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Vernacular historiography and self-translation in early colonial Nigeria: Ajiṣafẹ's History of Abẹokuta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2021

Adrian M. Deese
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Abstract

Emmanuel Olympus Moore (aka Ajiṣafẹ) (c.1875/79–1940) was a pioneer of Nigerian Yorùbá literature and popular music. Ajiṣafẹ was one of the most significant Nigerian popular cultural figures of his generation. Written during the amalgamation of Nigeria, his History of Abẹokuta (1916) (Iwe Itan Abẹokuta, 1924) is a seminal text for our understanding of Abẹokuta and the Ẹgba kingdom. This article examines the bilingual passages of the History in which Ajiṣafẹ invokes oral history to construct a religious ethnography of the early Ẹgba polity. Self-translation enabled vernacular authors to mediate constituencies. The English and Yorùbá texts of the History differ in their engagement with Yorùbá cosmology. Ajiṣafẹ's texts converge in his defence of the Odùduwà dynasty; Abẹokuta, in a constitutional Yorùbá united kingdom, would be the seat of ecclesiastical power. Civil authority in Nigeria could be stabilized through an Abrahamic renegotiation of divine kingship. To establish his treatise within a genealogy of world Christianity, Ajiṣafẹ utilized self-translation as a rhetorical device to reconcile the working of providence in precolonial and colonial African history. Ajiṣafẹ's History, ultimately, is an Abrahamic exposition of the role of God's providence in bringing about the complete unification of Nigeria in September 1914.

Résumé

Résumé

Emmanuel Olympus Moore (alias Ajiṣafẹ) (c.1875/79–1940) était un pionnier de la littérature et de la musique populaire nigérianes yoruba. Ajiṣafẹ était l'une des plus importantes figures culturelles populaires nigérianes de sa génération. Rédigé pendant la réunification du Nigeria, son History of Abẹokuta (1916) (Iwe Itan Abẹokuta, 1924) est un texte fondateur pour la compréhension d'Abẹokuta et du royaume Ẹgba. Cet article examine les passages bilingues de cet ouvrage, dans lequel Ajiṣafẹ invoque l'histoire orale pour construire une ethnographie religieuse de la politie Ẹgba à ses débuts. L'autotraduction a permis aux auteurs vernaculaires de rapprocher les parties prenantes. Les textes en anglais et en yorùbá de cet ouvrage diffèrent dans leur façon de traiter la cosmologie yorùbá. Les textes d'Ajiṣafẹ's convergent dans sa défense de la dynastie Odùduwà; Abẹokuta, dans un royaume uni yorùbá constitutionnel, serait le siège du pouvoir ecclésiastique. L'autorité civile au Nigeria pourrait être stabilisée à travers une renégociation abrahamique de la royauté divine. Pour inscrire son traité dans une généalogie du christianisme mondial, Ajiṣafẹ a utilisé l'autotraduction comme un dispositif rhétorique pour réconcilier le mécanisme de providence dans l'histoire africaine précoloniale et coloniale. L'ouvrage d'Ajiṣafẹ est en définitive une exposition abrahamique du rôle de la providence de Dieu dans l'unification complète du Nigeria en septembre 1914.

Type
Yoruba studies
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 5 , November 2021 , pp. 768 - 789
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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