Son[i]a #237
John Mason
John Mason is a researcher, educator, editor, writer, composer, jazz musician, photographer, and Yoruba priest of Obatala, among many other things. In 1973, after graduating from City College in New York, he co-founded the Yoruba Theological Archministry, a research centre in Brooklyn dedicated to the study of Yoruba religion and culture. His many publications and research projects into the diaspora of the Yoruba people from West Africa to the Americas have made him one of the foremost authorities on the subject.
Mason opens the doors to Yoruba culture, whose system of beliefs, rituals, and transmitted knowledge was a bond of union, identity and resistance for the African population in America. In spite of the debilitating effects of slavery, Africans managed to put down roots in Haiti, Trinidad, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Baba John Mason’s studies also revolve around the philosophy of Orisha, a syncretic religion based on inclusion and recognition of difference.
SON[I]A talks to John Mason about the power of rituals and food as the impetus for resistance, identity, and memory, about the cultural transfers that take place in migratory movements, and about the history of the Yoruba people. In this podcast, Mason also defends the untold story of the role of women as inventors, and highlights the political, social and economic impact of certain spaces occupied by women, such as agriculture and education, as well pediatrics, geriatrics and affects.
Anti-racism and anti-colonial resistance from the perspective of people of African descent
We talk to Diego Falconí Travez, Lucía Piedra Galarraga and Karo Moret about slavery and love, the Caribbeanization of identities, and violence as a potential resource. They discuss affects, phobias, autophagies, and unsettling objects. And they examine the Latino world in relation to the mask of gay culture, coming out of the closet as a liberal promise, and resent(i)ment as a circular form that prevents memory from disappearing.
Anti-racism and anti-colonial resistance from the perspective of people of African descent
We talk with Lucía Piedra Galarraga, Diego Falconí Travez and Karo Moret from the Study Group on Afro/Black Ideas, Practices, and Activisms about altars, ekekos, nefandos, Saint Barbara, and Valdivia's Siamese twins. They turn their attention to the politics of hair, talk about sugar as the star product plying the Caribbean routes, and acknowledge the usefulness of ashes in proving the extermination of the ancient Andean sodomite communities.
Oyèrónké Oyèwùmi
Professor Oyèrónké Oyèwùmi examines the ways in which universalism in academia distorts our understanding of African cultures, especially in relation to race and gender. In this podcast, Professor Oyèwùmi talks about age, seniority, and respect, about unscrupulousness and academia, dispossession and spirituality. She considers the oxymoron of the notion of “single mother” from the point of view of Yoruba culture, and she also notes how observance of community practices from non-Western cultures may be a necessary step as we face the planetary challenges to come.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of the interview with John Mason that we were unable to include the first time around.