An Avant-Garde Re-Conceptualization of African (Yoruba) Culture in the Age Of Corona-Virus, Western Consciousness, and Globalization
Loading...
Date
2022
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Seventh Element Publishers
Abstract
The paper examines the new social and cultural orientations in Africa with
specific emphasis on the Yoruba society in Southwest Nigeria. Such new
orientations constitute the new components of Yoruba culture as occasioned by
the unprecedented negative effects of Covid-19 in Southwest Nigeria. Such novel
cultural constituents are strange to the traditional African culture and social life.
These novel cultural constituents include demystification of African (Yoruba)
mysticism and apothecary, defeatist attack on African communalism, restriction
on the showy O wambe (social gathering or fun party) philosophy, as well as
cautious resentment of migration to the West or to the East which brings along
with it the de-internationalization of the sensory taste. These novel cultural
constituents tend to be in tandem with the contemporary global cultural and
social realities. As such, the traditional African (Yoruba) cultural practices and
beliefs (such as communalism) in their pristine nature are lackluster, and
consequently do expose the people to the ravaging effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
More evident dangers could be noted in the futility of the African cultural
assumptions such as the perceptions of the traditional Yoruba people about the
gods and prophets who are seen as their saviors whereas the custodians of the
gods and those who claim to be of God interceding for the people possess
manipulated identities. The new cultural philosophy has resulted in the
progressive alliance with the Western values and a re-evaluation of globalization
as a result of its both negative and positive effects. This could be deduced,
respectively, from the global spread of Covid-19 and new found austerity among
the Yoruba people as a novel cultural tenet.
Key words: African culture, Covid-19, Globalization, Communalism, Southwest Nigeria
Description
Keywords
African culture, Covid-19, Globalization, Communalism, Southwest Nigeria