The Director, Center for Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Professor Wale Adebanwi, is set to release a book, “How to Become a Big Man in Africa: Subalternity, Elites, and Ethnic Politics in Contemporary Nigeria”.
The book follows Gani Adams and other major figures in Nigeria’s Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) over two decades of ethnographic study and visual representations.
The book, according to the publisher, Indiana University Press, shows how Adams challenged “existing models of African political mobility by leveraging his initial lack of formal education into a position of power”. The book, which is a product of Adebanwi’s decades of following Adams, shows how he moved from an “area boy” to a “big man”.
The book shows what it takes for subalterns to transform themselves into members of the elite.
The book reveals how, through ethno-regional conflict, violence and cultural activities, Adams transformed himself into the holder of the most prestigious chieftaincy title among the Yoruba.
Read Also: Actress denies alleged affair with Senate President Akpabio
“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,” the publisher said.
The 590-page book will be out in August 2024.
Andrew Apter, Professor of Anthropology and History, UCLA, author of “Black Critics and Kings: The Hermeneutics of Power in Yoruba Society” said: “The notorious figure of the ‘Big Man’ in Africa typecasts those social actors who rise to great heights through guile, cunning, and a preternatural ability to transgressively self-aggrandise with impunity. In what is the first intensive ethnography of an African Big Man, Wale Adebanwi focuses on the extraordinary career of Gani Adams in Nigeria as he rose from wanted fugitive to become one of the nation’s preeminent power brokers. This path-breaking study of agency and ‘self-actualization,’ based on more than two decades of research, locates Adams’ remarkable story within the liminal pathways and festive arenas which he negotiated to gain access to the Nigerian state. How to Become a Big Man in Africa is a must-read for all students of Nigerian cultural politics and African political economy.”
For Adeline Masquelier, Tulane University, author of “Fada: Boredom and Belonging in Niger”, the book is “a magnificent exploration of how one becomes a man of consequence in employment-challenged Nigeria”.
He added: “With considerable acuity and empathy, Adebanwi traces the—anomalous yet also exemplary—trajectory of a high school dropout who “seizes history” to become a key political actor and a celebrated “big man.” How to Become a Big Man in Africa is a must read for anyone interested in youth culture, subalternity, elites, and African politics. “
Jacob K. Olupona, Harvard University, author of City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè in Time, Space, said: “Adebanwi’s unparalleled skills as a scholar, researcher and social commentator are on full display in this book. How To Become a Big Man in Africa is a remarkable and eye-opening study on the concept and practices of the Big Man in Africa. Adebanwi weaves together robust scholarship and lucid prose to explore the intersections of ethnicity, youth development, and political elites in Nigeria. The book is also a thoughtful and intelligent assessment of class mobility and political strategy in Nigeria. Through groundbreaking archival and ethnographic research and magnificent social and cultural analysis, How To Become a Big Man in Africa offers a tour de force in African Studies. The author closely and intimately examines and reimagines the categories of subalternity and political elitism to construct what I believe is to become one of the most critically acclaimed and cited political biographies in African Studies. How To Become a Big Man in Africa is a seminal contribution to anthropology, political science and ethnic studies in Africa.”