65 / 5,000 Translation results The Yoruba print culture: networks and modernities, 1852- present (YORUBAPRINT)

The print culture that Europe introduced to the world allowed other cultures to show their own modernity. Yoruba people use the words "olaju" (opening of the eye) and "ilosiwaju" (progress) to describe ideas around modernity. Both words were already in use before the advent of the printing press in Africa, so the idea of modernity for the Yoruba people did not arise from the project of colonial modernity. No research has yet been done on how networks of people with shared and sometimes divergent interests in journalism and literature through the printing press managed to change the course of Yoruba and Nigerian history. This project fills this research gap by looking at more than 150 years of print culture in the Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria and its intercultural connections. It is important because of the articulation of the relationship between transcontinental print networks (e.g. between Lagos and London) and local production contexts. It aims to uncover a robust history of West African engagement in modernity and the project can be a starting point for articulating Nigerian literary history. In collaboration with local researchers and archivists, it will probably examine the largest collection of rare samples ever created by researchers working on print cultures in Nigeria. The methodologies include network analysis, cultural criticism, media studies, and political theory from a postcolonial perspective. As these methodologies will provide data and literary theories — and display them on various platforms, including social media and blogs — the final results will allow researchers and students from around the world to see the role yoruba print culture played in the World Republic of Letters. And since parts of the research material are precarious and threatened, the final result will help to preserve knowledge about the modern history of Yoruba, which is currently in danger of being lost forever.