Difference between revisions of "Yoruba identity in Nigeria"

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Colonial formation of local ethnicity:  the case of the Yoruba
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'''Colonial formation of local ethnicity:  the case of the Yoruba in Nigeria'''
  
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[[Image:250px-LocationNigeria.svg.png]]
  
Waterman:
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----
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''Some observations:''
  
"It appears that a
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* Pattern:  social internalization of external social grouping imposed by more powerful culture, absorbed as a hegemonic internalized structure.
good number of the societies represented in authoritative books about
 
Africa...are
 
at least in part the products of colonialism, which had to create its objects
 
in order to control its subjects.'"
 
  
There were no Yoruba-that is, no one who would have said "I am
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* 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.
Yoruba"-before the early 19th century. As one writer has perhaps overzealously
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phrased the matter, "the word 'Yoruba' was nothing short of pure
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* When the "outside" is powerful (i.e. colonialism, imperialism), the outside--vested in special interests--becomes the hegemonic insider perspective, though not without resistance.
Greek to no less than 99% of the people now called Yorubas, when they
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first heard it being used for them as a common name".
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* Such homogenization is a useful tool for governance, colonial or otherwise, and its use often occurs within positions of power.
The peoples of southwestern Nigeria, the Benin Republic, and Togo who
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are today referred to by scholars as "the Yoruba" were, until the late 19th
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* 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.
century, organized into a series of some 15 to 20 independent polities,
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linked by shifting patterns of allegiance and competition....
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----
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[[Formation of Yoruba identity]]
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[[Yoruba  neo-traditional popular music]]
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[[The role of neo-traditional Yoruba music]]

Latest revision as of 15:04, 25 September 2007

Colonial formation of local ethnicity: the case of the Yoruba in Nigeria

250px-LocationNigeria.svg.png


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.


Formation of Yoruba identity

Yoruba neo-traditional popular music

The role of neo-traditional Yoruba music