This is the first study of slavery and its legacy in the Yoruba and incompletely Islamicised periphery of the Sokoto caliphate and of northern Nigeria. It shows the decline of slavery and the emergence of a small-scale peasantry at the end of the nineteenth century, and takes the story into the late-colonial and post-independence periods. Focusing on Ilorin, the city and emirate on the southern fringe of the caliphate, now in Nigeria, it shows how relations between the city elite and the ex-slaves and peasants they controlled have fluctuated during the long process of oppression and reaction.
Ann O'Hear is Co-ordinator of Intercultural Studies at Niagara University, New York.
Reviews
Meticulously well researched... fascinating and innovative approach to the historiography of Nigerian underclasses. --AFRIKA SPECTRUMCoherently written monograph...A refreshing class analysis of the historical process in a Nigerian sub-region by a non-Marxist historian. --AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW
Power Relations is an ambitious project, and will stand as a solid and useful contribution that will help piece together an important and sensitive phase in the African experience. --AFRICAN ECONOMIC HISTORY
A splendid and fascinating volume. Well researched, well written, conceptually sound, and solidly gounded in the historiography of slavery...a triumph of innovative scholarship. -AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEWS
A valuable work because it looks at an area and at questions which have not been fully explored. --AFRICAN HISTORY
