Bo o k Re v i e w

A History of the . By S. Adebanji Akintoye. Amalion Publishing, Dakar, 2010, xii + 498 pp. ISBN 978-235926-005-2 (Hardback). US$ 50.00.

In 1897, the patriarch of modern Yoruba historiography, The objective of the author — to write a book Reverend Samuel Johnson wrote the following words that is accessible to general readers and the academic in the preface of his book (completed and edited by his scholars — is complicated, as he recognizes, by the brother, Obadiah Johnson), The History of the Yorubas fact that the subject of Yoruba history “is large and (1921): continually growing” with “many unresolved issues of fact and interpretation” (vii). The Yoruba not only “The histories of all nations present many phases have, arguably, the largest cultural-ethnic group in and divers[e] features, which are brought out by vari- West Africa with far more ancestral polities/states and ous writers in the lines in which each is interested; the towns/cities than any but it also has the distinction of same method we hope will be pursued by writers in this being one of the African groups with the largest cor- country until we become possessed of a fuller History pus of publications on culture and history. Akintoye’s of the Yorubas” (Jo h n s o n 1921: viii). book however succeeds very well in providing a lucid synthesis of the newer and the older literature that The History of the Yorubas was the first attempt, is not limited to the traditional historical essays and more than a hundred years ago, to provide a compre- books but also includes archaeology, art history, and hensive history of the Yoruba peoples from their ori- local histories; and for the much later periods — twen- gins as a cultural-ethnic community to the present. It tieth and twenty-first centuries — archival resources, was a hugely successful volume, and it is still in print! memoirs, newspaper articles, and autobiographies, Yet, so much has been done since then by scholars of among others. different stripes to advance Yoruba historiography. No one has however matched the Johnsons’ comprehen- The over 500-page book covers six major themes: sive volume with a new history for a new age. That (1) the evolution of the Yoruba political and cultural was until now. institutions, especially Ile-Ife, from about the eighth to fifteenth century — Chapters 1–6; (2) the politics S. Adebanji Akintoye’s more modestly titled A and political economy of kingship institution, politi- History of the Yoruba People achieves for the twenty- cal organizations of Yoruba polities, domestic econ- first century what Samuel Johnson and his brother omy and intra-regional commercial life, as well as achieved for early twentieth century Yoruba history. regional interactions, migration and trade — Chapters Baba Akintoye’s eighteen-chapter book is a tour de 7 to 11; (3) the political history and political economy force on Yoruba historical experience from the early of the Old — Chapters 12 and 13; (4) the farming communities of about 4000 BC to the present; nineteenth century transformations, defined in terms and covering diverse geographies that include the of the aftermath of the Oyo Empire and the advent original homeland now crosscut by three modern coun- of several forces of transformations (internally and tries — , Benin Republic and Togo, as well as externally) — e.g., Islam, Christianity and European the Yoruba diasporas in the Americas. That Akintoye’s colonial conquest — Chapters 14 and 15; (5) the tome is the only one that has come close to Samuel historical origins and cultural legacies of the Yoruba Johnson’s book in about 114 years makes A History Diaspora in the Americas — Chapter 16; and (6) the of the Yoruba People an important publication and a cultural, social, and political transformations of the milestone in African historical scholarship. twentieth century — Chapters 17 and 18.

DOI 10.3213/2191-5784-10188 Published online March 03, 2012 © Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt M.

Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 10 (1), 2012, pp. 109–112 109 Book Review

