberta
Yoruba Folktafes: Cultural Plurality
and Oral Narratives
0
Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Comparative Literature
Department of Comparative Literature, Religon, and Film/Media Studies
Edmonton, Alberta
Fall 1999
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For my father, ~lhaj~i hmadN a'~llahw, ho passed away on ~pril10,1999,
few hours after returning to Ilorin from performing the Hajj in Mecca,
and
for Ilorin, the multicultural pot.
Abstract
This work argues that Yoruba oral society is a culturally plural society and
compares its features to some multicultural patterns of New World societies,
using Canada and the United States as examples. The thrust of the thesis is
that despite colonial and neo-colonial influences on the Yoruba, the
community continues to project a very rich oral tradition, and to retain its
distinctive cultural identity. It also argues for major differences between
multicultural concepts of an active oral society and the ones often identified
in the contemporary Western communities. An active oral society is a
society in which orality is still a main part of the cultural, religious,
economic and socio-political lives of the majority of the people; while in a
passive oral society, otherwise called a written society, writing, and
electronics have become the main mediums of communication and formed
major sources of cultural dissemination. The thesis discusses the existence of
an "open market" for cultural plurality in the active oral society and argues
that the multicultural status of the New World society is being sustained by
parliamentary legislation and government intervention, thereby often
creating social and cultural tensions. Because of the "open market"
characteristic of the active oral society of the Yoruba, and because of its
inherent cultural plurality, it has created a capacity for itself to sustain its
intrinsic identity despite any foreign cultural intervention.
Nil@@,
This study introduces a Yomba rhetorical tool, as a concept
for critical analysis and interpretation, and invites literary critics that are
interested in a traditional ~fricancr itical paradigm to adopt EIAI+~. The use
of ~Ld@rw6h, ich is new to the West, is an expansion on Henry Louis Gates's
(1988) efforts to introduce a pan-Africanist approach of Signifyin@ to
critical discourse. The thesis also utilizes a performance-based approach and
engages many contemporary literary debates about Yomba and related
African oral traditions. Using the fieldwork materials collected in Ilorin in
December 1997, the thesis discusses culture and identity in Ilorin folktales,
arguing that despite Ilorin's contemporary status as a Muslim community,
and notwithstanding the influences of Western culture and education on the
community, the Ilorin Yomba, as an active oral society, continues to project
its Yoruba cultural identity.
Finally, the thesis asserts that a philosophy of indigenizing difference
and the rhetoric of similarity are the traditions in which the inherently
diverse active oral community of the Yomba is united. Since the Yoruba
culture is inherentlv diverse, its disparate views, its sub-cultures, and its
manv religions and worship processes are united through emphasis on (the)
similarities among them. Tension is only logical if a culture as intrinsically
plural as Yoruba always beats the drum of differences rather than that of
similarities. The thesis thus reviews some of Kwame ~nthonyA ppiah's
(1992) comments on notions of ~fricanid entity and culture, arguing that
Appiah deviates from traditional ~fricanor ality and the latter's consistent
emphasis on cultural similarity rather than difference.
First, to ~ A l h&,a wa Jal, I acknowledge the strength and success in writing
this work.
My teacher, supenisor and academic guardian, University Professor
Emeritus Milan V ~imi;,f or his unshakable belief that an oral person has a
genuine claim to scholarship, and that knowledge and experiences in oral
world are useful in retracing misdirected theoretical steps and furthering
cross-cultural understanding, and my supervisory committee members,
Professors George Lang and Stephen SIemon, every work here will be
naught without them. And my other U of A teachers, colleagues, friends, and
department staff, too numerous, but I'll mention Professors Stephen Arnold,
Nasrin Rahimieh, Ted Blodgett, dam Krims, Deborah Thompson, Uri
~MargolinE, arle Waugh, Marisa Bortohssi, Paul Robberech, who, at different
times, made my study here enjoyable. My teachers at the University of Ilorin
who prepared me during my first and second degree programs for the tasks
of teaching and scholarship, and are still "keeping eyes" on me till today,
Professors Olu Obafemi, Tayo Olafioye, Yiwola Awoyale and Niyi Osundare.
~bdul-Razaq(~ leyinla)M, uhammad (Niyi), ~liaganW, umi, Ibn-Waleed,
Yekin, Sa'adu, Lamidi, Lukman, Paul and Mona, Barb, Doris, ~Monique,B ev,
Richard, Jerry, Irene, Louisa, Linda, Nancy, Saloni, Sanjit, Amritha, Yanbing,
Friends indeed!
To my darling wife Rahmat, and our children Saarat and Haleemah, forever
thanks. At home in Ilorin, the Egbe Alalo of GHS, and my parents and
extended family, the Muhammadu Jimoh-Golus and the ~amal-ud-deens,
especially the mothers, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews who
participated in the folktale sessions, you all made this possible!
