10/22/09 11:11 PMYoruba Omo OduduwaPage 2 of 53http://www.uga.edu/aflang/YORUBA/ODUDUWA.htm
University of Georgia
Introduction
In September 1996 (Fall quarter), the department of Comparative Literature and the University of Georgia added Yoruba (a languagespoken in the western parts of Nigeria) to its offerings in the African Language Program. The Program had previously taught Swahili at all levels.The Yoruba language program began with sixteen fully registered students and four auditing students. Some of these students left the class beforethe end of the year (mostly after the second quarter) due to reasons such as graduation, college transfer and fulfillment of college foreign languagerequirements. In the Spring, there were eight fully registered students in the third quarter Yoruba class. These students had become highlyproficient in the language, two of them would later be selected to participate in the U.S Department of Education’s Group Program Abroad inNigeria during the summer of 1997.These eight students had also become knowledgeable about aspects of Yoruba culture and society. As a final project, they were assignedtopics for cultural presentation and were asked to write short papers in English on their respective topics. The initial eight papers had topicsvarying from history, traditional healing, religion, marriage, family system, economy and having twin children among the Yorubas. These papersalso began the practice of an end of termpresentations and papers by students in the Yoruba language classes. The following eighteen papers are just a selection from the growing numberof such papers in the three academic years that Yoruba classes have existed here at the University of Georgia.In all cases, the students were not provided with any reference or review until the day of their first paper presentation. The aim of theproject or requirement was for the students to do research on Yoruba language, culture and people, particularly and Nigeria in general. The papershave not been edited, either for style or contents (except in cases where I, as a native speaker and instructor, has found statements that arecompletely fabricated by the students) so as to showcase the findings of the students. As might be expected, there are many ideas in these papersthat are controversial, strange, suspect or sometimes almost outright annoying but these are the materials and ideas available in libraries in thiscountry about the Yoruba language and people.It is hoped that these papers will serve as a source of information to the in-coming Yoruba students as well as other people interested in thelanguage and culture. Enjoy.Oba Akinloye Ojo
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