Tunde Oduntan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Tunde Oduntan

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 2019

Giliomee began this journey as a historian by re-evaluating the frontier history of the trekboere... more Giliomee began this journey as a historian by re-evaluating the frontier history of the trekboere, and black/white interactions on the frontier, without the presumption of white dominance. And, with Richard Elphick, he began compiling the formative volume on the formation of Cape society, The Shaping of South African Society (1979). In reexamining settler history, they found no racial policies, no discriminatory language, no conceptions of racial purity, and little devotion to the church that was often blamed for Afrikaner behavior. The concepts of race and whiteness were not referenced by the government or the burghers until 1775, and the word black was almost never used. Giliomee's takeaway was that the sociological roots of Apartheid needed new theories, a calling that defined his long career. Giliomee cites his generation's engagement with Leopold von Ranke as being a critical feature in his honest approach to history writing. History to him was the study of the past which was not beholden to politics. At the same time, though, he quickly rejected the Rankean "fetish" of impartiality, referencing British historian A.J.P. Taylor's sentiment that "the historian who believes in his own impartiality runs a greater risk of being biased" (59). This is arguably the most important moment of the book and of Giliomee's career as a historian. In Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, a character said of writing, "All the elements that make what I write recognizable as mine seem to me a cage that restricts my possibilities" (Calvino 1981, 171). Hermann Giliomee embraced this problem. He approached history writing not only as an Afrikaner, but as an Afrikaner historical subject in the history of South Africa. By insisting that the place of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans was historical, and that their identities were bound by history, Giliomee harnessed his personal bias, his positionality, without detaching himself from it. The historian, exemplified by Hermann Giliomee, avoids writing period pieces by recognizing themselves, in the conscious and subconscious manifestations of their identity, as a historical subject.

African Journal of International Affairs and Development, 2001

African histories and modernities, 2017

The Willink Commission was established to provide Constitutional safeguards for minorities during... more The Willink Commission was established to provide Constitutional safeguards for minorities during the era of decolonization, and its 1958 report has become frequently cited when discussing minority rights in Nigeria. Many scholars contend that the Commission recognized discrimination against minorities; however, it failed to provide a resolution for what would persist as a national crisis. This chapter argues against the broad consensus that ethnic minorities have always existed, and that the Commission was expected to resolve differences amongst them. Analysing the Commission’s transcripts reveals the ambiguities of minority identities and illustrates the interplay of political interests surrounding the Commission. Neither the British, nor Nigerian elites were realistic about minority identity or how ethnic relations might be resolved. Rather, political interests, including post-colonial control, electioneering districting, political offices and employment, drove the Commission’s considerations.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Jan 22, 2021

The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved ... more The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved Africans is strongly supported by the life and experiences of Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Kidnapped into slavery in 1821, recaptured and settled in Sierra Leone in 1822, he became a missionary in 1845, founder of the Niger mission in 1857, and Bishop of the Niger Mission in 1864. His life and career covered the span of the 19th century during which revolutionary forces like jihadist revolutions, the abolition of the slave trade, the rise of a new Westernized elite, and European colonization created the roots of the modern state system in West Africa. He was intricately tied to the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), Britain’s antislavery evangelical movement, resulting in Ajayi becoming the poster face of slavery, its acclaimed product of abolitionism, the preeminent advocate of evangelical emancipation, and the organizer of practical emancipation in West Africa. The leader of a very small group of Africans who worked diligently against the slave trade and domestic slavery, Ajayi also became a victim of the use of that agenda by imperialists. Thus, the contrasts of his life (i.e., slavery/freedom, nationalist/hybrid, preacher/investor, leader/weakling, linguist/literalist, etc.) were celebrated by himself, his patrons, and his evangelical followers on one hand, and denounced by his critics on the other. They underline the disagreements over his legacy, and indeed over the understanding of the institution of slavery, abolition, and emancipation in West Africa.

Journal of West African History

In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scientific di... more In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scientific discoveries, and technology reduce them to immutable categories of farmers, laborers, proletariat, craftsmen, diggers, etc. The history of railway construction in Nigeria has been typically rendered without due recognition for the roles of native workers except as laborers—as tools of colonial infrastructure and as resistors of it. The lopsidedness of the archives and historical methodology silence the adaptations, innovations, and professionalism of indigenous workers. This article revisits conventional accounts of the construction of the Lagos railways and the Niger Bridge (1907–16) by pointing attention to indigenous workers who, despite their contributions and the reliance of the railways on them, were never designated as professional by the colonial public service, and whose records may not be found in the colonial archive. By demonstrating the incompleteness of contemporary engineeri...

