Between the Herbalist and the Beggar's Apprentice: The Best of Toyin Falola: A Hypothetical Project

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

              Between the Herbalist 

                           and the 

               Beggar's Apprentice

             The Best of Toyin Falola

              A Hypothetical Project

          Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

                           Compcros

Comparative Cognitive Processess 

                               and 

                            Systems 

"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos 

                                    in 

                   Search of Knowledge"

Purpose

The purpose of this project would be to present examples of the writings of the polymathic scholar and writer Toyin Falola that exemplify the best qualities of his work, uniquely creative writings that are not replicated by others addressing similar subjects, writings by Falola which  are also accessible to a broad, multi-disciplinary audience within and beyond academic contexts.

Different views would exist as to which works would fit this description. Here are my own selections from my admittedly quite limited reading of Falola so far.

Selections

1. Theoretical Statements

"Ritual Archives"

In The Toyin Falola Reader.

Remarkable for its combination of imaginative sensitivity, attunement to the sacred, intellectual analyses and ideational structuring.

The powerful section on the Yoruba origin Orisha cosmology deity Eshu makes this essay complementary to Falola's more conventionally expository but comprehensive introductory chapter on Eshu in Falola's introduction to his edited Eshu: Yoruba God, Power and Imaginative Frontiers.

2. Autobiography

2. 1. The sections on his mentor, the herbalist and dealer in spiritual items Iya Lekuleja, in A Mouth Sweeter than Salt and Counting the Tiger's Teeth.

Awesome writing on a formative relationship between a mysterious figure and a youth, a relationship at the intersection of systems of knowledge that youth would later commit himself to studying even as he admits the challenge of plumbing the mystery of that personage who impacted him so deeply.

A piece of writing that could not have bern more imaginatively evocative if it were fiction.

Dramatizes rich encounters with Yoruba knowledge systems that would repay careful analysis.

2.2. The section narrating Falola's apprenticeship to a blind beggar in Counting the Tiger's Teeth, if I recall correctly which of the two autobiographies it appears in.

A wonderful journey through an adventure into the unpredictable at the intersections of choice and life's journey. 

3. Analyses of General Cultural Forms 

The chapter on the symbolism of hair in Yoruba culture in his  Decolonizing African Knowledge: Autoethnography and African Epistemologies 

Superb in ideational scope and analytical architecture.

The pictures enrich the exposition but better, professional photography  would one day need to be produced for another publication of this work of classic power.

4. Poetry

"For Clara Adeyemi"

On the USAAfrica Dialogues Series Google group.

Magnificent poetry of grieving, bringing the heart and the material cosmos into dialogue.

5. Biographical Essay/Biographical Poetry

The chapter on Ade Ajayi in Falola's In Praise of Greatness: The Poetics of African Adulation.

Majestic survey of the interpersonal and professional impact of a great scholar, vivified by electrifying poetry, in English and in Yoruba, if I recall correctly.

6. Project Announcements

The call for papers for a book on the philosopher, theologian and economist Nimi Wariboko on the USA Africa Dialogues Series Google group.

Alive with enthusiasm at encounter with a rich cognitive universe and a robust summation of that universe and the various angles from which it imay be approached.

Between Vastness of Productivity and Levels of Creativity

This is a small selection from the little I have read so far from an author who is vastly productive.

Why such a small selection?

How does such selectivity on my part relate to the larger volume of the author's work I have read, that being itself a small part of his entire productivity to date?

To have achieved the heights represented by works of the unique power represented by the selections I have made, he would need the entire universe of his productivity, exploring, testing, refining, and, from time to time achieving the unusually incendiary power of particular productions represented by works as powerful as those of the selections I have done.

The other works outside such selections as this are demonstrations of competence in their various fields, richly informative, contributing to the encyclopedic engagement with the African humanities and social sciences in relation to other bodies of knowledge that Falola's oeuvre constitutes.

The selections I have highlighted here, however, demonstrate those qualities and more, achieving a highly individual and even unique creativity while actualizing rich knowledge.