THE Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Olayiwola Lamidi Adeyemi III will lead other special guests who would be attending the forthcoming international conference on the Yoruba Nation and Politics.
The conference is in honour of Professor Joseph Atanda and will be held at the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria between 9 and 11 October.
The conference is being jointly organised by OOU and the University of Texas Austin, United States of America.
The theme of the conference is, “The Yoruba Nation and Politics Since the Nineteenth Century: A Conference in Honour of Professor J. A. Atanda.”
In a statement signed by Professor O. O. Olubomehin, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and the Chairman, Local Organising Committee, (OOU), the conference will also be an occasion to launch the long-awaited historic anthology of Professor Atanda’s works, entitled, “The Collected Works of J. A. Atanda”, compiled and introduced by Africa’s foremost historian, Professor Toyin Falola of the University of Texas, Austin, USA and published by Pan-African University Press, USA.
The keynote speech will be delivered by Dr Tunji Olaopa, a renowned public intellectual, a former federal permanent secretary and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy. The book reviewer is Professor Chris B. N. Ogbogbo, a distinguished historian, the President of the Historical Society of Nigeria and the Head of Department of History, the University of Ibadan.
“This conference is the fifth in the series of the annual memorial activities held to remember the late distinguished historian and scholar whose expansive and extensive scholarship about the Yoruba of West Africa provided for posterity a corpus of work that remains indelible and invaluable to all who seek knowledge about the Yoruba, as well as about the foundations of the Nigerian nation as a whole. This conference will bring together over two hundred scholars from around the world to cogitate upon the place of the Yoruba and its others in the history and politics of Nigeria and Africa, past and present.
“This annual event in honour of the eminent Professor Joseph Adebowale Atanda will fittingly explore the variegated dimensions of the immersion, marginalisation, and impacts of Yoruba politics and nation making, from the nineteenth century to date. Professor Atanda’s scholarship covers the history and politics of the Yoruba from the precolonial to the twentieth century. The conference will cover the eras that Professor Atanda explored in his books and essays, as well as on his key themes of politics, identity, and change.
“As the Nigerian political landscape becomes ever more plagued by primordial politics shaped by erroneous views of the past and present, and the Yoruba influence in the overall shaping of Nigerian partisan politics, the need for this conference has become more real. Therefore, participants at this conference will delve into the historical trajectory of the Yoruba nation, personalities, politics, society, cultural regeneration, internal and external relations, transnational influence and enduring impact on global and local politics and society. Multi-disciplinary and pluridisciplinary approaches will be engaged, from fields as varied as anthropology, linguistics, history, sociology, philosophy, political science, musicology, classics, literary studies, archaeology, economics, psychology, geography, peace studies, and so on.
“Indeed, the conference will re-open discussions around many issues and debates including the emergence of the Yoruba as a distinct socio-cultural group, and as a nation politically; the origins of the Yoruba nation in the crucibles of colonialism and nationalist fervour; the enduring significance of Yoruba myths of origin in the affairs of the people; the Yoruba language and contemporary challenges and adaptations; the Yoruba in the arts, music, Nollywood, performance, and other media; the Yoruba and the progress of democracy, development and nation building in Nigeria, among other varied themes. Basic to the discussions at the conference, though, will be a centering of discussions around the idea of the Yoruba as an analytical category in light of historical and contemporary events,” the organisers said.