Of all the different sections covered in the book, it are therefore not often explored. Consequently, he of- is the first three sections that will most likely be of im- fers a seemingly seamless narrative for the foundation mediate interest to archaeologists who account for the history of the major kingdoms in Yorubaland. Unfortu- majority readers of the Journal of African Archaeology. nately, the results of the meager archaeological works But this is no archaeological book. The early period that exist for some of these kingdoms are not used to covered in this volume relies heavily on oral traditions dialogue with the oral traditions. The details provided but uses archaeological data to effectively flesh out by the author would however be useful for future ar- the details in a few areas. Oftentimes, the author uses chaeological research agendas in these early centers of historical ethnography to offer a scintillating though sociopolitical centralization in Yorubaland. speculative cultural history of some of the core institu- tions that define Yoruba culture, such as the kingship Furthermore, his analysis of the economic systems institution, urbanism, Ifa divination, cosmology, and of Yorubaland in Chapters 9 and 10 demonstrates how the arts. An exercise like this would certainly raise the production-consumption-distribution nexus at the questions of evidential validity but Akintoye brushes domestic, family, and individual levels were linked to those concerns aside to attempt a reconstruction that regional trade networks and to the political economy of current and future scholars can access and build upon Yoruba kingdoms. It is here that Akintoye delivers the with new empirical evidence and interpretations. thesis that the necessity of regional trade to the well- being, maintenance, and financing of each kingdom not Taking into account the work of three generations only shaped their external policies towards one another of scholars — archaeologists, historians, art histori- but also facilitated the intense migration patterns that ans, and historical ethnographers — Akintoye cob- crisscrossed Yorubaland throughout its history. It should bles together almost every single shred of evidence be noted though that Akintoye’s lively discussions of on the history of Yoruba kingship institution, urban these economic processes — including capital forma- culture, and power politics. Doing so, he emphati- tion, credit systems, monetization — only telescoped cally concludes that Ile-Ife was at the center of Yoruba the Yoruba market system into the bird’s eye of the civilization. In Chapters 2 to 5, he offers the most eighteenth century. Even then, we learn nothing about profound imaginative retelling, to date, of the political the impacts of the Atlantic commerce on the trans- processes that culminated in the emergence of Ile-Ife formations of the regional production-consumption- as the harbinger of Yoruba cultural efflorescence in the distribution practices, a subject that other scholars have eleventh century. Even if the broad contours of Ile-Ife’s vigorously applied themselves to in recent years. ascendancy are already well known to the specialists, Akintoye offers new details about the personalities The tripartite stages of travails, triumphs, and then and structural processes that defined the rise of this, decline of what Akintoye rightly calls “The Great Oyo Yoruba’s first known city. Many scholars of Yoruba Empire” are the subject of Chapters 12 and 13. It is an archaeology will however likely balk at Akintoye’s exercise in the political history and political economy claim that “there was what we must call an Ife empire” of the largest polity not only in Yorubaland but also in (p. 85) at the end of the fourteenth century. No doubt, West Africa south of the bend of the River Niger. The what Akintoye is exaggeratingly alluding to here is that author traces the origins of Oyo polity and its ascen- Ile-Ife created a pan-regional Yoruba political system sion from a small organization precariously living at and cultural identity that is elsewhere referred to as the mercy of the older and more adaptable rivals to a the “Yoruba-Edo world system” (Og u n d i r a n 2003). domineering empire founded on the ethos of military This system focused on the institution of divine king- discipline and competence. His narrative of the imperial ship that was based on urban settlement with Ile-Ife expansion of Oyo is sometimes painted in broad strokes supplying some of the early mythologies, religious of chronological imprecision though brightly colored framework, philosophy, worldviews, and even the with the details of individual actors. Unable to maintain material symbols that conferred legitimacy on divine the balance of power between the royalty, the nobles kingship across the region. and the military realms, Akintoye writes, the empire collapsed in the nineteenth century, after two hundred In Chapters 6 and 7, Akintoye offers a synthesis of years of holding sway over its neighbors far and near. the political history of the other Yoruba kingdoms and The collapse of Oyo gave way to about seventy years their founding dynasties. Here, the traditions of origins of warfare, massive migrations, and the advent of new of these numerous polities, which trace the origins of political structures and polities across the Yoruba re- their founding dynasties and peoples as waves of mass gion. Akintoye covers these and more in Chapters 14 migrations from Ile-Ife, are often taken at face value. and 15. The last two chapters of the book are about This is perhaps in line with his agenda to avoid distract- the politics and social transformations in Yorubaland ing disputations and stay true to the currently available during the twentieth century, beginning as subjects of information. Alternative processes of social formation three European rules partitioned into the colonial states

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