Sylvester Odio Akhaine reviews Omoluwabi 2.0:
A definition:In Omoluwabi 2.0, Adewale Ajadi lays out a new way of organising and transforming, organisations, countries and continents, based on the Yoruba principle of Omoluwabi, updated for the 21st century.
There are not many original thinkers who dare to explore new territories with creative mental tools and attentiveness to details and still come up with a reader friendly book. Adewale Ajadis book comes with freshness. Omoluwabi 2.0 is long overdue and it should fill the knowledge gap created by an apparent lack of codification and wide dissemination of imo ijinle (deep knowledge) Kole Odutola: Lecturer at the University of Florida, Author of Diaspora and Imagined Nationality
There have been ideas about two publics, the formal and informal worlds in Africa and their contradictory dynamics. Other have framed it as disorder but no one has pointed the way. As it was we were doomed to engineered solutions.
Omoluwabi 2.0 comes with a torrent of meaning-making systems in a stream of post modern solutions to the challenges of the 21st century inspired by an abiding creativity in Africa's complexity and history.
Omoluwabi is an ancient paradigm for navigating and thriving in a society where the primary currency is relationships. Omoluwabi in literal explanation is The child of the Lord of Character (Omo ti Olu Iwa bi). Character for the Yoruba is the vehicle of human essence: habits, outlook, inclinations and therefore destiny. Omoluwabi is about the evolution of that character to meet the challenges in the pursuit of life purpose. In the 19th Century Warrior Republic of Ibadan it defined your standing within the Ebi system and define your value either as Ologun (Lord of War) or as Omogun ( Child of War). Not unlike the Samurai in the Japanese Shogunate. You were defined by the quality of your character. The essence has been adapted for the 21st Century into an equation and framework for individuals, organisations and society - Character + Choices = Destiny.