Robert Farris Thompson was an American art historian and writer who specialized in Africa and the Afro-Atlantic world. He was a member of the faculty at Yale University from 1965 to his retirement more than fifty years later and served as the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art. Thompson coined the term "black Atlantic" in his 1983 book Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy – the expanded subject of Paul Gilroy's book The Black Atlantic.
Chief Ògúnwán̄dé "Wán̄dé" Abím̄bọ́lá is a Nigerian academician, a professor of Yoruba language and literature, and a former vice-chancellor of the University of Ife. He has also served as the Majority Leader of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Chief Abimbola was installed as Àwísẹ Awo Àgbàyé in 1981 by the Ooni of Ife on the recommendation of a conclave of Babalawos of Yorubaland.
Marilyn Jensen Houlberg was a professor, art historian, anthropologist, photographer, and curator. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Houlberg traveled extensively, conducting art historical and anthropological research in countries across the Caribbean and western Africa. She is known for curating exhibitions based on the religious icons and visual practices of Haitian Vodou and her anthropological research on the culture of the Yoruba people in southwestern Nigeria. Her photography archives and visual art collections are housed in various institutions throughout the United States. She was Professor Emeritus of Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she taught for over twenty years.
Christopher Uchefuna Okeke, also known as Uche Okeke, was an illustrator, painter, sculptor, and teacher. He was an art and aesthetic theorist, seminal to Nigerian modernism.
In the Yoruba tradition, Erinlẹ was a great hunter who became an orisha.
Jacob Kehinde Olupona is a Nigerian-born American professor, writer, and scholar of religious studies. He is a professor of African Religious Traditions at the Harvard Divinity School with a joint appointment as Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. Olupona was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 2023.
The Yoruba of West Africa are responsible for a distinct artistic tradition in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today.
Manny Vega is an American painter, illustrator, printmaker, muralist, mosaicist, and set and costume designer. His work portrays the history and traditions of the African Diaspora that exist in the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
Sonya Clark is an American artist of Afro-Caribbean heritage. Clark is a fiber artist known for using a variety of materials including human hair and combs to address race, culture, class, and history. Her beaded headdress assemblages and braided wig series of the late 1990s, which received critical acclaim, evoked African traditions of personal adornment and moved these common forms into the realm of personal and political expression. Although African art and her Caribbean background are important influences, Clark also builds on practices of assemblage and accumulation used by artists such as Betye Saar and David Hammons.
Chika Okeke-Agulu is a Nigerian artist, art historian, art curator, and blogger specializing in African and African diaspora art history. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
Agere ifa is a holding receptacle, vessel or container for keeping and raising the sacred palm nuts or ikin used in Yoruba divination. Most Agere are made from a medium of wood, but also ivory and coconut shells.
Yoruba herbalists and priests enlist the aid of Osanyin, the spirit of herbal medicines, or Opa Erinle, in their work against mental and physical illness caused by malevolent forces and individuals. The Yoruba believe the power of Osanyin is vested in a wrought iron staff, called an Osanyin staff, that is placed on altars to this Orisha.
William Buller Fagg was a British curator and anthropologist. He was the Keeper of the Department of Ethnography at the British Museum (1969–1974), and pioneering historian of Yoruba and Nigerian art, with a particular focus on the art of Benin.
Jefferson Pinder is an African-American performance artist whose work provokes commentary about race and struggle.
Emmanuel Olakunle Filani is a Nigerian educator and artist. His works are closely identified with the school of thought named Onaism, an art movement that is based on the fusion of the designs, ornamentation and motifs found in traditional Yoruba carvings and textiles with modern art pieces such as drawings and paintings. Filani is also a lecturer and an administrator – he was a provost of the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta.
Olukere of Odo Oja (Ìkere-Èkìtì) is a traditional ruler of the Ekiti town of Odo Oja, Ikere Ekiti in Nigeria, one of the largest towns in Ekiti-State. The Olukere dynasty go back to hundreds of years, and the title predates that of the highest ranking ruler of Ikere, the Ogoga. Due to the fact that the oral tradition was recently transcribed, there are many stories that contradict each other. Many monarchs has been crowned as Olukere, but no official list since they were not listed during funeral or installation ceremonies. The present Olukere is His Royal Highness Oba Obasoyin Ayodele Ganiyu, the Okomolese II, which major stories points him the 30th, Olukere of Ikere. While the Olukere claims to be the ruler of Ikere, the town recognize the Ogoga as the traditional King of Ikere. The Olukere was recently given official recognition by the government as a traditional ruler of Ikere as well.
Tunde Odunlade, born 26 November 1954, is a Nigerian artist, actor, and musician known for his Batik art tapestry and designs. He specialises in textile arts, and floatography. He is a member of the Visual Artists Network of the United States of America (VAN) and a frequent participant at the National Conference of Artists, New York. He was a performing actor with the Nigeria Cultural Troupe during Festac. He lives in Ibadan, the southern western part of Nigeria.
Debbie Klein is an American anthropologist and social justice advocate. She is a professor in the Anthropology Department at Gavilan College. Since 1990, Klein has been conducting extensive collaborative research in Nigeria with Yorùbá performing artists. Recognizing Klein's decades of collaborative written and video documentation of Yorùbá culture, the town of Èrìn-Òșùn, Nigeria bestowed an honorary chieftaincy title, Iyalode of Èrìn-Òșùn, upon Klein alongside her long-term mentor and collaborator, Chief Làmídì Àyánkúnlé. Throughout her career, Klein has advocated at local, state, national, and international levels for increased investment in public education as a means to achieve social and economic justice.
Chief Muraina Oyelami is a Nigerian painter and drummer of Yoruba descent. He was among the first generation of artists to come out of the Osogbo School of Art in the 1960s. He was a drummer and actor with the theatre company of Duro Ladipo. He taught traditional music and dance at Obafemi Awolowo University from 1976 to 1987. As a musician, he trained in the dùndún and the Batá drum. He was the chief of his hometown Iragbiji.
The Ibadan National Museum of Unity is an ethnographic museum in Ibadan, Nigeria. The museum is dedicated to the culture of the different ethnic groups of Nigeria.
