Ph.D., Antioch University, 2024, Leadership and Change

The dissertation examined African American women with chieftaincy titles in Yoruba culture and how they exercised their leadership in both Yorubaland and America. It explored their leadership, authority, and training. The presence of African American women with chieftaincy titles is increasing in the American landscape. The methodology was qualitative using narrative inquiry and portraiture from Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot and Jessica Hoffman Davis (1997) with five African American women. My research included observations in Nigerian, pre-Osun festival, the Osun festival, and post-Osun festival. Observations also included three women Nigerian Chiefs. The research questions answered their qualifications to lead, their sense of knowing as leaders, and their commitment to the Yoruba people and tradition. This study identified the historical and cultural patterns necessary to understand, adapt, and implement training for future women leaders in the Isese/Ifa/Orisa tradition in America and for those learning Yoruba culture and customs in their chieftaincies. The data findings are contextualized in the narratives to provide an overall portrait of African American women leaders in the Yoruba culture and Isese/Ifa/Orisa tradition in the United States, primary community of Atlanta, Georgia. African American women lead from their sense of and proven skill strength either academically or vocationally. African American Chiefs do not need permission in the healing of their community. From the findings, this study proposed the theory of Motherism, which can be the basis for shared dialogue and understanding across the board for various affinity groups in the diaspora and Yorubaland. African American women do not have to disregard the historical v leadership work of African American women who have been trail blazers to be Yoruba women leaders in America. African American women continue the struggle for voice and equality despite the culture or religious norms o (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philomena Essed PhD (Committee Chair); J. Beth Mabry PhD (Committee Member); Dianne M. Stewart PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; African History; African Literature; African Studies; Black History; Black Studies; Gender; Religion; Spirituality; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, African-American and African Studies

Sexuality through the Eyes of the Orisa: An Exploration of Ifa/Orisa and Sacred Sexualities in Trinidad and Tobago engages the Yoruba cosmological system of Ifa to offer an expansive and emancipatory pedagogical praxis as it relates to human sexuality and gender, primarily, amongst African descendants from slavery to present day Trinidad and Tobago. As a former British colony, notions of sexuality and gender, in Trinidad and Tobago, have been significantly shaped by Western thought linked to a history of enslavement and colonialism predicated on sexual violence and white supremacy. European colonizers used phenotypical markers to classify persons into groups such as a race, sex/gender and class to establish power and maintain the status quo. Sexuality and gender have been central in the enslavement and colonization of African and indigenous peoples, alike, premised on phenotypical schemas that privileged white men and marginalized others. The philosophical underpinnings of sexuality and gender in Western societies have been undergirded by the rigid pairing of biology and phenotype catalogued into two asymmetrical categories male/man and female/woman premised on white heteropatriarchy. The Western construct is inherently hierarchal, exclusionary and discriminatory and, therefore, fails to provide a universal framework for conceptualizing sexuality and gender. Within recent times, we have seen an alarming increase of sexual violence as a legacy of coloniality and racist sexism, misogyny/misogynoir and homophobia as gender non-conforming individuals continue to challenge the status quo and push against the margins of Western notions of normative sexuality. Through a critical navigation of the Yoruba Ifa/Orisa worldview, against the historical trajectory of pre- and post-colonial Trinidad and Tobago, my study posits that sexuality is a transformative sacred ontology, which challenges the sociallyii constructed categories imposed by Western hegemonic (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Monika Brodnicka PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Adeleke Adeeko PhD (Committee Chair); Lupenga Mphande PhD (Committee Member); Niyi Coker PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Americans; African History; African Literature; African Studies; Philosophy; Religion

Ph.D., Antioch University, 2017, Leadership and Change

The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yoruba Ifa /Orisa practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa. The epistemology of the Ifa /Orisa belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice. This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data. The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and opportunities for this branch of practitioners in the United States who were initiated in the Ifa /Orisa practice in Nigeria? Some of the main findings indicate that the opportunities include: opening doors intellectually and spiritually about African philosophical thought and ethics were that: it instills a sense of spiritual discipline; it lays the foundation, giving confidence that one can achieve what they set their minds to; and, it offers spiritual technologies and systems that are liberating and relevant in the Unites States in terms of identity, direction, and purpose. Some of the challenges included: a rugged Nigerian experience, and cultural change; a transformative experience from the initiation rituals; understanding and learning the Yoruba language; and, the contradiction of Africa being the idea of utopia. The challenges in the United States also included: understanding and learning the Yoruba language; understanding the different systems of practice in the Ifa /Orisa belief system; the role of women as Ifa priests; ecological concerns in disposing ritual sacrifices; accessibility to traditional (African) ritual items; issues of acceptance, inclusion, and exclusion on the basis of race, gender, and sexual identities from other systems of Ifa /Orisa practice; and, developing new communities of practice base on the experi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philomena Essed (Committee Chair); Laura Morgan Roberts (Committee Member); Tim Sieber (Committee Member) Subjects: African American Studies; African Studies; Black Studies; Caribbean Studies; Cultural Anthropology; Divinity; Epistemology; Religion; Spirituality

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2011, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

The noun, verb and particle are the three parts of Arabic speech. The student of Arabic learns words whose meanings resemble those of English adjectives. However, the words themselves possess every morphological feature of the noun. The student also learns that indefinite nouns can be described by adjectival sentences and that these sentences are translated as relative clauses. However, definite nouns need a relative pronoun in order to describe them with a sentence. The student learns that the adjective comes after the noun in Arabic. However, there are instances when the reverse applies. Then, the student learns two words for “adjective” in Arabic, ¿¿¿¿¿¿ifa and na¿¿¿¿t, and there doesn't seem to be much distinction between their uses. These features of the adjective caused the basis for this thesis. This study presents the treatment of the adjective from the perspective of three grammarians. They are Ibn as-Sarraj (d. 928), az-Zamakhshari (d. 1144), and ash-Shribini (d. 1570). Ibn as-Sarraj's work, al-¿¿¿¿U¿¿¿¿¿¿ul fi n-Na¿¿¿¿¿¿w, forms the basis of this study. He defines the adjective in terms of meaning and distinguishes it from the noun. He presents the rules for the attributive position and provides examples. Az-Zamakhshari and ash-Shirbini serve to support the information found in al-¿¿¿¿U¿¿¿¿¿¿ul and to show developments in the treatment of the adjective. Together, they provide answers to the problems above.

Committee: Bruce Fudge PhD (Advisor); Georges Tamer PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Near Eastern Studies