Nnewi is a town in the Igbo region of Nigeria that has come into prominence for many reasons: its contact with the colonial powers; as the headquarters of the Onitsha Southern County Council and of the local government; and for the many eminent figures originating in the area. This is a biographical account of the contributions of Chief Leonard Nsoedo of Nnewi to the socio-economic and political development of the town of Nnewi and to Nigeria generally. The authors emphasise his role as one of the pivots of modern Nnewi. They set his story firmly in a historical context, charting the major historical, political and religious developments in the region that provide the backdrop to his life in the twentieth century.
Since independence in 1960, Nigeria has undergone tremendous change shaped by political instability, rapid population growth, and economic turbulence. The Historical Dictionary of Nigeria introduces Nigeria's rich and complex history. Readers will find a wealth of information on important contemporary issues like AIDS, human rights, petroleum, and faith-based conflict.
In the early 1900s the motor-vehicle (car, bus, lorry or motor-cycle) was introduced in sub-Saharan Africa. Initially the plaything and symbol of colonial domination, the motor-vehicle transformed the economic and social life of the continent. Indeed, the motor-vehicle is arguably the single most important factor for change in Africa in the twentieth century. A factor for change that thus far has been neglected in research and literature. Yet its impact extends across the totality of human existence; from ecological devastation to economic advancement, from cultural transformation to political change, through to a myriad of other themes. This edited volume of eleven contributions by historians, anthropologists and social and political scientists explores aspects of the social history and anthropology of the motor-vehicle in Africa.
Popular music an acculturative product of the African folk musicscrutinized along the lines of musical and social processes as inseparable pair in developing the various genres of the eclectic musical form. In Nigeria, it is the congruent collaboration of creativity and politico-socio-economic activities of the mid-1940s (the period following the World War II) that evolved the various genres of popular music of the landa process that is still in being! The social processes that span through the diverse fields of economics, politics, linguistics, sociology, philosophy, and religion made up a manifold agency of acculturation, commercialization, urbanization, and class stratifications. Similarly, the musical processes emanating from the folk musical practices of conception, composition, and classification of genres; recruitment of group members and administrative personnel; training, packaging, costuming, and aesthetics; and then the performance proper are carried over into a parallel development of a neo-folk form that became popular. The popularity of the new form is due to a socio-musical interchange that is both structural and functional. The peculiar nature of the product of this new musical expressionpoptherefore presents four possible angles for definition. The definitions could be stylistic, sociological, process- or theory-based. The genres developed include highlife, afrobeat, rock, calypso, disco, hip hop, rhythm n blues, funk, and reggae. However, the star feature of this investigation is the Afro-reggae genre of Nigeria. The primary research process of survey was backed up by historical and descriptive methods to unearth the leaning on the rhythm of social life by popular music artistes to develop the African reggae genre, especially in Nigeria.
"Nigeria's grand democratic experiment is sure to resonate internationally. In this original and informative book, John N. Paden delivers a timely analysis of how Muslim civic cultures respond to conflict mediation and resolution, placing his inquiry within the historical context of Nigeria's evolution as an independent state." "Paden calls for increased cultural understanding and sensitivity for a more constructive engagement with the Arab and non-Arab Muslim world. The experience of Nigeria provides essential insight into the challenges facing a global community seeking to promote peace and prosperity."--BOOK JACKET.
This title traces the rise of two dynamic informal enterprise clusters in Nigeria and explores their slide into trajectories of Pentecostalism, poverty and violent vigilantism.
The Slave Trade and Culture in the Bight of Biafra dissects and explains the structure, dramatic expansion, and manifold effects of the slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. By showing that the rise of the Aro merchant group was the key factor in trade expansion, G. Ugo Nwokeji reinterprets why and how such large-scale commerce developed in the absence of large-scale centralized states. The result is the first study to link the structure and trajectory of the slave trade in a major exporting region to the expansion of a specific African merchant group - among other fresh insights into Atlantic Africa's involvement in the trade - and the most comprehensive treatment of Atlantic slave trade in the Bight of Biafra. The fundamental role of culture in the organization of trade is highlighted, transcending the usual economic explanations in a way that complicates traditional generalizations about work, domestic slavery, and gender in pre-colonial Africa.
