AJIBADE George Olusola
Email address(es): ajibadeb@oauife.edu.ng and solajibade@yahoo.com
Office Address: Room 214, African Studies Building
Academic Qualifications: BA, MA, PhD
Areas of Specialization: Yoruba Folklore, Literature and Culture
Title of M.A. Thesis: Religions in Yoruba Modern Drama
Title of Ph.D. Thesis: A Dialectic Study of Ọ̀şun Cult and Òşogbo in the Verbal and the Visual Arts
Fellowships (If any)
2000-2004: Award winner of a Research Fellowship by Humanities Collaborative Research Centre of University of Bayreuth, Germany, tenable in an African University to conduct research for Doctoral thesis on a project titled: Imagination, Aesthetic, and the Global Art World (B4).
2002 (January-March), 2003 (October-December), 2004 (May-July): Research Fellow, Institute for African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
November 2004-August 2006: Award winner of Georg Forster Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany. (This is tenable in Germany).
January to March 2006: Research Fellow, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
2007 (January-December) Award winner of a Research Fellowship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany, tenable in Nigeria to conduct a research project on “Unveiling Hidden Voices: Construction of Identity and Social Reality of Yorùbá Women in Oral Art”.
2009 (February-April 30) Visiting Scientist, Institute for Ethnology and African Studies, University of Mainz, Germany.
April-June 2011: Award winner of Feodor Lynen Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, tenable at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
September-November 2015: Award winner of Feodor Lynen Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, tenable at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
May-July 2018: Award winner of Feodor Lynen Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, tenable at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
September-December 2021: Award winner of Feodor Lynen Programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, tenable at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Research Grants:
January 2021-Date, Project Lead, Nigeria, Whose Crisis? The Global COVID-19 Crisis from the Perspective of Communities in Africa (£150,000.00). University of Glasgow.
August 2021-September 2022, Co-Investigator with Mia Perry, British Academy Writing Grants, United Kingdom.
Ongoing Current Research:
Ajibade, G.O. “Food Symbolism among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria.”
Ajibade, G.O. and Fajinmi Faniyi. “Orin Ifá Láwùjọ Yorùbá”
Ajibade, G.O. “An examination of Ritual of Revenge among the Yorùbá of Southwestern Nigeria”
Publications:
Thesis/Dissertation:
“Ìtàn Ìṣẹ̀dálẹ̀ Ìlú Èékọọ́sìn”, (The History of Èékọósìn) Unpublished B.A. Dissertation, O.A.U. Ife, 1992, 100 pages (Unpublished).
“Ẹ̀sìn Nínú Eré-Oníṣe Ìgbàlódé Yorùbá” (Religion in Modern Yorùbá Drama) Unpublished M.A. Thesis, O.A.U. Ife, 1997, 88 pages (Unpublished).
Àgbéyẹ̀wò Awo Ọ̀şun àti Àwùjọ Òşogbo nínú Işé-ọnà Ajẹméwì àti Ajẹmáwòrán (A Dialectic Study of Ọ̀şun Cult and Òşogbo in the Verbal and the Visual Arts) Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis O.A.U. Ife, 2003, 277 pages. Unpublished.
Books/Monographs Published:
Authored Books
Ajibade, G.O. 2005. Negotiating Performance: Òşun in the Verbal and the Visual Metaphors, African Studies Working Papers, University of Bayreuth, Germany.http://www.uni-bayreuth.de/sfbs/sfb-fk560/index-publikationen.html, 159 pages.
Ajibade, G.O. 2009. Finding Female Voice: A Socio-cultural Appraisal of Yorùbá Nuptial Poetry, Rüdiger Koppel: Köln Bonn, Germany, 248 pages. (ISBN 978-3-89645-282-5).
Ajibade, G.O. 2019. Yorùbá Folklore: Peoples’ Pulse and Imaginations. Ile-Ife, Nigeria: Obafemi Awolowo University Press, 78 pages. Inaugural Lecture, (ISBN 0189-7848)
Edited Book:
Ajibade, G. O. and S.M. Raji. (Eds.) 2011. Ewì Àlàbí Ògúndépò, Ibadan: Alafas Nigeria Company.
