Iwa

lEwa

The Intersection of Aesthetics and Metaphysics

in

Classical Yoruba Philosophy

Organization of Ideas in Terms of Movement

from

Human Being to Being in General



Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge

 Igba Iwa, the Calabash of Existence.

The contents of the calabash embody a distillation of essential being.

The outer form demonstrates symmetry of various components composed by the harmonious
intricacy of abstract and figural forms in rhythm with a rich sonority of colour
and balance of two halves realising a holistic spherical unity.

This conjunction of inner and outer, and of multiplicity in unity in external form, constitutes a union
of elements projecting the aesthetic form that is the totality of being.



Iwa lEwa
Character is beauty

Iwa lEwa
Inner self is beauty

Iwa lEwa
Inward configuration is beauty

Iwa lEwa
Interior configuration is beauty

Iwa lEwa
The interior aesthetic configuration that defines individual being

Iwa lEwa
The inner aesthetic form that constitutes the essence of individual existence

Iwa lEwa
The aesthetic form that constitutes the essence of individual being

Iwa lEwa
The inner aesthetic form that constitutes essential individual existence

Iwa lEwa
Essential nature is beauty1

Iwa lEwa
Inward beauty in manifestation

Iwa lEwa
Existence is defined by inward beauty

Iwa lEwa
The inward configuration of being is an aesthetic form

Iwa lEwa
Being is beauty



1 By Olabiyi Babalola Yai in review of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought by Henry

John Drewal; John Pemberton; Rowland Abiodun; Allen Wardwell. African Arts, Vol. 25, No. 1
(Jan., 1992), 20+22+24+26+29. 22.

Iwa lEwa
The aesthetic essence manifest as being

Iwa lEwa
The aesthetic essence of being

Iwa lEwa
Being in its aesthetic essence

Iwa lEwa
Being in its aesthetic configuration

Iwa lEwa
The consummation of existence in beauty

Iwa lEwa
The aesthetic configuration constituted by the essence of being

Iwa lEwa
Existence in its intrinsic aesthetic potency

Iwa lEwa
The beauty of existence is its essence


Iwa lEwa
The configuration of beauty that is the essence of being

Iwa lEwa
The inward aesthetic form that defines existence


Inspirational Texts

Rowland Abiodun, The Future of African Art Studies : An African Perspective,
African Art Studies: The Sate of the Discipline. Washington: The Smithsonian,
1987.63-89.

Babatunde Lawal, Divinity, Creativity and Humanity in Yoruba Aesthetics,
Before Pangaea: New Essays in Transcultural Aesthetics. Edited by Eugenio
Benitez. Volume 15, Number 1 Special Issue 2005. 161-174.
Olabiyi Babalola Yai, Review of Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought
by Henry John Drewal; John Pemberton; Rowland Abiodun; Allen Wardwell.
African Arts, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), 20+22+24+26+29.
Henry John Drewal; John Pemberton; Rowland Abiodun; Allen Wardwell, Yoruba:
Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. New York: The Centre for African
Art.1989.42.
Wande Abimbola, Iwapele : The Concept of Good Character in Ifa Literary
Corpus, Yoruba Oral Tradition. ed. by Wande Abimbola. Ile Ife: University of Ife,
1975. 389-420.