Understanding Ogbu Kalu: Christianity and Culture in Africa
By Toyin Falola
With various objectives in mind, this book examines the cumulative scholarship of Professor Ogbu Kalu (1942-2009). The first objective is to supply the contexts to understand him at various levels. Including the scholarship to which he responded, the cultural background which his work was grounded, and above all, the debates that raged during his era. The second objective is to analyze the overall contents of his body of work that constitute his contributions to knowledge. The third is to go beyond his work and, in the process, make far-reaching reflections on Christianity as a religion and as a field of scholarship. The fourth and final objective is to create an agenda for the Center that is named after him.
African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalization
Edited by Toyin Falola, R. Joseph Parrott, and Danielle Porter Sanchez
Islands and island chains like Cabo Verde, Madagascar, and Bioko are often sidelined in contemporary understandings of Africa as mainland nation-states take center stage in the crafting of historical narratives. Yet in the modern period, these small offshore spaces have often played important if inconsistent roles in facilitating intra- and intercontinental exchanges that have had lasting effects on the cultural, economic, and political landscape of Africa. In African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalism, contributors argue for the importance of Africa's islands in integrating the continent into wider networks of trade and migration that linked it with Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Essays consider the cosmopolitan and culturally complex identities of Africa's islands, analyzing the process and extent to which trade, slavery, and migration bonded African elements with Asian, Arabic, and European characteristics over the years. While the continental and island nations have experienced similar cycles of invasion, boom, and bust, essayists note both similarities and striking differences in how these events precipitated economic changes in the different geographic areas.
The Yoruba: From Prehistory to the Present
Edited by Aribidesi Usman and Toyin Falola
The Yoruba are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa, with significant populations in Nigeria, Benin and Togo, as well as a sizeable diasporic community around the world. By considering the art, religion, economics and political systems of the Yoruba, Aribidesi Usman and Toyin Falola chart the history of the Yoruba through the lens of the group's diverse and dynamic cultural and social practices. Using archaeological data, oral, and archival sources alongside rarely-discussed local histories Usman and Falola form a rich and detailed picture of the Yoruba from a period of early occupation and agriculture, the growth of complex societies and empires, the turbulent colonial period to the present day, constructing a comprehensive account of Yoruba history brought together in a single volume.
African History and Culture Before 1900
Edited by Toyin Falola and Steven Salm
Africa: Volume 1, African History and Culture Before 1900, provides new perspectives on African history and culture, surveying the wide array of societies and states that have existed on the African continent and introducing readers to the diversity of African experiences and cultural expressions. The authors reconstruct the history, cultures, and key institutions of African societies during significant historical eras both to educate and to stimulate further discussion and research.
The second edition combines the first editions of Volumes One and Two, African History Before 1885 and African Cultures and Societies Before 1885, to emphasize to the reader that history and culture are inseparable. “Culture” includes all of the ideas and beliefs that Africans have articulated over time and, thus, understanding culture is essential to understanding a people and their history. The book also stresses the continuity of history and culture and underscores African agency in shaping events and ideologies throughout the continent. African History and Culture Before 1900 challenges the accepted ways of studying Africa, provides flexibility for instructors to structure courses, and encourages readers who are eager to learn about the diversity of the African experience. The text is richly illustrated and include maps and timelines to enhance the clarity of cultural and historical movements. Each chapter also includes sidebars to add depth to the stories of history, as well as suggestions for further reading to help readers broaden their own particular interests.
In Praise of Greatness: The Poetics of African Adulation
By Toyin Falola
In Praise of Greatness, employing poems and prose, pays homage to those African scholars, artists, and public intellectuals who have been exemplary in developing significant ideas and institutional legacies with far-reaching political, social, and cultural impact. Here are remarkable lives of dedicated service that have transformed society, extended the frontiers of knowledge, preserved values, and offered unique perspectives that replace universalism with pluriversalism. In twenty-two chapters that deploy dynamic poetics, distinct cultural tools, and rich traditions, the book presents multiple global-local biographies of preeminent scholars, living legends, and intellectual giants of Africa and its diaspora. Through individual stories, cumulative analyses demonstrate the existence and elaboration of an ontological and epistemic infrastructure that embodies the powerful paradigms that are essential to attaining progress, promoting ethical scholarship, and presenting distinguished Africans to the outside world. The book argues for the maintenance of strong academic traditions and new social thinking beyond patriarchy, as well as more serious attention to poetic and artistic creativity in surviving, navigating, and transforming the varying forces of modernity and globalization with meticulous and sustained attention to local needs and contexts.
Oppression and Resistance in Africa and The Diaspora
Edited by Kenneth Kalu and Toyin Falola
Africa’s modern history is replete with different forms of encounters and conflicts. From the fifteenth century when millions of Africans were forcefully taken away as slaves during the infamous Atlantic slave trade; to the colonial conquests of the nineteenth century where European countries conquered and subsequently balkanized Africa and shared the continent to European powers; and to the postcolonial era where many African leaders have maintained several instruments of exploitation, the continent has seen different forms of encounters, exploitations and oppressions. These encounters and exploitations have equally been met with resistance in different forms and at different times. The mode of Africa’s encounters with the rest of the world have in several ways, shaped and continue to shape the continent’s social, political and economic development trajectories. Essays in this volume have addressed different aspects of these phases of encounters and resistance by Africa and the African Diaspora.
