I’m Damilola Adebonojo, also known as Iya Yorùbá, a doctoral candidate of Comparative Literature and Intercultural Studies at the University of Georgia. My research focuses on Yorùbá literature, feminist translation, and the preservation of indigenous texts, especially those written by Yorùbá women before the year 2000.

YorùbáTexts began as a response to the difficulty I faced in locating basic Yorùbá texts in the course of my study and during my doctoral qualifying exams. Many of the books I needed were out of print and unavailable in Nigeria. I was only able to access them through inter-institutional book loan systems in the United States. That experience, and the realization that books written in Nigeria were being preserved primarily abroad, sparked a sense of responsibility.

This project is my way of documenting what once and still exists and preventing more from being lost. Grounded in a deep commitment to Yorùbá heritage, I see YorùbáTexts not as a personal archive, but as a collective effort.

This is my contribution to memory work as an ọmọlúàbí. And I invite you to join in it.