City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, and the Imagination (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780520265561)

In a study that challenges familiar Western modes of thought, Jacob K. Olupona focuses on one of the most important religious centers in Africa and in the world: the Yor b city of Il -If in southwest Nigeria. The spread of Yor b traditions in the African diaspora has come to define the cultural identity of millions of black and white people in Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and the United States. Seen through the eyes of a native, this first comprehensive study of the spiritual and cultural center of the Yor b religion tells how the city went from great prominence to near obliteration and then rose again as a contemporary city of gods. Throughout, Olupona corroborates the indispensable linkages between religion, cosmology, migration, and kinship as espoused in the power of royal lineages, hegemonic state structure, gender, and the Yor b sense of place, offering the fullest portrait to date of this sacred African city.

Author: Jacob Olupona
ISBN-10: 0520265564
ISBN-13: 9780520265561
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 12/13/2011
Pages: 356
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2012