University of Alberta Yoruba Folktafes: Cultural Plurality and Oral Narratives 0 Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Comparative Literature Department of Comparative Literature, Religon, and Film/Media Studies Edmonton, Alberta Fall 1999 1*1 National Library Bibliotti&quen ationale of Canada do Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 OttawaON K l A W Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sow paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette Mse. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent &re imptimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. For my father, ~lhaj~i hmadN a'~llahw, ho passed away on ~pril10,1999, few hours after returning to Ilorin from performing the Hajj in Mecca, and for Ilorin, the multicultural pot. Abstract This work argues that Yoruba oral society is a culturally plural society and compares its features to some multicultural patterns of New World societies, using Canada and the United States as examples. The thrust of the thesis is that despite colonial and neo-colonial influences on the Yoruba, the community continues to project a very rich oral tradition, and to retain its distinctive cultural identity. It also argues for major differences between multicultural concepts of an active oral society and the ones often identified in the contemporary Western communities. An active oral society is a society in which orality is still a main part of the cultural, religious, economic and socio-political lives of the majority of the people; while in a passive oral society, otherwise called a written society, writing, and electronics have become the main mediums of communication and formed major sources of cultural dissemination. The thesis discusses the existence of an "open market" for cultural plurality in the active oral society and argues that the multicultural status of the New World society is being sustained by parliamentary legislation and government intervention, thereby often creating social and cultural tensions. Because of the "open market" characteristic of the active oral society of the Yoruba, and because of its inherent cultural plurality, it has created a capacity for itself to sustain its intrinsic identity despite any foreign cultural intervention. Nil@@, This study introduces a Yomba rhetorical tool, as a concept for critical analysis and interpretation, and invites literary critics that are interested in a traditional ~fricancr itical paradigm to adopt EIAI+~. The use of ~Ld@rw6h, ich is new to the West, is an expansion on Henry Louis Gates's (1988) efforts to introduce a pan-Africanist approach of Signifyin@ to critical discourse. The thesis also utilizes a performance-based approach and engages many contemporary literary debates about Yomba and related African oral traditions. Using the fieldwork materials collected in Ilorin in December 1997, the thesis discusses culture and identity in Ilorin folktales, arguing that despite Ilorin's contemporary status as a Muslim community, and notwithstanding the influences of Western culture and education on the community, the Ilorin Yomba, as an active oral society, continues to project its Yoruba cultural identity. Finally, the thesis asserts that a philosophy of indigenizing difference and the rhetoric of similarity are the traditions in which the inherently diverse active oral community of the Yomba is united. Since the Yoruba culture is inherentlv diverse, its disparate views, its sub-cultures, and its manv religions and worship processes are united through emphasis on (the) similarities among them. Tension is only logical if a culture as intrinsically plural as Yoruba always beats the drum of differences rather than that of similarities. The thesis thus reviews some of Kwame ~nthonyA ppiah's (1992) comments on notions of ~fricanid entity and culture, arguing that Appiah deviates from traditional ~fricanor ality and the latter's consistent emphasis on cultural similarity rather than difference. First, to ~ A l h&,a wa Jal, I acknowledge the strength and success in writing this work. My teacher, supenisor and academic guardian, University Professor Emeritus Milan V ~imi;,f or his unshakable belief that an oral person has a genuine claim to scholarship, and that knowledge and experiences in oral world are useful in retracing misdirected theoretical steps and furthering cross-cultural understanding, and my supervisory committee members, Professors George Lang and Stephen SIemon, every work here will be naught without them. And my other U of A teachers, colleagues, friends, and department staff, too numerous, but I'll mention Professors Stephen Arnold, Nasrin Rahimieh, Ted Blodgett, dam Krims, Deborah Thompson, Uri ~MargolinE, arle Waugh, Marisa Bortohssi, Paul Robberech, who, at different times, made my study here enjoyable. My teachers at the University of Ilorin who prepared me during my first and second degree programs for the tasks of teaching and scholarship, and are still "keeping eyes" on me till today, Professors Olu Obafemi, Tayo Olafioye, Yiwola Awoyale and Niyi Osundare. ~bdul-Razaq(~ leyinla)M, uhammad (Niyi), ~liaganW, umi, Ibn-Waleed, Yekin, Sa'adu, Lamidi, Lukman, Paul and Mona, Barb, Doris, ~Monique,B ev, Richard, Jerry, Irene, Louisa, Linda, Nancy, Saloni, Sanjit, Amritha, Yanbing, Friends indeed! To my darling wife Rahmat, and our children Saarat and Haleemah, forever thanks. At home in Ilorin, the Egbe Alalo of GHS, and my parents and extended family, the Muhammadu Jimoh-Golus and the ~amal-ud-deens, especially the mothers, sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews who participated in the folktale sessions, you all made this possible! Contents Library Release Form Title Page Signed Examination Committee Signahlre Page Dedication ~bstract Acknowledgements Table of Contents Introduction I 1. Yoruba: The People, Culture and Oral Performances 26 2. Researching Folktales & the Yoruba Inherent Cultural Plurality 57 3. Folktales: The School, the Society, and the Wherewithal of Ilorin (Yoruba) Active Orality! 