Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa: The Human and Nonhuman Creatures of Nigeria

Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa explores how animals were colonial subjects in Nigeria and Africa, challenging the core dichotomies of human colonial subjecthood. Saheed Aderinto's thesis establishes that species, habitat, material value, threat, and biological and psychological characteristics shaped imperial perspectives on animal Nigerians.

Format: Hardback
Length: 324 pages
Publication date: 26 April 2022
Publisher: Ohio University Press

Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa is a groundbreaking multispecies study that challenges the traditional understanding of colonialism in Nigeria and Africa. By examining the complex relationships between humans, animals, and the colonial state, Saheed Aderinto argues that animals, like humans, were colonial subjects in Africa.

The book broadens the historiography of animal studies by bringing together a diverse range of species, including dogs, horses, livestock, and wildlife, under a single analytical framework. Aderinto's study reveals that the core dichotomies of human colonial subjecthood, such as indispensable yet disposable, good and bad, violent but peaceful, saintly and lawless, were also embedded in the identities of Nigeria's animal inhabitants.

He demonstrates that the pattern of relations between human Nigerians and the colonial government was shaped not only by class, religion, ethnicity, location, and attitude toward imperialism but also by species, habitat, material value, threat, and biological and psychological characteristics. This innovative approach challenges readers to rethink what constitutes history and to recognize that human agency and narrative are not the only makers of the past.

Animality and Colonial Subjecthood in Africa is a conceptually sophisticated and intellectually engaging work that will appeal to scholars and students of history, anthropology, sociology, and animal studies. It provides a fresh perspective on the complex and multifaceted relationships between humans and animals in the colonial era and offers valuable insights into the ways in which colonialism shaped both human and animal identities.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780821424698