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- Title
Exploring the Potential of Praise Poems for Historical Reconstruction among the Idepe-Ikale in Southeastern Yorubaland.
- Authors
Ogen, Olukoya
- Abstract
The existing body of literature on the origin of the Idepe-Ikale suggests a Benin provenance and an ethno-cultural identity for the generality of the Idepe- Ikale. This paper argues that this claim has largely been sustained by the excessive reliance on archival sources for the reconstruction Ikale pre-colonial history. It, therefore, draws primarily on evidence from praise poems and partly from historical linguistics and ethnography in its examination of the ethnic identity of the Idepe-Ikale, a major Ikale sub-group in southeastern Yornbaland. With this methodological shift, the paper establishes the fact that culturally and linguistically, the Idepe-Ikale are of the Yornba ethnic stock rather than of Benin extraction. Thus, the paper casts doubts on the prevailing consensus on Idepe's Benin origin and identity and concludes that palace promoted and colonial-backed constructions of ethnic identities should be thoroughly scrntinised to correct mistaken notions about identity formation.
- Subjects
YORUBA (African people); AFRICAN laudatory poetry; ETHNICITY; HISTORICAL source material; BENINESE; HISTORICAL research methods; ETHNOGENESIS; COLLECTIVE memory
- Publication
History in Africa: A Journal of Method, 2012, Vol 39, p77
- ISSN
0361-5413
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/hia.2012.0002