Introduction. The nineteenth century in Yoruba history

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1 Introduction from M.R. Doortmont, Recapturing the Past: Samuel Johnson and the History of the Yoruba (Ph.D. dissertation; Erasmus University Rotterdam, 1994) 1-8. Introduction This book is about writing history, or rather the production of histories. The subject of research are the Yoruba, a people who live in the modern state of Nigeria (West Africa). A series of events of a political, social, and economic nature, that took place in the nineteenth century, led the Yoruba towards a renewed look at their own history and culture. A group of Western educated historians emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century among the Yoruba. This group started to translate oral traditions and orally transmitted stories into written histories and thus created a new form of Yoruba history. One of the most prominent men in this group was the Rev. Samuel Johnson, whose person and work on the history of the Yoruba will figure as a centre-point in this study. Before we can ask questions about the nature of early Yoruba historiography, we need to know more about the Yoruba themselves and about the events that took place in the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century in Yoruba history The homeland of the Yoruba with its centre in south-western Nigeria, extends over an area of c. 300 km. from the coastal town of Lagos land-inward, and from central Togo in the west, through the Republic of Benin (formerly Dahomey) to the Edo and Igbo speaking peoples in south-central Nigeria. The main northern neighbours of the Yoruba are the Nupe and Borgu peoples. The ecological conditions of the area inhabited by the Yoruba are diverse. From south to north, we find mangrove forest, primary and secondary rain forest, and woodland savanna in the northern areas 1. The diversity in ecological conditions coincided throughout history with a diversity in political organisation and culture. In the north the powerful and centrally organised kingdom of Oyo dominated the area. In the southern rainforest, we find small city-states surrounded by villages and farms. In some instances these citystates remained rather isolated communities, like the town of Ile-Ife, allegedly the cradle of all Yoruba people. In others the city states cooperated in loose political confederacies, like the Egba. Evidence points to a strong dominance of Oyo over many of the other Yoruba peoples and areas in the eighteenth century. The sphere of influence of Oyo included the coastal areas around Lagos and the neighbouring kingdom of Dahomey. The Egba and the non-yoruba state of Dahomey became tributaries. Direction and motive for the expansion of Oyo can be found in the Atlantic slave trade that grew in the eighteenth century and which made it necessary for the landlocked state of Oyo to gain control over trade-routes to and ports on the Atlantic coast. 1. J.S. Eades, The Yoruba today (Cambridge 1980),

2 The early nineteenth century saw the end of Oyo hegemony. Reasons for the political and military collapse of the state can be found in internal problems of an economic and political nature and eventually also the prohibition of the Atlantic slave trade. There is some evidence for changing ecological circumstances in the savanna region, which increased pressure on a growing population and initiated migration towards the more fertile south. This coincided with pressures on the political system of Oyo itself, in which central authority in the capital clashed with the provincial administrations. The king had direct and absolute control, exercised by officials, in some areas. Other dependencies were ruled through a system which has been characterised as feudal in outlook. Here Oyo-chiefs held certain areas as personal fiefdoms, which could constitute a power-base against the central authority. The end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century also saw increasing pressures on the state from the outside. Around 1800 the Fulani people to the north, under their leader Usman dan Fodio, effected an Islamic revolution that overthrew the traditional political constellation of the Hausa states and their neighbours. In its place the Fulani established a number of emirates under the nominal control of the Sultan of Sokoto, which position was originally taken by Usman dan Fodio. This new Hausa-Fulani empire with its vigorous Islamic ideology, promoted a policy of expansion towards the south and east during the remainder of the nineteenth century. Usually, this expansion was prepared by socalled Muslim preachers who asked the Sultanate for help in establishing a Muslim state (emirate). In the early decades of the nineteenth century the Muslim preacher Alimi, supported in this way by the Fulani rulers in the north, cooperated with opponents of Oyo Royal authority, among whom the important Yoruba chief