Selah: A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader

by Bayo Akomolafe, Eden Pearlstein (Contributor)

A profound, playful, and kaleidoscopic collection from one of our most evocative contemporary philosopher-poets.

A posthumanist polymath and "trans-public" intellectual, Báyò Akómoláfé has produced a vast body of work that represents a startling picture of the world in perpetual process and radical relation. Through an ever-growing archive of books, articles, interviews, films, social media posts, workshops, and rituals, Akómoláfé seeks to interrogate the fundamental assumptions and epistemological blind spots of our current culture in crisis.

A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader presents a poetically arranged selection of Akómoláfé's short-form writings, which draw inspiration from Édouard Glissant; Gilles Deleuze; Gregory Bateson; Octavia Butler; Fernand Deligny; Chinua Achebe; the adventures of Èsù, the Yoruba monster-trickster and crossroads figure; and more. A tightly curated composition of aphorisms, anti-epiphanies, prose poems, and philosophical fragments, Selah invites readers into the thicket of Akómoláfé's thought, weaving together threads of his most critically creative concepts—such as ontofugitivity, the Afrocene, ecocognitive assemblage theory, white syncopation theory, parapolitics, and postactivism. This is a book that can be read in an hour or studied for years, kept by your bedside or passed among friends like an open secret. For those already swimming in the depths of Akómoláfé's language, as well as those encountering his dynamic body of work for the first time, Selah offers an accessible and ecstatic entry into a visionary thinker's signature thought and poetics.

Genres: Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology

122 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2026

Reviews

[shadowgirl]

this book turned my eyes upside down. i am using my fingers to have conversations with the microbiome in my gut. I am hauling my shadow along with me everywhere i go and am unafraid to offer it thanks. I remember what my broken parts taught me and I listen to their lessons when I forget. I’ll keep sensing, sensing. finding language in fruit when I (inevitably)falter and fall. even I am a part of everything, too. thank you, bayo

[Ashley]

When I began reading Selah: A Báyò Akómoláfé Reader, I was really drawn in. This philosophical book dissects our human outlook on life and how we interact with it. The author, Báyò Akómoláfé, PhD, did a fantastic job of making his vast ideas and concepts feel easy to comprehend. Throughout the book the vocabulary that he chose to use really helps you process the topics and ideas covered in this collection. I especially enjoyed the wisdom shared from his Yoruba heritage. It is truly very fascinating to see how other cultures view life and its eccentricities.

A huge thank you to Edelweiss, Báyò Akómoláfé, PhD, and Aora Books for the advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Geo Vittoratos]

It's philosophy, but poetry. Political, but otherworldly. In the body and way out in the universe. Timely and timeless.

This was a dense, thoughtful book. I, sort of, read it like a regular book, so didn't give time to truly meditate on each individual topic - which I think is worth doing. I'll be picking up a physical copy to leisurely thumb through so I can ponder more.

[Alex Berry]

“If what you know isn’t a place of contest, of struggle, then what you know is dead.”

Akómoláfé is surely among the most important thinkers, cultural investigators, and poets of our time—and yet, his recognition doesn’t come close to the immensity of what he has to offer.

[Karin Williams]

Bayo is one of the most profound thinkers of our time - his words zing in - these are accessible pieces of his work, well curated. I read it so slowly because it takes awhile to digest.

[Kuhzoo]

Interesting read. I'm pretty sure re-reading will result in new and improved understandings.

[Ernie]

Akomolafe is the most innovative philosopher that I have ever read.

[Jay]

What a book. Dripping with style and voice. Full of thought provoking aphoristic lines. Love Akomolafe's work.