96 4. Folktales 126 5. Theorizing on Identity and Culture through Oral Narratives 186 6. Canclusion 21 1 Footnotes 226 Bibliography 235 Appendix: Summary of collected Folktales 245 Introduction AS the multiculturalism of New World societies continues to grow into the twenty-first century, and the concept of the world as a "global village" continues to form, scholars are intensifying efforts. seeking means to continue to understand the various cultures of the world so as to better relate to peoples from around the world. Many Western scholars, however, continue to interpret other cultures from Western perspectives, and to apply concepts such as multiculturalism to African societies from Western viewpoints, often causing more confusion than clarity, and greater problems than solutions. It is very crucial to have works, such as I have here, to explain other societies, especially those I have described in this work as active oral cultures, in comparison to the passive orality of the contemporary West. This work will discuss the inherent cultural plurality of the Yoruba, and compare it to multicultural concepts of New World societies. It will examine Yoruba (and other ~fricanc)o ncepts of identitv, similarity. plurali~a,n d diversity, and the different Western (e-g., Canadian and American) concepts of multiculturalism and identity. Its central argument will be that the inherent diversity of Yoruba oral culture equips it with a very strong capacity to absorb new cultural forms without causing tension to the community's intrinsic structure and identity. To argue this thesis, I will present Yoruba origin stories, explore various kinds of Yoruba oral performances, and later use Ilorin Yoruba identity as a case in point of my discussions. Examples from the New World shall be derived from Canada's, and to some extent, the United States', contemporary multicultural situations. In order to carry readers along carefully through the processes of understanding why, for example, concepts of multiculturalism or pluralism differ between Yoruba active orality and the Canadian or the United States' written societies, 1 shall work from an oral historical origin of the Yoruba people and culture, through to a comparison between Yomba inherent cultural diversity and a few examples of contemporary New World multiculturalisms in Canada and the United States. I shall consider the specific situation of ilorin Yoruba identity and how, as an active orality society, it is able to retain its k&ko ddjiir; (Yoruba) identity despite extraneous influences. The idea here is to show how, through Yoruba folktales recorded in December 1997 in Ilorin city, the "faces" of the llorin Yoruba have not altered despite European colonization, Western education, and Islamic and ~rabilce arning. This work's progressive approach will culminate, at the end, by relating how the plurality features of Yoruba active orality have not been positively explored in resolving the current political upheaval in Sigeria as a whole. Athough several scholars have examined the various aspects of Yoruba oral performances, for example, ~jiboyeB abalola, Olaitan Olatunji, Wande hbimbola, Oludare Olajubu, and Ropo Sekoni, this study shall be the first to use Yoruba oral narratives to discuss issues of inherent cultural plurality among the Yoruba, and compare such important characteristics of an African "active oral society" to contemporary Western mukicu~turalism.I t will be mv expectation that this study can show Yoruba elite, and indeed Nigerian societv and the Western world, how contemporary societies can benefit from Yoruba intrinsic cultural plurality in ensuring peace, progress, and prosperity in the twenty-first century and avoiding the current socio- political turmoil which recently almost destroyed the Nigerian nation (for insight into the Nigerian crises, see Na'Allah 1998; Soyinka 1996). what methodology will I adopt in analyzing oral culture? Vladimir Propp's morphology? Jakobson's or Levi-Strauss's structuraiisms? Freud's or lung's psychoanalysis? Even-Zohar's polysystern? Or should I go for the New Criticism, .Marxism, Postmarxism, Postmodernism? This is the paradox of this project! I am making a case for the primacy of orality in written form. I have to follow the requirements of the written English grammar, its regularly irregular morphological-cum-phono-syntactic structures, and then quote European theories to defend African oral culture. No! I am a drummer, a bard, a traditional storyteller; mv paths are already cleared, my songs must be performed according to the rhvthm of my peoplek game. The Yoruba say, kc;s t. bi n-dn disc, kdl; hCiir ibiit;; ri, meaning that we should do our performance according to the tradition of our lineage so that it can attain the success that it is meant to attain. While benefiting from some contemporary Western polemics, this work will primarily adopt the performance-centered approach, and invoke EI'~I 'crG, a Yoruba rhetorical concept which combines theorv tvith practice, as its guiding spirit. The performance-based approach will be used to demonstrate how Yoruba folktales can be appreciated within the scope of actual performance rvhere contextualizations play important roles in determining the meaning and socio-cultural essence of the tales. Several scholars of ~fricanor al traditions, ~ u t Fhin negan (19701, Isidore Okpewho (1990, 19921, Ropo Sekoni (1990). have emphasized the importance of performance in the identification, appreciation and analysis of ~fricanor al tales. ~kpewhoi,n an interview, defines the performance-based approach as follows: The performance-based approach to the study of oral literature asks questions beyond ivhat we can see on the printed page. .Although in some instances what you see on the printed page helps to reconfigure t\-hat could have been the