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Title:Interrogating the memories of slavery and the slave trade among the Ikale-Yoruba, c 1640-1890: the poverty of European accounts and response to Olatunji Ojo's critique
Author:Ogen, OlukoyaISNI
Year:2011
Periodical:Lagos Historical Review (ISSN 1596-5031)
Volume:11
Pages:113-148
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:historiography
precolonial period
slave trade
slavery
ethnic identity
Ikale
Yoruba
External link:https://doi.org/10.4314/lhr.v11i1.7
Abstract:Against the backdrop of Olatunji Ojo's recent submission that the slave trade was not significant in Ikale precolonial history, this paper reinterrogates the memories of slavery and the slave trade in Ikaleland, Nigeria. It also examines the antiquity of Ikale's Yoruba ethnic identity and dismisses Ojo's claim that the Ikale were originally Edoid. Significantly, the paper corrects an avalanche of historically inaccurate, misleading and contradictory assertions made by Ojo and reveals that Ojo's so-called modifications merely reflect his ignorance of the history of the Ikale, Ilaje, Apoi, Izon and Idanre. Methodologically, the work also accuses Ojo of trying to render jaundiced archival data on the Ikale sacrosanct. Thus, by celebrating the age long Western prejudice against the credibility of oral sources, Ojo's approach represents part of a neoliberal assault on an authentic African historiography. The study concludes that Ojo's rejoinder is muddled from a historiographical point of view and deficient in its understanding of Ikale precolonial history. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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