I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary
This essay will study how the Yorùbá conceptualize “ọ̀tá” or the enemy, a trope that recurs in various cultural phenomena such as music, prayers, and other social rituals. The Yorùbá worldview of the enemy has profound implications on the way they frame issues that affect their mental, physical, s...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
LibraryPress@UF
2021-12-01
|
| Series: | Yoruba Studies Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ojs.test.flvc.org/ysr/article/view/129928 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1825206023992901632 |
|---|---|
| author | Abimbola Adelakun |
| author_facet | Abimbola Adelakun |
| author_sort | Abimbola Adelakun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
This essay will study how the Yorùbá conceptualize “ọ̀tá” or the enemy, a trope that recurs in various cultural phenomena such as music, prayers, and other social rituals. The Yorùbá worldview of the enemy has profound implications on the way they frame issues that affect their mental, physical, social, and general well-being. Health studies, religious studies, and social ethics studies and analyses have mostly tried to investigate the enemy as a concept borne out of Yorùbá cosmology which serves as a conduit for superstition, fear, and other seemingly irrational behavior. In this essay, I frame the concept of “ọ̀tá” through the theatrical dialectic of antagonist/protagonist theory. The enemy, I argue, is the way the Yorùbá metaphorize all kinds of antagonism—material and immaterial ones—into an imaginative texture that gives it the tangibility they need to triumph against those situations. This essay will interrogate how this personification of antagonism is achieved by studying Ifá texts, Yorùbá popular music of a period, and contemporary Pentecostal prayers.
|
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9d42ea5a27c34030abcd7fd58ba9250b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2473-4713 2578-692X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | LibraryPress@UF |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Yoruba Studies Review |
| spelling | doaj-art-9d42ea5a27c34030abcd7fd58ba9250b2025-02-07T13:45:42ZengLibraryPress@UFYoruba Studies Review2473-47132578-692X2021-12-0131I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá ImaginaryAbimbola Adelakun 0University of Texas at Austin This essay will study how the Yorùbá conceptualize “ọ̀tá” or the enemy, a trope that recurs in various cultural phenomena such as music, prayers, and other social rituals. The Yorùbá worldview of the enemy has profound implications on the way they frame issues that affect their mental, physical, social, and general well-being. Health studies, religious studies, and social ethics studies and analyses have mostly tried to investigate the enemy as a concept borne out of Yorùbá cosmology which serves as a conduit for superstition, fear, and other seemingly irrational behavior. In this essay, I frame the concept of “ọ̀tá” through the theatrical dialectic of antagonist/protagonist theory. The enemy, I argue, is the way the Yorùbá metaphorize all kinds of antagonism—material and immaterial ones—into an imaginative texture that gives it the tangibility they need to triumph against those situations. This essay will interrogate how this personification of antagonism is achieved by studying Ifá texts, Yorùbá popular music of a period, and contemporary Pentecostal prayers. https://ojs.test.flvc.org/ysr/article/view/129928Ọtá, Pentecostalism, Yorùbá popular music, Prayers, Identity |
| spellingShingle | Abimbola Adelakun I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary Yoruba Studies Review Ọtá, Pentecostalism, Yorùbá popular music, Prayers, Identity |
| title | I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary |
| title_full | I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary |
| title_fullStr | I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary |
| title_full_unstemmed | I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary |
| title_short | I am hated, therefore I am: The Enemy in Yorùbá Imaginary |
| title_sort | i am hated therefore i am the enemy in yoruba imaginary |
| topic | Ọtá, Pentecostalism, Yorùbá popular music, Prayers, Identity |
| url | https://ojs.test.flvc.org/ysr/article/view/129928 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT abimbolaadelakun iamhatedthereforeiamtheenemyinyorubaimaginary |