Afonja, who had his headquarters in the provincial town of Ilorin. This co-operation and the following wars between Ilorin and Oyo and would eventually effectuate the fall and depopulation of the capital and the Oyo heartland in the mid-1830s. A large part of this area became the Ilorin Emirate. For the remainder of the nineteenth century the Yoruba lands were in a very confused political state. Large migration-flows from the Oyo heartland towards the east (Ilorin) and south (Ibadan, Ife) in the 1820s to 1840s displaced hundreds of thousands of people. New, large cities sprang up (Ilorin, Ibadan, Abeokuta), as well as small fortified villages. Civil war ensued and increased the output of slaves for the Atlantic slave trade. Although the prohibition of this trade had been accepted by most Western nations by 1820, illegal trade continued well into the 1850s. A huge proportion of these illegal slaves were Yoruba. They mainly ended up in Brazil and Cuba, where they nurtured their own culture and are quite distinct even today. The slave trade was also important for the continuation of the wars. Because of the slave trade one could buy weapons and ammunition. The Egba in the south were pushed further towards the coast and reassembled their confederacy in the new town of Abeokuta. The Dahomeans, now independent of Oyo, and militarily stronger than ever, made seasonal slave-raiding incursions into the western Yoruba areas. In general, political and social confusion ruled the area. From 1850 to c the Fulani-Yoruba state of Ilorin was held in stasis by Oyo forces from the south, led by warlords from the city-state of Ibadan. Ibadan recognised the nominal suzerainty of the Alaafin king of Oyo, who had settled in a small town which became known as New Oyo. In effect, however, Ibadan was a refugee camp turned war camp, in which military leaders ruled and 2

3 where old structures of authority did not exist; power was held by independent military leaders (warlords). Ibadan was an expansionist state. It inherited the military of Old Oyo and reorganised this. It not only used its military might to check the advances of Ilorin, however, but also sought to enlarge its territory in the eastern Yoruba regions. It hereby pulled other, hitherto unaffected groups, like the Ijesa and Ekiti, into the wars. From the 1810s, many of the slave-ships with Yoruba slaves on board were captured by the British anti-slavery naval squadron, cruising along the coast of West Africa. These slavers were brought to Freetown in Sierra Leone, where the ships were auctioned, and the so-called recaptured slaves resettled. This resettlement included Christianisation and Western primary education. The many Yoruba slaves landed at Freetown soon formed new communities in the surrounding villages, where they found a new identity in which their old and new cultural experiences blended. In the late 1830s and early 1840s, diminishing economic opportunities in Sierra Leone directed a number of Yoruba recaptives towards re-migration to their homeland. In the early 1840s several groups of these so-called Sierra Leonian Yorubas, or Saros, settled first in the coastal town of Badagri, the Egba capital of Abeokuta, and later also in Lagos. The Anglican and Methodist missions followed them and set up mission posts both on the coast and in a number of places in the hinterland. When the British first set up a consulate in Lagos (1851) and later annexed the place as a Crown Colony (1862), in an effort to stem the illegal slave trade, Lagos became the centre of Saro migration. The Saro community grew throughout the century and was supplemented by ex-slaves who returned from Brazil, migrants from the hinterland, and a growing European administrative force. The Saros and their descendants remained the dominant social group, mainly because of their ability to communicate with both the British colonial authorities and the indigenous population. The fall of Oyo, the Islamisation of the northern area, the rise of new citystates, a new Western educated group of Yoruba, and the growing influence of Christian missions and colonial administration all contributed to the re-shaping of Yoruba society. J.D.Y. Peel shows, that our view of Yoruba society and Yoruba identity is strongly influenced by the ideas and work of nineteenth-century missionaries, both of European and Yoruba extraction 2. In this respect we can speak of a problem in nineteenth-century Yoruba history. We know that before the nineteenth century, political, cultural and economic circumstances were such that it is hard to speak of the Yoruba 3. There were of course common traits in myths of origin, religion and other cultural aspects, and it is probably better to speak of different dialects than of different languages spoken by the Yoruba peoples. Yoruba culture was, however, not homogeneous 4. In the first place, one can distinguish the northern, savanna culture of Oyo from that of the southern, forest cultures. Oyo political and military organisation, mythology, and economic structures resembled much more those of the other, non-yoruba savanna states like Nupe and Borgu, and even the Hausa. In Hausa tradition Oyo is actually seen 2. J.D.Y. Peel, The cultural work of Yoruba ethnogenesis in: E. Tonkin, M. McDonald & M. Chapman (eds.), History and ethnicity (London 1987) Cf. R.C.C. Law, The Oyo empire, c c. 1836: a West African imperialism in the era of the Atlantic slave trade (Oxford 1977) 1-11; R.S. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba (Third edition London 1988) 6-11 and passim. 4. G.F.A. Ojo, Yoruba culture: a geographical analysis (London 1966). 3

