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Bello, Saheed Adesumbo (2023) 'Ọ̀rúnmìliàn Film-Philosophy: Aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú in Saworoidẹ.' Film and Philosophy: The Journal of the Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts., 27. pp. 89-103.

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Abstract

This article discusses a relationship between the philosophical praxis of Ọ̀rúnmìlà and aesthetics of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú (i.e., the costume of the living and the costume of the dead) in Saworoidẹ (dir. Túndé Kèlání’s, 1999). I construct the Yorùbá/Ọ̀rúnmìlà philosophical method of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú in the contemporary Nigerian narrative film as case study of how contemporary African filmmakers, like their oral artiste counterparts, continue to articulate their inherited traditions via cinematic storytelling. In doing that I draw on what I call the Ọ̀rúnmìliàn “parable of Eégún” (masquerade) to establish what I designate the philosophical/therapeutic questions of Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú; and thus, argue that Èjìgbèdè Ẹ̀kú gives “presence to non-presence” so that the living/present can dialogue with the dead/past as a way of healing, re-moralizing, and/or decolonizing the living through cinematic storytelling. I conclude that Ọ̀rúnmìliàn film does not solely rekindle, and teach us, a valuable aesthetic practice of self-reflection or self-reevaluation but also decolonize and de-westernize film-philosophy

Item Type: Journal Article
Keywords: Africa, Film, Decolonization, Philosophy, Storytelling, Ọ̀rúnmìlà and Yorùbá.
SOAS Departments & Centres: Regional Centres and Institutes > Centre of African Studies
Departments and Subunits > School of Languages, Cultures & Linguistics
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics
B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religions. Mythology. Rationalism
P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania
ISSN: 10730427
Copyright Statement: This is the version of the article accepted for publication in The Journal of the Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts., 23 (2023). Re-use is subject to the publisher’s terms and conditions
DOI (Digital Object Identifier): https://doi.org/10.5840/filmphil2022111421
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2022 11:07
URI: https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/38434
Funders: Other

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