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The Cultural Agency of Elites: Awolowo and the Re‐making of the Yoruba
Author(s) -
ADEBANWI WALE
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.2009.01348.x
Subject(s) - performative utterance , yoruba , agency (philosophy) , politics , throne , context (archaeology) , sociology , political science , social science , aesthetics , law , history , art , archaeology , philosophy , linguistics
The mystique of eliteness is a quality that is cultivated or constructed overtime. Here, I examine agency – a culturally‐specific, consolidated stream of composite actions and interactions that are geared towards specific social endeavours, and structure ‐representing conventions and social parameters through which agency and social practices are performed and become performative, by tracing the historical‐political context in which Chief Obáfémi Awólówò, the acknowledged leader of the Yorùbá of Nigeria, rose to politico‐cultural prominence and succeeded to the “throne” of the Yorùbá progenitor, Odùduwà. I argue that through this succession, Awólówò became the “modern Odùduwà” and the central signifier of Yorubaness in 20 th Century Nigeria and beyond.