“In the quest to promote ‘universal knowledge’ and create Western institutions in Africa, the intellectual contributions of Africans without university certificates or connections to the academy have been maligned, ignored or slighted. Yet, as Toyin Falola’s book points out, there are African scholars and thinkers without academic credentials doing important works. Here is a book that shows that intellectual contributions need not be divorced from the concerns of local communities or deliberately promote narrative inequality and distance.The primary focus of the book is about the intellectual production of the prominent Yoruba intelligentsia outside of the academy. The academic mode has often privileged itself at the expense of other sites of production and voices. In this book, Toyin Falola analyzes the broad themes of the chroniclers who wrote in Yoruba and English and the contribution of the gurus among them. In addition, he presents a few selected texts to elaborate general and specific points.” - back cover