Wariboko, Adeshina Afolayan and Demosophy.pdf

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Toyin Falola

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Jul 20, 2022, 4:24:44 PM7/20/22
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Adeshina Afolayan and Demosophy.pdf

Michael Afolayan

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Jul 21, 2022, 6:03:24 AM7/21/22
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Wow!

Thanks, Nimi Wariboko, for this quality appraisal and presentation of a quality intellectual in our circle, Adeshina Afolayan. I know Adeshina as "a brother of mine from another womb," a euphemism for acknowledging him as my namesake but no relationship. I know him as a serious scholar and deep thinker, and an extraordinary human-being with a generous heart and friendly persona. But never have I had the opportunity to see the depth of his contribution to the epistemology of African philosophy, a body of knowledge which is deeply rooted in his sound academic training and a unique but apparent intuitive, solid home-grown intellection that surpasses the two-by-four model of the knowledge base. By "two-by-four knowledge base," I refer to the limited acquisition of knowledge confined to the two covers of the textbook and the four corners of the classroom, the shallow, peripheral intellectual contribution that does not advance our yearning quest for new knowledge. From reading this seminal write-up of Wariboko, I could see that Adeshina has borrowed knowledge from the holistic space where his methodology drinks from the inexhaustible pool of erudite data of information in which he is able to take us by the hand and walk us through what Wariboko describes as "radically uncompromising new vision for philosophy in Africa." I am excited for him!

I will read and re-read Wariboko's essay over and over again as it has helped me gain a deeper insight into the work of this sound intellectual, Adeshina Afolayan. And, of course, it has tantalized my appetite for the writings of Adeshina and necessity now compels me to become an Adeshina Afolayan reader.

And, Nimi Wariboko, you write so well.

Thanks!

Michael O. Afoláyan


On Wednesday, July 20, 2022 at 09:24:47 PM GMT+1, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:






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Assensoh, Akwasi B.

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Jul 21, 2022, 7:31:39 AM7/21/22
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Brother Michael:

Your own brief but very sound "Wow" rejoinder prompted me, as a life-time member of the Association of Global South Studies (AGSS), to re-visit its Spring 2022 issue of its refereed Journal JGSS Journal to take a peep at Distinguished Professor Nimi Wariboko's Demosophy piece on the Great Philosophical One: Adeshina Afolayan!

In fact, the section of the brilliant and very well-analyzed JGSS piece that gladdened my heart most was a part of footnote #85: "On the whole, Afolayan’s books and essays are always properly philosophically conceptualized, well rooted in historical analyses, and accented by rigorous social science discourse. His scholarship is truly interdisciplinary." This truism made me sit up and smile at the crucial fact that all disciplines seem to be rooted in our own old "history", especially if his books and essays are "well rooted in historical analyses". In the end, it dawned on me that it does seem that it is still glorious to be a historian, as our tool is used in basically most analytical spectrums! 😂

Great Scholars --the Afolayans, Waribokos, Falolas, et al -- keep up the Green and White Flag flying at full mast or speed!

A.B. Assensoh.

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Nimi Wariboko

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Jul 21, 2022, 10:11:07 AM7/21/22
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Thanks to Professors Michael Afolayan and A. B. Assensoh for your generous comments on my essay on Professor Adeshina Afolayan’s philosophy. As Professor Michael Afolayan noted Adeshina is a very gracious and generous fellow. And he is my good friend. I wrote the essay to celebrate his last year’s promotion to the rank of a full professor at the University of Ibadan.

 

In January 2021 or thereby, Professor Toyin Falola announced on this forum that our dear Adeshina has been elevated to the rank of professor at Ibadan. My immediate reaction on hearing the news was to send him a gift to mark, honor, and celebrate the noble achievement. But I quickly realized that money I did not have. I heard myself saying: “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: in the name of power of Scholarship I salute thee.”

 

So, at my gate called Beautiful in my study room, I invited him to send me everything that he has ever published without telling him I wanted to write an essay on his philosophy to celebrate his promotion. I only informed him that I wanted to study his work for my own edification. On reading his essays and books—which he sent promptly and together they were over 1000 pages—I was drawn out to write (on) him by the copious notes I took to describe, elucidate, explicate, and analyze his body of work. I enjoyed reading his oeuvre and my heart was moved with a good theme. And my pen moved like that of ready writer. I wrote as I was moved by the power of Scholarship, now comprising of his and mine fully engaged in a perichoretic dance.

 

 

Nimi Wariboko

Boston University

Elias K. Bongmba

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Jul 21, 2022, 10:11:12 AM7/21/22
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Wariboko's generative ideas always invite careful reading and he has done us a huge favor by inviting us to reread the philosophy of Afolayan, which I remember from the 1990s when the discipline of African philosophy was going through what for lack of a better word, i would call its renaissance, a period which generated a lot of interest in the discipline in the African Studies Association.

