Dr. Funmilola Olunlade, PhD Yoruba Cultural Strategist, West Africa

Dr. Funmilola Olunlade has been involved in the teaching and propagation of Yoruba Language and culture as early as her teen years. Born into the prestigious lineage of internationally renowned Yoruba indigenous woodcarver, Lamidi Fakeye, Dr. Olunlade has family values rooted in amplifying and celebrating the value of Yoruba culture with her native and global citizens.  

Dr. Olunlade’s love for preserving, protecting, and advancing scholarship of Yoruba Language and culture motivated her to pursue a BA in Yoruba language and Literature from the Obafemi Awolowo University, in Ife city. Ife city is the historical place of origin of the Yoruba people, where Yoruba cultural practices are at the highest of potency. Dr. Olunlade later pursued a master’s degree and PhD in Yoruba Literature, at Nigeria’s own Ivy League university, the University of Ibadan (UI).  Dr. Olunlade’s knowledge of Yoruba language and culture cuts across the three major genres of the Yoruba literature: prose, poetry and drama.

For more than two decades, Dr. Olunlade has imparted knowledge of Yoruba language by teaching oral proficiency skills to the speakers and non-speakers of the language in different areas of study. She spent three years as Resident Director and Academic Coordinator for the national Yoruba Language Training program of the American Council for International Education, hosted by UI. These programs attracted non-Black students from the United States to enhance the Yoruba language training they had commenced in America with the immersive Yoruba language and cultural exposure that Dr. Olunlade designed for them. The scholars of those programs went on to be global YouTube sensations in their time and include: Kevin Barry (Yoruba name: Kayode), and Caroline Harshman (Yoruba name: Titilayo). These scholars reflect Dr. Olunlade’s talents in inspiring excitement, interest, enthusiasm and wonder for exploring Yoruba culture, language, intelligence and wisdom in Africans and friends of Africa.