CELEBRATING IFÁ WISDOM
The Oduduwa Europe Research Centre is headed by the notable Adéṣínà Síkírù Sàlámì - Bàbá King, Ph.D., who conducts fieldwork primarily in Nigeria and other countries of Yorubaland and its diaspora.
As an international centre for documentation and research on Yoruba culture, our primary focus is to support data collection and research projects as well as courses, conferences and exhibitions. In particular, we maintain academic relationships and networks with the Centre of Yoruba Traditional Culture Nigeria.
Our centre’s programme focuses primarily on Yoruba social and religious practices as well as on Yoruba art and oral tradition. Within the latter, a great emphasis is laid on translation projects.
Professor Maja Mesesnel is the head researcher at the Oduduwa Europe and the person responsible for coordination within the stated fields and themes.
The Oduduwa Europe Archive collaborates closely with our Research Centre with the core focus on acquisition, cataloguing and storage of primary documents. Our archive is focused mainly on Yoruba oral literature and predominantly includes unpublished texts and images as well as rare audio and visual materials.
Our archival collections serve as primary source material and include a collection of authentic odù Ifá, the most prestigious genre of Yoruba orality, as well as priceless corpuses of iba, oríkì, orin, àdúrà and ọfọ̀ with added commentaries.
Our archive regularly acquires new archival material, with the exception of the material stored at our partner organization in Abéòkúta – the Centre of Yoruba Traditional Culture Nigeria, headed by the notable Adéṣínà Síkírù Sàlámì - Bàbá King, Ph.D.
The Oduduwa Europe Educational Centre is the largest centre of expertise on Yoruba social and religious practices in Europe.
Our internationally oriented centre operates in partnership with the Yoruba Traditional Culture Nigeria and African Cultural Centre Slovenia. It runs a programme with the initiative to promote courses on the Yoruba language and culture, with particular focus on Yoruba traditional religious practices, including liturgical music.
Our Educational Centre offers lectures, seminars, presentations and workshops, and creates space for the meeting of scholars and devotees of religions of the Yoruba matrix. Our educational centre’s head lecturer is the internationally renowned professor and notable scholar on the Yoruba, babalorisha Adéṣínà Síkírù Sàlámì - Bàbá King, Ph.D., the author of several reference works on the Yoruba.
