Vigilant Things
On Thieves, Yoruba Anti-Aesthetics, and The Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria
Publication Year: 2011
Published by: University of Washington Press
Contents
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pp. vii-x
Map 1: Yorubaland
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pp. xi-
Map 2: Detail of Map 1
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pp. xii-
Acknowledgments
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pp. xiii-xvii
I hear that first-time authors are traditionally given absolution, or at least a special dispensation, for writing lengthy acknowledgments. Well, then, here goes. Vigilant Things would not have happened without the generous support of many institutions and individuals in the United States and Nigeria, and one or two in England as well. ...
A Note on Orthography
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pp. xviii-
The three tones of Yoruba roughly correspond to the first three notes of the musical scale, which would be marked like this: dò, re, mí. The vowel e is pronounced as is the a in fate, while ẹ is pronounced as in bed. O is equivalent to the O in home, and ọ is similar to the aw in pawn. ...
A Note on Language and Translation
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pp. xix-
Conversations were conducted and recorded in Yoruba and English, with each language inevitably infusing the other in some ratio, depending on the occasion and the relationship between participants. Now and again, Nigerian Pidgin was brought into the linguistic mix for expressive emphasis. ...
A Note on Photography
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pp. xx-
My photographs document objects that until now have been largely neglected in the literature on Yoruba visual culture. As documents, they are meant to translate the visual impact of these objects in terms appropriate to the intentions of the objects’ creators, as well as to the requirements of a visually savvy foreign audience that may never before have encountered such things. ...
Introduction
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pp. 3-34
In a Nigerian town called Modák k , at the junction of Okéèsọ Street and Ìgborò Street, stood the ruins of a two-story private home that had been gutted by firebombs in early 1999. It was one of many ruins along those streets, fallout from what was then the most recent outbreak of a conflict at the heart of Yorubaland, ...
Part I: Creating ��l�
Presence, Power, and the Past
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pp. 37-85
It is probably impossible to determine where ààlè originated. Language attests to their wide diffusion throughout Yorubaland, but brings us no closer to locating a single historical source. The vast Yoruba population—numbering upwards of twenty million— is in fact an agglomeration of many ethnic identities, ...
Palm Fronds (M�r�w�)
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pp. 86-120
In a 1924 volume entitled The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba People, A. K. Ajisafe devotes an entire chapter to legal matters attending the establishment and breach of contracts. In a firm, clipped language and outline form that lends to the book the tone of a legal brief—a tone that would have been reassuring to the colonial agents of the British Protectorate ...
Part II: Call-and-Response
What We Look at and Remember
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pp. 123-186
On many occasions, ààlè contain no potent medicines to combat theft, and yet they are set in place with the understanding that they will function effectively. In such cases, there is a shift in the location of efficacious power—from the creative actions of the work’s producer to the responses of its intended recipient. ...
Color (�w )
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pp. 187-214
Why is it necessary to discuss color in an essay whose paradigmatic objects are old shoes, snail shells, broken pots, scrap iron, rags, peppers, and leaves? Because it will allow us to explore further the relationships between the exterior and interior qualities of things as they tend to be understood in Yoruba culture. ...
Part III: Portraits and Punishments
An Ontology of the Broken
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pp. 217-279
Yoruba proverbs, even when they are written, are not written in stone. Not only does the significance of a proverb shift in accordance to the specific context of its application, but also the contents of the phrase may be subtly transformed to better address the issue at hand. ...
Corncobs (Ṣùkù Àgbàdo)
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pp. 280-302
What supports the people if not maize?” (Igba dodo lí àgbàdo, igbà ni?) asks a phrase collected by Alfred Burdon Ellis (1894:241). The question is a play on the phonemes contained within the Yoruba word that connotes maize, àgbàdo. ...
Snail Shells (�karawun �gb�n)
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pp. 303-323
In a poem that appeared on the “Arts & Life” page of The Punch newspaper on the last day of 1998, Adelani Olaniyi, a poet with a Yoruba name, depicted his country as a long-suffering snail. To many Western readers, the invertebrate metaphor might be merely amusing, calling up associations with vaguely creepy Parisian delicacies, or with the slowness and steadiness that so famously win the race. ...
Brooms (�gb�le)
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pp. 324-342
In much of tropical and equatorial Africa, people make brooms by grouping together the excised midribs of palm fronds and tying them with fiber into a bundle. These bundles are democratic things—they brush aside accumulated filth on the floors of small family homes and royal palaces alike. ...
Coda
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pp. 343-388
In classical Yoruba thought, the lessons of the past flow into and nourish the present. That flow is discontinuous, however, and the nourishment comes only at a cost. In exchange, the present must acknowledge and honor the past for providing the feast. ...
Glossary
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pp. 389-393
Works Consulted
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pp. 394-405
Index
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pp. 406-420
E-ISBN-13: 9780295802497
Print-ISBN-13: 9780295990736
Publication Year: 2011
