The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful: Discourse About Values in Yoruba Culture

220 Pages·2000·0.9 MB·English

by  Barry Hallen

THEGOOD,THEBAD,ANDTHE
BEAUTIFUL

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE
B E A U T I F U L
DISCOURSE ABOUT VALUES IN
YORUBA CULTURE
BARRY HALLEN
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
BloomingtonandIndianapolis
Publicationofthisbookismadepossibleinpartwiththe
assistanceofaChallengeGrantfromtheNationalEndowmentfor
theHumanities,afederalagencythatsupportsresearch,educa-
tion,andpublicprogramminginthehumanities.
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(cid:1)2000byBarryHallen
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Hallen,Barry
Thegood,thebad,andthebeautiful:discourseaboutvaluesin
Yorubaculture/BarryHallen.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-253-33806-9(cl:alk.paper)—ISBN0-253-21416-5
(pa:alk.paper)
1.Yoruba(Africanpeople)—Intellectuallife.2.Philosophy,Yoruba.
3.Yoruba(Africanpeople)—Sociallifeandcustoms.4.Social
values—Nigeria.5.Yorubalanguage. I.Title.
DT515.45.Y67H362000
305.896(cid:1)333—dc21 00-039644
12345 050403020100
FOR
CARLA

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
ANoteonTranslation xiii
1
OrdinaryLanguageandAfricanPhilosophy
1
2
MoralEpistemology
13
3
Me,MySelf,andMyDestiny
37
4
TheGoodandtheBad
65
5
TheBeautiful
113
6
Rationality,Individuality,Secularity,andtheProverbial
139
AppendixofYoruba-LanguageQuotations 149
GlossaryofYorubaTerms 175
Bibliography 179
Index 199

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Since the origins of this book date back to 1973, the list of individuals
andinstitutionsthathavemadeitpossibleisalongone.Buttheyallde-
serve mention here, because without their contributions and support it
would never, and could never, have been written. I begin by expressing
my enduring gratitude to the Central Research Committees of the Uni-
versityofLagosandtheObafemiAwolowoUniversity(formerlyUniver-
sity of Ife), Nigeria, for affirming the credibility of the original research
projects on Yoruba thought and philosophy, and for providing funding
that was indispensable to their completion. Throughout the more than a
decade that these projects involved, the commitment, communications
skills,andscholarshipdemonstratedbymystudent,colleague,andfriend
Olufemi Osatuyi, the Chief Research Assistant on the project, was re-
markable.Hedeservesthehighestofaccoladesforhisloveofhisnative
Yoruba culture and for the objectivity with which he was able to ap-
proach and to interpolate that culture on scholarly grounds. My friend,
colleague, and coauthor of my previous volume on Yoruba philosophy,
the late J. Olubi Sodipo, also deserves a very special mention for both
supporting and participating in the project from the very first day I took
upthepositionofLecturerinPhilosophyatthethenUniversityofIfe.
In the town of Ijan-E`k`ıt`ı, where my arm of the overall project was
sited, there would of course have been no research done without the
cooperation andsupport of Oba J.A.Obarinde, the Onijanof Ijan-E`k`ıt`ı.
AndmostimportantlyIamprofoundlyindebtedtothefifteengentlemen,
hereinreferredtogenerallyason´ıs.e.`gu`n,mastersofmedicine,herbalists,
ortraditionaldoctors,whoatvariouspointssummonedupthepatience,
knowledge,andinsightrequiredwhileparticipatinginthenumerousdis-
cussionsthatproducedthecorpusofmaterialsthatIhavedrawnuponin
ordertoconstructthistext.Thedays,weekends,andmonthsspentinIjan
in their companyconstitute a truly memorableperiod of my life,when I