Published Collections and Archives of Oríkì
Where oríkì with reliable Yoruba originals and named translators actually lives in print, who collected it, and what is and is not digitised or open access.
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Where oríkì with reliable Yoruba originals and named translators actually lives in print, who collected it, and what is and is not digitised or open access.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Dis corpus dey carry im oríkì texts from only few publish sources, again and again, because na only few publish sources hold almost all di material wey reach dis corpus standard: Yoruba original wey dem transcribe, collector or translator wey dem name, and di occasion wey dem state. Dis file dey name dose sources, dey state wetin dey digitized and wetin no dey, and e dey open about how plenty oríkì dey waka round for internet without any of di three tins.
S. A. (Adeboye) Babalola, The Content and Form of Yoruba Ijala (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966). Dis book based on Babalola 1963 University of London thesis, and na im win di Amaury Talbot Prize. As yoruba-ijala talk for 13-oral-literature, na dis book be di single source wey dem document pass for any Yoruba oral genre, wey join critical study together with annotated bilingual anthology . Ìjálá na oríkì wey dem dey sing for di way hunters dey vocalize, so dis book na still di single richest print source for proper oríkì, especially for Ògún and animal praise. E dey Internet Archive but dem put restriction on how dem dey borrow am, so person no fit check di texts page by page if di person no dey inside library wey hold physical copy or digital copy wey no get restriction .
Adeboye Babalola, Àwọn Oríkì Orílẹ̀ (1967, wey dem expand to Àwọn Oríkì Orílẹ̀ Mẹ́tàdínlọ́gbọ̀n, 2000). One special compilation for lineage oríkì, wey document twenty-seven lineages by di later count, including Olúfẹ̀, Olúkòyí, Ìrènímógún and Arẹ̀sà, as yoruba-oriki record . Na dis be di primary print source wey dis corpus dey draw from for oríkì orílẹ̀ where Babalola get credit, inside files oriki-orile-oyo-egba-ijebu, oriki-orile-ekiti-owo-ijesa and oriki-orile-okuku-lineages.
Karin Barber, I Could Speak Until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991; reissued Edinburgh University Press, 2020). Di standard English-language ethnographic and literary study on oríkì, based on fieldwork for Òkukù, Ọ̀sun State, and di single biggest source of transcribed oríkì with performance context inside dis corpus . Dem put restriction on how dem dey borrow am for Internet Archive. Im content na im dey under most of di material for oriki-women-as-custodians, oriki-poetics-and-untranslatability, and di Òkukù lineage texts inside oriki-orile-okuku-lineages.
Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art (Cambridge University Press, 2014). Dis one no be mainly oríkì collection, but e print transcribed oríkì originals with English translations inside im appendices and inside chapters on Èṣù, Ọ̀ṣun and di àkó funeral effigy tradition, dey argue say spoken praise and visual praise no fit separate for Yoruba practice . Dis corpus draw from am for di Èṣù text inside oriki-poetics-and-untranslatability and for context on Ọ̀ṣun praise wey follow sculpture.
Olatunde O. Olatunji, Features of Yoruba Oral Poetry (Ibadan: University Press Limited, 1984). Dis book originally be 1970 University of Ibadan doctoral thesis, and na di standard analytical reference on di formal features and classification of Yoruba oral poetry generally, wey 13-oral-literature/00-index.md cite as one of two sources for di field foundational claim say na vocal expression dem dey use classify Yoruba oral genres . Na di source wey dis corpus rely on for di ìnagijẹ classification inside oriki-typology.
Plenti texts inside dis section come from sources wey be real and get name, but no be full scholarly book collections: dem na journal articles, academic dissertations, and one chapter inside edited volume.
Bọlanle Awe, "Praise Poems as Historical Data: the Example of the Yoruba Oríkì," Africa 44.4 (1974). E no be collection but na di single most powerful article wey establish oríkì as historical evidence, and na di source of di Ìbàdàn and Balógun Ìbíkúnlé texts wey dis corpus and yoruba-oriki two of dem draw from .
Sandra T. Barnes (ed.), Africa's Ogun: Old World and New, 2nd ed. (Indiana University Press, 1997). One edited volume wey include Babalola field-recorded ìjálá chant from Raaji Ogundiran Alao, wey dem use for oriki-performance-and-occasions, and Bade Ajuwon chapter on ìrèmọ̀jé, di hunters funeral chant, wey dem treat for 13-oral-literature/06-iremoje.md .
Aaron Carter-Ényì, "'Lùlù fún wọn': Oríkì in Contemporary Culture" (2018). One journal study, no be collection, wey transcribe and translate plenti contemporary oríkì including material for doctor, for popular musician wey dey perform as "Lágbájá," and for gospel praise, wey dem use for oriki-in-contemporary-life .
Very small part of di main print corpus dey fully open access. Babalola ìjálá anthology and Barber Òkukù monograph, di two richest sources, dem two dey Internet Archive only under restricted-lending form. Awe Africa article dey available through JSTOR and Cambridge Core, and di two dey paywalled for people wey no subscribe. Carter-Ényì contemporary-culture study dey for ResearchGate and, according to im listing, e dey easier to access pass di mid-century print sources.
Plenti oríkì dey waka round for Yoruba cultural websites, blogs and social media, and dis material dey real for di sense say Yoruba speakers dey actually use di Yoruba text, but e dey always fail one or more of dis corpus three requirements. Di pattern dey repeat across many harvested records for towns and lineages inside dis section: real Yoruba text, English translation wey make sense or complete half, and source line wey write only "Yoruba Library," "edusocom," or plain social media URL, without any translator name and without any way to check di transcription against scholarly original.
Di practice for dis corpus, wey we follow throughout dis section, na to present dat kind material as e be rather dan to throway am completely: we put di Yoruba text as dem print am, we give credit to di web source by name plus clear note say dem no name any particular translator, and we tell di reader straight say na popular translation wey nobody claim rather dan scholarly work. Where even dat small standard we no fit meet am, like when di only source na just Facebook root URL wey no get post, no author and no content wey person fit verify, we comot di record, and di index plus per-file notes for dis section state where dat one happen.
Ẹsẹ Ifá, di divination verses, form dia own textual tradition with dia own collectors (especially Wande Abimbola) and dem dey treated inside 05-ifa, we no duplicate dem here.
Ìjálá texts specifically for animals and hunting beyond di elephant example inside oriki-egbe-and-eranko dey catalogued more fully inside Babalola book itself; yoruba-ijala give di fuller genre-level account.
What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
How oríkì is built from independent units rather than narrative sequence, and the specific mechanisms, tonal, structural, and referential, that make it resist translation.
Karin Barber's finding that oríkì in Okuku is held and performed mainly by women, with texts showing what that custodianship does at a wedding, at a festival, and inside a marriage.
A map of this section's oriki texts, how it relates to the oriki material already in 02-language and 12-towns, and what this section does and does not cover.
Three lineage oríkì from Karin Barber's Okuku fieldwork, plus the Olúfọ́n dynasty and the Ìkòyí warrior lineage whose praise obliges the chanter to include its own dishonour.
Six documented Ògún oríkì texts from four different scholarly sources, showing the deity's seven manifestations, his contradictions, and a chanter's personal claim on him.