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines

Journal of West African History, 2022

abstract:In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scie... more abstract:In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scientific discoveries, and technology reduce them to immutable categories of farmers, laborers, proletariat, craftsmen, diggers, etc. The history of railway construction in Nigeria has been typically rendered without due recognition for the roles of native workers except as laborers—as tools of colonial infrastructure and as resistors of it. The lopsidedness of the archives and historical methodology silence the adaptations, innovations, and professionalism of indigenous workers. This article revisits conventional accounts of the construction of the Lagos railways and the Niger Bridge (1907–16) by pointing attention to indigenous workers who, despite their contributions and the reliance of the railways on them, were never designated as professional by the colonial public service, and whose records may not be found in the colonial archive. By demonstrating the incompleteness of contemporary ...

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History

The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved ... more The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved Africans is strongly supported by the life and experiences of Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Kidnapped into slavery in 1821, recaptured and settled in Sierra Leone in 1822, he became a missionary in 1845, founder of the Niger mission in 1857, and Bishop of the Niger Mission in 1864. His life and career covered the span of the 19th century during which revolutionary forces like jihadist revolutions, the abolition of the slave trade, the rise of a new Westernized elite, and European colonization created the roots of the modern state system in West Africa. He was intricately tied to the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), Britain’s antislavery evangelical movement, resulting in Ajayi becoming the poster face of slavery, its acclaimed product of abolitionism, the preeminent advocate of evangelical emancipation, and the organizer of practical emancipation in West Africa. The leader of a very small gr...

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Dec 1, 2021

RESUMO Esse artigo apresenta, a partir de uma provocação a nove historiadoras e historiadores de ... more RESUMO Esse artigo apresenta, a partir de uma provocação a nove historiadoras e historiadores de diferentes instituições e países, o impacto da pandemia sobre o seu ofício e sobre o campo da história. As suas reflexões foram desenvolvidas a partir de três perguntas: (1) De que maneiras viver sob a pandemia atual afetou seus escritos ou sua reflexão histórica? Isso trouxe novas questões à tona ou o incentivou a repensar alguns de seus trabalhos anteriores?; (2) (Como) os historiadores devem se envolver nos assuntos públicos relacionados ao contexto pandêmico atual? Os historiadores devem se envolver na formulação de políticas públicas? É apropriado que os historiadores desempenhem papéis ativos na mídia ou devemos recuar e deixar que nossas publicações falem por si mesmas?; (3) Que temas históricos, perspectivas e tópicos estão ausentes na historiografia publicada / produzida durante esses anos de pandemia? Quais textos ou tipos de trabalho você mais apreciou?

Power, Culture and Modernity in Nigeria, 2018

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 2017

Power, Culture and Modernity in Nigeria, 2018

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 2019

Giliomee began this journey as a historian by re-evaluating the frontier history of the trekboere... more Giliomee began this journey as a historian by re-evaluating the frontier history of the trekboere, and black/white interactions on the frontier, without the presumption of white dominance. And, with Richard Elphick, he began compiling the formative volume on the formation of Cape society, The Shaping of South African Society (1979). In reexamining settler history, they found no racial policies, no discriminatory language, no conceptions of racial purity, and little devotion to the church that was often blamed for Afrikaner behavior. The concepts of race and whiteness were not referenced by the government or the burghers until 1775, and the word black was almost never used. Giliomee's takeaway was that the sociological roots of Apartheid needed new theories, a calling that defined his long career. Giliomee cites his generation's engagement with Leopold von Ranke as being a critical feature in his honest approach to history writing. History to him was the study of the past which was not beholden to politics. At the same time, though, he quickly rejected the Rankean "fetish" of impartiality, referencing British historian A.J.P. Taylor's sentiment that "the historian who believes in his own impartiality runs a greater risk of being biased" (59). This is arguably the most important moment of the book and of Giliomee's career as a historian. In Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, a character said of writing, "All the elements that make what I write recognizable as mine seem to me a cage that restricts my possibilities" (Calvino 1981, 171). Hermann Giliomee embraced this problem. He approached history writing not only as an Afrikaner, but as an Afrikaner historical subject in the history of South Africa. By insisting that the place of Afrikaans-speaking South Africans was historical, and that their identities were bound by history, Giliomee harnessed his personal bias, his positionality, without detaching himself from it. The historian, exemplified by Hermann Giliomee, avoids writing period pieces by recognizing themselves, in the conscious and subconscious manifestations of their identity, as a historical subject.

African Journal of International Affairs and Development, 2001

African histories and modernities, 2017

The Willink Commission was established to provide Constitutional safeguards for minorities during... more The Willink Commission was established to provide Constitutional safeguards for minorities during the era of decolonization, and its 1958 report has become frequently cited when discussing minority rights in Nigeria. Many scholars contend that the Commission recognized discrimination against minorities; however, it failed to provide a resolution for what would persist as a national crisis. This chapter argues against the broad consensus that ethnic minorities have always existed, and that the Commission was expected to resolve differences amongst them. Analysing the Commission’s transcripts reveals the ambiguities of minority identities and illustrates the interplay of political interests surrounding the Commission. Neither the British, nor Nigerian elites were realistic about minority identity or how ethnic relations might be resolved. Rather, political interests, including post-colonial control, electioneering districting, political offices and employment, drove the Commission’s considerations.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Jan 22, 2021

