By Adeboye Ado
A Professor of African Traditional Religion and Cultural Studies at Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Adetunbi Ogunleye, has warned that Africa’s growing detachment from its cultural roots is fuelling moral decline, weakening social values and eroding the continent’s identity.
Delivering the institution’s 49th Inaugural Lecture titled “Resting in Peace? The Dilemma of the Living Dead,” Ogunleye lamented that modernity, Western education, and foreign religions have collectively dislodged traditional African values that once shaped character, discipline, and community harmony.
According to him, the abandonment of key cultural practices, such as traditional marriage rites, naming ceremonies, and burial customs, has stripped African societies, particularly among the Yoruba, of their moral fabric and communal spirit.
He expressed concern that many African parents now prefer foreign names for their children, describing the trend as a reflection of cultural inferiority and identity loss.
“Names in African tradition carry moral and spiritual weight,” he said. “When that connection is lost, identity becomes shallow and moral consciousness fades.”
Ogunleye noted that Western influence has not only diluted African values but has also normalised practices such as cohabitation and same-sex relationships, which he described as alien to Yoruba culture and damaging to family stability.
“In Yoruba cosmology,” he explained, “sexuality is viewed as sacred and purposeful, a divine bond between male and female that sustains both lineage and morality. Anything outside that threatens the moral foundation of society.”
He linked the rise in moral decadence from indecent dressing and promiscuity to disregard for communal ethics to the breakdown of cultural systems that once guided behaviour and social responsibility.
The don also criticised the modern approach to burials, saying it has disrupted the spiritual relationship between the living and their ancestors. He argued that the neglect of ancestral rites has contributed to the perceived loss of ancestral protection and the rise in moral confusion.
Ogunleye warned that unless Africans reclaim their cultural consciousness, the continent risks losing its moral compass completely. “Our crisis is not economic or political at its core, it is moral and cultural,” he declared.
He, therefore, called for the reintroduction of cultural education at all levels, deeper academic research into indigenous traditions, and a balanced model that preserves Africa’s heritage while adapting to modern realities.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of Adekunle Ajasin University, Professor Olugbenga Ige, who chaired the lecture, commended Ogunleye for his scholarly insight, describing the presentation as a timely intervention in the ongoing discourse on identity, morality, and cultural preservation.
Ige noted that the university’s inaugural lectures remain a platform for professors to share their intellectual contributions to national development and cultural enlightenment.