Asuwada Epistemology and Globalised Sociology: Challenges of the South

Abstract

Professor Akiwowo propounded the Asuwada Theory of Sociation in the 1980s as a contextual episteme to explain African social experience. The theory particularly attempts an indigenous postulation to social interactions among Africans in general and the Yoruba in particular. Its concepts attempt to emphasise contextual values of social beings who would contribute to social survival and community integration and development. This theory postulates that among Africans in general and the Yoruba in particular, the need to associate or co-exist by internalising and rightly exhibiting socially approved values of community survival and development, is integral to local social structure, as failure to co-exist potentially endangers the community. A deviant who defaults in sociating values is deemed a bad person ( omoburuku), while the one who sociates is the good person ( omoluabi). This theoretical postulation contrasts western social science theories (especially sociological Structuralist (macro) and Social Action (micro) theories), which rather emphasise rationality and individualism (at varied levels depending on the theory). Western social science ethnocentrically depicts African communal and kin ways of life as primitive and antithetical to development. Western social science theories have remained dominant and hegemonic over the years while Akiwowo’s theory is largely unpopular even in Nigerian social science curricula in spite of its potential for providing contextual interpretations for indigenous ways of life that are still very much extant despite dominant western modernity. This article examines the Asuwada Theory within the context of globalised social sciences and the complicated and multifaceted glocal challenges confronting the adoption of the Akiwowo’s epistemic intervention.

Internationalisation and migrant academics: the hidden narratives of mobility

“…Claiming epistemic authority as a member of a marginalised group, and indigenising humanities and the social sciences, as the above academic explained, disrupts knowledge hierarchies and hegemonies (Omobowale and Akanle 2017). One of our Roma participants discussed the absence of scholarship on Roma by Roma, and how she felt disqualified, even in the field Romani Studies.…”

Oju and Inu: Solidarity in the Informal Market Space in Ibadan, Nigeria

“…The Asuwada theory rejects the individualistic notions of most Western Universalist theories (Akiwowo, 1986a, 1986b; A. O. Omobowale & Akanle, 2017).…”

“…The Asuwada theory situates the existential essence of the individual in the value for the common good, while the social group to which an individual belongs to must also accentuate his or her good. The theory prescribes association as the whole essence of human existence, which is used to achieve human survival, progress, and development (Akiwowo, 1986b; Burawoy, 2011; A. O. Omobowale & Akanle, 2017; Onyeonoru, 2010; Payne, 1992).…”

“…An individual who exhibits normative character for associational unity assumes the status of an omoluabi (a noble or a responsible person of inestimable value) irrespective of his or her class or socioeconomic pedigree (Akiwowo, 1986b; A. O. Omobowale, 2008, 2010; A. O. Omobowale & Akanle, 2017).…”

“…The second is to contextualize Oju and Inu solidarity in Ibadan urban markets, and the third objective is to examine solidarity in a competitive space among traders in Ibadan urban markets. This article also analyzes the oju and inu values using Akiwowo’s (1986a) Asuwada theory of sociation, which explains solidarity normative relations among the indigenous African population (A. O. Omobowale & Akanle, 2017).…”