Thanks Nimi for such a careful reading and lucid analysis of the work of our colleague.

Elias

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Adeshina Afolayan

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Jul 23, 2022, 6:35:43 AM7/23/22
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I should express my profound gratitude first to Prof. Wariboko. What he did was so unexpected and numbing. When the essay came, i sat for several minutes, deeply incredulous and doubly overwhelmed. I mean, i do not think of myself as such an incredible scholar. But i know i love this profession, reading, writing, researching, teaching; oh, how i am passionate about them all! But to have someone wade through all these many works and bring out something this sublime? Indeed, i read and read through and asked myself, "is this me?" (in incredulous tone? And that's the thing: he caught on deeply about the inner dynamics of all the things i have been trying to say about philosophy and its place and placement. Where does the right to philosophy take place, asks Derrida? I have been convinced that the answer, for me, placed within the Nigerian postcolony, is Nigeria, within the broad African philosophical context. 

Oga Wariboko is a better scholar and person than i am. And i owe him an eternal debt i won't be able to pay. He has done me a scholarly honor that i am already reflecting on how to be grateful. Just to let him know that i have taken the critique to heart and i am redoubling my effort. After all, i am still a pretty young person. What else will i be doing with my life than take care of family, and do research and have fun doing it and them? 

Baami Afolayan, 
I appreciate your confidence in my scholarship sir. I count so many people, so many on this platform, more seminal thinkers than i am. I think i am just managing to get by, and this is not modesty; it's the truth as i see it. I am trying not to disappoint many people, and myself too. Adupe gan-an sah. The beauty of this forum is that you have so many people to be delighted with and to want to follow. And so many dazzling ideas too!

Ojogbon Assensoh, dear Grand Ol' scholar,
Thank you so much! I am very grateful for your comments and wonderful words. 

I thank everyone!


Adeshina Afolayan, PhD
Department of Philosophy
University of Ibadan


+23480-3928-8429


Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Jul 23, 2022, 8:22:55 AM7/23/22
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Wonderful discourse

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Jul 23, 2022, 8:52:19 AM7/23/22
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The celebration of carefully written,
and rigorously done work is wonderful.
It is not about quantity,  but quality -
inclusive of methodology.

Congrats!

Gloria 


Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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Harrow, Kenneth

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Jul 24, 2022, 11:34:25 AM7/24/22
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i enjoyed nimi wariboko's review of adeshina afolayan's work. he gave a strong summary and relative evaluation, making the encounter with his own review quite rewarding. thanks nimi.
as i read the essay, i had a few thoughts i'd like to share. perhaps it might have been surprising to see hegel's name crop up so much in evoking the dialectical nature of the oeuvre.nice to see kierkegaard, still...
 a number of others occurred to me. one, i was grateful to see the simple dismissal of "playfulness" in philosophy largely disposed of. the term "playful" is usually attributed to poststructuralism or deconstruction, but i'd correlate it as well with mbembe whose concerns over "development" and the relationship with western thought is also fundamental.
that relationship, in philosophy, is discussed in refreshing ways; my favorite thinker who has theorized that relationship is simon gikandi,. in most of his work. it wouldn't be amiss to throw bhabha into this mix. but gikandi is the key for me

the description of afolayan's philosophy as demosophy calls to mind ranciere, for whom the demos is fundamental, and whose basic values align with those wariboko evoked in afolayan's. but more than any of that, thefocus on development seemed totally in line with very familiar cinema, literature, thought that marked all major movements up to and after independence. i couldn't help but think of sartre after world war 2 saying the time for literature waas over, and the serious political work was before us. although nimi said this oeuvre was not simply about developmentalism, it seemed largely centered onthe question of development, oof political and philosophical work tied to development, and inevitably to settle relations to internaational capitalism
that means it aligns pretty closely to black culltural studies, again our friends stuart hall and company, including gilroy, or, as nimi mentioned, wynter.
hall is the best reference for me, in interests and philosophical approach.

it would be hard to think of contemporary philosophers for whom questions of justice in the world order is not intrinsic. it underlines everything spivak wrote, and if "playful" lies at the core of derrida's real commitment. the french used the word "engagement" which seems basic to the context/situation nimi evokes as a central concern of afolayan.
thanks nimi for your hard work in putting this lengthy review of afolayan's work before us
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


Dr. Oohay

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Jul 24, 2022, 12:58:32 PM7/24/22
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Apparently, we encounter the “play” phenomenon as a creative/destructive interpretive phenomenon in the discourses of BOTH ancient/modern western and non-western thinkers — “play” as an effective destabilizer of signifiers and signifieds.

Oluwatoyin Adepoju

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Jul 24, 2022, 4:02:33 PM7/24/22
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