Drinking from the Cosmic Gourd

B. Nyamnjoh

Description

This book questions colonial and apartheid ideologies on being human and being African, ideologies that continue to shape how research is conceptualised, taught and practiced in universities across Africa. Africans immersed in popular traditions of meaning-making are denied the right, by those who police the borders of knowledge, to think and represent their realities in accordance with the civilisations and universes they know best. Often, the ways of life they cherish are labelled and dismissed too eagerly as traditional knowledge by some of the very African intellectual elite they look to for protection. The book makes a case for sidestepped traditions of knowledge. It draws attention to Africa's possibilities, prospects and emergent capacities for being and becoming in tune with its creativity and imagination. It speaks to the nimble-footed flexible-minded 'frontier African' at the crossroads and junctions of encounters, facilitating creative conversations and challenging regressive logics of exclusionary identities. The book uses Amos Tutuola's stories to question dualistic assumptions about reality and scholarship, and to call for conviviality, interconnections and interdependence between competing knowledge traditions in Africa.

Sujets

• African studies

Informations

• Publié par: Langaa RPCIG
• Date de parution: 15 mars 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789956764181
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

DRINKING from the COSMIC GOURD
FRANCIS B. NYAMNJOH
How Amos Tutuola Can Change Our Minds
“Twenty years a er his death, valued by some scholars and writers but discounted by others, Amos Tutuola
here nds a compelling advocate. Nyamnjoh reveals a voice that both embraces a range of African communal
experience beyond ‘lettered’ reach and challenges commonplace aesthetic and philosophical constructs of African
knowledge. And he shows why Tutuola matters, in his own time and now.”
MILTON KRIEGER, Emeritus Professor, Western Washington University
“Francis Nyamnjoh invites us to rethink contemporary cosmopolitanism through strange encounters and
marvellous episodes recounted in the stories of Amos Tutuola, a mid-twentieth century Nigerian Yoruba author. DRINKING from the is might seem an endeavour more implausible than the tales themselves, but reading will change your mind.”
RICHARD FARDON, Professor of West African Anthropology, SOAS, University of London
“Tutuola’s tales of frontiers, of incompleteness, of crossroads and conviviality advance profound epistemological
perspectives on being and knowledge that we will do well to acknowledge. Nyamnjoh positions Tutuola as a COSMIC GOURDvernacular theorist whose narratives are a fount of hermeneutical and epistemological insight. Much is o en
made of the idea of vernacular theory but this book is an exemplary instance of putting that idea into practice.”
HARRY GARUBA, poet and scholar, University of Cape Town How Amos Tutuola Can
“ e book is an important contribution to African intellectual history. It o ers a fresh and original
interpretation of the life and work of Amos Tutuola, but at the same time marks a substantial advance in the
ongoing epistemological debates on the study of Africa…. Based on his concept of the incompleteness of human
existence, Nyamnjoh opts for an inclusive, dialogical and interdisciplinary approach. Of special interest is the Change Our Minds
way in which he relates ethnography to ction and his focus on the real life experiences of ordinary people. is
is a seminal work which no doubt will have a signi cant impact on current epistemological thinking.”
PROFESSOR BERNARD LATEGAN, Founding Director, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced
Study (STIAS).
“Weaving varied ethnographic accounts together with richly textured historical perspectives, Nyamnjoh traces
and rehabilitates the checkered career of an unusual and o en controversial literary icon.”
SANYA OSHA, author of African Postcolonial Modernity: Informal Subjectivities and the
Democratic Consensus
is book questions colonial and apartheid ideologies on being human and being African, ideologies
that continue to shape how research is conceptualised, taught and practiced in universities across
Africa. Africans immersed in popular traditions of meaning-making are denied the right, by those
who police the borders of knowledge, to think and represent their realities in accordance with the
civilisations and universes they know best. O en, the ways of life they cherish are labelled and
dismissed too eagerly as traditional knowledge by some of the very African intellectual elite they
look to for protection. e book makes a case for sidestepped traditions of knowledge. It draws
attention to Africa’s possibilities, prospects and emergent capacities for being and becoming in tune
with its creativity and imagination. It speaks to the nimble-footed exible-minded “frontier African”
at the crossroads and junctions of encounters, facilitating creative conversations and challenging
regressive logics of exclusionary identities. e book uses Amos Tutuola’s stories to question
dualistic assumptions about reality and scholarship, and to call for conviviality, interconnections
and interdependence between competing knowledge traditions in Africa.
FRANCIS B. NYAMNJOH is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town.
Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Langaa Research & Publishing
Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon

