Ayokunmi OjebodeSOAS, University of London | SOAS · Language Centre
Ayokunmi Ojebode
Doctor of Philosophy
My role at SOAS Language Centre allows me to teach my mother tongue Yoruba to SOAS students and the general public.
About
23
Publications
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Introduction
My PhD thesis explores the postcolonial significance of names in Femi Osofisan's five dramatic works from the literary and sociocultural contexts. I employed Semiotics to connect the data to processes within the Nigerian society, culture and literature. Also, I conducted eleven interviews with experts spanning various disciplines. The study consolidates the playwright’s disposition for characterisation, demystification and social criticism of Nigeria’s postcolonial condition.
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (23)
Despite extensive criticisms of masculinities in Africa, mainly within sociology, critical men’s studies, masculinity studies, feminism and anthropology, there is little compelling research on the intersection between military masculinity, constructions of manliness and psychological traits in African literature. Comprehensive and multilayered revi...
Since the post-independent era, Nigerian literary and political activists from Fela Anikupo Kuti’s Zombie to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s “Silence Would Be Treason”, and Wole Soyinka’s The Man Die have utilized a plethora of genres to parody, protest, and provoke public consciousness about the oppressive structures, national liberation, and transformation of Ni...
Since the post-independent era, Nigerian literary and political activists from Fela Anikupo Kuti’s “Zombie” to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s “Silence Would Be Treason” and Wole Soyinka's The Man Die utilised a plethora of genres to parody, protest and provoke public consciousness about the oppressive structures, national liberation and transformation of Nigeria....
Few critics of memory studies have considered stories as plotted, documentary and empirical evidence, especially to perpetuate Nigerians’ divergent socio-economic, religious, and political subjectivities during the coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, this study explores Nigerians’ collective memory of the coronavirus pandemic, putting their stories in...
This study explores animal names in Femi Osofisan’s “Kolera Kolej” (2001), entrenched in the characters’ animalistic tendencies and nonconformity to Yoruba ethics, values and norms. Despite studies on Osofisan’s theatre and satirical technique, especially the playwright’s commentary on Nigeria’s socio-economic and political crises, there is no comp...
Although religious beliefs have historically influenced people’s perceptions and understanding of their quotidian experiences, the diversity of Nigeria’s religious terrain has further encouraged divergent interpretations of the coronavirus. This study makes sense of these interpretations and examines the underlying rationale for holding such concep...
Few critics of memory studies have considered stories as plotted, documentary, and empirical evidence, especially in preserving Nigerians’ divergent socio-economic, religious, and political subjectivities during the coronavirus pandemic era. Therefore, this study explores Nigerians’ collective memory of the coronavirus pandemic, putting their stori...
Contemporary critics of ecocriticism have explored ecologies dynamically across different genres in postcolonial African literature, especially in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. However, they overlook African Eco-spirituality underpinned by indigenous African religion and conservative practices to address impending global ecological crises. The prim...
Previous scholarship on the Ààfin Ọ̀ yó ̣ mural art read it exclusively as an appendage of Ọ̀ yó ̣ history and politics, highlighting but with little compelling research on the Aláàfin's leadership qualities and aesthetics in the embedded animal metaphors. Therefore, this study seeks to provide a balanced outlook on Ààfin Ọ̀ yó ̣ mural art and espe...
Critics of ecofeminism have established the connection between nature and
women but insufficiently underscore hydronyms, especially in a female Niger-Delta
writer-activist drama text. Therefore, this study explores pseudo-river names in Tess
Onwueme’s (2002), Then She Said It!, focuses on pseudo-river names of different
geopolitical zones in Nigeri...
Although Wayetu Moore’s The Dragons, The Giant, The Woman is a memoir of the first and gruesome Liberian Civil War, which lasted eight years from 1989 to 1997, it projects heroism and socio-political underdevelopment within the context of magical realism and the supernatural. Moore relies on African orature, replete with riddles, songs, fables, and...
Pioneering studies on the interplay of literature and medicine in Nigeria examine the
representations of physical and mental illnesses and diseases in literary texts, but with little or no attention to the metaphoric portrayal of epidemiological conditions to foreground socio-political degeneration. This study, therefore, investigates medical episo...
