scholarly journals Alàgbà Adébáyọ̀ Fálétí as a Yorùbá Novelist

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Lere Adeyemi

In their introduction to a book entitled: Yorùbá creativity, fiction, language, life, and songs, Falola and Genova (2005) assert that creativity among the ̣ Yorùbá has a long history and the traditions of oral histories, storytelling, performances and dramas are parts of fundamental habit of their civilization. In the pre-colonial era, the authorship of the stories in the folktales and in some poetic genres could not be claimed by any particular artist/artiste, but due to the influence of colonial rule, western literary traditions, among others, storytellers can claim authorship of their works today. The Yorùbá make no distinction between myth, legend and history. They all come under ìtàn (Ogunsina, 1992). One Yorùbá novelist that has distinguished himself in the effective use of ìtàn (story) in novel writing is Adébáyò ̣ Fálétí. He is not only a storyteller, he is a literary historian. Every creative writer in Yorùbá society is admired and judged as competent or otherwise not only by writing in the medium of the language but by having captivating story line and on the basis of his/her use of ‘quality’ Yorùbá language (i.e. language full of proverbs and other rhetoric devices). An average Yorùbá reader of Fálétí’s novels, poetry, plays and viewer of his films usually responds with delight because of his powerful use of Yorùbá language and captivating story lines, plot construct, narrative techniques and thematic contents. Isọ la (1998) classifies all other Yorùbá major novelists apart from Fágúnwà ̣ into three groups on their use of language and creative pedigree (190). According to him, “some are mere story tellers” who use mainly casual language; 154 Lere Adeyemi there are others with mixed styles and there are a few of them who creatively exploit the genius of the language. He identifies Adébáyò ̣ Fálétí among few others as belonging to the genius category. Ogunsina (1992) groups Fálétí as a prominent historical novelist who incorporates historical materials into novel writing. I agree with Ogunsina that Fálétí’s effective transfer of histori ̣ - cal materials into fiction is a revelation of the novel’s eclectic quality and also a manifestation of Fálétí’s creative genius. Fálétí’s love of ìtàn (story) is reflected in all his literary works, be it poetry, play or novel. However, our focus in this study is to examine Adébáyọ̀ ̣ Fálétí as a Yorùbá novelist through his literary lens.

2020 ◽  
pp. 225-251
Author(s):  
Ernest Ming-Tak Leung

This article explores a commonly ignored aspect of Japan–North Korean relations: the Japanese factor in the making of Korean socialism. Korea was indirectly influenced by the Japanese Jiyuminken Movement, in the 1910s–1920s serving as a stepping-stone for the creation of a Japanese Communist Party. Wartime mobilization policies under Japanese rule were continued and expanded beyond the colonial era. The Juche ideology built on tendencies first exhibited in the 1942 Overcoming Modernity Conference in Japan, and in the 1970s some Japanese leftists viewed Juche as a humanist Marxism. Trade between Japan and North Korea expanded from 1961 onwards, culminating in North Korea’s default in 1976, from which point on relations soured between the two countries. Yet leaders with direct experience of colonial rule governed North Korea through to the late 1990s.


Author(s):  
Neeraj G Baruah ◽  
J Vernon Henderson ◽  
Cong Peng

Abstract Institutions persisting from colonial rule affect the spatial structure and conditions under which 100s of millions of people live in Sub-saharan African cities. In a sample of 318 cities, Francophone cities have more compact development than Anglophone, overall, in older colonial sections, and at clear extensive margins long after the colonial era. Compactness covers intensity of land use, gridiron road structures and leapfrogging of new developments. Why the difference? Under British indirect and dual mandate rule, colonial and native sections developed without coordination. In contrast, integrated city planning and land allocation were featured in French direct rule. These differences in planning traditions persist.1


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (14) ◽  
pp. 1858-1898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Lechler ◽  
Lachlan McNamee

This article identifies indirect and direct colonial rule as causal factors in shaping support for democracy by exploiting a within-country natural experiment in Namibia. Throughout the colonial era, northern Namibia was indirectly ruled through a system of appointed indigenous traditional elites whereas colonial authorities directly ruled southern Namibia. This variation originally stems from where the progressive extension of direct German control was stopped after a rinderpest epidemic in the 1890s, and, thus, constitutes plausibly exogenous within-country variation in the form of colonial rule. Using this spatial discontinuity, we find that individuals in indirectly ruled areas are less likely to support democracy and turnout at elections. We explore potential mechanisms and find suggestive evidence that the greater influence of traditional leaders in indirectly ruled areas has socialized individuals to accept nonelectoral bases of political authority.


Author(s):  
Rakesh Pandey

Dharamvir Bharati was one of the most versatile literary figures of modern Hindi Literature in independent India. Born on 25 December, 1926 in a Kayastha family in Allahabad in North India, Bharati grew up witnessing one of the most creative phases in the field of politics, education and literature during late colonial era of which the city was a central node. Bharati majored in Hindi literature at the University of Allahabad (gaining an MA in 1946 and a Ph.D in 1954) and devoted himself to researching mediaeval literary traditions of the Siddhas, a Buddhist Vajrayan sect. He later joined the same university as a lecturer before moving to Bombay in 1960 as the editor of the Hindi weekly Dharmayug, a position which he held until 1987. Bharati’s wider literary reputation rings the name of the play Andha Yug (1954), based on the episodes of the Mahabharata, and two novels, Gunahon Ka Devata (1949) and Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda (1952), capturing the themes of his city’s social life. Later Bharati earned a unique reputation as a writer-editor who nurtured a new style of journalistic writing in Hindi.


