Yoruba Identity and Power Politics

"Yoruba Identity and Power Politics" covers the major issues on Yoruba history and politics, thus offering a solid understanding of one of the most popular ethnic groups in Africa. With a careful blend of sources and methods, narratives on the past and present, the book manages to present a long history as the backdrop to complicated contemporary politics. The contributors include: Tunde M. Akinwumi, Olufunke A. Adeboye, R. T. Akinyele, Aribidesi Usman, Tunde Oduwobi, Olufemi Vaughan, Abolade Adeniji, Jean-Luc Martineau, Ann O'hear, Rasheed Olaniyi, Charles Temitope Adeyanju, Julius O. Adekunle, Funso Afolayan, and Olayiwola Abegunrin. Toyin Falola is the Francis Nalle Higgenbothom Centennial Professor of History and Distinuished Teaching at the University of Texas at Austin; Ann Genova is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas at Austin.

ISBN 1580462197   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9781580462198 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 771 Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd   Published in Rochester Imprint University of Rochester Press   Series ISSN 1092-522 Format Hardback   Series title Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora Publication date 26 Jun 2006   Height (mm) 233 Library of Congress 2006002451   Width (mm) 161 DEWEY 966.900496333   Spine width (mm) 30 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Professional / Scholarly Pages 384

1		The Yoruba nation by Toyin Falola		29
2		Oral tradition and the reconstruction of Yoruba dress by Tunde M. Akinwumi		49
3		Diaries as cultural and intellectual histories by Olufunke A. Adeboye		74
4		Historiography of western Yoruba borderlands by R. T. Akinyele		96
5		The history of the Okun Yoruba : research directions by Ann O'Hear		111
6		Ila kingdom revisited : recent archaeological research at Ila-Yara by Aribidesi Usman		127
7		Early Ijebu history : an analysis on demographic evolution and state formation by Tunde Oduwobi		145
8		Power, status, and influence of Yoruba chiefs in historical perspective by Toyin Falola		161
9		Chieftaincy structures, communal identity, and decolonization in Yorubaland by Olufemi Vaughan		177
10		Odogbolu chieftaincy dispute in historical perspective by Abolade Adeniji		192
11		Yoruba nationalism and the reshaping of Obaship by Jean-Luc Martineau		205
12		Approaching the study of the Yoruba diaspora in northern Nigeria by Rasheed Olaniyi		231
13		Yoruba-Nigerians in Toronto : transnational practices and experiences by Charles Temilope Adeyanju		251
14		Yoruba factor in Nigerian politics by Julius O. Adekunle		273
15		Politics, ethnicity, and the struggle for autonomy and democracy by Funso Afolayan		297
16		Petroleum and ethno-politics by Ann Genova		316
17		Chief M. K. O. Abiola's presidential ambitions and Yoruba democratic rights by Olayiwola Abegunrin		334

Toyin Falola and Ann Genova have done Yoruba studies an excellent service by thoughtfully bringing together a collection of essays that draws from the inspiration of previous works but avoids the pitfalls of rehashing old ideas. The result is an imaginative, refreshing, and beautiful scholarship without the pretensions of textual and theoretical jargons. We finally have that long-sought single volume that superbly captures major and diverse historical themes in Yoruba experience from the precolonial to the present in wholesome interdisciplinary frameworks. Yoruba Identity and Power Politics is a superior work in the genre, an excellent book to teach and think with on a myriad of topics relevant to contemporary Africa. --Akin Ogundiran, associate professor of history, Florida International University, Miami Yoruba Identity and Power Politics is a breath of fresh air and a critical watershed in the discourse of the ever-so-challenging and complicated web of the idea of Yorubaness. This work is indeed an assemblage of serious intellectuals of Yoruba history whose collective voice projects a cutting edge in the discourse of the socio-political dichotomy of identity and power. This is a must read for anyone who is either genuinely interested in the knowledge of the Yoruba history or truly excited about a people whose culture, history, and identity remain most enduring and most visible in the vast world of the African diaspora. --Michael O. Afolayan, PhD, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville

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