STUDYING TOYIN FALOLA

 

 

I've been, half playfully, half seriously, writing an essay describing the scholar and writer Toyin Falola as a wizard. Why so? I find the wizard paradigm useful for integrating the scope of his cognitive identity and professional culture.                     What do I mean by "cognitive identity" and by "professional culture"?        Cognitive identity By "cognitive identity" I refer to a person's style of developing and using knowledge. In Falola's case, this cognitive identity consists in an oscillation between intellectual work and what he describes in a personal communication as "spiritual direction" and “spiritual journeys”, along with entry into trance states, trance as fully alert mentation, yet deeply focused in an activity, perhaps to the exclusion of anything else, both orientations facilitating creativity.       ...

  Short Abstract This essay analyzes the foundational ideas of Toyin Falola’s Yoruba Metaphysics: Spirituality and Supernaturality as a major breakthrough in articulating a systematic, indigenous Yoruba metaphysical framework and creatively expands it by introducing the Falola/Adepoju Opon Ifa Mandala—a visual cosmogram that synthesizes Yoruba symbolism with mandala traditions to map the architecture of existence. By grounding this philosophy in lived experience and comparing it to global traditions, the essay positions Yoruba thought as a sophisticated framework for universal concerns, using the mandala as a tool for pedagogy, analysis, and contemplative practice that honors cultural specificity while demonstrating its broader applicability. Long Abstract This essay engages Toyin Falola's Yoruba Metaphysics: Spirituality and Supernaturality (2025) as a striking achievement in African philosophical scholarship—introducing a fresh, comprehensive and systematic exposition of endoge...