Toyin Falola

The History of Nigeria

Introduction 1. Early states and societies, 9,000 BCE-1500 CE 2. Slavery, state and society, c.1500-c. 1800 3. Political and economic transformations in the nineteenth century 4. Transition to British colonial rule, 1850-1903 5. Colonial society to 1929 6. Nationalist movements and independence, 1929-60 7. Instability and civil war, 1960-70 8. Oil, state, and society, 1970-83 9. Civil society and democratic transition, 1984-2007 10. Nigeria and Nigerians in world history Concluding remarks: Corruption, anti-corruption, and the 2007 elections.

Cultures and Customs of Ghana

Series Foreword Preface Chronology Introduction Religion and Worldview Literature and Media Art and Architecture/Housing Cuisine and Traditional Dress Gender Roles, Marriage, and Familiy Social Customs and Lifestyle Music and Dance Glossary Bibliographic Essay Index

The political economy of health in Africa.

This book examines the major phases in the history of health services in Africa and treats health as an integral aspect of the deepening crisis in Africas underdevelopment. One important thesis is that Western delivery systems have made health care less accessible for most people. Contributors direct attention to problems engendered by food shortages, acute cases of infection, the market in fake drugs as well as the inequality of access to facilities, the violation of human rights, and the recent danger of the dumping of toxic wastes in several African countries. One major implication of this volume is that there can be no solution to the health crisis in Africa until the linkage between health and poverty is recognized. The authors consider questions that add to the contemporary discussion of the place that traditional African medicine and philosophy should take alongside modern Western medicine in Africa today.

Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies across the Disciplines

Nearly four decades ago, Terence Ranger questioned to what extent African history was actually African, and whether methods and concerns derived from Western historiography were really sufficient tools for researching and narrating African history. Despite a blossoming and branching out of Africanist scholarship in the last twenty years, that question is still haunting. The most prestigious locations for production for African studies are outside Africa itself. Scholars still seek a solution to this paradox. They agree that the ideal solution would be a flowering of institutions of higher learning within Africa, which would draw not only Africanist scholars but also financial resources to the continent.

African historiography : essays in honour of Jacob Ade Ajayi

This is a tribute to Jacob Ade Ajayi, examining the four main areas he has addressed during his career: the importance of oral tradition as a historical source, Yoruba and West African studies, missionaries, and the historians approach to the subject, focusing on the Ibadan school.

From Hospitality to Hostility: Ibadan and Strangers, 1830-1904

The view that Ibadan society in the nineteenth century did not discriminate against strangers, irrespective of their origins in Yorubaland, is now firmly entrenched in the literature. To be sure, Ibadan, a new nineteenth-century Yoruba city-state, founded as a consequence of the political crises of the early decades of the century, did maintain an ‘open door’ policy to strangers, many of whom went there as adventurers, craftsmen and traders, hoping to acquire wealth and fame. This article, however, controverts the view that Ibadan society gave the strangers and the indigenes equal opportunities to wealth and power. It argues that all the key political offices went only to the Oyo-Ibadan group which dominated the city-state. Strangers were also not allowed to participate fully in the leading heights of the economy, with the result that most of the wealthy citizens were also of Oyo-Yoruba origin. In the 1890s discrimination against strangers was such that a number of moves were made to expel them. However, the British, who imposed colonial rule on Ibadan in 1893, were against the expulsion of strangers.

