Books: 2007 - 2006

The Human Cost of African Migrations

edited by Toyin Falola and Niyi Afolabi

In an era of globalization, population growth, and displacements, migration is now a fact of life in a constantly shifting economic and political world order. This book contributes to the discourse on the beneficiaries, benefactors, and the casualties of African displacement. While the few existing studies have emphasized economic motivation as the primary factor triggering African migration, this volume treats a range of issues: economic, socio-political, pedagogical, developmental, and cultural. Organized with a multidisciplinary thrust in mind, this book argues that any discussion of African migration, whether internal or external, must be conceived as only one aspect of a more complex, organic, and global patterning of flux and reflux necessitated by constantly shifting dynamics of world socio-economic, cultural, and political order.

The Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora

edited by Akinwumi Ogundiran and Toyin Falola

This is the first book devoted to the archaeology of African life on both sides of the Atlantic; it highlights the importance of archaeology in completing the historical records of the Atlantic world’s Africans. Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora presents a diverse, richly textured picture of Africans’ experiences during the era of the Atlantic slave trade and offers the most comprehensive explanation of how African lives became entangled with the creation of the modern world. Through interdisciplinary approaches to material culture, the dynamics of a comparative transatlantic archaeology are developed.

HIV/AIDS, Illness, and African Well-Being

edited by Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton

HIV/AIDS, Illness and African Well-Being highlights the specific health problems facing Africa today, most particularly the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, the book presents not only various health crises, but also the larger historical and contemporary contexts within which they must be understood and managed. Chapters offering analysis of specific illness case studies, and the effects of globalization and underdevelopment on health, provide an overarching context in which HIV/AIDS and other health-related concerns can be understood. The contributions on the HIV/AIDS pandemic grapple with the complications of national and international policies, the sociological effects of the pandemic, and policy options for the future. This volume thus provides a comprehensive view of health issues currently plaguing the continent and the many different ways that scholars are interpreting the health outlook in Africa.

Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage

edited by Toyin Falola and Amanda Warnock

For the first time, the Middle Passage—the experience of slaves on the trans-Atlantic ships—receives a full reference treatment in an encyclopedia. This A-to-Z reference consists of 226 signed entries arranged alphabetically, exhaustively covering the Middle Passage from a variety of perspectives for student research and browsing. Each essay entry concludes with suggestions for further reading. The encyclopedia includes an introductory overview of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as illustrations, bibliography, and chronology.

African Minorities in the New World

edited by Toyin Falola and Salah M. Hassan

This book uncovers the reality that new African immigrants now represent a significant force in the configuration of the American polity and identity, especially in the last forty years. Despite their minority status, African immigrants are making their marks in various areas of human endeavor and accomplishments, including academic, business, and scientific arenas. The demographic shift is both welcome news as well as a matter for concern given the consequences of displacement and the paradoxes of exile in the new location. By its very connection to the ‘Old African Diaspora,’ the notion of a ‘New African Diaspora’ marks a clear indication of a historical progression reconnecting continental Africa with the New World without the stigma of slavery. Yet, the notion of trans-Atlantic slavery is never erased when the African diaspora is mentioned whether in the old or new world. Within this paradoxical dispensation, the new African diaspora must be conceived as the aftermath of a global migration crisis.

Yorùbá Identity and Power Politics

edited by Toyin Falola and Ann Genova

Covering the major issues of Yorùbá history and politics, contributors to this volume come from a wide range of disciplines, and they offer their insights into the Yorùbá of Nigeria with an emphasis on contemporary developments. With a careful blend of sources and methods, narratives on the past and present, the book presents the past as a tool for understanding complicated contemporary struggles for power and resources, as well as the interplay of identity in federal politics. Topics addressed include recent archaeological findings on early Yorùbá groups, the role of Yorùbá chiefs in modern Nigeria, contemporary migrations to North America, and Yorùbá participation in Nigeria's politics, including the controversial elections of 1993. Yorùbá Identity and Power Politics provides readers with an in-depth analysis of politics and history, thus contributing to the literature on ethnicity and policts in modern Africa.

Traditional and Modern Health Systems in Nigeria

edited by Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton

Health-related topics in African countries tend to be viewed negatively. With HIV infection rates soaring and health sectors ill equipped to handle the needs of the general population in most sub-Saharan African countries, there seems to be little worth celebrating in terms of health care options for Africans. Historically, Nigeria has fit well into this assessment. The essays in this book, however, do more than catalogue the failures of the Nigerian health sector. They raise practical issues about how the Nigerian health sector can and perhaps is improving the health outlook for its citizens in the twenty-first century. Through analyses of the ever-increasing integration of traditional medical beliefs and practices with modern medical methods and treatments, as well as discussions about the proliferation of private and non-governmental health institutions, popular perceptions of health and illness, and the connection between environment and health, these essays illustrate the enormity and complexity of facets that combine to form a uniquely Nigerian health system. Together, the essays in this volume paint a dichotomous picture of poor performance and optimism, underdevelopment and expansion facilities, but above all, they suggest that solutions to Nigeria's health problems do exist: the job merely remains to assess and implement them.

The Yoruba in Transition: History, Values, and Modernity

edited by Toyin Falola and Ann Genova

Under pressure from the relentless forces of globalization combined with domestic changes, Nigerians find themselves in a period of constant social, political, and economic adjustment. After decades of military rule and political instability, Nigeria reintroduced itself as a democratic state in 1999. The changes and democratic posturing have raised questions about how to move the country forward. The Yoruba, one of Nigeria’s most well-known and historically prevalent ethnic groups, have taken an active role in dealing with these issues. Whether motivated by a nationalist vision of a unified, successful Nigeria, or by their own interests in reclaiming political space and retaining their culture, the Yoruba have made important contributions to the discussions relating to this transitional era. The essays in this book examine important contemporary issues such as migration, health, agricultural production, cybercrime, and the role of women in Yoruba society. The Yoruba in Transition represents a rare view of how people within and outside Nigeria view the new millennium in relation to this prominent group and their country.

Scoundrels of Deferral: Poems to Redeem Reflection

by Toyin Falola and Vik Bahl

When new worlds are unfamiliar, when the terrain appears treacherous, when choices and their consequences are daunting, is it better to trust instinct and act or to sit down and think everything through? Scoundrels of Deferral is a collection of poems penned by two writers who seek to discover and animate what may be urgent in reflection itself. The poetry of Toyin Falola and Vivek Bahl emerges from the experiences of dislocation, the unpredictability of good intentions and grand ambitions, the unrelenting longing for connection and community, and the determination to reinvent traditions and foundations to recreate the wholeness of fractured worlds. Theirs is an honest witnessing of loss, perplexity and violence, but also a commemoration of desire, hope and joy. Here is a poetry where acknowledgment, gratitude and mischief may serve as the basis for purposeful labor, emergent leadership, and fulfilled social being.

Igbo Religion, Social Life and Other Essays by Simon Ottenberg

edited by Toyin Falola

In this volume Simon Ottenberg presents a number of detailed essays on the religious life of the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria and on the Limba of northern Sierra Leone, based on extensive anthropological field research over many years. Ottenberg stresses the importance of looking at African religious life in terms of ritual activity and change over time. There are also chapters on the growth of Abakaliki, an Igbo town, and essays reflecting on the author’s field experiences in Africa. The volume concludes with two general papers, one on the question of peasantry in Africa and the other a survey of anthropological and historical research in southeastern Nigeria.