Against this background, Oluwole quickly established herself as a leading figure in the budding field of African Philosophy. Between 1989 and 1996, she rolled out five books on African philosophy, Readings in African Philosophy (1989), Witchcraft, Reincarnation and the God Head (Issues in African Philosophy) (1992), Womanhood in Yoruba Traditional Thought (1993), Philosophy and Oral Tradition (1995) and Democratic Patterns and Paradigms: Nigerian Women’s Experience (1996). In 1997, focusing on the essentials of African studies and her determination to provide good reading texts to the Nigerian students, especially on African studies, Oluwole edited two volumes of the book of reading, The Essentials of African Studies. Still in 1997, Oluwole was also the editor of the classic volume on Women in the Rural Environment; a publication sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
For the sake of illustration, a review of her frequently cited works on Witchcraft, Reincarnation and the God Head and her Philosophy and Oral Tradition is in order. Though a collection of her essays and lectures from 1976 to the early 1990s, Witchcraft, Reincarnation and the God Head discusses some overlapping thematic and perennial issues in African Philosophy as well as non-African specific cum political issues. With reference to that of the culturally specific themes, Oluwole engaged herself with some questions which play an important part in everyday African life: the analysis of magic, the belief in fatalism and reincarnation, the belief in witchcraft, the belief in God, and the principles of Yoruba morality.
She emphasized that the phenomenon of witchcraft should not be approached from a rigid, scientific perspective which excludes anything that does not fit within the system. Mysteries are phenomena which are not yet understood and explained, however, this does not mean that they can never be understood; there is still the possibility of an explanation in the future (Oluwole, 1992: 19). Science should not simply ignore them or declare them not real, but should analyse and document these phenomena instead, attempting to understand how they operate. She discussed also the problem of fatalism, and the rational basis of Yoruba ethics.
The non-African specific and essays on political themes are “The Concept of a Universal God,” “Institutional Neutrality and Academic Freedom” and “Democracy or Mediocrity?” Her essay on institutional neutrality is a critical reaction to an earlier work by F.A. Adeigbo (1985) on “Neutrality Arguments and Educational Relevance’: ‘The Chess Game Analogy”. On academic freedom, she proposed that the claim of the universities for academic freedom cannot be separated from the issue of the individual neutrality of every single academic.
The core of academic freedom and intellectual integrity is simply indifferent to the results of investigations. Provided that political freedom is exercised under the umbrella of academic freedom, the engagement of political institutions is justified in Oluwole’s opinion (1992: 103). Her analysis concerning “Democracy or Mediocrity” is provocative. Democracy is based on universal suffrage and eligibility, but, whilst the right to vote as a basic political right is beyond question, universal eligibility is a little more problematic. Humans are different in both qualities and abilities; consequently, not all human beings are equally qualified to exercise power. Thus, the problem of modern democratic societies is their neglect of the “specification of the qualities which justify the appointment of a member of the state to hold the reins of government, to stand in for the demos, to organize, plan, administer and regulate the entire society of a people who entrust their rights to run their lives the way he deems best” (Oluwole, 1992: 120). Her last essay in the volume, “Africans and the morality of Nuclear War” is an African perspective and consideration of a universal and non-cultural specific ethical issue, that of nuclear weaponry and war. Her argument is that “if the cry against Nuclear war must be presented by philosophers on the platform of morality, then we must start on an axiom that condemns all wars- conventional or nuclear” (Oluwole, 1992: 137-138).
Using extant sources of oral tradition, Oluwole employed heuristic criticism to controvert what was then an established cliché among scholars: that oral traditions such as proverbs are folk or pseudo Philosophy. Instead, she established that some oral texts qualify as Philosophy and that what makes them Philosophy is not the analysis per se done on them by a professional philosopher (which is the popular belief in some quarters), rather, what qualifies them as Philosophy is inherent in them. Thus, Oluwole concluded that contrary to the widely accepted thesis of Wiredu, Hountondji and others (to the effect that “a student who wishes to know the Philosophy of a Western philosopher goes directly to such a person or to his/her work and not to poor peasants or fetish priests” (Wiredu, 1980: )), “the babalawo and the priests who are custodians of oral traditions are philosophers because they can criticize and interpret both old and new principles of ideas”.
But besides the cultural and historiographical significance of her study on ancient Yoruba philosophy as well as the scientific import of her thesis on witchcraft, the future philosophical implications of Oluwole’s new and daring thesis on Socrates and Orunmila as two patron saints of classical philosophies with great affinities at the level of ideas and history (Oluwole, 2007) is scholarly inviting. Those looking towards and indeed espousing Greek philosophy as the sole model and foundation of Western philosophy to the denigration or outright denial of ancient African thinkers are urged to begin to seriously rethink the cogency of their positions by archeologically researching into traditional African oral sources for latent discoveries of classical African philosophers.
Another aspect of the Yoruba philosophy that intrigued Oluwole is the Ifa corpus, which is the storing house of Yoruba knowledge. Her foray into the philosophical basis of Ifa, which had hitherto been conceived purely as a divination system, began with her discussion of “African Philosophy as illustrated in Ifa Corpus” (1996). On the basis of the evidence from two verses from Ifa corpus – Oyeku meji and Oworin meji, she demonstrated how some ancient African literary pieces qualify as specimens of strict philosophy.
In a related development, Oluwole has a number of works that define her scholarship in proverb as philosophical studies. In her paper, “Science in Yoruba Oral Tradition” (2007) and “Proverbs as Expressions of African Philosophy” (2010), Oluwole engaged in a heuristic analysis of proverbs to show that ancient African thinkers were rational, scientific and philosophical in the strict sense of the usages of the term, science and Philosophy.
Her truly remarkable professional career and achievements reveal her enviable contributions to the enterprise of philosophizing in Africa. An incredible scholar by all standards, Oluwole was one of the most prominent Nigerian philosophers in the world. The breadth and the depth of her scholarship are not only impressive but also widely acknowledged. In this regard, she wa a recipient of many awards and honours from institutions in Africa and beyond. She received the prize of Bundesstudentenring, West Germany 1965-1967, University of Lagos Postgraduate scholarship award 1971-1972; she was the first recipient of Jean Harris award for outstanding contribution to the progress and development of women in society by Rotary International in 1997; Emotan award for women achievers, 2001. It is not an overemphasis that she has contributed relentlessly to the course of women, and humanity in general.
She authored books on some extant issues in African Philosophy. Being the first female professor of African philosophy in Nigeria, the Philosopher-Queen is a household name in the enterprise of Philosophy in Nigeria. With seven books (both authored and edited), nine book chapters, sixteen journal articles and some book reviews to her name, Oluwole is wizardly in Yoruba language. Not many Nigerian scholars of our time can lay claim to such contributions to scholarship of the first order. Oluwole’s scholarly productivity is phenomenal, especially when viewed from the Nigerian academic environment which is frustrating enough to academic proclivities because of lack of enabling facilities. Being a philosopher is her profession; writing, publishing and speaking at invited public gatherings are her passions; and living up to what she preaches is a habit.