In Global Yoruba, renowned scholar Toyin Falola covers the history, people, traditions, environment, religion, spirituality, cosmology, culture, and philosophy of one of Africa's largest cultural groups, the Yoruba, all while considering the people's relationship with their immediate and distant neighbors. Falola examines how the Yoruban people have adapted to their environment and tapped it to (re)invent their civilization, shape their culture and traditions, and inform their socioeconomic relations with their neighbors. These interactions have guided the Yoruba philosophy that developed over time, expressing their conviction regarding society's evolution and the place that humans occupy within it. This web of knowledge can present a more coherent account than any other text yet produced regarding Yoruba civilization. This volume demonstrates how global dynamics have been adopted in the creation of a Yoruba community across different times and spaces.
Toyin Falola is Distinguished Teaching Professor and Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Falola is author/editor of over one hundred and fifty books on African history, politics, and society and the recipient of sixteen honorary doctorates from around the world, as well as more than thirty lifetime achievement awards.
Maps Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Making and Form of Global Yoruba Part 1: Pan-Yorubana 2. Mythologies: Yoruba Society and Knowledge System 3. Early History and Mythologies of Networks 4. Cosmologies and Epistemologies 5. Oyo and Its Heterogeneity 6. The Yoruba and Their Neighbors 7. Mobility within West Africa Part 2: The Yoruba in the World of Religion 8. Oria: Spiritual Networks and Practices 9. Islam in the Yoruba World 10. Christianity in the Yoruba World 11. Religion and Globalization Part 3: Modernity, Post-Coloniality, and Globalization 12. Yoruba and Modernity 13. Colonialism and the Yoruba 14. Cultural Icons and Progress Narratives 15. Obafemi Awolowo's Politics in Global Context 16. Ibadan: The Intellectual Capital City 17. Nollywood in the World of Creativity 18. The Yoruba Nation and Its Borderless Creativity 19. The Media and Internet Nation Conclusion 20. Yoruba beyond Borders Notes Bibliography Index
"Toyin Falola's book Global Yoruba: Regional and Diasporic Networks, is a landmark in Yoruba Studies, and almost certainly going to become a permanent point of reference. It is an epic book in its breadth in exploring the natal, larger African and diasporic development of Yoruba history and culture, emphasizing the growth of Yoruba cosmology as a unifying force across both its native, larger African and trans-Atlantic developments."-Michael O. Afolayan, Toyin Falola Network
