Synopses & Reviews
How can we account for the power of ritual? This is the guiding question of
Black Critics and Kings, which examines how Yoruba forms of ritual and knowledge shape politics, history, and resistance against the state. Focusing on "deep" knowledge in Yoruba cosmology as an interpretive space for configuring difference, Andrew Apter analyzes ritual empowerment as an essentially critical practice, one that revises authoritative discourses of space, time, gender, and sovereignty to promote politicaland#8212;-and even violentand#8212;-change.
Documenting the development of a Yoruba kingdom from its nineteenth-century genesis to Nigeria's 1983 elections and subsequent military coup, Apter identifies the central role of ritual in reconfiguring power relations both internally and in relation to wider political arenas. What emerges is an ethnography of an interpretive vision that has broadened the horizons of local knowledge to embrace Christianity, colonialism, class formation, and the contemporary Nigerian state. In this capacity, Yoruba andograve;randigrave;sandagrave; worship remains a critical site of response to hegemonic interventions.
With sustained theoretical argument and empirical rigor, Apter answers critical anthropologists who interrogate the possibility of ethnography. He reveals how an indigenous hermeneutics of power is put into ritual practiceand#8212;-with multiple voices, self-reflexive awareness, and concrete political results. Black Critics and Kings eloquently illustrates the ethnographic value of listening to the voice of the other, with implications extending beyond anthropology to engage leading debates in black critical theory.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-265) and index.
About the Author
Andrew Apter is professor of history and anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and chair of the interdepartmental program in African studies. Hisand#160;book,
Beyond Words: Discourse and Critical Agency in Africa,and#160;is alsoand#160;published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
MAPS
1. The Oyo Empire, c. 1780
2. The Ibadan Empire, 1874
3. Daniel May's Journey Through Ayede
4. The Kingdom of Ayede, c. 1878
FIGURES
2.1 A Model for the Are Generation-Set System
2.2 Generational Seniority in the Are System
2.3 Centralized Recruitment to the Orisha Ojuna Cult in Ayede
2.4 Devolution of Yemoja Cult Offices
2.5 Kinship and Affinity in Ayede's Yemoja Cult Pantheon
3.1 Dynasic Succession in Ayede
7.1 Popular Depiction of a Capricious Bush Spirit
PLATES
1,2. Beaded Olukun Crowns of Ayede and Iye
3. The andagrave;ta of Ayede's Ritual Representative
4. Carrying Fire for Orisha Ojuna
5. Yemoja's Sacred Calabash
6. iyandaacute; Sngandoacute; Predicting for the Town
7. andograve;sun in the Yemoja Festival
8. The andagrave;ta During the King's Sacrifice
9. Yemoja Priestess Emerging from the Bush
10, 11. The andagrave;ta Embodying the Powers of Yemoja's Calabash
12. Orisha Iyagba Masqueraders from Ipao
13. A Wife of the Balandoacute;gun aandagrave;fin
14. The andagrave;ta Returning from Orisha Ojuna's Shrine
15. The andagrave;wandograve;randograve; of Orisha Olua
16, 17. Sacrifice to Ogun
18. Orisha Ojuna Priestesses Concluding their Festival