Tag: Yoruba

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Nollywood Has Gone Global

The Western movie streaming companies have awakened to the wonderful world of African cinema. NetFlix and Amazon Video have been investing in African film companies and have been promoting a lot of African movies lately.

I am very happy for this as I am not one to obtain movies via illegitimate sites. For me to download a movie from some random site, I would be robbing the producers, actors, writers, and others who worked so hard to create these works of art. As I live in the West, I am pleased to be able to consume African movies via NetFlix and Amazon Video.

African stories are finally being told to a global audience. Nollywood films are now trending in Canada. Africans can now tell our stories to the world. As a descendant of the victims or shall I say survivors of the Atlantic slave trade a.k.a. Maafa, I can learn a lot about my Yoruba heritage through some of the recent movies that have been released.

Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman via Netflix

King of Thieves via Amazon Prime Video

I am looking forward to movies regarding my other ethnic roots such as Ashanti and Igbo. The African movie industry is now going global and big things are in store. Africa has over 1.4-billion people and a very rich history which is unknown to most of the world. This is the era of African cinema… and era where our stories are being told by us, not by outsiders.

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Yorùbá History Books

The Yorùbá have a rich and vibrant history. As a descendant of the great Yorùbá nation, I wanted to learn all I can about the history of my people.

I did a lot of searching online and through forums to find books about the history of the Yorùbá. What I found was a LOT of books about Yorùbá religion and Orishas from a diaspora perspective… mainly Cuba and Brazil.

What I wanted to learn was the history of the Yorùbá as a people. From where did we come? Where are we today? To where will be go? My quest ended with the discovery of the 5 very best books on Yorùbá history available today.

  • A History of the Yorùbá by Stephen Adebanji Akintoye
  • The Yorùbá from Prehistory to the Present by Aribidesu Usman and Dr. Toyin Falola
  • The Yorùbá: A New History by Akinwumi Ogundiran
  • History of Yorùbá Land by Gbade Aladeojebi
  • Encyclopedia of the Yoruba by Dr. Toyin Falola

The Yorùbá people have a rich history that deserves to be celebrated. Yorùbáland actually stretches across south-west Nigeria through Benin and Togo. There are perhaps 40-50 million Yorùbá people in Yorùbáland plus the millions more in the Americas due to immigration and the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Yorùbá nation is large, proud, and spread across the world. We have a very rich history deep in culture and tradition.

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Historian: Dr. Toyin Falola

Koltron11, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This African historian is a professor of African Studies.  He has written over 100 books and is one of the preeminent researchers of Yoruba history and culture.

Dr. Toyin Falola was born in Ibadan, Nigeria on January 1, 1953.  Located in Oyo State, south-west Nigeria, Ibadan is the 3rd most populated city in the country.  

By 1970, Dr. Toyin Falola became a school teacher in the nearby town of Pahayi.  He started his career as a lecturer in 1981 at the University of Ife.  The university was renamed Obafemi Awolowo University in 1987 in honour of the first premier of the Western Region of Nigeria.  

In 1991, Dr. Toyin Falola joined the faculty at University of Texas at Austin in the United States of America.  He is currently  the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the university.  He has also worked at several other universities such as York University in Toronto, Canada, the University of Cambridge in England, United Kingdom, and others in the United States, Australia, and Nigeria.

An avid researcher, Dr, Toyin Falola earned his Doctor of Letters (D.litt) in humanities from the University of Ibadan on December 31,  2020.  He has earned 8 honours and awards around the world including the Cheikh Anta Diop and Lincoln awards in addition to honorary degrees of doctors from 13 universities.  He is also the General editor of the Cambria Africa Studies series at Cambria Press.

I recently purchased several books written by Dr. Toyin Falola. One of the greatest books on Yoruba history and culture is called The Yoruba from Prehistory to Present.  I highly recommend this book to anybody who seeks to learn about our history.

I currently own the following books written by this great African historian:

  • The Yoruba from Prehistory to the Present
  • Understanding Modern Nigeria
  • The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World
  • Igbo in the Atlantic World: African Origins and Diasporic Destinations
  • Encyclopedia of the Yoruba
  • A History of Nigeria

These books may be purchased from Amazon Kindle or Google Play Books.

This only marks the beginning of my journey to acquire knowledge of African history.  I plan to purchase many more books written by Dr. Toyin Falola.  Some of his lectures and interviews are also available online.

Websites

The Toyin Falola Interviews – YouTube

Toyin Falola Network

Centre for African Studies

Liberal Arts: University of Texas Austin

African Studies Association