4 as one of the seven bastard Hausa states. The word Yoruba is derived from the Hausa word Yarriba, meaning Oyo. For the eighteenth and earlier centuries, one can make a clear distinction between northern and southern Yoruba culture, when studied in a political framework 5. For the nineteenth century, this is much more difficult. On the one hand, Yoruba society is fragmented by the fall of Oyo, and the long period of civil war and the displacement of people. On the other, a new political and religious ideology is introduced by the Saros, Christian missions and colonial authorities. Especially the role of the Saro elite deserves attention here, as they seem to be the main agents of change in the second half of the nineteenth century 6. Peel actually makes them responsible for the invention of the Yoruba as a cultural group with a uniform language, and an ethnic identity which did not exist before the nineteenth century. For the research of the Yoruba past, the nineteenth century poses an important question. The events of the nineteenth century are a filter through which our present day view of the Yoruba past is coloured and blurred. Source materials in the form of oral traditions recounting the past were used for contemporary nineteenth-century ends in a period of extreme confusion. At the same time, the Saro elite tried to recapture their past, in order to define their own cultural universe. In this version of the Yoruba past, elements were introduced that were closer to Western than to Yoruba philosophical and academic traditions. In the third place, in the early twentieth century, the colonial authorities tried to use history as an instrument of colonial administration. All three elements influenced form and content of Yoruba history. We can therefore ask which and whose Yoruba past we actually see, and how the image developed over time. We can also ask which heuristic instruments are available for an analysis of our image of the Yoruba past. Until recently, modern historians had given little serious attention to this problem. In this respect it is useful to look briefly at the development of Yoruba historiography. Yoruba historiography Since the 1850s a tradition of history-writing in English and Yoruba developed, mainly in Lagos and Abeokuta. The authors were either European missionaries or Western educated Yoruba, mostly with a missionary background, and mostly from the so-called Saro group. The motivation to write these usually short histories, more often in pamphlet format rather than book format, was part of the general movement of cultural nationalism that took root among the Western educated Yorubaand bloomed from the 1880s into the early years of the twentieth century. 5. See for instance Law, The Oyo empire, , especially ; Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, especially 13-41; P.C. Lloyd, The political development of Yoruba kingdoms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (London 1971), and others. 6. K. Mann, Marrying well. Marriage, status and social change among the educated elite in colonial Lagos (Cambridge 1985); J.H. Kopytoff, Preface to modern Nigeria: the Sierra Leonians in Yoruba, (Madison 1965); Peel, The cultural work of Yoruba ethnogenesis ; A.G. Hopkins, Innovation in a colonial context: African origins in the Nigerian cocoa farming industry, in: C. Dewey & A.G. Hopkins (eds.), The imperial impact (London 1978) 83-96; M.R. Doortmont, Educated Africans, Concept. Tijdschrift voor maatschappijgeschiedenis 1 (1984)

