Nigeria in the Twentieth Century (review)

This is a heavy volume in several respects. Its physical weight is enormous, the number of topics covered in the essays wide-set, the implicit ambition to provide an overview of Nigerian Studies at the beginning of the new millennium serious. The book is the result of a conference held at the University of Texas at Austin in March 2002, in the annual series of African Studies conferences so handily set up by Professor Falola. The format of these conferences is quite open, and allows scholars of African Studies, both mature and green, and from diverse academic and geographical backgrounds, to interact and present their research. Many of the papers presented at these conferences find their way into publications. On the one hand, this format is very powerful, as it guarantees a continuous flow of research results and academic reviews towards a wider audience. On the other hand, as is the case with this book, there is a risk of uneven coverage of and unclear focus on the main theme.

What does the book offer? First, a series of 79 black-and-white, page-sized photographs, divided into several thematic chapters, but without further introduction, description or explanation other than the name of the photographer, Olusegun Fayemi. Although beautiful and a joy to look at, their meaning is puzzling: is this a pictorial review of Nigeria in the twentieth century, and, if so, is it meant to be documentary or artistic? These questions also apply to many of the textual contributions in this volume. In text, the book offers eight topical sections, each with between 5 and 18 chapters (64 in all), ranging from historiography via political woes and civil war to modern economies and traditional institutions, and ending up at nation building. The attempt to bind sets of papers together in this way is not always successful. The section on ‘Creativity and Cultures’, for instance, offers detailed case studies on aspects of the literary work of Wole Soyinka, Tess Onwueme, and Zulu Sofola, next to general papers on topics like ‘gender and nationalism in contemporary literature’ and ‘politics in aesthetics: art as an instrument of nation building’. Divergent approaches like these are symptomatic of the whole volume.

The variation in format, methodology and subject matter between the contributions detracts from the merits of individual authors. Some of the chapters written by graduate students deserved a further polishing based on peer reviews and advice from senior colleagues. Overview articles like Barnes’s contribution on Christianity and the colonial state in northern Nigeria, or Ogundiran’s paper on archaeology, historiography and development, as well as several others, would have made a good nucleus for a much shorter and more focused publication, truly reviewing the state of Nigeria in the twentieth century. Other contributions, based on original research, could then have found a place in conference proceedings, with an option of republication in a peer-reviewed journal at a later stage. As it stands, gems of original research, like Tijani’s article on communists and the nationalist movement, are lost in this bulky volume.

This is not only a heavy tome, but also an awkward one. Again, this pertains to the physical as well as the academic qualities of the book. By its sheer weight and volume, one will not pick it up easily to flick through the contributions or look up a reference. The fact that the layout of the pages is not really inviting, and the index is too general, only enhances this. In terms of content, the lightweight quality of many contributions makes it difficult to see the wood for the trees. A more rigorous selection of papers for publication and a closer focus on the objective of the book, rather than simply reproducing the format and atmosphere of the conference in published form, would have made for a more important and more welcome contribution to our knowledge of the state of Nigeria in the twentieth century. [End Page...