The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved ... more The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved Africans is strongly supported by the life and experiences of Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Kidnapped into slavery in 1821, recaptured and settled in Sierra Leone in 1822, he became a missionary in 1845, founder of the Niger mission in 1857, and Bishop of the Niger Mission in 1864. His life and career covered the span of the 19th century during which revolutionary forces like jihadist revolutions, the abolition of the slave trade, the rise of a new Westernized elite, and European colonization created the roots of the modern state system in West Africa. He was intricately tied to the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), Britain’s antislavery evangelical movement, resulting in Ajayi becoming the poster face of slavery, its acclaimed product of abolitionism, the preeminent advocate of evangelical emancipation, and the organizer of practical emancipation in West Africa. The leader of a very small group of Africans who worked diligently against the slave trade and domestic slavery, Ajayi also became a victim of the use of that agenda by imperialists. Thus, the contrasts of his life (i.e., slavery/freedom, nationalist/hybrid, preacher/investor, leader/weakling, linguist/literalist, etc.) were celebrated by himself, his patrons, and his evangelical followers on one hand, and denounced by his critics on the other. They underline the disagreements over his legacy, and indeed over the understanding of the institution of slavery, abolition, and emancipation in West Africa.

Journal of West African History

In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scientific di... more In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scientific discoveries, and technology reduce them to immutable categories of farmers, laborers, proletariat, craftsmen, diggers, etc. The history of railway construction in Nigeria has been typically rendered without due recognition for the roles of native workers except as laborers—as tools of colonial infrastructure and as resistors of it. The lopsidedness of the archives and historical methodology silence the adaptations, innovations, and professionalism of indigenous workers. This article revisits conventional accounts of the construction of the Lagos railways and the Niger Bridge (1907–16) by pointing attention to indigenous workers who, despite their contributions and the reliance of the railways on them, were never designated as professional by the colonial public service, and whose records may not be found in the colonial archive. By demonstrating the incompleteness of contemporary engineeri...

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines

Journal of West African History, 2022

abstract:In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scie... more abstract:In general, many accounts of labor Other African workers against industrialization, scientific discoveries, and technology reduce them to immutable categories of farmers, laborers, proletariat, craftsmen, diggers, etc. The history of railway construction in Nigeria has been typically rendered without due recognition for the roles of native workers except as laborers—as tools of colonial infrastructure and as resistors of it. The lopsidedness of the archives and historical methodology silence the adaptations, innovations, and professionalism of indigenous workers. This article revisits conventional accounts of the construction of the Lagos railways and the Niger Bridge (1907–16) by pointing attention to indigenous workers who, despite their contributions and the reliance of the railways on them, were never designated as professional by the colonial public service, and whose records may not be found in the colonial archive. By demonstrating the incompleteness of contemporary ...

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History

The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved ... more The case for narrating the history of slavery and emancipation through the biography of enslaved Africans is strongly supported by the life and experiences of Samuel Ajayi Crowther. Kidnapped into slavery in 1821, recaptured and settled in Sierra Leone in 1822, he became a missionary in 1845, founder of the Niger mission in 1857, and Bishop of the Niger Mission in 1864. His life and career covered the span of the 19th century during which revolutionary forces like jihadist revolutions, the abolition of the slave trade, the rise of a new Westernized elite, and European colonization created the roots of the modern state system in West Africa. He was intricately tied to the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), Britain’s antislavery evangelical movement, resulting in Ajayi becoming the poster face of slavery, its acclaimed product of abolitionism, the preeminent advocate of evangelical emancipation, and the organizer of practical emancipation in West Africa. The leader of a very small gr...

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Dec 1, 2021

RESUMO Esse artigo apresenta, a partir de uma provocação a nove historiadoras e historiadores de ... more RESUMO Esse artigo apresenta, a partir de uma provocação a nove historiadoras e historiadores de diferentes instituições e países, o impacto da pandemia sobre o seu ofício e sobre o campo da história. As suas reflexões foram desenvolvidas a partir de três perguntas: (1) De que maneiras viver sob a pandemia atual afetou seus escritos ou sua reflexão histórica? Isso trouxe novas questões à tona ou o incentivou a repensar alguns de seus trabalhos anteriores?; (2) (Como) os historiadores devem se envolver nos assuntos públicos relacionados ao contexto pandêmico atual? Os historiadores devem se envolver na formulação de políticas públicas? É apropriado que os historiadores desempenhem papéis ativos na mídia ou devemos recuar e deixar que nossas publicações falem por si mesmas?; (3) Que temas históricos, perspectivas e tópicos estão ausentes na historiografia publicada / produzida durante esses anos de pandemia? Quais textos ou tipos de trabalho você mais apreciou?

Power, Culture and Modernity in Nigeria, 2018

Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 2017

Power, Culture and Modernity in Nigeria, 2018