Drinking from the Cosmic Gourd:
How Amos Tutuola Can
Change Our Minds






Francis B. Nyamnjoh














Langaa Research & Publishing CIG
Mankon, Bamenda Publisher:
Langaa RPCIG
Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
[e-mail]
www.langaa-rpcig.net



Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective
[e-mail]
www.africanbookscollective.com





ISBN-10: 9956-764-65-5
ISBN-13: 978-9956-764-65-5

© Francis B. Nyamnjoh 2017




All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or be stored in any
information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher

Praise for this Book



“Twenty years after his death, valued by some scholars and writers but
discounted by others, Amos Tutuola here finds a compelling advocate.
Nyamnjoh reveals a voice that both embraces a range of African communal
experience beyond ‘lettered’ reach and challenges commonplace aesthetic and
philosophical constructs of African knowledge. And he shows why Tutuola
matters, in his own time and now.” Milton Krieger, Emeritus Professor,
Western Washington University, USA


“Francis Nyamnjoh invites us to rethink contemporary cosmopolitanism
through strange encounters and marvellous episodes recounted in the stories
of Amos Tutuola, a mid-twentieth century Nigerian Yoruba author. This might
seem an endeavour more implausible than the tales themselves, but reading
will change your mind.” Richard Fardon, Professor of West African
Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS),
University of London, UK


“Francis Nyamnjoh’s book argues that Tutuola’s work provides a theoretical
tool kit for conceptualising and understanding what it means to be African at
the contemporary moment. Tutuola’s tales of frontiers, of incompleteness, of
crossroads and conviviality advance profound epistemological perspectives on
being and knowledge that we will do well to acknowledge. Nyamnjoh positions
Tutuola as a vernacular theorist whose narratives are a fount of hermeneutical
and epistemological insight. Much is often made of the idea of vernacular
theory but this book is an exemplary instance of putting that idea into
practice.” Harry Garuba, poet and scholar, University of Cape Town


“The book is an important contribution to African intellectual history. It offers
a fresh and original interpretation of the life and work of Amos Tutuola, but
at the same time marks a substantial advance in the ongoing epistemological
debates on the study of Africa. Moving beyond the restrictions of the
Eurocentric/anti-colonial dichotomy, Nyamnjoh presents a more creative
alternative for an African epistemology. Based on his concept of the
incompleteness of human existence, he opts for an inclusive, dialogical and
interdisciplinary approach. Of special interest is the way in which he relates ethnography to fiction and his focus on the real life experiences of ordinary
people. This is a seminal work which no doubt will have a significant impact
on current epistemological thinking.” Professor Bernard Lategan,
Founding Director, Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS)


“Weaving varied ethnographic accounts together with richly textured historical
perspectives, Nyamnjoh traces and rehabilitates the checkered career of an
unusual and often controversial literary icon.” Sanya Osha, author of African
Postcolonial Modernity: Informal Subjectivities and the Democratic
Consensus


About the Book


In this book, Amos Tutuola’s unusual writing style firmly rooted in African
storytelling is used to refute the common misconception that there is only one
type of scholarship and set of experiences worth writing about. The issues
faced by African intellectuals and scholarship who seem to have to abandon
their African identities in search for international recognition at the expense of
local relevance by reiterating dominant colonialist scopes of knowledge are
explored. This is especially relevant in light of the wave of protests at
universities all over South Africa where students demanded the “fall” of
Eurocentric education standards, calling for a more Afrocentric curriculum,
more grounded in African traditions and experiences, and thus more relatable
to the African students in the ivory towers of Africa.

The idea of the West as the centre of knowledge and civilisation is challenged
by pointing out that this number one status achieved was only possible by
borrowing bits and pieces from all over. Rather than just a simple dismissal of
Western ideals, an alternative to these Eurocentric dualisms is offered – an
acquiescence of incompleteness as a way of being. A number of stories from