5 Increasing racial discrimination and the Europeanisation of missions and colonial administration started a movement in which Western educated Yoruba sought to re-establish an identification with indigenous society 7. Within this cultural nationalist movement, several important figures can be distinguished. For the study of history, the most important person is without doubt the Yoruba missionary and diplomat Samuel Johnson. His The history of the Yorubas, completed in 1897 and published in 1921, is still an important source for modern scholars of Yoruba history. Johnson s work represented one rather specific direction in the cultural nationalist movement. On the one hand, he was a staunch supporter of mission policies and British colonial expansion as a means to civilise Yoruba society. On the other hand, his intention with the book was to educate his fellow countrymen in the history of their own country 8. Due to the format and size (almost 700 pages) his book has become a classic in Yoruba historical literature, being accepted first as a true account of Yoruba history, and later more and more as an important but not unproblematic source 9. As such, Johnson and his work seem to be a good subject for a case-study, especially in relation to Oyo history on the one hand (to which Johnson gives most attention) and colonial rule and Christian missions on the other (as Johnson was sympathetic to both and acted as an agent for them). At the same time, this case can be used to study the problem of the analysis of images of the Yoruba past, as mentioned above. Until the 1950s, all historical studies were of a non-academic nature, written by amateurs or colonial officials. This changed when the first academically trained Nigerian historians started work at the University of Ibadan. From this group, the so-called Ibadan School of History developed. Their historiographical affinities lay within the liberal English tradition which emphasised the element of description over analysis in the study of history 10. For the problem of the nineteenth century in Yoruba this meant that most historical attention was devoted to political matters and to the reconstruction of the past through describing it. More recently, historians have taken a rather different and often very helpful approach to the study of Yoruba history. Peel, coming to history from sociology, is an example. In his studies of Ijesa society in the nineteenth and twentieth century, Peel emphasises the importance of the link between making history in the sense of realising a future and in the sense of giving accounts of the past 11. K. Barber, also a social scientist, has reconstructed in great detail the social lay-out of the northern Yoruba town of Okuku, and showed in the process the almost immeasurable importance of oral traditions for the definition of social and political relationships in that particular Yoruba town. Barber also provides new insights in the way in which 7. Law, Early Yoruba historiography, History in Africa 3 (1976) 69-89; there 76; Kopytoff, Preface to modern Nigeria; J.S. Coleman, Nigeria: background to nationalism (Berkeley 1958) S. Johnson, The history of the Yorubas from the earliest times to the beginning of the British protectorate (London 1921) vii. See also Law, Early Yoruba historiography, See for instance Toyin Falola, Ade Ajayi on Samuel Johnson: filling the gaps in: Toyin Falola ed., African historiography: essays in honour of Jacob Ade Ajayi (London 1993) L. Kapteyns, African historiography written by Africans, The Nigerian case (Leiden 1977); P.E. Lovejoy, The Ibadan school of historiography and its critics in: Falola ed. African historiography, Peel treats this problem specifically in Making history: the past in the Ijesha present, Man (N.S.) 19 (1984) , and generally (and more implicitly) in his book Ijeshas and Nigerians. The incorporation of a Yoruba kingdom, 1890s-1970s (Cambridge 1983) Introduction and Part I: The precolonial kingdom. 5

6 oral traditions are transmitted, and the important role women play in this process 12. Even more recently, the American anthropologist A. Apter has attempted an analysis of the strong inter-relationship between politics and power on the one hand, and ritual and knowledge on the other in Yoruba society. Like Barber and Peel, Apter focuses his study on one Yoruba town (Ayede) and gives much attention to the historical determinants that rule social and political relations. Apter uses as a framework for his study the concept of a hermeneutic system, in which indigenous forms of knowledge and power constitute the critical conditions of social reproduction and change 13. One of the drawbacks of Apter s approach, looking at it from the historians point of view, is the subordination of the historical to the ritual. Apter s book is therefore of considerably less importance for a re-evaluation of early Yoruba historiography than the work of Barber and Peel. In general we see a tendency among social scientists who study Yoruba society to turn to historical methods of analysis, which has definitely refreshed the study of Yoruba history. The combination of the study of history proper with the study of oral literature, language, and culture in general, gives us a new view of the Yoruba past and the ways in which history was created. Historians have renewed their methods of research and analysis too. Law contributed to the new historiographical interest with two articles in which he criticised some of his own earlier viewpoints on Oyo history and the use of source materials 14. Both articles are interesting, because Law initiated a change in the general level of analysis of early