A study of relationship between arabic and yoruba languages. The book includes a companion website with audio clips of the yoruba language, helping the reader better grasp the integral connection between art and language in yoruba culture. Varied masking traditions have resulted in a great diversity of mask forms. Seeking the african in african art olufemi taiwo nka. Seeking the african 19 spiritual essence of a subject or situation ori is made manifest through oriki 31. Pdf download vocabulary of the yoruba language free. They have a general language called yoruba yooba which is the form that is taught in schools in the southwestern zone of nigeria. Owe are a form of verbal oriki, such as proverbs and metaphors, that point to the essence of the mat. Yoruba people, language, religion, tribe, culture, facts. The yoruba people occupy the states lagos, ondo, oyo, ogun, osun, ekiti, and some parts of kwara and edo states respectively. Specifically, it examines the fundamentality of oriki a word that encompasses a variety of yoruba literary, verbal, and performance genres including recitations. In the defoid group of languages, yoruba is in the yoruboid cluster which also includes igala. Seeking the african in african art the yoruba was one of the most important civilizations of subsaharan africa.
Yoruba language, one of a small group of languages that comprise the yoruboid cluster of the defoid subbranch of the benuecongo branch of the nigercongo language family. According to a yoruba creation myth, the deities gods originally lived in the sky with only water below them. We would attempt to examine the influences on the language, dressing, food and cultural practices and norm of the yoruba people, in an attempt to reach a befitting conclusion as to the history of the yoruba, we would also include some folk lore and stories, to enable you the readers reach a strong conclusion. Yoruba is spoken by more than 20 million people in southwestern. Orunmilas teachings were directed at the yoruba people which centered around the topics of divination, prayer, dance, symbolic gestures, personal and communal elevation, spiritual baths, meditation, and herbal medicine.
Scholars have also cited the influence of the yoruba in our carnival and calypso art forms as well as in our language. The basics of yoruba an african spiritual tradition. Lagos and the preservation of yoruba language vanguard news. Describing rowland abioduns latest book yoruba art and language.
There is no doubt that in any culture or civilization, language is basic, and wherever you find a similar language being spoken, there is no doubt that there must be some historical connection. Yoruba aesthetics at the confluence of disciplines rowland. Beautiful sculpture abounds in wood and brass and the occasional terracotta. Seeking the african in african art pdf,, download ebookee alternative effective tips for a improve ebook reading experience. It comprises the beliefs of the yoruba people, whose homeland is in the south western part of nigeria and adjoining parts of benin and togo.
They analytically articulate and decompose yoruba conception of creativity and art. Abstract religion is the strongest element in african culture and exerts great. Therefore, according to the yoruba, humans are eventually expected to. Yoruba peoples are associated with a love of the arts, urban living, philosophy, penchant for esoteric language and rich theological life. The yoruba of west africa benin, nigeria and togo, with migrant communities in parts of ghana and sierra leone are responsible for one of the finest artistic traditions in africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today much of the art of the yoruba, including staffs, court dress, and beadwork for crowns, is associated with the royal courts. The yoruba traditional religion believes that all human beings pass through what is known as ayanmo which translate to destiny or fate. Abiodun draws on his fluency and prodigious knowledge of yoruba culture and language to dramatically enrich our understanding of yoruba civilization and its arts. Ila 1992 makes the case for yoruba as a literary language close to the lifeworld of its speakers, while adejunm. He called these nongreek societies barbarian, a word in greek in his time that meant people whose language, religion, ways of life, and customs differed from those of the greeks. Yoruba art and language consists of an introduction and nine chapters. Faced with the methodological gridlock embedded in the discipline of art history, african scholars and their africanist counterparts have continuously struggled in their effort to analyze aspects of the material and visual cultures of africa.
Image source yoruba is a west african spirituality that some anthropologists estimate is 10,000 years old. This ancient text, the ifa corpus, is the foundation for the art of divine herbology. Journal of contemporary african art, number 40, 2017, pp. Some of the more popular dishes include moin moin, akara, amala, plantains, ekuru, jollof rice and cassava. The vast majority of this population is from nigeria, where the yoruba make up 16% of the countrys population, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in africa. Yoruba language had a signifi cant place in the scale of things around this period. Symbolic values of clothing and textiles art in traditional. Seeking the african in african art demonstrates how certain yoruba art forms fit into a larger cultural and linguistic context.
Topics yoruba language collection opensource language english. Initially, barbarian meant different from what was greek. Because the majority of the slaves brought to the americas were from west africa yoruban descendants can also be found in brazil, cuba, the caribbean, and the united states. The history and traditions of the yoruba people panorama. This variety, which has its origin in the 1850s, is the written form of the language and is widely used in the media by newsreaders. The arts of the yoruba are as numerous as their deities, and many objects are placed on shrines to honor the gods and the ancestors. Also, you can read online full book search results for vocabularyoftheyorubalanguage free ebooks pdf. Yoruba music is based around a complex tradition of drumming. Yoruba, endangerment, globalisation, acquisition, and attrition. Thanks to linguist victor manfredi for drawing my attention to all these papers.
