Oduduwa's Chain

Yoruba culture has been a part of the Americas for centuries, brought over by the first slaves and maintained in various forms ever since. In Oduduwa's Chain, Andrew Apter locates that culture, both spatially and analytically, and offers a Yoruba-focused perspective on rethinking African heritage in Black Atlantic Studies. Focusing on Yoruba history and culture in Nigeria, Apter applies a generative model of cultural revision that allows him to identify formative Yoruba influences without resorting to the idea that culture and tradition are fixed. Apter shows how the association of African gods with Catholic saints can be seen as strategy of empowerment, explores historical locations of Yoruba gender ideologies and their manifestation and change in the Atlantic world, and more. He concludes with a rousing call for a return to Africa in studies of the Black Atlantic, resurrecting a critical notion of culture that allows us to go beyond the mirror of Africa that the West invented.