Anthropos: Anthropos, 79.1984

Anthropos, 79.1984

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711819

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711819

Persistenter Identifier:: 1512370864325

Titel:: Anthropos, 79.1984

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1984

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 79, 1984, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenartikel

Titel:: The Structure of Administration of Pre-Colonial Idaisa

Sonstige Person:: Adediran, 'Biodun

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Anthropos 79. 1984: 55-63 The Structure of Administration of Pre-Colonial Idaisa 'Biodun Adediran Since 1921 when the Reverend S. Johnson’s description of the Oyo form of political adminis tration was published (1921: 40-78), various scholars have discussed the structure of adminis- trationamong the Yoruba. Prominent among the se are N.A.Fadipe (1970: 198-242), D.Forde (1951: 19-24), and P.C. Lloyd (1954: 366-384, 1971). One major feature which emerges from all these discussions is that the typical Yoruba kingdom was one in which power was decentral ized: the oba (king) sharing power with a host of non-royal chiefs who were in fact the de facto rulers of the state. Yet as Lloyd pointed out (1971: 2), the nature of Yoruba society was such that favoured the centralization of power in the hands of the oba. Indeed, by the time, European colonial rule began at the turn of the 20th century, the Yoruba already had traditions of rulers who had at their disposal large resources of wealth and personal following, but the best known examples of these were not as powerful as rulers of the Edo (Ryder 1969) and Fon (Argyle 1966), two neighbours of the Yoruba m whose states power and political authority were concentrated in the kings’ court. One Yoruba state which developed a central- ized administrative system comparable with benin and Dahomey was Idaisa, a small little- known kingdom in modern Republic of Benin. The Idaisa case is very interesting to study because °f the peculiar nature of the state. First, it was niulti-ethnic in composition being inhabited by 'Biodun Adediran, Ph. D. (1980, Univ. of Ife, Nigeria); Lecturer in History at the University of Ife. He specialises in the pre-colonial history of Africa with particular reference to the Yoruha-speaking people of West Africa. He has collected 0r al and ethnographic data widely among the Yoruba. He is currently engaged in archival research as part of a project on LLe pre-colonial history of the Yoruba. three traditionally hostile but culturally homoge nous peoples: the Fon, the Mahi, and the Yoruba. Secondly, Idaisa was a federation of many semi- autonomous states organized around important settlements such as Ifita, Ado, Itagi, and Ilemon. Ordinarily one would not expect consensus on many issues nor the success of any attempt at political centralization. Thirdly, the political situation in the Idaisa region was so unsettled for most of the period of the kingdom’s existence that one becomes curious to know if and how it was able to achieve political stability. The Idaisa State The kingdom of Idaisa was founded at the beginning of the 18th century by a dynastic group, the jagun, which claims the Egba region in western Nigeria as the original source of its migration (Palau-Marti 1957:199). The state grew up from humble beginnings as a federation of some pre-existing autonomous city-states of which Yaka, Epo, and Ifita were probably the earliest (Adediran 1982), Until c. 1789 it would appear to have been a satellite state of the alaafin of Oyo; for local traditions remember that until then, young Idaisa princes had to be sent to Oyo-Ile as royal hostages. However located in a cultural frontier zone, Idaisa grew up into a multi-ethnic state inhabited substantially by the Mahi, the Fon, and the Yoruba. For the whole of the 18th century and a greater part of the 19th, the kingdom was subjected to continual attacks espe cially from Oyo and Dahomey (Akinjogbin 1967; Law 1977). This and the rugged topography of the Idaisa region made it difficult for the kingdom to extend farther than the precincts of the pre- dynastic settlements which accepted the over lordship of the jagun dynastic group at the

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