{"id":225,"date":"2019-02-20T16:12:23","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T21:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/?p=225"},"modified":"2019-02-20T16:20:26","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T21:20:26","slug":"the-kingdom-of-oyotunji-african-village-sheldon-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/2019\/02\/the-kingdom-of-oyotunji-african-village-sheldon-south-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"The Kingdom of Oyotunji African Village"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Oyotunji Village was founded in Sheldon, South Carolina in 1970 and it is still running today. According to the village\u2019s website, it is \u201cNorth America\u2019s Oldest Authentic African Village\u201d and the slogan is \u201cThe Freedom You Can Feel\u201d (\u201cOyotunji\u201d). The mission of this group is \u201cto remain a crucible for the study of African culture, and we want to research and restore our culture\u201d (SouthCarolinaETV). The residents are interested in preserving African heritage, and they are particularly focused on the Yoruba and Dahomey cultures, which are traditionally from West Africa. The Oyotunji Village is very interested in sharing their culture with people, and they offer tours, provide educational opportunities, and host festivals that outsiders are welcome to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A noteworthy member was Ofuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi and he was the founder and first king, or \u201coba,\u201d of the Oyotunji Village. Oba Adefunmi was known for his desire to educate people and to create buildings and monuments that resemble ones found in the homeland.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This community resembles other communes we\u2019ve read about in that they\u00a0had a desire to go\u00a0back-to-the-land and wanted to preserve old values. In addition, they want to get away from mainstream society. This particular commune is noteworthy because its residents are black and their goal is to highlight their history and culture rather than get away from it. More information can be found at\u00a0https:\/\/www.oyotunji.org\/<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dbb4SeX6f-g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-250\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-buildings-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Oyotunji buildings\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-buildings-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-buildings-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-buildings-650x488.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-buildings.jpg 1066w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-251\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Throwback-300x202.jpg\" alt=\"Oyotunji Throwback\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Throwback-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Throwback-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Throwback-650x438.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Throwback.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-239\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Village-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Oyotunji Village\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Village-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Village-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Village-650x488.jpg 650w, https:\/\/cdn-dev.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my-dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3073\/2019\/02\/Oyotunji-Village.jpg 1066w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOba Oseijeman Bio.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oyotunji<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, www.oyotunji.org\/oba-oseijeman-bio.html.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cOyotunji.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oyotunji<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, www.oyotunji.org\/.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SouthCarolinaETV. \u201cOyotunji African Village.\u201d <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">YouTube<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, YouTube, 10 Aug. 2012, www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Dbb4SeX6f-g.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Oyotunji Village was founded in Sheldon, South Carolina in 1970 and it is still running today. According to the village\u2019s website, it is \u201cNorth America\u2019s Oldest Authentic African Village\u201d and the slogan is \u201cThe Freedom You Can Feel\u201d (\u201cOyotunji\u201d). The mission of this group is \u201cto remain a crucible for the study of African&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/americandream\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}