It is with
great sadness that I announce the transition of Professor Oyekan
Owomoyela who died today, October 6, 2007. According to his last wish,
the only memorial service he would like is one with me and the larger
Yoruba/Africans at the annual Austin conference. At the time of his
death, he was completing his manuscript on African literature for
Columbia.
Profile:
Professor Oyekan Owomoyela
Background Educational History
Degrees
B.A.
(London) 1963
M.F.A. (UCLA) 1966
Ph.D. (UCLA) 1970
M.F.A. Thesis
"The
Slave." (Full-length screenplay set in traditional Yoruba
society.)
Ph.D. Dissertation
"Folklore and the
Rise of Theater Among the Yoruba."
Employment
Instructor, Lake Erie College, Painesville,
Ohio, 1964
Lecturer, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria,
1968-1972
Assistant Professor,
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1972-1975
Associate
Professor, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1975-1981
Senior Consultant
and Head of the Department of Technical Support and Services, Centre
for
Management Development, Lagos, Nigeria, 1975-1976 (on leave from
UNL)
Professor, University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, Nebraska, 1981-
Visiting Scholar, University
of Ghana, Legon, 1998-1999
Ryan Professor of African Literature, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, 2000-
Coordinator, African American and
African Studies, 2005 -
Publications
Books, Monographs, Chapters
Yoruba: Proverbs: Translations and Annotations. Athens:
Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1973, with Bernth
Lindfors.
"Folklore and Yoruba Theater." Critical Perspectives on
Nigerian Literatures. Ed. Bernth Lindfors. Washington: Three
Continents Press, 1976, pp. 27-40.
"Folklore and Yoruba Theater." Forms of Folklore in
Africa. Ed. Bernth Lindfors. Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1977, pp. 258-70. [Reprint]
African Literatures: An Introduction. Waltham: Crossroads
Press, 1979.
A
Kì í: Yoruba Proscriptive and Prescriptive Proverbs Lanham:
University Press of America, 1988.
"Ulli Beier and Yoruba Theater: A Conversation."
Critic as Terrorist. Ed. Tayo Olafioye. San Diego, Calif:
Advantage Book Company, 1989, pp. 75-84.
"Africa and the Imperative of Philosophy." African
Philosophy: The Essential Readings. Ed. Tsenay Serequeberhan. New
York: Paragon House, 1991, pp. 156-86.
Visions and Revisions: Essays on African Literatures and
Criticism. New York: Peter Lang, 1991.
"Yoruba Folk Opera: a Cross-Cultural Flowering." From
Commonwealth to Post-Colonial. Ed. Anna Rutherford. Sydney:
Dangaroo Press, 1992, pp. 160-80.
A
History of Twentieth-Century African Literatures (Edited volume,
including Introduction and a chapter by me). Lincoln and London:
University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
"Drums in African Folklore." Drums: The Heartbeat of
Africa. Ed. Esther A. Dagan. Montréal: Galerie Amrad African Art
Publications, 1993, pp. 58-61.
Foreword. Guanya Pau, by J. J. Walters. Lincoln and
London: The University of Nebraska Press, 1994, pp. ix-xxiv.
"Africa and the Imperative of Philosophy." African
Philosophy: Selected Readings. Ed. Albert G. Mosley. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: 1995, pp. 236-62. [Reprint]
The African Difference: Discourses on Africanity and the
Relativity of Cultures. Johannesburg, Witwatersrand University
Press, 1996; simultaneously published in the US by Peter Lang, NY,
NY.
Yoruba Trickster Tales. Lincoln and London: The University
of Nebraska Press, 1997.
"The African Condition at the End of the Twentieth Century:
The Perils of Clouded Vision and Reduced Perceptiveness," in
Levels of Perception and Reproduction of Reality in Modern African
Literature (Special Issue of the University of Leipzig Papers on
Africa, Nos. 3 & 4 (1998). Eds. Dr. Ludwig Gerhardt and Dr. Hilke
Meyer Bahlburg), 1998.
Amos Tutuola Revisited. New York, Twayne, 1999.
"From Folklore to Literature: The Route From Roots in the
African World," in The African Diaspora: African Origins and New
World Identities, Eds. Isidore Okpewho, Carole Boyce Davies, and
Ali Mazrui, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999, pp.
275-89.
