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The Yoruba: A New History
The A New History is the first transdisciplinary study of the two-thousand-year journey of the Yoruba people, from their origins in a small corner of the Niger-Benue Confluence in present-day Nigeria to becoming one of the most populous cultural groups on the African continent.
Weaving together archaeology with linguistics, environmental science with oral traditions, and material culture with mythology, Ogundiran examines the local, regional, and even global dimensions of Yoruba history. The A New History offers an intriguing cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and social history from ca. 300 BC to 1840. It accounts for the events, peoples, and practices, as well as the theories of knowledge, ways of being, and social valuations that shaped the Yoruba experience at different junctures of time. The result is a new framework for understanding the Yoruba past and present.
Weaving together archaeology with linguistics, environmental science with oral traditions, and material culture with mythology, Ogundiran examines the local, regional, and even global dimensions of Yoruba history. The A New History offers an intriguing cultural, political, economic, intellectual, and social history from ca. 300 BC to 1840. It accounts for the events, peoples, and practices, as well as the theories of knowledge, ways of being, and social valuations that shaped the Yoruba experience at different junctures of time. The result is a new framework for understanding the Yoruba past and present.
562 pages, Hardcover
Published November 3, 2020
11 people are currently reading
116 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 1, 2021
This is easily my favourite of the recent syntheses of Yoruba history that I have read. Using both archaeological evidence and a re-interpretation of oral tradition, Ogundiran breaks away from the conventional/'traditionalist' interpretation of Yoruba history and presents a picture that is as fascinating as it is convincing.
If you're looking for a chronicle of kings and their deeds, this is not the book for you. If you seek to understand the evolution of Yoruba and society from a cultural stand-point, read it.
If you're looking for a chronicle of kings and their deeds, this is not the book for you. If you seek to understand the evolution of Yoruba and society from a cultural stand-point, read it.
February 28, 2023
Fantastic amount of research . An historiography of Nigeria south of the Niger River.
Starting 300 BC until 1840. Mainly concerns the Bantu who had divination , ancestor worship and local gods as religion.
History based on language , poetry, oral stories, archeology, travelers notes, neighboring states, merchants and explorers tales.
Story concerns commerce and status determined by mineral beeds, glass beeds, horses, slaves, ivory, cola nuts and cowry shells.
Culture is conserved in Clayware (portrets, pathways) , copper and brass portrets, masks, grave goods, portret of gods and their attributes, clothing, tattoos, gender and socially bound activities.
Tabacco and alcohol were used as credit by Europeans for advancement on slaves and the demand for more slaves created upheaval. This particular credit created dependence and addiction.
Extreme detail on families, ‘houses’ (read extended families), villages, cities and kingship.
Introduction of Islam and Christianity were also disruptive for security, hierarchy and organization.
Outside influences by weather (droughts and famine), introduction and dependence on cowries, competition with outsiders on trade and living space , Atlantic commerce.
Starting 300 BC until 1840. Mainly concerns the Bantu who had divination , ancestor worship and local gods as religion.
History based on language , poetry, oral stories, archeology, travelers notes, neighboring states, merchants and explorers tales.
Story concerns commerce and status determined by mineral beeds, glass beeds, horses, slaves, ivory, cola nuts and cowry shells.
Culture is conserved in Clayware (portrets, pathways) , copper and brass portrets, masks, grave goods, portret of gods and their attributes, clothing, tattoos, gender and socially bound activities.
Tabacco and alcohol were used as credit by Europeans for advancement on slaves and the demand for more slaves created upheaval. This particular credit created dependence and addiction.
Extreme detail on families, ‘houses’ (read extended families), villages, cities and kingship.
Introduction of Islam and Christianity were also disruptive for security, hierarchy and organization.
Outside influences by weather (droughts and famine), introduction and dependence on cowries, competition with outsiders on trade and living space , Atlantic commerce.
August 6, 2022
Fantastic read
Prof Ogundiran renders Yoruba history on a panoramic scale, yet he takes a very detailed and scientific approach to illuminate the factors that have shaped the Yoruba community of practice over several millenia. I have not read a more realistic and inspiring thesis of Yoruba history and tradition. I look forward to exploring future work on how the Yoruba community evolved in the 1860-1960 period; how its sense of being and communal meaning was disengaged from the Orisa tradition & shaped by its accommodation of Western Christianity and Islam.
Prof Ogundiran renders Yoruba history on a panoramic scale, yet he takes a very detailed and scientific approach to illuminate the factors that have shaped the Yoruba community of practice over several millenia. I have not read a more realistic and inspiring thesis of Yoruba history and tradition. I look forward to exploring future work on how the Yoruba community evolved in the 1860-1960 period; how its sense of being and communal meaning was disengaged from the Orisa tradition & shaped by its accommodation of Western Christianity and Islam.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews