Research
A Literary Appraisal of Poets as Historians
The Yoruba believe that our past and present histories are being preserved for future generation. Hence, the Yoruba genres can be used to trace the history of a set of people and one occurrence or the other. Various genres of the Yoruba are embodiment of their history. In essence, Yoruba poets are seen as historians or repertoire of knowledge. All the stories which are embedded in Yoruba oral literature are seen in form of allusion. Yoruba orature helps to remember important cultural information and history of the Yoruba people. It is pertinent to note that the role of orature in the construction and reconstruction of history is remarkable as seen in the following genres of Yoruba oral literature such as alámọ̀, ìjálá, ẹ̀sà and orin. This paper concludes that in the above mentioned genres, like other Yoruba genres, poets play the roles of historians and that our past and present histories are preserved for future generation.
Orature: A Strategy for Socio-Religious Harmony in YoruIbaIland
Before the advent of Christian and Islamic religions, African Traditional Religion was solely practised among the YoruÌ€baÌ without any interference or hindrance. However, in the 19th century, when Christian and Islamic religions emerged, there was a marriage of inconvenience initially, but later, these religious practitioners found a way of peaceful co-existence among one another. In this paper, we evaluate the importance and use of YoruÌ€baÌ orature in relation to the spread and peaceful co-existence of Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion in the YoruÌ€baÌ society and argue that one of the ways adopted to ensure peace and unity among the three groups is the use of YoruÌ€baÌ orature and that during the advent of Christianity and Islam, the YoruÌ€baÌ manipulate proverbs in various degrees to also enhance the spread of the two religions in the YoruÌ€baÌ society. We further argue that, since all the adherents of the three religions have the same cultural background, they find it very easy to adjust to the prevailing religious situations. It is also observed that the deadly wave of westernization has not been able to do any havoc to the sociocultural unity, peaceful co-existence and religious harmony in the YoruÌ€baÌ society but instead, it has helped to boost the use of YoruÌ€baÌ orature and the effect is that socio-religious harmony is noticeably waxing stronger and stronger among the adherents of the different religions in the society. Finally, we conclude that the use of the YoruÌ€baÌ orature in churches, mosques and shrines has paved way for the socio-cultural unity, peaceful co-existence and religious harmony in the YoruÌ€baÌ society.
