Binary Tales
*Cover image courtesy of Chief Adeniyi Ayinla Fagbemi
The philosopher Sophie Bọ́sẹ̀dé Olúwọlé (1935 – 2018) was a remarkable thinker. I had the incredible honour of joining her on a short roadtrip through Yorùbáland (SW Nigeria) and filming her before she passed away.
She debunked a scientific blunder: Ọ̀rúnmìlà was a philosopher, Ifá is his intellectual legacy. Ethnologists had written him down as a (pagan) god of a traditional Yoruba religion. And this is still how he is seen by the vast majority of people today.
Sophie Olúwọlé uncovered the misinterpretation by giving a closer look to the original Yoruba texts. Which are stored in an oral system. She found that these are not religious, but philosophical in nature.
It’s a great (re)discovery, which painfully illustrates how, for centuries, it was believed that Africans did not have philosophy at all.
Olúwọlé makes you question the most fundamental assumptions you have about life. And she urges us all to engage in meaningful dialogue with each other. No matter where you are from, what colour your skin is, or which traditions you were brought up with.
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