Ajibade, G. O. and S.M. Raji. (Eds.) 2013. Ìṣọwọ́lò-Èdè Ewì Àlàbí Ògúndépò, Akure: Masterprint Publishers.
Ajibade, G. O. and S.M. Raji. (Eds.) 2015. Mo Járọ́, Mo Járọ̀, Akure: Masterprint Publishers.
Ajibade, G. O. and S.M. Raji. (Eds.) 2021. Lágbo Ààrọ́ La wà, Akure: Masterprint Publishers.
Chapters in Book:
Ajibade, G. O. 2004a.”Ìbálé: Perception of Women’s Pre-marital Virginity among Yorùbá” In: Isiaka Olalekan Aransi (ed.) Local Government and Culture in Nigeria, Chapel Hill, U.S.A: The Chapel Hill Press Inc., pp. 238 – 247.
Ajibade, G.O. 2004b. “The Role of Yorùbá Traditional Birth Attendants in the Global Health Care Delivery,” In: Sola Akinrinade, Modupe Kolawole, Ibiyemi Mojola and David O. Ogungbile (Eds.) Locating the Local in the Global: Voices on a Globalised Nigeria, Ile-Ife, Nigeria: The Faculty of Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University, pp 121-135.
Olupona, J. K. with Ajibade, G.O. 2005. “Ẹkún Ìyàwó: Bridal Tears in Marriage Rites of Passage among the Ọ̀yọ́ Yorùbá of Nigeria,” In: Holy Tears: Weeping in the Religions Imagination, Edited by Kimberly C. Patton and John S. Hawley, Princeton, and Oxford: Princeton University Press, pp 165-177.
Ajibade, G.O. 2006a. “Hearthstones: Religion, Ethics and Medicine in the Healing Process in the Traditional Yoruba Society”, In: Beatrice Nicolini Ed. Studies in Witchcraft, Magic, War and Peace in Africa: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Lewiston, Queenston and Lampster: The Edwin Mellen Press, pp.193-213.
Ajibade, G.O. 2006b. “Yorùbá Men, Yorùbá Women”, In: Adam Jones (ed) Men of the Global South, A Reader, New Haven: Zed Books, pp 375-376.
Ajibade, G. O. 2008a. “Depiction of Sexuality in Yorùbá Oral Poetry,” In: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Love, Courtship, and Sexuality Through History: The Colonial and Revolutionary Age, Vol. 4, Edited by Merril D. Smith. Westport USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc, pp. 262-264.
Ajibade, G.O. 2008b “Representation of Gender Discourse in the Poetry of Akínwùmí Isola” In: Emerging Perspectives on Akinwumi Isola Edited by Akintunde Akinyemi and Toyin Falola, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press/The Red Sea Press, pp 273-287. (ISBN 1-59221-609-9)
Ajibade, G. O. 2009. “Ṣàngó’s Ẹẹ́rìndínlógún Divinatory System”, In: Ṣàngó in Africa and the African Diaspora, Edited by Tishken Joel, Toyin Falola and Akintunde Akinyemi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp 111-132. (ISBN 978-0-253-22094-3)
Ajibade G. O. 2010. “The Haunting Poem: A Psychoanalysis of Contemporary Yorùbá Elegy (Orin Òkú Ọ̀fọ̀”, In: Texts and Theories in Transition: Black African Literature and Emerging Traditions, Edited by Charles Abodunde. Reihe: Bayreuth African Studies Series (87): 76-90.
Ajibade, G.O. 2013. “Theorizing Body in Yoruba Cosmology: A Socio-Cultural and Literary Appraisal” In: Existentialism, Literature, and the Humanities in Africa, Edited by Uwasomba Chijoke, Adebayo Mosobalaje and Oluwole Coker. Göttingen, Germany: CUVILLIER VERLAG, pp 460-478. (ISBN 978-3-95404-598-3)
Ajibade G. O. 2014. “African Language, Literature and Culture in Transistion: The Example of Yorùbá,” In: Oloruntoba-Oju Taiwo and Kirsten Holst Peterson (eds) Culture and the Contemporary Africa, Uppsala, Sweden: Utgiven av Recito Forlag. Pp 322-345.