2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 1619-1644 ◽  
Author(s):  
AJAY VERGHESE

AbstractBritish colonial rule in India precipitated a period of intense rebellion among the country's indigenous groups. Most tribal conflicts occurred in the British provinces, and many historians have documented how a host of colonial policies gave rise to widespread rural unrest and violence. In the post-independence period, many of the colonial-era policies that had caused revolt were not reformed, and tribal conflict continued in the form of the Naxalite insurgency. This article considers why the princely state of Bastar has continuously been a major centre of tribal conflict in India. Why has this small and remote kingdom, which never came under direct British rule, suffered so much bloodshed? Using extensive archival material, this article highlights two key findings: first, that Bastar experienced high levels of British intervention during the colonial period, which constituted the primary cause of tribal violence in the state; and second, that the post-independence Indian government has not reformed colonial policies in this region, ensuring a continuation and escalation of tribal conflict through the modern Naxalite movement.


2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian A. Hatcher

Responding to recent critical reflection on the concept ofanuvādawithin the fields of translation studies and South Asian literary cultures, this article explores the complex colonial mediations shaping modern Bengali understandings of the term. The goal is to situate the production of new meanings ofanuvādawithin the zone of the Dubash, a phrase used here to conjure the highly mediated space of vernacular translation as practiced by Bengali intellectuals under colonial rule. This article argues that if we wish to employanuvādaas a tool for rethinking the meaning and practice of translation, we must first attend to the processes that transformed the norms and goals of textual transmission in the colonial era. In the end we can hope not only to enrich our understanding of South Asian translational practices but also to appreciate the role played by translation in the story of literary modernity in Bengal.


2004 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 319-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Schler

Colonial sources can provide historians with a wealth of information about African lives during the colonial period, but they must be read against the grain, filtering out valuable information from the biases and prejudices of European officials. The task of studying African women's history using colonial sources is even more complicated, as women were not often the focus of the colonial agenda, and contact between colonial officials and African women was relatively limited, and often indirect. Particularly in those arenas of African social, cultural, and political life deemed as women's spheres, colonial officials had little incentive to intervene. As a result, historians of later generations are faced with relatively sparse documentation of women-centered social activity during the colonial era. For their part, African women guarded cultural and political spheres under their influence from outside intervention, thus making it difficult for Europeans, and particularly European men, to gain a full and accurate understanding of women's individual and collective experiences under colonial rule.This paper will examine colonial research and documentation of African women's birthing practices.to illustrate both the potential for using these sources to understand some basic elements of women's experiences, and the limitations of this source material in providing deep and accurate insights into African women's history. Using an example from colonial Cameroon, we will see how European interest in women's birthing practices was motivated by colonial economic and scientific agendas steeped in racism and sexism, preventing European researchers from obtaining a balanced and accurate understanding of this women's sphere of social life. On the other hand, the documents reveal efforts of African women to prevent the colonial infiltration into women's arenas of influence.


1982 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Henige

This essay treats the effects of acculturation on oral historical materials. Rather than addressing it as a matter of ‘contamination’, that is, as a question of extraneous data entering and distorting ‘pristine’ traditions, it is considered here to be a facet of the larger question of cultural assimilation – a case of the old and familiar constantly confronting and responding to the new and strange. Seen in this way, oral data continuously adopt and adapt whatever new, relevant and interesting materials come their way in not very different – though decidedly less visible – ways from those that written data have always done. This argument is illustrated by examples from various times and places, largely situations where missionaries, newly literate members, or colonial officials, perceptibly influenced the historical views of societies on their way to becoming literate.In fact this phenomenon seems widespread enough to justify advancing a model that can be tested against specific cases. For our purposes, this model begins with the first meeting of oral and literate cultures, although we can fairly assume that an infinity of similar but unrecorded meetings of oral cultures also resulted in change. After this initial impetus, the constraints of colonial rule, the exigencies of independence, and the aims of modern academic oral historiography each contributed in some measure to this process of ongoing change. As a result, historians, whether primarily interested in the reliability of oral data, or in the process and effects of changes in them, must look to a wider range of sources than has been customary.


1981 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijaya Samaraweera

The economy which evolved during the last phase of Sri Lanka's colonial rule under the British (1796–1948) has been the subject of increasing scholarly attention in the recent years. Much of the writing which has emerged is descriptive by nature; the concern has been to lay bare the manner in which the economy took its shape and not to provide an analytical framework to explain the developments of the colonial era. This is not to say that conceptualizing has been wholly absent. Indeed, one particular conceptual treatment of the economy of British Sri Lanka has produced an interpretation which has gained wide currency and it has now acquired considerable influence over the economic literature concerned with the country.


Author(s):  
Ian Talbot ◽  
Tahir Kamran

Chapter four discusses the impact of colonial rule on traditional cultural and sporting pastimes and the new activities that emerged, most notably cricket. There are three case studies of mushairas (poetic contests), wrestling and cricket. The chapter reveals how their key participants in Lahore were able to perform on a wider stage because of the communications revolution. Nonetheless, they remained rooted in the mohallas and local institutions of the city. Lahore’s mushairas of the 1870s which received contributions from Muhammad Hussain Azad and Altaf Hussain Hali are seen as possessing an important impact on the evolution of Urdu poetry in North India. Competitions took Lahore’s most famous wrestler Gama from his akhara (wrestling arena) in the city to England. Many of Lahore’s most famous colonial era cricketers lived in the Bhati Gate and Mochi Gate area. The fierce rivalry in the 1920s and 1930s between Islamia College and Government College drew talent from across the Punjab. Cricket was not divided on communal lines, Lala Amarnath the future Indian test captain who toured England in the 1930s played for the Crescent Club based at Minto Park which was patronized by the middle class Rana family of the Mochi Gate locality.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document