The Soul Of Kalabari Culture: Essays On Language And Reality

This fascinating short book probes the connection between language and reality in Kalabari society (Niger Delta, Nigeria). It is an assemblage of practices, ideas, philosophies, and interpretations of reality, whose tangled roots burrow deep into the soul of Kalabari culture. Wariboko focuses on sayings or words and plumbs them for their deep meanings, for the light they can shed on philosophical ideas or debates, and the revelations they offer on how the Kalabari people engage reality with their language. This book demonstrates that the Kalabari spirit is a way of being that is radically open to creativity and surprises, always at work resisting obstacles to human flourishing, and committed to creating, broadening, and deepening new possibilities of life. Through its analysis of Kalabari words, this book presents the Kalabari language as a way of life. The language is philosophy, and philosophy is language.