Olu Obafemi and the African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6697/21855Keywords:
Olu Obafemi, indigenous knowledge, Yoruba culture, DO FagunwaAbstract
Olu Obafemi once described the connection between Wole Soyinka and Ulli Beier as one that “runs deep in the membrane of Yoruba history, culture, indigenous knowledge, metaphysics, cosmic consciousness and the pantheons” (Obafemi 2023). Encapsulated in myths and mythical wisdom, these indigenous values have at the centre of their philosophical presuppositions a symbiotic strategy that seeks to integrate man with nature. This study examines Obafemi’s The Mysteries of God, a translation of D.O. Fagunwa’s Yoruba epic tale Adiitu Olodumare, in particular, and the indigenous religious/knowledge system it reiterates, in general, as distinct from the Western monotheistic system in ontological and metaphysical terms. In the deployment of folklore, proverbs, traditional idioms, and songs that serve as commentaries in Obafemi’s compulsive dramatic oeuvre, such as Love Twirls of Aditu and Iyunade, and other plays—like his precursor Fagunwa—Obafemi has been described by various commentators as a maverick when it comes to naming his characters. From Atunda through Iyunade and Iponjudiran, to name just a few, his homage and attentiveness to the indigenous knowledge systems and mythical wisdom of his upbringing are quite evident.
References
Abimbola, W. 1977. Ifa Divination Poetry. New York: Nok Publishers.
Abodunrin, F., Obafemi O., and Ogundele W. (eds). 2001. Character is Beauty: Redefining Yoruba Culture and Identity - Iwalewa-Haus 1981 to 1996. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Abodunrin, F. 2016. "African Literature and Indigenous Religion: A Study of Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman and D.O. Fagunwa's Adiitu Olodumare." Imbizo: International Journal of African Literary and Comparative Studies 7 (2): 4-20.
https://doi.org/10.25159/2078-9785/1854 DOI: https://doi.org/10.25159/2078-9785/1854
Abodunrin, O., and Masoga, M (eds). 2022. Timeless Memories: Conversation between Wole Soyinka and Ulli Beier. Lagos: Wildeye Creative Press.
Akinyemi, T., and Falola, T. (eds). 2009. Emerging Perspectives on Femi Osofisan. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Armstrong, N., and Tennenhouse, N. (eds). 1989. The Violence of Representation: Literature and the History of Violence. New York: Routledge.
Auerbach, E. 1974. Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. Trans. W.R. Trask. Princeton and New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. 1968. Rabelais and His World. Trans. I. Helen. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Bakhtin, M.M. 1986. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Translated and edited by M. Holquist and C. Emerson. Austin: The University of Texas Press.
Barthes, R. 1976. Mythologies. Norwich: Granada Publications.
Bascom, W. 1977. "Yoruba Myth in Cuba and Brazil." In African Folklore in the New World, edited by D. Crowley, 149-165. London: University of Texas.
Beier, U. (ed). 2002. Yoruba Poetry. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series 62.
Beier, U. 2001. The Hunter Thinks the Monkey is Not Wise: A Selection of Essays edited by O. Wole. Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies Series 59.
Belsey, C. 1980. Critical Practice. London: Methuen Press.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203328439 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203328439
Blair, D. 2015. "Boko Haram isn't Just Abducting Schoolgirls: It is Enslaving Them." Sunday Times, 21. www.timeslive.co.za (accessed June 28, 2016).
Church Missionary Society (CMS), hymn 415, https://yorubahymns.blogspot.com/2016/01/wakati-adura-didun.html
Crowley, D. (ed). 1977. African Folklore in the New World. Austin and London: University of Texas Press.
Crowther, S.A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Ajayi_Crowther (accessed June 28, 2025).
Crowther, S.A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Mission_Society (accessed June 28, 2025).
Dayslva, A. 2014. "Globalizing the Yoruba Omoluwabi Concept of the Persona: A Philosophical Perspective of the African Heritage." Hirentha: Journal of the Humanities 1(1): 79-95.
De Sousa, L. 2019. "Reorganization of the Portuguese Slave Trade 180." The Portuguese Slave Trade in Early Modern Japan, edited by D. Pargas and J. Paul, 198-260. Boston: Brill.
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004388079_006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004388079_006
Dos Santos, G. 2014. "From Start to Finish: The History of the Portuguese Inquisition Revisited." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286051543_From_start_to_finish_The_history_of_the_Portuguese_Inquisition_revisited
Eagleton, T. 2000. The Idea of Culture. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Elegba, F. A. 2021. "Nigerian Drama and Ideological Commitment: A Study of Selected Plays of Femi Osofisan and Olu Obafemi." International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences 6(2): 151-163.
https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.62.23 DOI: https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.62.23
Fagunwa, D.O. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://global.britannica.com/biography/D-O-Fagunwa (accessed June 28, 2016).