Yoruba historiography. Before, critique on the early works was a critique of sources, of the factual accuracy of texts and variant versions of earlier, oral histories. After, the study of early Yoruba historiography has become much more contextual. Texts are now invariably studied in the context in which they were shaped, with much attention for the person and position of the author and his social and educational background. Texts are studied with regard to mechanisms and methods of the transmission of oral traditions. The social sciences and the study of traditional Yoruba (oral) literature have contributed to this development. The emphasis on analysis rather than the description of the Yoruba past calls for a theoretical framework in which the available early texts can be placed. While doing an early study of Samuel Johnson as a missionary, diplomat and historian 15, I developed the idea that his concept of Yoruba history was characterised by three parameters. Johnson was a product of missionary education and this positioned him intellectually in a European tradition of learning. His missionary profession strengthened this. As a researcher, he could identify himself with Yoruba culture, because of his Yoruba descent, and indeed did so. He also made use of traditional sources of historical knowledge, with specific forms and uses, and their own internal logic. On the one hand he was an outsider looking into Yoruba 12. K. Barber, I could speak until tomorrow: Oriki, women and the past in a Yoruba town (Edinburgh 1991). 13. A. Apter, Black kings & critics: the hermeneutics of power in Yoruba society (Chicago 1992) R.C.C. Law, How truly traditional is our traditional history? The case of Samuel Johnson and the recording of Yoruba oral tradition, History in Africa 11 (1984) , and How many times can history repeat itself? Some problems in the traditional history of Oyo, International Journal of African Historical Studies 18 (1985) Michel R. Doortmont, Samuel Johnson and The history of the Yorubas: a study in historiography (M.A. dissertation, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham 1985). 6

7 society, and on the other he was an insider, actively participating in developments that took place in that same society. As a diplomat, working for the Colonial Government of Lagos in the 1880s and 1890s, Johnson was taking part in a process of colonial annexation, and again looked at and worked in Yoruba society in a very different way. For the colonial authorities, knowledge of the Yoruba society, including historical knowledge, was the means to an end, and Johnson provided them with these means. In his letters, diaries, and book, The History of the Yorubas, Johnson presented these three perspectives as one coherent view on Yoruba society and its past. Reflecting on Samuel Johnson s specific position in Yoruba society, I concluded that he was but an example of a much larger group of people, with generally the same background, and probably the same outlook on Yoruba society and history. This provided me with the idea of defining a framework for the study of early historical texts, along the lines of the three parameters, found with Johnson. My hypothesis was that these parameters could be found with other historians too, and were indeed of a more general nature. Categorising from the top down these are: (1) the educational background steering the early Yoruba historian; (2) the mechanisms controlling content and transmission of oral traditions used as sources in early Yoruba histories; (3) the implementation of historical knowledge for administrative purposes, especially in a colonial context. Catching the three parameters in one word, one could speak of the classical, traditional and pragmatic aspects (or dimensions) of Yoruba historiography. Distinguishing these dimensions, which point to the three main actors in the making of a history the historian, the sources, and the aims of the work may offer a heuristic instrument that goes beyond the study of Yoruba history and historiography. The invention of tradition and the creation of history The problem in the study of Yoruba history is the question, whether it is possible to distinguish all elements that contributed to the formation of Yoruba society and history as we know it today. This problem is related both to the actual events that took place in the nineteenth century and the parameters within which the early Yoruba historians did their work. We can ask ourselves for instance which elements in the early written histories were accounts of fact, and which found their origin in earlier adaptations of fact. All parties present in the Yoruba region in the nineteenth century contributed to a process of invention of tradition. The Yoruba, on the basis of their earlier experiences, were quick to adapt themselves to demands by external and internal forces. This led to a further reconstruction of Yoruba history whenever this