Qualla: Oyotunji https://qualla.com/oyotunji en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Oyotunji https://qualla.com/oyotunji Oyotunji: Introduction https://qualla.com/oyotunji/ The name means "Oyo rises again." Drive down a two-lane road outside Sheldon, South Carolina, past live oaks and Baptist churches, and you will find something that should not be here by any conventional logic: a West African village, complete with Yoruba temples, a royal palace, and a king. Oyotunji African Kingdom has stood in the Beaufort County woods since 1970, founded not by immigrants from Nigeria but by African Americans determined to reclaim the culture that slavery had stolen from their ancestors.

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/y/9/oyotunji-wp/djy9-oyotunji-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Oyotunji: From Harlem to the Lowcountry https://qualla.com/oyotunji/ The story begins in New York. In 1959, a man named Walter Eugene King traveled to Cuba and became the first African American initiated into the Orisha priesthood. He took the name Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi and returned to Harlem, where he established the Yoruba Temple i...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/y/9/oyotunji-wp/djy9-oyotunji-from-harlem-to-the-lowcountry.mp3 0:06 2 full Oyotunji: A Kingdom Takes Root https://qualla.com/oyotunji/ The village was constructed to mirror the traditional Yoruba city-states of what is now southwestern Nigeria. It took its name from the Oyo Empire, one of the most powerful kingdoms in West African history, which flourished from the 1300s through the early 1800s. During the 1970s...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/y/9/oyotunji-wp/djy9-oyotunji-a-kingdom-takes-root.mp3 0:06 3 full Oyotunji: Succession and Tragedy https://qualla.com/oyotunji/ Oba Adefunmi I died in 2005 after thirty-five years on the throne. His son, Adejuyigbe Adefunmi II, succeeded him and set about modernizing the village's infrastructure while preserving its cultural mission. The younger Adefunmi updated public works and continued welcoming visito...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/y/9/oyotunji-wp/djy9-oyotunji-succession-and-tragedy.mp3 0:06 4 full Oyotunji: What Oyo Built in Carolina https://qualla.com/oyotunji/ Oyotunji exists at a remarkable intersection of history and intention. It sits in the Lowcountry, the same region where enslaved Africans -- many of them Yoruba -- were brought ashore at ports like Charleston and Beaufort. The village's founders chose this land not by accident bu...

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]]> Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/j/y/9/oyotunji-wp/djy9-oyotunji-what-oyo-built-in-carolina.mp3 0:06 5 full