Toyin

The Military Factor in Nigeria 1966-1985

by Toyin Falola, A. Ajayi, A. Alao, and B. Babewale

This is a comprehensive, analytical and empirical analysis of the military variable in Nigerian politics. The authors focus on the relationship between the politicized institution of the military and such varied facets of society as culture, the press, the economy, federalism, religion and foreign policy. The voluminous work attempts an original, informed, comparative and balanced approach. The authors rely on both Western and local sources in their bibliographic references.

Pawnship in Africa: Debt Bondage in Historical Perspective

Edited by Toyin Falola and Paul E. Lovejoy

The labor of pawns—freeborn women, men and children indentured in payment of interest on a debt—was an important supplement to that of slaves in the pre-colonial and colonial eras. This book examines the origins of pawnship; the economic factors that contributed to its spread; the ideological and institutional framework that supported pawnship; its organization; the experience of pawns; and the role of class, gender and age in pawnship.

Child Health in Nigeria: The Impact of a Depressed Economy

Edited by Tola Pearce and Toyin Falola

The deteriorating condition of child health in non-Western societies following the global recession is serious, and children in Africa have been hardest hit. These essays describe the situation of children in Nigeria, showing how poverty and powerlessness interact with indigenous practices.

Pioneer, Patriot, and Patriarch: Samuel Johnson and the Yoruba People

Edited by Toyin Falola

As this century draws to a close, Samuel Johnson’s The History of the Yoruba from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate, completed in 1897 and published in 1921, remains the most read book on the Yoruba-speaking people. Although Johnson’s History has been cited more than any other book on the Yoruba, no sustained effort has been made to subject the text to any full-length critique, assess its impact on Yoruba historiography, and pay adequate tribute to the author. This volume focuses on how to assess this great work and other aspects of the author’s life history such as the perspectives that influenced his scholarship, the role of his brother in the revision of the book, and the use to which the book has been put by subsequent authors.

African Historiography: Essays in Honour of Jacob Ade Ajayi

Edited by Toyin Falola

This major work is the most current examination of the approaches adopted in the writing of African history since the nineteenth century. The volume highlights the contributions of academic and non-academic narrators and scholars. The sixteen essays examine the core values at the root of most of the contemporary works on oral traditions, Yoruba and West African studies, and missionary historiography. The final essays consider recent developments and possible future trends in African studies.

Warfare and Diplomacy in Precolonial Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Robert Smith

Edited by Toyin Falola and Robin Law

Robert Smith began writing history in the 1960s as a prominent member of what is known as the Ibadan school of history, making significant contributions to the establishment of African military history as a legitimate discipline with crucial implications for understanding political and economic developments in precolonial Nigeria as well as the colonial encounter. This collection, honoring and building upon Smith’s work and legacy, covers wars, alliances, and conflict resolution in Western, Central and Northern Nigeria from precolonial times through the nineteenth century.

The Political Economy of Health in Africa

Edited by Toyin Falola and Dennis Ityavyar

This book examines the major phases in the history of health services in Africa and treats health as an integral aspect of the deepening crisis in Africa’s underdevelopment. One important thesis is that Western delivery systems have made health care less accessible for most people. Contributors direct attention to problems engendered by food shortages, acute cases of infection, the market in fake drugs, as well as the inequality of access to facilities, the violation of human rights, and the recent danger of the dumping of toxic wastes in several African countries. The authors consider questions that add to the contemporary discussion of the place that traditional African medicine and philosophy should take alongside modern Western medicine in Africa today.

Rural Development Problems in Nigeria

Edited by S. A. Olanrewaju and Toyin Falola

Most Nigerians dwell in rural areas where they experience, on a daily basis, the stark realities of underdevelopment. The primary goal of this book is to analyze rural backwardness in all its manifestations: declining agricultural exports and food production; poor transportation and health-care delivery; rural-urban migration; lack of industrialization; and disorderly spatial development. The conclusion calls for measures that pay attention to basic human needs, the involvement of the rural dwellers in the formulation and implementation of policies that affect them, adequate budgetary allocation to rural areas, and the transformation of local governments as effective agents of rural development.

Yoruba Historiography

Edited by Toyin Falola

This volume builds upon the unrealized promise of the landmark Sources of Yoruba History (1973) to provide additional material for critically assessing sources and new data on behalf of historical reconstruction for a non-literate society. The contributors of Yoruba Historiography examine archaeological evidence, colonial letters, Arabic materials, and religious history associated with Islam and Christianity. Additional chapters address the context of emergent nationalism to locate works by early Yoruba writers and the rise of the intelligentsia, with a notable focus on the Yoruba guru Samuel Johnson.