seemed necessary and makes it rather difficult to define a starting point for an analysis of the ideological make-up of Yoruba history. Peel has shown that ethnicity, or ethnic identity, can serve as such a startingpoint. The concept of ethnic identity provides valuable insights into the ways in and purposes for which history was recorded both in oral and written form. Malinowski s dictum that myths are first and foremost a charter for social reality in contemporary society can be upheld in essence here. Traditions may, in this respect be invented. A problem is, however, that the historical narrative either as oral or as printed text shows aversion to change. The narrative usually puts constraints on changes that are too great. This in turn causes the emergence of official histories, which 7

8 honour befell a number of the early Yoruba histories, including Samuel Johnson s work. When a history gets this status, discussions about the contents no longer touch on the contents themselves, but only on the ideological framework. In simple words, historical discussion turns into a shouting match, in which the party with the strongest voice will win. In this light the problem of Yoruba culture deserves some attention. It is open to question how, and even if the constituent Yoruba kingdoms of the Oyo empire of the eighteenth and nineteenth century regarded themselves as politically and culturally unified. Available evidence points towards the existence of a high-profiled assertion of cultural independence among the non-oyo kingdoms in the Oyo empire. Smith states to this effect that the political ascendancy of Oyo for long periods over much of Yorubaland [...] never led to the assimilation of the component kingdoms of this empire, which retained their identities, politically and culturally, and reasserted their independence whenever possible 16. Both Smith and Law emphasise the importance of the mythological opposition between the towns of Oyo and Ile-Ife in this respect. Yoruba myths of origin, current among all groups, relate the story of the origin of mankind and the Yoruba race at Ile-Ife. The same myths also provide an explanation for the political organisation of the Yoruba in separate kingdoms. The kings of these kingdoms trace their common origin back to one ancestor, Oduduwa, who reigned at Ile-Ife. His children migrated from this town and founded their own kingdoms, among which was the Edo kingdom of Benin to the south-east of the Yoruba area 17. Apart from the myths of origin within their own territory, the Yoruba have a tradition that sets the establishment of polities into the framework of migration from the north, more specifically from the Middle East. This is the predominant myth in the northern areas, especially Oyo. Apart from the invention of a Yoruba ethnic identity in recent times, we may surmise a long tradition of interaction between cultural groups, which has influenced form and content of historical information. In the early histories aspects of this tradition can be traced. With regard to Samuel Johnson s work, I will look into this problem. An outline of the book The results of my research into the development of early Yoruba historiography and the place of Samuel Johnson therein are presented as a number of essays which up to a point only loosely connect. The first chapter is an attempt to provide a framework for the study of early Yoruba historiography, along the lines of the different roots of Yoruba historiography, as discussed above. The missionaries, with their elaborate ideas on education provide a classical background. The sources, consisting mostly of oral traditions, provide a link to African interpretations and uses of the past. The administrative and political demands of the colonial authorities, and the debate between the African inhabitants and European rulers of Nigeria, which results from these demands, provide a pragmatic approach to the facts of history. After establishing the existence of these three aspects, I look how 16. Smith, Kingdoms of the Yoruba, For a full discussion of the myths of origin of the Yoruba from the viewpoint of Oyo, see Law, The Oyo empire,

9 they interacted and influenced the study of Yoruba history before The first chapter discusses ideas and lines of development on a relatively high level of abstraction, the second chapter descends to the detail of one historian s life. Here, Samuel Johnson and his family are introduced. Except as an example of the personal life of an educated Saro Yoruba, this chapter serves as a detailed report on the life of Samuel Johnson. Johnson has been discussed quite extensively, and his work has been used by all and sundry, but good detailed biographical studies about him are non-existent. Here the building blocks for such a study are provided, without pretending to give a final analysis. The chapter also forms a necessary introduction to chapters four to six. Chapter three concludes