The United States and West Africa : interactions and relations

Over the last several decades, historians have conducted extensive research into contact between the United States and West Africa during the era of the transatlantic trade. Yet we still understand relatively little about more recent relations between the two areas. This multidisciplinary volume presents the most comprehensive analysis of the U.S.-West African relationship to date, filling a significant gap in the literature by examining the social, cultural, political, and economic bonds that have, in recent years, drawn these two world regions into increasingly closer contact. Beginning with examinations of factors that linked the nations during European colonial rule of Africa, and spanning to discussions of U.S. foreign policy with regard to West Africa from the Cold War through the end of the twentieth century and beyond, these essays constitute the first volume devoted to interrogating the complex relationship -- both historic and contemporary -- between the United States and West Africa. Contributors: Abdul Karim Bangura, Karen B. Bell, Peter A. Dumbuya, Kwame Essien, Andrew I. E. Ewoh, Toyin Falola, Osman Gbla, John Wess Grant, Stephen A. Harmon, Harold R. Harris, Olawale Ismail, Alusine Jalloh, Fred L. Johnson III, Stephen Kandeh, Ibrahim Kargbo, Bayo Lawal, Ayodeji Olukoju, Adebayo Oyebade, Christopher Ruane, Anita Spring, Ibrahim Sundiata, Hakeem Ibikunle Tijani, Ken Vincent, and Amanda Warnock. Alusine Jalloh is associate professor of history and founding director of The Africa Program at the University of Texas at Arlington. Toyin Falola is the Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History at the University of Texas at Austin.

Cassava Starch For Export in Nigeria During the Second World War

Although the economic policy of British colonial rule has received considerable attention,1 many gaps still exist in our knowledge of such commodities as rice, shea butter, maize, and cassava. In addition, only a few studies focus on the last fifteen years of colonial rule, in particular the impact of the Second World War on the export of raw materials that entered into international trade for the first time. The need for research on the less-known cash crops and the economic impact of the Second World War provides the justification for this study. The article seeks to broaden our knowledge of developments in Nigerian agriculture and commerce during the Second World War. The focus is on cassava starch, a food item which became an export crop like palm oil, palm kernel, and cocoa for the first time in Nigeria. Unlike these other products, the success of cassava starch was ephemeral, but while it lasted it generated its own history, which deserves reconstruction. This history has been totally ignored, perhaps because the export of starch did not long survive. The history of starch as an export commodity cannot be divorced from the developments of the war years. As many studies have shown, the Second World War was significant for Africa, and brought far-reaching economic changes.2 One of these was the search for substitute products to replace or augment those that were scarce.3 One of the new raw materials was starch obtained from cassava. Both the production and export of cassava starch reveal the extent to which the imperial government could go in the search for resources,

The Yoruba Toll System: its operation and abolition

THE Yoruba toll system has not been studied, in spite of its major role in the indigenous economy and politics. It is common knowledge that toll gates were prevalent in all Yoruba towns; what is less obvious is that the collection of duties from these gates was well integrated with the organization of trade and that proceeds from tolls were part of the revenues relied upon by the political elite in all Yoruba towns. Neither has the toll system received the attention it deserves in the analysis of the establishment of the colonial economy at the turn of this century. This neglect ignores the important fact that the attitude of British officials to the toll system became a major political issue in their relations with chiefs, and also generated widespread debate and responses not only among the Yoruba elite but also among European traders and officials in Nigeria and Britain. This essay sets out to fill the gap in our knowledge of this significant aspect of commerce and politics. The Yoruba toll system is examined within the context of the pre-colonial and colonial state and economy. The discussion is restricted to two dominant but related themes: how the toll system operated in the nineteenth century, and how it was subsequently reformed and abolished by the British when they imposed colonial rule on Nigeria.

Global Explanations versus Local Interpretations: The Historiography of the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 in Africa

In 1918 an influenza pandemic of unprecedented virulence spread across the planet, infiltrating nearly all areas of human habitation. In less than a year the pandemic had run its course, ultimately responsible for some where between 30,000,000 and 50,000,000 deaths worldwide. Truly, this was one of the greatest catastrophes in human history. However, despite the fact that the influenza pandemic has few historical rivals in terms of sheer loss of human life, it has not entered the meta-narrative of world history, nor indeed national histories, to the same extent that major wars or natural disasters have. To date, most of the historical work on the influenza pandemic has sought to prove that it does not deserve this rele gation to the dustbin of history. Despite this common goal, however, his torians have taken different approaches to illustrate the importance of the influenza pandemic of 1918 in Africa.