Look Around

The four-day week and the ritual calendar, how a Yoruba diagnosis of a problem actually proceeds, and an accurate account of aje, women's spiritual authority and the Gelede response.

The Efe and Gelede masked spectacle of the western Yoruba, what it says about women's spiritual power, why it is one of the most conceptually sophisticated things in the tradition, and its UNESCO inscription.

The satirical song traditions of the masquerade societies, especially the all-night Ẹfẹ̀ performance in which named individuals are held to account, and the wider Yoruba institution of licensed abuse.

What àwọn ìyá wa actually names, why "witch" mistranslates it, the ambivalence built into the power, Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ as the institutional answer to it, and the Atinga witch-hunt of 1950-51 with Apter's cocoa-economy explanation.

A comprehensive history of the Yoruba kingdom of Kétu, covering its founding traditions from Ilé-Ifẹ̀, dynastic succession, political institutions, conflicts with Dahomey, colonial partition, and contemporary cultural legacy.

A comprehensive scholarly history of Ìlàrọ̀, examining its Oyo frontier origins, the martial tradition of Oronna, imperial administration, dynastic succession, colonial encounter, and contemporary civic institutions.

The cosmic principle of primordial feminine power, female mystical authority, moral balance, and nocturnal justice in Yorùbá cosmology and the transatlantic diaspora.

A comprehensive scholarly analysis of the Yoruba Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ masking tradition, its theological grounding in female spiritual power, performance structures, origin debates, and diasporic trajectories.

A comprehensive scholarly examination of Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ masquerade performance, its cosmological veneration of female mystical power, ritual structure, iconography, origin traditions, and contemporary heritage status.

An examination of the Àwórì Yorùbá subgroup, detailing their migration traditions, territorial distribution across Lagos and Ogun States, chieftaincy systems, dialectology, and ritual institutions.

A historical, linguistic, and socio-religious examination of the western Yorùbá subgroup formerly known as Ẹ̀gbádò and officially redesignated as Yewa in 1995.

An authoritative overview of the Kétu subgroup, covering their migration traditions, political institutions, dialectal phonology, borderland history, and religious institutions.

A comprehensive scholarly study of the Sábẹ́ subgroup of the Yorùbá, examining their history, political structures, dialect, religious practices, and cross-border geography.

A comprehensive scholarly study of the Ifọ̀nyìn subgroup, examining their territorial division across the Nigeria-Benin border, their origins under Old Ọyọ hegemony, their distinct political and religious institutions, and their dialectal classification.

A historical, linguistic, and cultural study of the Anàgó, a Western Yorùbá subgroup inhabiting the Nigeria-Benin borderland whose name became a defining transatlantic ethnonym.

An analytical history of the Ọ̀hòrí Yoruba subgroup, their wetland ecology, confederate political institutions, dialectal classification, anti-colonial resistance, and ritual traditions.

A comprehensive historical, linguistic, and institutional reference on the Ìṣàbẹ̀, a western Yorùbá subgroup situated across the central borderlands of Benin Republic and western Nigeria.

A comprehensive study of Yoruba Gẹ̀lẹ̀dẹ́ headdresses, examining their sculptural techniques, ritual appeasement of female spiritual power, named carving lineages, and museum provenance histories.

An examination of female ritual, medical, and judicial offices in Yoruba tradition, focusing on the Iyanifa dispute, palace priesthoods, and botanical health systems.

A taxonomic guide clarifying the cosmological, political, and gender distinctions among Yoruba ritual embodiments often lumped together as generic masquerades.