Ajibade, G.O. 2015a. “Sparks of Resistance, Flames of Change: Orature in Reconciliation and Conflict Management among the Yorùbá,” In: Adebayo G.A, B.D. Lundy, J.J. Benjamin and J.K. Adjei (Eds.) Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa: Beyond Right and Wrong, Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Books, pp 211-233. (ISBN 978-0-7391-9258-0)
Ajibade, G.O. 2015b. “Drama, Poetry and Ritual in Zangbeto Festival of the Ogu People of Badagry, In: Ogungbile, D.O. (Ed.) African Indigenous Religious Traditions in Local and Global Contexts, Perspectives on Nigeria, A Festschrift in Honour of Jacob K. Olupona, Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited, pp 255-270. (ISBN 978-978-53250-1-0)
Ajibade, G.O. 2015c. “The Impact of Yoruba Studies in Conflict Management and Resolution,” In: Raji, S.M., R. Fajenyo, M.M. Aderibigbe, R.A. Adesuyan and I.F. Ojo (Eds.) Ede, Asa ati Litireso Yoruba, pp 47-63. (ISBN 978-978-618-479-8)
Ajibade, G.O. 2016. “Ṣàngó’s Thunder: Poetic Challenges to Islam and Christianity,” In: Nolte Insa Et al (Eds.) Beyond Religious Tolerance: Muslim, Christian and Traditionalist Encounters in an African Town, United Kingdom: Boydell and Brewer, pp 75-95.
Ninan, Deborah O., George O. Ajíbádé, and Odetunji A. Odéjobí (2016). Appraisal of Computational Model for Yorùbá Folktale Narrative. 7th Workshop on Computational Models of Narrative. (CMN 2016), Kraków, Poland.
Ajibade, G.O. 2019. “Structure and Language of Scientific Publication,” In: Ajala A.S. (Ed.) Indigenous Epistemology, Strengthening Research and Decolonisation of Education in Nigeria, Ibadan: African Ethnography Services Ltd. (ISBN-9-789789-798162).
Published Refereed Journal Articles:
Ajibade, G.O. 1998. “The Sociology of Yorùbá Hunter Genres” Journal of the Nigerian Anthropological and Sociological Association, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria, 1 (1): 11-20.
Ajibade, G.O. 1999. “Yorùbá Women Govern Their Men: A Socio-religious Approach to Feminism”, Ife Social Sciences Review, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, 17 (2): 194-203.
Ajibade, G.O. 2001a. “A sociological analysis of Yorùbá Male Personal Oríkì (Oríkì Àbísọ), Ife Journal of Theory and Research in Education (IJOTRE), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, 6 (1): 90-96.
Ajibade, G.O. 2001b. “Inanimate Animated: synecdoche in Yorùbá traditional medicine”, Africa revista Do Centro De Estudos Africanos, University of Brazil, 22/23 (1): 343-348.
Ajibade, G.O. 2005a. “Is there no Man with Penis in this Land? Eroticism and Performance in Yorùbá Nuptial Songs,” African Study Monographs, Centre for African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. 26 (2): 99-113.
Ajibade, G.O. 2005b. “A Socio-cultural Study of Àbíkú Songs in Yorùbáland,” Ntama Journal of African Music and Popular Culture, Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Germany. http://ntama.uni-mainz.de/.
Ajibade, G.O. 2005c. “Multifaces of Word in Yorùbá Orature”, Journal of Language and Literature, United Kingdom, 4 (1): 20-39. http://www.shakespeare.uk.net/journal/jllit/.
Ajibade, G.O. 2006a. “Animals in the Traditional Worldview of the Yorùbá,” Folklore, Estonian Institute of Folklore, Estaonia, Tartu, 10 (30): 155-172.
