Suchergebnisse

The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria describes children as the heritage of the society because children occupy a special place in societal survival and continuity. Children are esteemed and appreciated. Thus, the embedded culture propagates the essentiality of children, the need for proper socialisation and internalisation to make a responsible being ( Omoluabi). Also, children are prioritised above material wealth, and the essentiality of child wellbeing and education is emphasised in aspects of popular culture such as oral poetry, proverbs, local songs and popular music among others. Using extant elements of Yoruba popular culture which have remained dominant, this article contextually examines the value of children among the Yoruba.

"Soziale Beziehungen bei den Yoruba wurden von jeher durch Sprichwörter, Redewendungen und Lieder (re-)strukturiert. In ihnen spiegelt sich das Denken der Gruppe wider. Dies zeigt sich insbesondere beim Blick auf die Beziehungen zwischen Patron und Klient und den Erwartungen, wie diese Beziehungen aussehen sollten. Durch die Analyse von Sprichwörtern, Redewendungen und Liedern der Yoruba wird gezeigt, wie indigenes gesellschaftliches Denken Werte, Normen und Erwartungen in klientelistischen Beziehungen festlegt." (Autorenreferat)

Conflict management and resolution strategies often do not pay enough attention to traditional methods emanating from local cultural traditions. Many conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa are not responsive to contemporary approaches born in the West and implemented in conflict zones across the continent. In this article I specifically focus on the myths of the Yorùbá ethnic group in Nigeria as a way to demonstrate how myths from a given society can be helpful in crafting local solutions to local conflicts. After providing a brief overview of the relationship between myth and conflict, I will summarize and analyze five Yorùbá myths that provide cultural context to the Yorùbá experience, and then conclude with some lessons that can be applied to the conflict resolution process in general.

Divorce rates among the northern Yoruba are not only higher than one might expect in patrilineal societies, but little different from those of the southern Yoruba, with cognatic descent groups. This initial observation challenges the hypothesis that divorce rates are directly correlated with the line of descent. Data on over 300 divorces were collected in four Yoruba towns—two with agnatic and two with cognatic descent groups. The divorces were classed by the length of the terminated marriage and its fertility, and the distribution of the types of divorce were then compared in the four towns. The results suggest that the rate of divorce is primarily correlated with the degree to which a woman is alienated by marriage from her own descent group. But a number of secondary factors seem to be important, and these may cumulatively raise or reduce the divorce rate to a marked degree.