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Accepted Paper:
The forces and forms of Ifá in Nigerian sociology – colonial epistemological war and the transformations of African studies, Yoruba studies and Ifá studies.
Camillo César Alvarenga
(Postgraduate Program in Sociology - Federal University of Paraíba (PPGSUFPB))
This text explores the Yoruba cosmological order in the cult of Ifá and its implications for international science policy. It discusses the critique of colonial reason and the production of knowledge in Yoruba cosmology through social practices and interactions.
Paper long abstract:
This text explores the Yoruba cosmological order within the cult of Ifá and its ritual practices from Nigeria. The goal is to understand the implications of indigenous West African sociologies for international science policy in the field of Social Sciences. The author argues that the transformations of sociology in modernity provide a critique of colonial onto-epistemological reason through Yoruba cosmological reason. Nigerian sociology has shifted from African Studies/Yoruba Studies to Ifá Studies, considering social practice as a process of knowledge production. This approach identifies the conditions of possibility of Being and emphasizes social action as a knowledge-producing endeavor. In Yoruba cosmology, the production of sociality occurs through interactions and operations between practices, guided by rules, roles, ethics, morals, rituals, myths, narratives, and cosmological beings. These elements represent native logics of social agency and action, extending to include interactions with extra-human nature. Overall, the text highlights the unique perspective that indigenous sociologies offer for understanding knowledge production and social dynamics.