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Creatorselves

Creatorselves

@shaa.bsky.social

13 followers 2 following 72 posts

Book Fiend of the Book Replay. Writer. Chef.

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Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Jul 23

lol

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Jan 7

I review books here. Please, check it out.

youtube.com/@bookreplay?...

The Book Replay

Welcome, fellow book lovers! I'm passionate about diving deep into books, rereading them to uncover hidden gems and nuances that might be missed on the first pass. Join me for in-depth discussions, th...

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Jan 7

Next Book Review...

#fiction #Literature

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Jan 7

I stalk you to see how much over you I am.
I'm not over you yet.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Jan 7

Doing everything I asked you to do right after the relationship ends is not...well, it is progress.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me: The road to building knowledge about African societies is long.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

6. ...the promotion in African studies of concepts and theories derived from the Western mode of thought at best makes it difficult to understand African realities. At worse, it hampers our ability to build knowledge about African societies.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me: Aha! The indo-europeans strike again

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

This pattern is one in which gender is omnipresent, the male is the norm, and the female is the exception; it is a pattern in which power is believed to inhere in maleness in and of itself. It is also a pattern that is not grounded on evidence.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

5. Gender has become important in Yoruba studies not as an artifact of Yoruba life but because Yoruba life, past and present, has been translated into English to fit the Western pattern of body-reasoning.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me: Interesting...

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

4. Yoruba language is gender-free...there are no genderspecific words denoting son, daughter, brother, or sister. Yoruba names are not gender-specific; neither are oko and aya —two categories translated as the English husband and wife, respectively.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Okay yes oral traditions are great, but isn't storing information in people the second major reason we have none?

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

the Cartesian mind accustomed to dividing everything into clear-cut categories. In oral tradition, in fact, spiritual and material are not dissociated.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

3. Malian philosopher Amadou Hampate Ba underscores the holistic nature of African oral traditions: "Oral tradition is the great school of life, all aspects of which are covered and affected by it. It may seem chaos to those who do not penetrate its secret; it may baffle...

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me: Ride on, ma!

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

...the lack of appreciation that language carries with it the world-sense of a people has led to the assumption that Western categories are universal.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

2. African nationalities are said to be based on language groups, but the marginalization of language in African studies belies this fact. One wonders whether the endurance of the nebulous category "Africa" as the unit of analysis in many studies is related to these facts.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me: My perspectives on things started to shift when I began to look at the written words in my language.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me: This is true; I don't understand my language and can speak it, but everyone calls on me to explain things. What differentiates me from an anthropologist who spends two years with my people studying them?
In fact, he may be even more qualified than I am to speak on things.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

1. The lack of interest in the Yoruba language beyond "fieldworkese" is not surprising, since African studies is one of the few areas in the academy where one can claim to be an expert without the benefit of language competence.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

A second thread. Here she examines the specific problems that interpreting Africa through western thought brings.

If you are just joining us, this Oyewumi's The Invention of Women. I am reading it ahead of book club this Saturday.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

Do I agree?

Wholly, yes. It is the basic 'knowledge of self is knowledge of all'. The problem here is that we have to steep ourselves in the culture, in the stories and stop looking from the outside in.

Everyone African should disentangle from Western way of thought.

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

{The gist here is basically that, African philosophers should first undestand from the inside ou before engaging with western cultures, and knowledge. This is how we frame our understandhistory and ourselves properly and do not shoot ourselves in the foot.}

Creatorselves @shaa.bsky.social · Dec 4

7. Of course, in reality Africa continues to unfold in the march of history. The original human history at that!

What a way to end the chapter