Tunde Kelani, a prominent Nigerian cinematographer who has come to the limelight since 1982, has nineteen (19) films among several collaborations, which underscore the Nigerian leadership question and national transformation. Scholarly reviews on Kelani exclusively focus on cultural aesthetics, storytelling narratives, political themes, didactics,...
ÁJOBÍ AND ÁJOGBÉ: FRACTURE AND RESTRUCTURING OF NIGERIA IN CHINUA ACHEBE'S SELECTED FOLKTALES
BY
AYOKUNMI O. OJEBODE (PhD)
Although critics of Achebe peculiarly interpret folktales in the novelist’s works as a fraction of political history in Nigeria, the salient theme of fracture and restructuring of Nigerian politics has been overlooked, par...
This study unearths some toponyms in the cognomen of the Alaafin ('Owner of the palace') of Oyo, Nigeria in order to reveal their historical cum geographic significance among Oyo Yoruba. Historically, Oyo was the largest West African empire founded 1300c. Our data comprise ten (10) purposefully selected historic towns in Southwest Nigeria while Hal...
This study extracts some zoonyms from the cognomen of the Alaafin (Owner of the palace) of Oyo, Nigeria to demonstrate their cultural cum extralinguistic consequence among the Yoruba. Traditionally, Alaafin is the titular name for a paramount ruler among Oyo people. He is an offspring of Oduduwa and has a plethora of cognomens with which he is prai...
This study explores characters in Chimamanda Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus
and Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine to reflect Nigeria’s gender,
sociocultural and religious philosophies. To this effect, we fused film and
prosaic genres to institute the symmetrical adaptation of gods – figurines
from literary into graphic formats. Adichie depicts some delicate...
Several studies have been carried on Femi Osofisan but to the exclusion of political onomastics. This study, therefore, intends to fill the gap by investigating pseudonyms in Femi Osofisan's Such is Life viz-a-viz literary and socio-political contexts. In this regard, six (6) characters' names in Osofisan's work serve as the study's data, and a por...
This study unearths the nicknames of selected cars in Nigeria in order to reveal their historical cum onomastic significance within the sociocultural milieu of the automobile users. Data comprise forty-five (45) purposively selected nicknames of some popular cars in Nigeria while Halliday’s contextual theory of meaning and VARIES model served as ou...
Les arts oraux africains ont toujours été une merveille pour les occidentaux. C’est un monde de l’impossible, et une plateforme où les mystères sont démystifiés. Dans cette recherche, comme une carte du trésor, le surnom d’Alaafin sera examiné comme un domaine où cinq villes anciennes sélectionnées de Yoruba sont incorporées. Par conséquent, le che...
Onomastics, medicine and politics in this study are a pragmatic way of depicting the psychosocial condition of Nigeria as an underdeveloped nation. The study explores Femi Osofisan’s The Engagement from a literary onomastic standpoint with the aim of exposing socio-political anomalies in Nigeria. Nigerian leaders commit flaws of egoistical and indi...
This study examines Àbíkú names in Femi Osofisan's Who's Afraid of Solarin based on their onomastic (literary) significance which provides a foray into the cyclic trend of Nigerian politics. The Àbíkú myth among the Yoruba is exploited as an instrument of blending sociocultural, literary, and political contexts of the names in the text. In this reg...
Questions
Question (1)
My deep commitment to teaching and conducting ground-breaking research, especially in African literature, Cultural studies and Literary Onomastics, motivated me to enrol for the Teaching Africa Teacher programme in November 2020. My experience during the programme was very intense. I engaged in thought-provoking teaching resources and workshops and worked alongside a phenomenal coordinator whose expertise brought depth and creativity to my curriculum development.
My curriculum, ‘Home Before Naming’: Naming Practices and Yoruba Characterization in Femi Osofisan’s Selected Texts,' would immensely benefit diverse learners, especially non-Yoruba, to grasp the Yoruba naming concept in the literary context thoroughly. It adopts several audio-visuals, particularly pop culture, as teaching resources to stimulate university students' interest.
Thank you, Boston University African Studies Centre @TeachingAfrica Elsa Wiehe, Ed.D. Boston University for the privilege.