"Identity and Cultural Repression in the Colonized African
Psyche: Mariama Bâ's Scarlet Song and Tsitsi
Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions." Body, Identity, Sub-Cultures
and Repression in Texts From Africa. Johannes A. Smit, Ed. Durban:
CSSALL, 1999, pp.77-101.
"The Mata Kharibu Model and Its Oppositions: Conflicts and
Transformations in Cultural Valuation," in The Transformation of
Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Toyin Falola. Adebayo Oyebade, Ed.
Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002, pp. 483-509.
"Socialist Realism and African Knowledge." Tongue and
Mother Tongue: African Literature and the Perpetual Quest for
Identity, Eds. Pamela J Olúbùnmi Smith and Daniel P. Kunene.
Trenton, NJ and Asmara, Eritrea. Africa World Press, 2002, pp.
89-102.
"Telling Africa's Past in Literature: Whose Story Is It
Anyway?" In Africanizing Knowledge. Eds. Toyin Falola.and
Christian Jennings. New Brunswick & London: Transaction
Publishers, 2002, pp. 219-38.
"The Self as Exemplum: African Autobiography as Celebratory
Performance of the Self." In African Writers and Their Readers:
Essays in Honor of Bernth Lindfors, Vo. II. Eds. Toyin Falola and
Barbara Harlow. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2002, pp.
1-25.
Culture and Customs of Zimbabwe. Culture and Customs of
Africa Series. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 2002.
"Zimbabwe." In Teen Life in Africa. Ed. Toyin
Falola. Culture and Customs of Africa Series. Westport, CT and
London: Greenwood Press, 2004, pp. 303-20.
"Àjàpá, Ajá the Dog, and the Yams." Myth and
Knowing: An Introduction to World Mythology. Eds. Scott Leonard
and Michael McClure. Boston: MgGraw-Hill, 2004, pp. 257-64.
(Reprint)
"The Literature of Empire: Africa." Empire On-Line,
Section II: Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire. On-Line
Database. Marlborough, U.K.: Adam Matthew Publications Ltd., 2004.
Introductory Essay.
"The Good Person: Excerpts from the Yoruba Proverb Treasury."
http://libr.unl.edu:2000/yoruba/ Introductory Essay and a selection of
Yoruba proverbs digitized and published by the E-text Center at Love
Library. 2004.
Yoruba Proverbs (A collection of over 5,000 Yoruba
proverbs, with translations, annotations, and introductory
discussion). University of Nebraska Press, September 2005.
"Lewis Nkosi: A Commentary Piece." Still Beating the
Drum: Critical Perspectives on Lewis Nkosi." Rodopi
Cross/Culture 81. Eds. Lindy Stiebel and Liz Gunner. Amsterdam:
Rodopi, 2005, pp. 39-46.
Forthcoming
"African Philosophy: the Conditions of Its Possibility," in
a book on The Transfer of Knowledge in Africa. Eds. V. Y. Mudimbe and
Bogumil Jewsiewicki.
"African Culture, Technology and the New World Order: Lessons
From the Gulf," in the proceedings of the Ohio State University
Center for African Studies Symposium on "Culture, Technology and
Development in the Third World: Examples and Lessons from
Africa."
Articles
"New-Born Child of the Firmament: Yoruba Children's
Moonlight Games," Nota Bene VII (1964), 11-17.
"'Yoruba Language Theater Draws Inspiration from
Tradition," Africa Report (June, 1970), 32-33.
"Folklore and Yoruba Theater," Research in African
Literatures 2, 2 (Fall, 1971), 122-33.
"The Sociology of Sex and Crudity in Yoruba Proverbs,"
Proverbium 20 (1972), 751-58.
"Western Humanism and African Usage: A Critical Survey of
Non-African Responses to African Literature," Issue: A Quarterly
Journal of Opinion IV, 4 (Winter, 1974), 9-14.
"Yoruba Wordplay: A Tongue Twister, a Tone Twister, and a
Wellerism," Southern Folklore Quarterly 39 (1975), 167-70,
with Bernth Lindfors.
"Western Humanism and African Usage," Afriscope
(January, 1975) 54-58. Reprint.
"On Misjudging African Literature: Paternalistic Critics
Perpetuate a False Image," Atlas World Press Review 22, 7
(July, 1975), 48-49. Excerpt Reprint.
"Obotunde Ijimere, The Phantom of Nigerian Theater,"
African Studies Review XXII, 1 (April, 1979), 43-50.
"Dissidence and the African Writer: Commitment or
Dependency?" African Studies Review XXIV, 1 (March, 1981),
83-98.
