Abstract
The African-centered conceptualizations in Toyin Falola’s work are important because most of the concepts used in works dealing with Africa or African issues, as I have argued elsewhere, employ Eurocentric concepts that often do not capture the essence of the phenomena discussed. Calling a thing by its precise name is the beginning of understanding because it is the key to the procedure that allows the mind to grasp reality and its many relationships. It makes a great deal of difference whether one believes an illness is caused by an evil spirit or by bacteria on a binge. The concept of bacteria is part of a system of concepts connected to a powerful repertory of treatments, such as antibiotics. Naming is a process that gives the namer great power.1
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Notes
Abdul Karim Bangura, “African-centered Conceptualization in Mwalimu Toyin Falola’s Work: An Analysis of Its Essentiality,” in Toyin Falola: The Man, the Mask, the Muse, ed. Niyi Afolabi (Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2010), 159–176
and Abdul Karim Bangura, “From Diop to Asante: Conceptualizing and Contextualizing the Afrocentric Paradigm”. Journal of Pan African Studies, 5, no. 1 (2012): 105–25.
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Toyin Falola, Michel R. Doortmont, and M. C. Adeyemi, “Iwe Itan Oyo: A Traditional Yoruba History and Its Author.” The Journal of African History 30, no. 2 (1989): 301–29.
Toyin Falola, “‘My Friend the Shylock’: Money-Lenders and Their Clients in South-Western Nigeria.” The Journal of African History 34, no. 3 (1993): 404.
Toyin Falola, “The Amistad Legacy: Reflections on the Spaces of Colonization,” in Africa Update, vol. xiv, no. 2 (Spring 2007).
Toyin Falola, “Brigandage and Piracy in Nineteenth-CenturyYorubaland.” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 13, nos. 1–2 (December 1985-June 1986): 83–106.
Toyin Falola and Steven J. Salm, African Urban Spaces in Historical Perspective (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2005).
Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton, A History of Nigeria (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 57.
Toyin Falola, “The Yoruba Caravan System of the Nineteenth Century,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 24, no. 1 (1991): 114.
Toyin Falola and Steven J. Salm, Urbanization and African Cultures (Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2005).
Toyin Falola, “The Amistad’s Legacy: Reflections on the Spaces of Colonization.” Africa Update 14, no. 2 (Spring, 2007): 4–5.
Toyin Falola, Violence in Nigeria: The Crisis of Religious Politics and Secular Ideologies (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1998), 87–95.
Toyin Falola and Paul E. Lovejoy, Pawnship, Slavery, and Colonialism in Africa (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003), 16.
Toyin Falola, A Mouth Sweeter than Salt (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2004), 87.
Toyin Falola, “From Hospitality to Hostility: Ibadan and Strangers, 1830–1904.” The Journal of African History 26, no. 1 (1985): 51.
Toyin Falola and Akanmu Adebayo, Culture, Politics, and Money among the Yoruba (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1999), 15.
Toyin Falola, “From Hospitality to Hostility: Ibadan and Strangers, 1830–1904.” The Journal of African History 26, no. 1 (1985): 51.
Toyin Falola, “From Hospitality to Hostility: Ibadan and Strangers, 1830–1904.” The Journal of African History 26, no. 1 (1985): 68.
Toyin Falola, Yoruba Gurus: Indigenous Production of Knowledge in Africa (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1999), 27.
Toyin Falola, Yoruba Warlords of the Nineteenth Century (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2001), 7.
Abdul Karim Bangura, African-Centered Research Methodologies: From Ancient Times to the Present (San Diego, CA: Cognella Press, 2011), 64.
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Bangura, A.K. (2015). African-Centered Conceptualization. In: Toyin Falola and African Epistemologies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137492708_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137492708_3
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