Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T06:36:37.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Aja-speaking Peoples of Nigeria: A Note on their Origins, Settlement and Cultural Adaptation up to 19451

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

A. I. Asiwaju
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The limited objective in this paper is to call attention to the need to bridge an important gap in scholarly literature on the Aja, which so far has focused on the groups within the borders of the present-day Republics of Bénin (formerly Dahomey) and Togo in much the same way as Yoruba studies were once restricted to the groups within the frontiers of Nigeria, particularly the area of it now covered by the States of Ogun, Oyo and Ondo. By drawing attention to the Aja settlements and communities in Nigeria, the present writer hopes to do for this West African group what Geoffrey Parrinder (1947; 1955), Jacques Bertho (1949), Paul Mercier (1950) and Daryll Forde (1951) did in the 1940s and 1950s for the Yoruba-speaking peoples in Bénin and Togo through a series of published studies. There is no doubt that these studies have helped in widening the research horizon of scholars of Yoruba history and culture and have done much to dispel the myth of separation of the Yoruba, as of similarly partitioned groups all over Africa, created by the intercolonial (now international) boundaries, in this case the Nigeria-Bénin boundary.

Résumé

QUELQUES REMARQUES SUR L'ORIGINE, L'IMPLANTATION ET L'ADAPTATION CULTURELLE DES PEUPLES DE LANGUE ADJA AU NIGÉRIA

Les diverses études effectuées à ce jour présentent deux lacunes que cet article tente de combler: il importe en premier lieu d'étendre au Nigéria les travaux portant sur les peuples de langue Adja. En effet, ces travaux ont été généralement limités aux groupes ethniques des républiques actuelles du Bénin (ancien Dahomey), du Togo et du Ghana. D'autre part, en ramenant l'histoire de l'implantation de ces peuples aux guerres Yorubas et aux guerres du Dahomey au cours du 18ème etdu 19ème siècle, on tente ici de dégager uri aspect étudié de ces guerres, à savoir les mouvements de population et le mode d'implantation qui en découlèrent en pays Yoruba. En dépit de leur immigration vers le Nigéria, et d'une longue implantation parmi des peuples de langue Yoruba présentant entre eux peu de différences culturelles, les Adja ont fait preuve d'une remarquable aptitude à conserver leur propre culture. Formant un ensemble réparti à travers quatre états différents d'Afrique Occidentale, les Adja (y compris les Ewe) illustrent un prolongement ethnique des liens sous-régionaux.Cet aspect mérite une étude approfondie visant à mieux comprendre le contexte socio-culturel dans le cadre des efforts actuels en matière de coopération interrégionale.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , January 1979 , pp. 15 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ajayi, J. F. Ade 1969 ‘Colonialism: an episode in African history,’ in Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P. (eds) Colonialism in Africa 1870–1960. Vol. I. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Smith, R. S. 1964 Yoruba Warfare in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Akinjogbin, I. A. 1967 Dahomey and its Neighbours. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Akintoye, S. A. 1970 Power Politics in Yorubaland: 1840–1893. London.Google Scholar
Amenumey, D. E. K. 1976 ‘The problem of dating the accession ofthe Ewe people to their present habitat, ’ paper presented at the international Seminar on Yoruba Civilisation at the University of Ife, July.Google Scholar
Anene, J. C. 1970 The International Boundaries of Nigeria, 1885–1960: The Framework of an Emergent African Nation. London.Google Scholar
Argyle, W. J. 1966 TheFon of Dahomey. Oxford.Google Scholar
Asiwaju, A. I. 1974 ‘Anti-French resistance movement in Ohori-Ije (Dahomey), 1895–1960, ’ Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 7(2): 255–69.Google Scholar
Asiwaju, A. I. 1976a Western Yorubaland -under European Rule, 1889–1945: A Comparative Analysis of French and British Colonialism. London.Google Scholar
Asiwaju, A. I. 1976b ‘Migrations as revolt: the example of the Ivory Coast and the Upper Volta before 1945,’ Journal of African History 17 (4): 577–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asiwaju, A. I. 1976c ‘Political motivation and oral historical traditions in Africa: the case of the Yorubabeaded crowns, 1900–1960, ’ Africa 46(2): 113–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avoseh, T.Ola 1938 A Short History ofBadagry. Lagos.Google Scholar
Bascom, W. and Herskovits, J. (eds) 1969 Continuity and Change in African Cultures. Chicago.Google Scholar
Beattie, J. H. M. and Middleton, J. (eds) 1968 Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa. London.Google Scholar
Berge, J. A. H. 1938 ‘Etudes sur les pays Mahi, ’ Bulletin du Comité d'Etudes Historiques et Scientifiquesde I'AOF. XI: 708–55.Google Scholar
Bertho, J. 1949 ‘La parenté des Yoruba aux peuplades du Dahomey et du Togo, ’ Africa 19(2): 121–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forde, D. 1951 The Yoruba-speaking Peoples ofSouth-Western Nigeria. London.Google Scholar
Glélé, Maurice 1974 Daxome. Paris.Google Scholar
Herskovits, M. J. 1934 Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom. 2 volumes. New York.Google Scholar
Law, R. C. C. 1969 ‘The fall of Allada:an ideological revolution, ’ Journal of the HistoricalSociety of Nigeria 5 (1): 157–65.Google Scholar
Law, R. C. C. 1977 ‘Royal monopoly and private enterprise in the' Atlantic trade: the case of Dahomey, ’ Journal of African History 18 (4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Law, R. C. C. and Asiwaju, A. I. forthcoming ‘From the Volta to the Niger, c. 1600–1800, ’ in Ajayi, J. F. Ade and Crowder, M. (eds) History of West Africa. Volume 1. Third edition.Google Scholar
Mercier, P. 1950 ‘Notice sur le peuplement Yoruba du Dahomey-Togo, ’ Etudes Dahoméennes 4: 29–40.Google Scholar
Moulero, Thomas 1966 ‘L'histoire de Wemenou ou Décaménou, ’ Etudes Dahoméennes (nouvelle série) oct.Google Scholar
Newbury, C. W. 1961 The Western Slave Coast and its Rulers. Oxford.Google Scholar
Parrinder, E. G. 1947 ‘The Yoruba-speaking peoples in Dahomey, ’ Africa 17 (2): 122–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parrinder, E. G. 1955 ‘Some western Yoruba towns, ’ Odu 2:4–10.Google Scholar
Parrinder, E. G. 1956 The Story ofKetu. Ibadan. Second edition, 1967.Google Scholar
Verger, Pierre 1955 ‘Yoruba influences in Brazil, ’ Odu 1:3–11.Google Scholar
Verger, Pierre 1968 ‘Trance and convention in Nago-Yoruba spirit mediumship, ’ in Beattie, J. H. M. and Middleton, J. (eds) Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa. London.Google Scholar
, Beattie and Middleton, J. 1976 Trade Relations between the Bight of Binin and Bahia from 17th to 19th Century. Ibadan.Google Scholar