Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor and Chair in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, USA.
Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Partial Listing of Contributors:
Julius Adekunle, Monmouth University
Simeon Ibigbolade Aderibigbe, University of Georgia at Athens, USA
Chiji Akoma, Villanova University, USA
Adetayo Alabi, University of Mississippi, USA
Joyce Ashuntantang, University of Hartford, USA
Karin Barber, University of Birmingham, UK
Ragi Bashonga, Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa
Robert Cancel, University of California, San Diego, USA
Raphael d’Abdon, University of South Africa
Ernest N. Emenyonu, University of Michigan–Flint, USA
Olawole Famule, University of Wisconsin at Superior, USA
Artisia Green, College of William and Mary, USA
Marame Gueye, East Carolina University, USA
Lee Haring, Brooklyn College, CUNY, USA
Kathryn Jones, Swansea University, UK
Kasongo M. Kapanga, University of Richmond, USA
Russell H. Kaschula, Rhodes University, South Africa
Cécile Leguy, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, France
Joseph McLaren, Hofstra University, USA
Patricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah, University of Mines and Technology, Ghana
Mustafa Kemal Mirzeler, Western Michigan University, USA
Besi Brillian Muhonja, James Madison University, USA
Juliana Makuchi Nfah-Abbenyi, North Carolina State University, USA
Jacomien van Niekerk, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Hein Willemse, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Felicity Wood, University of Fort Hare, South Africa
“This volume is not a displacement of the late 1990s/early 2000s publications on folklore in Africa, in which African functional aesthetics gave way to Western formal aesthetics, but is a definitive source book of 50 original essays which provide a multidisciplinary study of the undercurrents of African and African Diaspora folklore and oral traditions – indeed a tour de force work in the currency and originality of its ‘African voice and perspective.”
– Pamela J. Olubunmi Smith, Professor Emerita, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
“This is a comprehensive, well-researched, and impressive volume that offers significant insights and perspectives into the dynamics of oral traditions and folklore in Africa and the African Diaspora. Systematically and thematically arranged with an interdisciplinary approach, the volume is enlightening and riveting. The volume is a must-read for professionals, students, and lovers of culture.”
– Julius O. Adekunle, Professor of History, Monmouth University, USA
This handbook offers the most comprehensive, analytic, and multidisciplinary study of oral traditions and folklore in Africa and the African Diaspora to date. Preeminent scholars Akintunde Akinyemi and Toyin Falola assemble a team of leading and rising stars across African Studies research to retrieve and renew the scholarship of oral traditions and folklore in Africa and the Diaspora just as critical concerns about their survival are pushed to the forefront of the field. With five sections on the central themes within orality and folklore – including engagement ranging from popular culture to technology, methods to pedagogy – this handbook is an indispensable resource to scholars, students, and practitioners of oral traditions and folklore preservation alike. This definitive reference is the first to provide detailed, systematic discussion, and up-to-date analysis of African oral traditions and folklore.
Akintunde Akinyemi is Professor and Chair in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Florida, USA.
Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.