Contents
Library Release Form
Title Page
Signed Examination Committee Signahlre Page
Dedication
~bstract
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Introduction I
1. Yoruba: The People, Culture and Oral Performances 26
2. Researching Folktales & the Yoruba Inherent Cultural Plurality 57
3. Folktales: The School, the Society, and the Wherewithal of Ilorin
(Yoruba) Active Orality! 96
4. Folktales 126
5. Theorizing on Identity and Culture through Oral Narratives 186
6. Canclusion 21 1
Footnotes 226
Bibliography 235
Appendix: Summary of collected Folktales 245
Introduction
AS the multiculturalism of New World societies continues to grow into the
twenty-first century, and the concept of the world as a "global village"
continues to form, scholars are intensifying efforts. seeking means to
continue to understand the various cultures of the world so as to better relate
to peoples from around the world. Many Western scholars, however,
continue to interpret other cultures from Western perspectives, and to apply
concepts such as multiculturalism to African societies from Western
viewpoints, often causing more confusion than clarity, and greater problems
than solutions. It is very crucial to have works, such as I have here, to explain
other societies, especially those I have described in this work as active oral
cultures, in comparison to the passive orality of the contemporary West.
This work will discuss the inherent cultural plurality of the Yoruba, and
compare it to multicultural concepts of New World societies. It will examine
Yoruba (and other ~fricanc)o ncepts of identitv, similarity. plurali~a,n d
diversity, and the different Western (e-g., Canadian and American) concepts
of multiculturalism and identity. Its central argument will be that the
inherent diversity of Yoruba oral culture equips it with a very strong
capacity to absorb new cultural forms without causing tension to the
community's intrinsic structure and identity. To argue this thesis, I will
present Yoruba origin stories, explore various kinds of Yoruba oral
performances, and later use Ilorin Yoruba identity as a case in point of my
discussions. Examples from the New World shall be derived from Canada's,
and to some extent, the United States', contemporary multicultural
situations. In order to carry readers along carefully through the processes of
understanding why, for example, concepts of multiculturalism or pluralism
differ between Yoruba active orality and the Canadian or the United States'
written societies, 1 shall work from an oral historical origin of the Yoruba
people and culture, through to a comparison between Yomba inherent
cultural diversity and a few examples of contemporary New World
multiculturalisms in Canada and the United States. I shall consider the
specific situation of ilorin Yoruba identity and how, as an active orality
society, it is able to retain its k&ko ddjiir; (Yoruba) identity despite
extraneous influences. The idea here is to show how, through Yoruba
folktales recorded in December 1997 in Ilorin city, the "faces" of the llorin
Yoruba have not altered despite European colonization, Western education,
and Islamic and ~rabilce arning. This work's progressive approach will
culminate, at the end, by relating how the plurality features of Yoruba active
orality have not been positively explored in resolving the current political
upheaval in Sigeria as a whole.
Athough several scholars have examined the various aspects of
Yoruba oral performances, for example, ~jiboyeB abalola, Olaitan Olatunji,
Wande hbimbola, Oludare Olajubu, and Ropo Sekoni, this study shall be the
first to use Yoruba oral narratives to discuss issues of inherent cultural
plurality among the Yoruba, and compare such important characteristics of
an African "active oral society" to contemporary Western mukicu~turalism.I t
will be mv expectation that this study can show Yoruba elite, and indeed
Nigerian societv and the Western world, how contemporary societies can
benefit from Yoruba intrinsic cultural plurality in ensuring peace, progress,
and prosperity in the twenty-first century and avoiding the current socio-
political turmoil which recently almost destroyed the Nigerian nation (for
insight into the Nigerian crises, see Na'Allah 1998; Soyinka 1996).
what methodology will I adopt in analyzing oral culture? Vladimir
Propp's morphology? Jakobson's or Levi-Strauss's structuraiisms? Freud's or
lung's psychoanalysis? Even-Zohar's polysystern? Or should I go for the New
Criticism, .Marxism, Postmarxism, Postmodernism? This is the paradox of
this project! I am making a case for the primacy of orality in written form. I
have to follow the requirements of the written English grammar, its
regularly irregular morphological-cum-phono-syntactic structures, and then
quote European theories to defend African oral culture. No! I am a drummer,
a bard, a traditional storyteller; mv paths are already cleared, my songs must
be performed according to the rhvthm of my peoplek game. The Yoruba
say, kc;s t. bi n-dn disc, kdl; hCiir ibiit;; ri, meaning that we should do our
performance according to the tradition of our lineage so that it can attain the
success that it is meant to attain. While benefiting from some contemporary
Western polemics, this work will primarily adopt the performance-centered
approach, and invoke EI'~I 'crG, a Yoruba rhetorical concept which combines
theorv tvith practice, as its guiding spirit.
The performance-based approach will be used to demonstrate how
Yoruba folktales can be appreciated within the scope of actual performance
rvhere contextualizations play important roles in determining the meaning
and socio-cultural essence of the tales. Several scholars of ~fricanor al
traditions, ~ u t Fhin negan (19701, Isidore Okpewho (1990, 19921, Ropo Sekoni
(1990). have emphasized the importance of performance in the
identification, appreciation and analysis of ~fricanor al tales. ~kpewhoi,n
an interview, defines the performance-based approach as follows:
The performance-based approach to the study of oral literature asks questions
beyond ivhat we can see on the printed page. .Although in some instances what you
see on the printed page helps to reconfigure t\-hat could have been the