Foucault, M. 1977. Language-Counter-Memory Practice. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Holy Bible: The New King James Version. (1990). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Igbadiwei, E. 2020. "Samuel Ajayi Crowther: First African Anglican Bishop in Nigeria." Nigerianhistoryonline.com
Irele, A. 2002. "Tradition and the Yoruba Writer: D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola and Wole Soyinka." In African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, edited by T. Olaniyan and A. Quayson, 75-82. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Jahanbegloo, R. 2015. "We Must not Tolerate the New Barbarism of the Fundamentalists." Sunday Times. www.timeslive.co.za
James, A. 2009. "An Interview with Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman." London: Methuen. pp.xlv-li.
Kauffmann, S. 2000. "Profane Rites." The New Republic 17 (9): 24-25.
https://doi.org/10.1111/0893-7850.00361 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/0893-7850.00361
Lugard, F. 2012. "Lugard's Assessment of Africans." https://chiefnwaco.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/lord-lugards-assessment-of-africans/
Mandela, N. "Ubuntu." Ubuntu School of Philosophy.
Mounstephen, P. 2015. "Teapots and DNA: The Foundations of CMS." Intermission 22.
Na'Allah, A. (ed). 2003. The People's Poet: Emerging Perspectives on Niyi Osundare. Trenton: Africa World Press.
Obafemi, O. 2012. The Mysteries of God. Ibadan: Nelson Publishers Limited.
Obafemi, O. 2014. "Religion, Theatre and Redemption." Hirentha: Journal of the Humanities 1(1): 15-39.
Obafemi. O. 2016. Love Twirls of Adiitu and Iyunade. Ilorin: UniIlorin Press.
Obafemi. O. 2022. "Foreword." In Timeless Memories: Conversation between Wole Soyinka and Ulli Beier, edited by O. Abodunrin and M. Masoga, 3-6 Lagos: Wildeye Creative Press.
Olaniyan, T., and Quayson, A. 2007. African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
O'Leary, J. 2025. "Mónica's Story: The Woman Shipped from Ghana to Portugal in 1556 to Stand Trial for Using Traditional Medicine." https://theconversation.com/monicas-story-the-woman-shipped-from-ghana-to-portugal-in-1556-to-stand-trial-for-using-traditional-medicine-263929 DOI: https://doi.org/10.64628/AAJ.6p9qrghej
Osofisan, F. 2003. Many Colors Make the Thunder-king: Major Plays. Ibadan: Opon Ifa Readers.
Osundare, N. 1998. Moonsongs. Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
Osundare, N. 2000. The Word is An Egg. Ibadan: Kraft Books.
Pemberton, J. 1976. "Esu-Elegba: The Yoruba Trickster God." African Arts 9 i. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3334976
Slaymaker, W. 2007. "Ecoing the Other(s): The Call for Global Green and Black African Responses." In African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory, edited by T. Olaniyan and A. Quayson, 683-697. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Soyinka, W. 1976. Myth, Literature and the African World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Soyinka, W. 2009. Death and the King's Horseman. London: Methuen.
Stallybrass, P., and A. White. 1986. The Politics and Poetics of Transgression. London: Methuen Press.
Stallybrass, P. 1989. "Drunk with the Cup of Liberty: Robin Hood, the Carnivalesque and the Rhetoric of Violence in Early Modern England." Semiotica 54(1-2). https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1985.54.1-2.113 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1985.54.1-2.113
Walls, A. 1992. "The Legacy of Samuel Ajayi Crowther" (PDF). International Bulletin of Missionary Research: 16. Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. https://doi.org/10.1177/239693939201600104 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/239693939201600104
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright will be vested in Unisa Press. However, as long as you do not use the article in ways which would directly conflict with the publisher's business interests, you retain the right to use your own article (provided you acknowledge the published version of the article) as follows:
- to make further copies of all or part of the published article for your use in classroom teaching;
- to make copies of the final accepted version of the article for internal distribution within your institution, or to place it on your own or your institution's website or repository, or on a site that does not charge for access to the article, but you must arrange not to make the final accepted version of the article available to the public until 18 months after the date of acceptance;
- to reuse all or part of this material in a compilation of your own works or in a textbook of which you are the author, or as the basis for a conference presentation.
Accepted 2026-05-14
Published 2026-07-01
