^{Page 489 note 1} Important exceptions include Dent, M. J., ‘A Minority Party – The UMBC’, in Macintosh, John P. (ed.), Nigerian Government and Politics (Evanston, 1966), pp. 461–507;Google ScholarPeel, J. D. Y., Ijeshas and Nigerians: the incorporation of a Yoruba Kingdom, 1890's–1970's (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 219–54;Google Scholar and Anifowose, F. O., ‘The Politics of Violence in Nigeria: a case-study of the Tiv and Yoruba areas’, Ph. D. dissertation, University of Manchester, 1973.Google Scholar

^{Page 489 note 2} For example, Coleman, James S. and Rosberg, Carl G. Jr (eds.), Political Parties and National Integration in Africa (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964);Google Scholar and Lewis, W. Arthur, Politics in West Africa (Oxford, 1965).Google Scholar In both works, however, violence is peripheral to their considerable interest in one-party states. Cf. also Young, Crawford, ‘Patterns of Social Conflict: State, class and ethnicity’, in Daedalus (Cambridge, Mass.), Spring 1982, pp. 71–98;Google Scholar and Diamond, Larry, ‘Cleavage, Conflict, and Anxiety in the Second Nigerian Republic’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 20, 4, 12 1982, pp. 629–68.Google Scholar

^{Page 489 note 3} Even where the ‘symbolic factor’ in African politics is discussed, the focus remains on political élites: e.g. Cohen, Abner, The Politics of Elite Culture: explorations in the dramaturgy of power in a modern African culture (Berkeley, 1981);Google ScholarHayward, Fred M. and Dumbuya, Ahmed R., ‘Political Legitimacy, Political Symbols, and National Legdership in West Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 21, 4, 12 1983, pp. 645–71;Google Scholar Maxwell Owusu, ‘Custom and Coups: a juridical interpretation of civil order and disorder in Ghana’, in ibid. 24, 1, March 1986, pp. 69–99; and Christine Sylvester, ‘Zimbabwe's 1985 Elections: a search for national mythology’, in ibid. 24, 2, June 1986, pp. 229–55.

^{Page 490 note 1} Funding for this research during 1982–4 in Nigeria was provided by grants from the U.S. Department of Education (Fulbright-Hays) and the Social Science Research Council. The results are available in my Ph.D. dissertation, ‘Rituals of Power: the politics of òrişà worship in Yoruba society’, Yale University, 05 1987.Google Scholar

^{Page 491 note 1} Now classic studies include Post, K. W. J., The Nigerian Federal Election of 1959 (Oxford, 1963),Google Scholar and Sklar, Richard L., Nigerian Political Parties (Princeton, 1963).Google Scholar

^{Page 493 note 1} Peel, Quentin, ‘Obituary for an Election’, in The Financial Times (London), 23 01 1984, p. 4.Google Scholar

^{Page 493 note 2} The name ‘Akeke’ and the titles of Chief Idofin and Chief Ikoko are pseudonyms to preserve reputations and confidences.

^{Page 493 note 3} For a useful conflict model of games and strategies in the Yoruba King's Council, see Lloyd, P. C., ‘Conflict Theory and Yoruba Kingdoms’, in Lewis, I. M. (ed.), History and Social Anthropology (London, 1968), pp. 25–61.Google Scholar

^{Page 494 note 1} For basic accounts of Yoruba sacred kingships, see Johnson, Samuel, History of the Yoruba (Lagos, 1921), pp. 40–78,Google Scholar and Lloyd, P. C., ‘Sacred Kingship and Government among the Yoruba’, in Africa (London), 30, 3, 07 1960, pp. 221–37Google Scholar. Awolowo capitalised on the Ife-centric myths of orgin and sacred kingship when he founded the Egbé Omo Odùduwà (‘Descendants of Odùduwà’)— and cultural organisation promoting Yoruba unity —and brought the (King) of Ife into A. G. politics.

^{Page 494 note 2} For elaborations of this point, see Barber, Karin, ‘How man Makes God in West Africa: Yoruba attitudes toward the òrişà’, in Africa, 51, 3, 1981, pp. 724–45;Google Scholar and also Horton, Robin, ‘Social Psychologies: African and Western’, in Fortes, Meyer (with an essay by Horton), Oedipus and Job in West African Religion (Cambridge, 1983), especially pp. 57–64.Google Scholar

^{Page 495 note 1} Throughout Awolowo's campaign, I heard rumours that he possessed a ‘fantastic jùjú’ which protected him from rivals.

^{Page 495 note 2} After presenting ‘The Power of : language and subversion in Yoruba royal ritual’ at the October/November 1986 meeting of the African Studies Association in Madison, Wisconsin, I was chastised by some Nigerians for perceiving élite acceptance of beliefs in and as interesting or problematic. I was asked, ‘Is it strange for a westerner to pray for somebody's recovery when hospital treatment fails?’. The point is well taken.

^{Page 496 note 1} The irony of this situation is that Omoboriowo may well have beaten Ajasin in the U.P.N. primaries, which some U.P.N. politicians maintain were rigged. In other words, his reasons for decamping to the N.P.N. may have involved sincere frustration with the U.P.N., as well as political opportunism.

^{Page 498 note 1} See Fagg, William and Pemberton, John, Yoruba Sculpture of West Africa (London, 1982), p. 134 and plate 41.Google Scholar

^{Page 499 note 1} Since the electoral laws required Shagari to win 25 per cent of the vote in two-thirds of the States, his 23 per cent in Ondo represents a politically significant defeat.

^{Page 499 note 2} Subsequent discussion with the man who arrived ‘from Ife’ revealed that he had actually travelled from Ijero, the last leg of the route from Ife to Akeke. The ideological importance of his Ife-centric statement is heightened by its factual inaccuracy.

^{Page 500 note 1} Fortunately the girl had already escaped from the town.

^{Page 501 note 1} Among other things, is a medicine which makes one's words, once uttered, come to pass.

^{Page 502 note 1} Laitin, David D., Hegemony and Culture: politics and religious change among the Yoruba (Chicago, 1986), p. 132.Google Scholar

^{Page 502 note 2} Ibid.

^{Page 502 note 3} Peel, op. cit. p. 253.

^{Page 502 note 4} Ibid. p. 222.