Yoruba identity in Nigeria
Colonial formation of local ethnicity: the case of the Yoruba in Nigeria
Some observations:
Pattern: social internalization of external social grouping imposed by more powerful culture, absorbed as a hegemonic internalized structure.
Constructions of ethnicity, implying a degree of homogeneity, often result from an outsider perspective, since the "homogeneity" of an "ethnic group" is only "visible" from the outside.
When the "outside" is powerful (i.e. colonialism, imperialism), the outside--vested in special interests--becomes the hegemonic insider perspective, though not without resistance.
Such homogenization is a useful tool for governance, colonial or otherwise, and its use often occurs within positions of power.
Thus the operation of "othering", when carried out from a position of superior power, may become a primary source of identity. Yet such identities, once internalized, can also be revised to serve new ends, e.g. transformed into a tool of colonial resistance.