"The Pragmatic Humanism of Yoruba Culture," Journal of
African Studies 8, 3 (Fall, 1981), 126-32.
"Proverbs: Exploration of an African Philosophy of Social
Communication," Ba Shiru, Journal of African Languages and
Literatures 12, 1 (1985), 3-16.
"Chinua Achebe on the Individual in Society," Journal of
African Studies 12, 2 (Summer, 1985), 53-65.
"Give Me Drama, Or . . . : The Argument on the Existence of
Drama in Traditional Africa," African Studies Review 28, 4
(December, 1985), 28-45.
"Creative Historiography and Critical Determinism in Nigerian
Theater," Research in African Literatures 17, 2 (Summer,
1986), 234-51.
"Africa and the Imperative of Philosophy," African
Studies Review 30, 1 (March, 1987), 70-100.
"Tortoise Tales and Yoruba Ethos," Research in
African Literatures 20, 2 (Summer, 1989), 165-80.
"The Trickster in Contemporary African Folklore," The
World & I (April 1990), 625-32.
"African Philosophy: The Conditions of Its Possibility,"
Sapina Newsletter: A Bulletin of the Society for African Philosophy in
North America 3, 1 (Jan-July 1990), 14-45.
"Socialist Realism or African Realism? A Choice of
Ancestors," Research in African Literatures. 22, 2 (Summer
1991), 21-40.
"Language, Identity and Social Construction in African
Literatures," in Research in African Literatures 23,1 (Spring
1992), 83-94.
"Recouping the African Spirit." Nebraska (Fall 1994),
24-27.
"With Friends Like These . . . A Critique of Pervasive
Anti-Africanisms in Current
African Studies Epistemology and Methodology." African
Studies Review 37,3 (December 1994), 53-77.
"African Philosophy: The Conditions of Its Possibility."
SAPINA: A Bulletin of the Society for African Philosophy in North
America 10, 2 (1997). Tenth Anniversary Issue: An African Practice
of Philosophy, pp. 119-43.
"Monumentality, Scriptocentrism and Other Mismeasures of
Man. West Africa Review: 1, 2.
http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?101.1.2.16, 2000.
"Discourse on Gender: Historical Contingency and the Ethics of
Intellectual Work." West Africa Review: 3, 2 (2002).
(www.westafricareview.com)
Forthcoming
"Trading Voices: Transformations in Yoruba Orin Òwe
(Proverbial Songs) and Related " afriche & orienti
Special Issue on Il potere della voce: forme di comunicazione orale
fra tradizione e modernità, Ed. Annalisa Oboe, University of
Padua, Italy.
"Lost in Transit: Africa in the Trough of the Black Atlantic."
in the Proceedings of the second annual meeting of the Padua Research
Group on "Identity Politics, Cosmopolitan Rights and Local Community
in a Circumatlantic Context" at the University of Padova, Italy,
October 25-28, 2005.
Encyclopaedia Entries
"Duro Ladipo,"
Encyclopedia Britannica Micropedia 7 (1985), 93.
"Osofisan, Femi." Encyclopedia of World Literature
in the 20th Century. Vol. 5, Supplement and Index. Eds. Steven R.
Serafin and Walter D. Glanze. New York: Continuum, 1993, 463-64.
"Amos Tutuola." Encyclopaedia of Post-Colonial
Literatures in English. Eds. Eugene Benson and L. W. Conolly.
London & New York: Routledge, 1994, 1602-03.
"Festus Iyayi." Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black
African Writers, Third Series. Volume 157, Dictionary of Literary
Biography. Eds. Bernth Lindfors and Richard Sander. Detroit: Gale
Research Inc., 1996, 113-22.
"Amos Tutuola." African Writers. Ed. C. Brian Cox.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997, 865-78.
"African Literature." Microsoft Encarta 98
Encyclopedia, 1997.
"Language Use: Language Choice in Writing." The
Encyclopedia of Sub-Saharan Africa. Ed., John Middleton. New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1998.
"Literature: Anglophone Literature from West Africa." The
Encyclopedia of Sub-Saharan Africa. Ed., John Middleton. New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1998.
"Proverbs and Riddles." The Encyclopedia of Sub-Saharan
Africa. Ed., John Middleton. New York: Simon and Schuster,
1998.
"Tricksters in African Folklore." African Folklore: an
Encyclopedia. Eds. Phi
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