the first cluster of essays. It is again a more general study, now of the way in which early Yoruba historiography was shaped physically. After a brief re-assessment of the genre and its parameters, the way in which history books were published is discussed. This discussion is centred around the CMS, which was one, if not the most, important publisher in the field. Through the CMS other channels of publication, and the position of authors is reviewed. Four examples of historical authors provide some insight in the social and professional background of early historical studies. The authors chosen represent four different approaches to the Yoruba past, as well as four different generations. In the 1920s and 1930s, colonial rule in Nigeria became an increasingly important factor for the way in which the past was presented. The colonial authorities developed an interest in Nigerian history and ethnography as an instrument to shape policy in this period. As there were important political differences between the Northern and Southern (Yoruba) Provinces of the colony, one might expect differences in the approach to and use of history and ethnography between the areas. The last paragraph pulls together the whole development of early Yoruba historiography from the middle of the nineteenth to the middle of the twentieth century under the heading the invention of the Yoruba. It is an effort to distinguish specific approaches to the Yoruba past and their affiliation to specific periods (stages of development) and (groups of ) authors. In chapter four to six, the person of Samuel Johnson as a Yoruba historian is connected to the three aspects defined in chapter one. The education Johnson received is set in the context of missionary education as it developed in West Africa in the nineteenth century. Subsequently, questions are asked about the influences of Johnson s education on his historical work (classicism). In the following chapter, Johnson s sources are looked at in some detail as part of the discussion on oral traditions as an historical source, or, more specifically, the translation of oral traditions into written history (traditionalism). The last chapter deals with the political developments in Yorubaland in the period between 1870 and 1900; developments in which Johnson played a role as mediator. Here I look at the actual developments and Johnson s version of them. Central to this discussion is the so-called search for traditional rulers by the British, and the response by Johnson (and others) to it (pragmatism). Together, these three chapters constitute an overview of the influences that helped shape Johnson s version of Yoruba history. Each chapter in itself highlights one aspect of early Yoruba historiography and gives pointers for the development of specific tools to study early Yoruba historiography. Examples from the life and work of Samuel Johnson are used to unravel the mechanisms by which Yoruba history was constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. 9

10 Due to the essayistic character of this study, some themes are not so well developed. Little attention is given to the use and interpretation of early Yoruba histories by modern historians. Neither is any history and its author analysed in depth. Although some biographical sketches of early historians are provided, and historical works mentioned, in most cases the information and interpretation of information is at best fragmentary. An exception must be made for Samuel Johnson, of course, although in that case too, much more can and need be said about both the author and his work. To balance the lack of in-depth analysis somewhat, the revised text of an article on the Yoruba historian M.C. Adeyemi and his history of Oyo is added as an appendix. This text contains a biographical sketch of the author, an analysis of his work, and the full translation of his book Iwe Itan Oyo 18. Format and content may serve as an example for the way in which other early Yoruba historians and their histories can be studied to provide a series of annotated early Yoruba histories 19. This study is an effort to contribute to the general debate on the nature of African history. In the example of the Yoruba and their historian Samuel Johnson, we find the development of a language of history in which external influences and local sources are combined. The three specific dimensions which can be distinguished in early Yoruba historiography form the basic building blocks of this language. They may help us to get a clearer picture of the way in which African history in general was and is shaped. 18. Toyin Falola & Michel R. Doortmont, Iwe Itan Oyo: a traditional Yoruba history and its author, Journal of African History 30 (1989) , also published below as appendix I. Future references are made to the appendix, not to the article. 19. Cf. Editor s Note added to Falola & Doortmont, Iwe Itan Oyo, 301 (not reproduced in appendix I). 10