Hybridity in Yorùbá poetry of Olánrewájú Adépojù

Abstract

The article examines Adépojù's poetry with the view to engaging his oeuvre and theoretically characterising his practice using Homi Bhabha's theory of hybridity. The article considers how Yorùbá culture and Islamic religion collide and effect a conflicting sense of identity in Olánrewájú Adépojù's chanted poetry. It argues that Adépojù's poetry represents a different tradition in Yorùbá poetry, having evolved out of the fusion of Islamic religion and Yorùbá culture. The article concludes that Adépojù's poetry displays border zone tensions between socio-political and religious mandates on the one hand, and contradiction in-between Yorùbá culture and Islamic religion on the other.