The conference poster projected Falola’s scholarly range and vocational flexibility in terms of symbols constituting a map of Africa in which was embedded a triumphant portrait of the scholar. I shall use these encounters as pivots in exploring the significance of the conference in the body of this essay.įraming the entire universe of discourse I was exposed to at the conference, from scintillating books on display in different disciplines, to various formal and informal discussions to the festivities represented by pageantry, food and dance, was the symbolic contextualisation of the event by the symbolism of the conference poster, drawing on central evocators of the classical African achievement, in tandem with imagery suggesting the expansion of scholarship in Africa through the colonialists’ introduction of printed texts to the continent, juxtaposed with a colourful array of logos being the insignia of the various organisations who contributed to making the conference possible, the entire visual feast of the poster suggesting the character of this conference as a gathering of Africans and non-Africans, from Europe and the Americas, coming together to investigate Africa’s place in the global configuration of knowledge, of knowledge as abstract inspiration and its potential for practical application. Joan Ugo Mbagwu expounding on indigenous methods of conflict resolution and countering terrorism in Africa. Yet another was Emmanuel Ofuasia’s explanation of what he describes as the Yoruba origin Ifa knowledge system’s anticipating of deconstructivist hermeneutics centuries before the development of this post-modern scholarly phenomenon in the West.Ĭomplementing these occurrences is yet another represented by Dr. This loaded question is at the heart of the challenges and paradoxes provoked by the conference.Īnother definitive encounter for me was another presenter’s outlining of the concept of an African, as different from an Asian or a Western epistemology or way of arriving at relating to knowledge.
“Do US or British academics, for example, have to publish in Nigerian journals?” he asked. Conference Report by Oluwatoyin Vincent AdepojuĬompcros Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems Defining ExperiencesĪ defining moment for me at the Toyin Conference titled “African Knowledges and Alternative Futures” that ran from the 29th to the 31st of January 2018 at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, was the declaration at a paper presentation session by a scholar from a Nigerian university that the culture of making promotion of Nigerian academics dependent on publication in journals outside Nigeria, particularly from the West, is ultimately counterproductive to the development of a robust academic culture in Nigeria.
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