Ajibade, G.O. 2006b. “Inscriptions of Ethics of Labour and Productivity in Yorùbá Proverbs”, Proverbium, The University of Vermont, Burlington, USA, (23): 31-48.
Ajibade, G.O. 2006c. “Religious Orientation, Space Transformation and Power Relations among the Southwestern Yorùbá of Nigeria”, Dialogue and Alliance: A Journal of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, New York, 20 (1): 73-103.
Ajibade, G. O. 2007. “New Wine in Old Cup: Postcolonial Performance of Christian Music in Yorùbá Land”, Studies in World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK, 13 (1): 105-126.
Ajibade, G.O. 2011a. “Endogenous and Exogenous Factors in National Development: Inferences from the Metaphor of Witchcraft (Àjẹ́) in Túbọ̀sún Ọládàpọ̀’s Poetry”, Tydskrifvir Letterkunde: A Journal for African Literature, University of Pretoria, South Africa, 48 (1): 167-183.
Ajibade, G. O. 2011b. “Violence in Dialogue: Yorùbá Women in Actions,” Cahiers d’études africaines, France, 4 (204): 847-871. (38) Ajibade, G.O. 2012a. “The Yoruba Oral Artists and their use of Word (Ọ̀RỌ̀),” Yoruba: Journal of the Yoruba Studies Association of Nigeria,” 7 (1): 30-62.
Ajibade, G.O. 2012b. “Same-Sex in Yorùbá Culture and Orature” Journal of Homosexuality (JH), San Francisco State University, USA, 60 (7): 965-983.
Ajibade, G.O. 2012c. “Yoruba Cultural Responses to Islam in Proverbs,” Ife Journal of Religions, (8): 72-99.
Ajibade, G.O. 2013. “The Portrait of Omoluabi in Ọdúnjọ’s Àkόjọpọ̀ Ewì Aládùn”, Ife Journal of Languages and Literatures.1 (1): 83-105.
Ajibade, G.O. 2015. “Religious Experience in Sango’s Verbal Art among the Yorùbá People of Ede”, OAU Faculty of Arts Seminar Series, pp 66-87.
Ajibade, G.O. 2016a “Gender” In: Falola Toyin and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds.) Encyclopedia of the Yorùbá, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp 137-138. (ISBN 9780253021441).
Ajibade, G.O. 2016b “Kola Nut” In: Falola Toyin and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds.) Encyclopedia of the Yorùbá, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp 185-186. (ISBN 9780253021441).
Ajibade, G.O. 2016c “War Songs” In: Falola Toyin and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds.) Encyclopedia of the Yorùbá, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp 342-343. (ISBN 9780253021441).
Ajibade, G.O. 2016d “Words (Ọ̀RỌ̀)” In: Falola Toyin and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds.) Encyclopedia of the Yorùbá, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp 351-352. (ISBN 9780253021441).
Ajibade, G.O. 2016e “Work Songs” In: Falola Toyin and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds.) Encyclopedia of the Yoruba, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, pp 352-353. (ISBN 9780253021441).
Ajibade, G.O. 2017. “Cults, Secret Societies and Fraternities”, In: Falola Toyin and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds.) Culture and Customs of the Yorùbá, Pan-African University Press, pp 721-730. (978-1943533183).
Ajibade, G.O. 2019a. “Water Symbolism in Yorùbá Folklore and Culture,” In: Yorùbá Studies Reviews, University of Florida, Gainesville 4 (1): 99-123.
Ajibade, G.O. 2019b. “A Socio-cultural Appraisal of Yorùbá Kegites’ Songs”, Yorùbá Studies Review, University of Florida, Gainesville, 5 (1.2): 39-54.
Fakayode, F.A. and Ajibade, G.O. 2020a. “A Socio-cultural Relevance of Beads among the Yorùbá,” In: Ife Journal of Languages and Literatures 2 (2): 20-43.
