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Appropriation of Orature for Pedagogy by Early Yorùbá Christians

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African Languages and Literatures in the 21st Century

Abstract

Despite the high rating of literacy in modern pedagogy, many cultures still engage pedagogy effectively within an oral tradition. Christianity as a book religion was introduced to the Yorùbá between the early and mid-1800s as a society with a high oral residue. This resulted in tension among early Yorùbá Christians whether to quickly acquire literacy or develop orature for the new religion. Thus, two Christian pedagogies emerged. This chapter challenges the normative conjoining of literacy as pedagogy in the twenty-first century. It alludes to the rising profile of Yorùbá verbal art of Eulogy in Christian Liturgy and the facilitation offered by modern multimedia tools to show the limitation of the elite assumption that pedagogy is solely literacy-driven.

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Adesina, D., Olorunyomi, S. (2020). Appropriation of Orature for Pedagogy by Early Yorùbá Christians. In: Lisanza, E., Muaka, L. (eds) African Languages and Literatures in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23479-9_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23479-9_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-23478-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-23479-9

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