ibrahim Bàbátúndé Anọ́ba
Doctoral student, History
For several months, we worked on getting primary source documents to UC Davis through interlibrary loan… Not only were we looking for materials on ritual practices in a pre-1940 West African territory located thousands of miles away, but we were also interested in litigation records.
[The library team] eventually secured the shipping of several of these documents, mostly produced by Yorùbá colonial subjects — pamphlets, microform church records, autoethnographic narratives, personal memoirs, etc. — from institutions across the country and elsewhere.”
— ibrahim Bàbátúndé Anọ́ba
Speaking for the Dead: Mimicry, Ritual, and the Making of Inheritance Law in Colonial Lagos (1863-1937)
Project Description and Impact
Bàbátúndé Anọ́ba’s research explores the imposition of British laws on the Lagos Colony — a Yorùbá territory and part of present-day Nigeria — and how those laws clashed with Yorùbá customs, particularly with regard to inheritance. He synthesizes colonial court records with first-hand accounts by Yorùbá colonial subjects to demonstrate how Britain interfered with indigenous customs and the lasting effect of this interference in post-independence Nigeria.
Library Resources Used
- Interlibrary loan
- Researcher Services librarian consultation
- Mabie Law Library