The Oyo Empire, c.1600-c.1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade

by Robin Law

Genres: History, Africa, Western Africa

354 pages, Paperback

First published October 27, 1977

Reviews

[Mochee's Kid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oyo was probably West Africa's most powerful state of the late 17th and the 18th centuries. The last of the great Western Sudanic empires (Songhai) had disappeared. East and south of Oyo, the powerful kingdom of Benin was in a state of weakness, thanks to its civil wars. Oyo had its chance.

Robin Law does a fine job of utilizing the scarce written sources and the abundant oral tradition to reconstruct the history of this important state. The product is a thoroughly enjoyable read, and easily one of the best-written books on the history of any precolonial black African state, period!

Which is why it is frustrating for me that this important work (the only monograph on Oyo ever written) is almost impossible to find. There are a few copies to be purchased online, but the prices are outrageous. I was lucky to find a copy on a university library shelf, after hunting for nearly a decade!

Perhaps, it is time to digitalise the book and have it in the public domain - if it is no longer being published. The book is simply too valuable, as part of the corpus of Yoruba history, to not be easily accessible.

[Olanrewaju Olamide · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doesn't have much new information. It's basically built around Samuel Johnson.