By Nehru Odeh
Prof Wale Adebanwi, Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies, and Director, Centre for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, has released a scholarly book entitled “How to Become a Big Man in Africa: Subalternity, Elites and Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria. ”
Published by Indiana University Press, the 590- page book deals with the fluid and ever-changing nature of social stratification in Africa, how members of a low class, especially the marginalized and oppressed, which Gayatri Spivak refers to as the subalterns, can easily rise up the social ladder, using variablee such as ethno-religious conflict, violence and cultural activities as stepping stones.
In his book, Adebanwi focuses on Gani Adams, popular leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress who is now the Are Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland and other members of the OPC. He proves how Adams and his colleagues have been able to rise from being artisans, what is usually regarded as the lowest of the low to the topmost height of social hierachy in Nigeria.
Indiana University Press throws more light on the book:
“Can subalterns transform themselves into members of the elite, and what does it take to do so? And how do those efforts reveal the nature of ethnic politics in postcolonial Africa?
“How to Become a Big Man in Africa: Subalternity, Elites, and Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria examines these questions by revealing how, through ethno-regional conflict, violence and cultural activities, an artisan, Gani Adams, transformed himself into the holder of the most prestigious chieftaincy title among the Yoruba.
“Addressing persistent gaps in anthropological studies of the subaltern and of “big men” in politics through in-depth biography and rich social history, Wale Adebanwi follows Adams and other major figures in Nigeria’s Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) over two decades of ethnographic study and visual representations.
“Challenging existing models of African political mobility by leveraging his initial lack of formal education into a position of power, Adams moved from a “radical lumpen” and “area boy” to a “big man” who continues to struggle—and reflect—over the significance of his role as a cultural subject.
“Blurring the lines between tradition and modernity, Adams and his group have used Yoruba rituals to simultaneously claim authenticity and champion new movements for democracy and self-determination.
“How to Become a Big Man in Africa encourages us to understand the full complexity of Adams’s political trajectory and how it reflects the structural and personal realities of becoming a “Big Man” in the contemporary postcolony.”
