This presentation is about one specific text within the family of writings on colonial administration and governance, and their short- and long-term consequences for Nigeria. Professor J. A. Atanda published his major book, The New Oyo Empire: Indirect Rule and Change in Western Nigeria, 1894-1934, in 1973. It shows how, through a policy of indirect rule introduced by the British colonial authority, the institution of kingship was co-opted into the political system. The Alaafin, the king of Oyo, became the most preeminent king based on the revival of the history of the Old Oyo Empire that had come to its end in the 1830s. My presentation falls into two parts: first, how Professor Atanda creates a discourse on the Alaafin—his emergence, the resistance he evoked, and the modification of the system during the 1930s. The second part goes beyond Atanda’s book to demonstrate how the aftermath of indirect rule impacted politics and political institutions, thus complicating the formation of the Nigerian state. The aftermath of indirect rule operated as the disguised context of the incoherence of state institutions. A multiplex diffuse and diverse political system with irresolvable tensions and conflicts was the result. Indirect rule subsequently led to the emergence of hundreds of local governments, which the centralizing federalist structure is expected to coordinate along the lines of a developmentalist-modernist framework. The heuristics of the discourse between the center and its component units extends beyond the past created by Atanda’s narrative to contemporary political practices.
No comments:
Post a Comment