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The carpenter's revolt: youth, violence and the reinvention of culture in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2005

Wale Adebanwi
Wale Adebanwi
Affiliation:
Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge.
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Abstract

This paper examines the cultural repertoires of the youthful, ‘militant’ faction of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) in Nigeria, pointing to ways in which violence and ritual can be interpreted both as an instrumentally rational strategy of power struggle and as a form of symbolic action with cultural meanings. The OPC case strongly challenges the bifurcation of tradition and modernity, given the way the group appropriate culture in negotiating Yoruba identity, while also retaining democratic rhetoric. It argues that the activities of the OPC constitute not stable, bounded manifestations of culture, but rather fluid, ambivalent and paradoxical ethnic-power relations and formations.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , September 2005 , pp. 339 - 365
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This essay is based on research conducted under the auspices of the ‘African Youth in A Global Age’ Fellowships of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), New York, 2001/02. For this, the author thanks Ron Kassmir, Alcinda Honwana, Beverlee Bruce and Funmi Vogt, all of the SSRC; and Jean Comaroff, Sue Benson, and Ebenezer Obadare, who all commented on earlier versions of this essay. I also thank the two anonymous referees whose insightful comments helped to improve the arguments.