Èṣùtumọ̀: Indigenous Hermeneutics beyond Indigeneity and Hermeneutics Or “How do you say Hermeneutics in Yorùbá?” – Oludamini Ogunnaike

It has been at the very heart of my best work and success as a scholar, and I naturally am pleased to share what has been of great value to me with my students and colleagues. Perhaps even more importantly, I firmly believe that the theory and method of Indigenous hermeneutics are also of great benefit to Africana and other communities around the globe, as they offer a highly effective way of allowing them to be understood on their own terms, which has immense implications in our highly interconnected world. I also find Indigenous hermeneutics to be fascinating because it is more a set of guiding principles rather than a particular interpretive structure itself, which means it is not best served by arguing for its validity in an abstract sense, although this may help. The best evidence for its use and effectiveness is applying it or seeing it in action, as this special edition documents. The types of insights it produces and the level of sophistication it reveals in all manner of Indigenous traditions are truly exciting and compelling, which is why I believe those in attendance enjoyed the meeting at the AAR so much, and why it is such a pleasure to have these papers collected together here.

Roundtable on Jacob Olupona’s Indigenous Hermeneutics Once of the most important contributions of Professor Jacob Olupọna’s illustrious career is his development of the method of Indigenous hermeneutics—the inclusion and even centering of the interpretive traditions of the people being studied in the scholar’s interpretive work. In this short essay, I will argue that Olupọna’s method contains radical potentials that can lead “indigenous hermeneutics” beyond both “indigeneity” and “hermeneutics.” I will briefly trace out some of the implications of this more radical position by comparing Èṣù to the figure of Hermes in Ancient Greek myth and modern Western hermeneutics, briefly comparing and contrasting Èṣù’s methods of operation with that of major figures in the tradition of Western hermeneutics.