The art history of the nearby benin empire shows that there was a cross fertilization of ideas between the neighboring yoruba and edo. Seeking the african in african art revisits the vexing question of the role of indigenous african philosophical. African art and especially, yoruba art scholar ship todayp. The official language of nigeria, english, was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country postcolonization by the british. The yoruba language preservation law has been commended, and rightly so, by various stakeholders across the land, as very vital to the preservation of yoruba language, especially at time when the. Influence of yoruba culture in christian religious worship by odejobi cecilia omobola institute of education, faculty of education, obafemi awolowo university, ileife, osun state, nigeria. Jun 20, 2019 the yoruba religion system comprises of traditional practices and spiritual concepts which has evolved into a robust religious system. The yoruba numbered more than 20 million at the turn of the 21st century.
Their visual traditions range from the superrealist art of ife po. Oct 01, 2019 finally, the modern yoruba writing manual published by the yoruba crossborder language commission in 2017. Okun and oworo are the two main dialects in yoruba. Yoruba introduction, location, language, folklore, religion. The study of yoruba religious tradition in historical. Most yoruba people speak the yoruba language, which is. Dominant characteristics of the yoruba culture 1440 words 6 pages. Newton professor of art, the history of art and black studies at amherst college, is an astute art historian, researcher, and culture activist, whose work will withstand the test of time and critical appraisal. Newton professor of art, the history of art and black studies at amherst college, is an astute art historian, researcher, and culture activist, whose work will. Yoruba cuisine has strongly influenced the food of nigeria, particularly in restaurants in the south of the country.
Yoruba art and culture 9 the yoruba people live on the west coast of africa in nigeria and can also be found in the eastern republic of benin and togo. If youre looking for a free download links of yoruba art and language. Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups of nigeria, concentrated in the southwestern part of that country. It is possible that with this publication professor rowland abiodun has consolidated a recognizable. It is in view of the above that this study analyses and justifies the roles of visual arts in traditional and contemporary africa, dwelling more on the mediating functions of clothing and textiles, with reference to yoruba asooke. A divine journey to the inner self and god consciousness.
Our african heritage national archives of trinidad and. Seeking the african in african art provides a seminal and authoritative work pertaining to yoruba art and languages of nigeria. Traces of arabic words in yoruba language apart from the borrowed words from hausa to yoruba language like means leave the placekai, gani means to see properly, magaji means heirleader of a family and host of others, there are still many words in yoruba language which emanate from arabic. Understanding yoruba art and aesthetics amherst college. Ife art from the vantage of yoruba cultural practices collected in nigeria more broadly, andor the indiscriminate use of regional and modern yoruba proverbs, poems, or language idioms to inform this citys unique 700yearold sculptural oeuvre. Let us do it, the way it is usually done, so that we may have the usual result. Name class professors name date dominant narratives of the yoruba culture live culture defined the term culture as the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music, and arts. This exploratory study, according to the linguistic comparative method, tries to show that large numbers of cognate lexical items are available between egyptian pharaonic language and modern yoruba of nigeria. African into african art discourse, description, scope, and evaluation. If we take seriously the analogy with the pointandshoot camera. The other yoruboid languages include igala and itsekiri. Some examples rituals and rites abound in yoruba traditional religion. Iran yoruba are an ethnic group that inhabits western africa, mainly nigeria and benin. Influence of yoruba culture in christian religious worship.
The major native languages spoken in nigeria represent three major families of african languages the majority are nigercongo languages, such as yoruba, ibo, the hausa language is afroasiatic. The yoruba constitute about 44 million people in total. African art from the paul and ruth tishman collection, an exhibition catalog from the metropolitan museum of art libraries fully available online as pdf, which contains material on yoruba art ibeji archive. The book therefore begins with a section on orthography and phonologi. Seeking the african in african art pdf, epub, docx and torrent then this site is not for you. Ife was surpassed by the oyo empire as the dominant yoruba military and political power between 1600 and 1800 ad. Fsi yoruba basic course student text skype language school. This article aims to shed more light on the origin and history of the yoruba people. There are four classes of yoruba drums, each with several varieties, which. Essay on yoruba art and culture 702 words bartleby. Names are extremely important to yoruba people, and they believe that. However, the subsequent works of frobenius contain several interesting accounts of prehistoric yoruba religious culture. Seeking the african in african art volume 58 issue 3 tejumola olaniyan please note, due to essential maintenance online purchasing will be unavailable between 6.
Ibori are aform of visual oriki 24 that invoke messages between the spiritual and material world. Olorun, the sky god, gave to orishala, the god of whiteness, a chain, a bit of earth in a snail shell, and a fivetoed chicken. The aggregate of the ways of life of the yoruba speaking peoples of southwestern nigeria and their kiths and kins elsewhere in the world. The center for advanced research on language acquisition at the university of minnesota indicates there are 31 college and universities in the u. Later brass and terracotta sculptures of the ife and benin cultures show significant similarities with those found at nok. It is a continuum beginning from their subsistence, communal, agrarian life of the. Irrespective of the aforementioned discrepancies in the yoruba language, the tribe has a standard variety of yoruba known as literary yoruba, yoruba koine, or yoruba. Download full book in pdf, epub, mobi and all ebook format. Much smaller, scattered groups live in benin and northern togo. A unique feature of yoruba art is its striking realism that, unlike most african art, chose to create human sculptures in vividly realistic and life sized forms. The nearby benin empire was also a powerful force between 0 and 1850 oyo developed in the 17th century and become one of the largest yoruba kingdoms, while ileife remained as a religiously significant rival to its power at the site of the divine creation of the. The yoruba culture, for the present purpose, can be defined as follows.
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