Ayodeji Ogunnaike is a scholar of religious traditions in and from Africa, with a particular focus on Yoruba traditions in Nigeria and Brazil. He has benefited immensely from experiencing two educational systems, receiving his PhD in African religions from Harvard and an apprenticeship with Chief Ifarinwale Ogundiran, a high priest of Ifá in Modakeke, Nigeria. His experiences in both inform his academic and more public facing work and teaching, and his experiences with the power of the oral corpus associated with Ifá inspired his forthcoming book, Yoruba Mythology (Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers 2025). Co-authored with his brother, Prof. Oludamini Ogunnaike, it is the first major anthology presenting Yoruba mythology as one of the world’s greatest and transformational literary traditions. He is keenly interested in Indigenous Yoruba ways of being as well as the comparative study and relationships between Islam, Christianity, and Indigenous African traditions on the continent and in diaspora.