Project title
The gods are wise: environmental sustainability in the Yorùbá sacred orature
Project description
Recent studies on environmental degradation in southwest Nigeria have shown the negative impact of climate change on the environment, leading to floods, wildfires, desertification, and low agricultural yields. Therefore, it is essential to improve environmental sustainability, and the sacred orature of Yoruba deities could provide a solution.
How can the present generation meet their material and economic needs while also ensuring that future generations have access to a dignified and well-being life? Oluwabunmi Tope Bernard explores the relationship between Yoruba sacred orature and environmental sustainability practices in southwest Nigeria. With an ethnographic lens the roles of Yoruba deities, Ifá, Ṣàngó, and Ọya are examined, as they relate to environmental sustainability.
Selected publications
Bernard, O.T “Constructing Environmental Degradation and (In)Fertility Yorùbá Orature” Religion Compass. (2021) e12418. https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12418
Bernard, O.T. “A Literary Appreciation of Blood Symbolism in Ifá Divination Poetry among the Yorùbá.” Yoruba Studies Review. 2020 (5)1.2, p. 21-38.
Bernard, O.T. “The Use of Incantations and Medicine in the Works of D. O. Fagunwa” IHAFA: A Journal of African Studies. 2018 (9)1, p. 251-263.