Ninan, O. D., Odéjobí, O. A, and Ajíbádé G. O. 2020b. “Appraisal of Computational Model for Yorùbá Folktale Narrative,” Open Access Series in Informatics, Germany. Digital Object Identifier 10.4230/OASIcs.xxx.yyy.p.
Ajayi, O.T. and Ajibade, G.O. 2021a. “Itupale Asayan Oriki Awon Eranko”, Yoruba Studies Review 6 (1): 209-234.
Perry, M., Armstrong, D. M., Chinkonda, B. E., Kagolobya, R., Lekoko, R. N., & Ajibade, G. O. (2021)b. Whose Crisis? COVID-19 Explored through Arts and Cultural Practices of African Communities. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 7 (29): 1–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.52, United Kingdom.
Staff Profile:
I have carried out an intensive study on the interplay between the verbal and visual metaphors in Yorùbá cosmology using Ọ̀ṣun Cult as a paradigm. This resulted in my doctoral thesis titled “Àgbéyẹ̀wò Awo Ọ̀şun àti Àwùjọ Òşogbo nínú Işé-ọnà Ajẹméwì àti Ajẹmáwòrán (A Dialectic Study of Ọ̀şun Cult and Òşogbo in the Verbal and the Visual Arts).” This study earned me a research fellowship of the Deutsche Forschunsgemeinschaft (Humanities Collaborative Research Center) University of Bayreuth, Germany, where I served as a collaborator on the project titled, “Imagination, Aesthetic and the Global Art World”. The doctoral thesis I wrote was finally translated, revised and published as a book titled, “Negotiating Performance: Ọ̀ṣun in the Verbal and Visual Metaphors.” For almost two decades, I have been teaching Yorùbá language, literature and culture to foreign students who have been coming from various countries. In 2007 (January-December) I was given a research grant by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany, tenable in Nigeria to conduct a research project on “Unveiling Hidden Voices: Construction of Identity and Social Reality of Yorùbá Women in Oral Art.” Also, in 2009 (February-April 30) I was given the Award of a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany, tenable in Germany, to complete my manuscript on the research project on “A Sociocultural Appraisal of Yorùbá Epithalamium” at the Institute for Ethnology and African Studies, University of Mainz, Germany. The outcome of the study is probably the first analytical published book on Yorùbá nuptial poetry that was published in 2009 titled, “Finding Female Voice: A Socio-cultural Appraisal of Yorùbá Nuptial Poetry”. I was awarded a three-month Renewed Research Stay (1 April-30 April 2011) by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Bonn, Germany; to work on my book manuscript on “In Time of Despair: Yorùbá Verbal Arts, Popular Culture and HIV/AIDS Pandemic” with Professor Dr. Dymitr Ibriszimow, Lehrstuhl für Afrikanistik II, Universität Bayreuth. This is an indelible contribution to knowledge on the role of oral literature in combating the global ravaging pandemic of the time. In 2015 (June-August), I was given the Award of a Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany, tenable in Germany, to continue the writing of the proposed book on Yorùbá Verbal Arts, Popular Culture and HIV/AIDS Pandemic. In 2018 (May-July 30), I was awarded Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Bonn, Germany, tenable in Germany, to carry out research on “Yorùbá Contemporary Christians Rewriting the Bible: Illustrations from their Songs.” Summary of some of my works and publications is contained in my Inaugural Lecture which I presented on May 28, 2019, titled, “Yorùbá Folklore: Peoples’ Pulse and Imaginations.” Between July 1st 2020 and August, 2021, I served as the Research Lead for the Nigeria Hub of the Sustainable Futures Africa, College of Social Sciences, School of Education, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom on the project titled, “COVID-19 Pandemic, Whose Crisis?” In 2021 (September-November 31, 2021), I have been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Renewed Research Stay to carry out research on Covid-19 Pandemic: Interplay between Creativity, Culture and Polity in the Selected COVID-19-related Genres in Nigeria. In 2021, I am a Co-award Winner of a research grants on Writing Workshop by the British Academy, United Kingdom, London. November 1, 2021- Date, the Consultant of the Yoruba Arm of HADIS FOUNDATION, Nigeria.