In his groundbreaking book, How to Become a Big Man in Africa: Subalternity, Elites, and Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria, Wale Adebanwi provides a compelling, theoretically ambitious, and ethnographically rich exploration of elite formation and subaltern mobility in postcolonial Nigeria. Anchored in the life story of Gani Adams—who rose from a marginalized background to become the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland—the book interrogates what it means to become powerful in a neoliberal African state.
The book traced how “in less than two decades, Gani Adams has moved from someone derided as an “illiterate young man,” a “carpenter,” and a man “of no fixed address”—as the police chief stated when he was arrested in 2001—to one of the “eminent people” at events, a “Big Man” who also sits at the coveted high table, where the most important dignitaries sit at public events in Nigeria” (xxiv–xxv). This transformation is examined not as a mere product of external forces, but as a result of Adams’ strategic engagement with Nigeria’s turbulent political landscape. Adebanwi emphasizes Adams’ ability to leverage structural conditions and personal agency to reconfigure his status.
The figure of the “big man” is a familiar trope in African studies, often associated with patronage, masculinity, and authoritarian charisma. However, Adebanwi resists this stereotype. Through ethnographic depth, he presents Adams as a complex figure—neither solely a symbol of neopatrimonialism nor simply a subaltern hero. Adams’ rise is instead shown as a performative project that draws on charisma, cultural capital, calculated violence, and ritualized authority.
The book opens with a vivid Praeludium set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s 2015 general elections. Adams’ protest against the then chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, signals his full transition from state-targeted dissident to political actor. From there, the narrative traces Adams’ journey: his early life as a dropout, carpenter, and “okada rider” in Lagos, his leadership of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a Yoruba nationalist and vigilante organization, and his eventual transformation into a cultural and political broker.
One of the book’s conceptual highlights is Adebanwi’s distinction between waithood and awaithood. While waithood implies passive exclusion, awaithood emphasizes strategic patience and purposeful preparation for upward mobility. Adams’ life exemplifies this: he did not merely wait for opportunity but actively prepared, adapted, and seized the moment when it arrived.
The chapters unfold both thematically and chronologically. The introduction poses key questions around elite formation: can subalterns truly become elites, and how does this transformation occur? Chapter One, “The Carpenter’s Revolt,” details Adams’ emergence through the OPC and his break from its founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun. Adebanwi explores how Adams wielded Yoruba cultural symbolism and violence as tools of legitimacy and power.
Chapter Two delves into vigilantism and urban insecurity, framing OPC violence as a form of moral and political improvisation. Here, violence is not deviance but a strategy for reclaiming dignity and asserting agency in a failing state. For many OPC members, including Adams, violence was not only instrumental but self-actualizing.
Chapters Three and Four mark Adams’ shift from insurgent to elite. He rebrands himself through religious and cultural performances, educational pursuits, and visible displays of wealth and status—cars, houses, clothing, festivals, and media presence. His appointment as the Aare Ona Kakanfo, a title historically linked with Yoruba leadership, symbolizes this reinvention. Adebanwi shows how Adams crafts legitimacy through public rituals and elite alliances while navigating the precariousness of “big manhood.”
Chapter Five explores Adams’ relationships with major political figures—Olusegun Obasanjo, Bola Tinubu, Goodluck Jonathan—and introduces the concept of “elite play.” Adebanwi argues that power among elites is performative and relational: Adams not only learned to act as a big man but to interact with other powerful figures, often balancing rivalry with cooperation. The OPC itself is presented as a vehicle of ethnic bargaining, oscillating between cultural advocacy and political opportunism. In Chapter Six, a new figure, Sunday Igboho, challenges Adams’ symbolic dominance. This generational contest mirrors Adams’ earlier conflict with Fasehun and highlights the ongoing vulnerability of elite status. Adebanwi uses this moment to show how symbolic capital must be continuously defended in an era of viral media, populism, and shifting political currents.
The book concludes with a reflective Coda that repositions biography as theory. Adebanwi contends that Adams’ story is not an anomaly but illustrative of the improvisational and contested pathways to power in Africa. He compares Adams’ trajectory to figures like South Africa’s Julius Malema, suggesting a broader African grammar of subaltern ascension. The author calls for scholars to take biography seriously as a methodological and theoretical tool in understanding elite formation.
Methodologically, the book is rigorous. It draws on over two decades of research, blending interviews, participant observation, media analysis, and archival work. Adebanwi’s positionality—as a Yoruba intellectual and former journalist—adds both depth and complexity to the narrative. His prose is elegant, insightful, and reflexive, combining ethnography with critical theory.
One possible limitation is the limited attention given to perspectives from the Fasehun faction of the OPC. Including voices from this side might have enriched the analysis of internal OPC politics. However, this is a minor issue in a book of such analytical depth.
How to Become a Big Man in Africa is a landmark study that merges biography, political ethnography, and elite theory. While centred on Gani Adams, its real subject is the cultural and political infrastructure that enables figures like him to rise. The book is an essential reading for everyone.
