Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T06:23:50.788Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The world of the Yoruba taxi driver: an interpretive approach to vehicle slogans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Olatunde Bayo Lawuyi
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the slogans which are so prominent and ubiquitous on motor vehicles as expressions of social stratification among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. I interpret the slogans in the context of the taxi owners' and drivers' social interactions, not just as disembodied expressions of a total Yoruba world view. In studying the slogans I pay particular attention to processes of accumulation of wealth, status mobility and the way these are affected by cultural values. It is argued that the vehicle owners make different claims at different stages of their careers. Their fears and hopes at each stage must be understood in the light of the contemporary Christian and traditional mix of beliefs about destiny, the world and God.

Résumé

Le monde du chauffeur de taxi Yoroubas: une tentative d'interprétation des slogans sur les véhicules

Cet article examine les slogans figurant sur les automobiles comme l'expression de la stratification sociale des Yoroubas du Nigéria du Sud Ouest. Il interprète ces slogans dans le contexte des interactions sociales des propriétaires et des chauffeurs de taxi et non pas comme des expressions désincarnées d'une vue d'ensemble du monde Yorouba. Des données se rapportant aux caractéristiques démographiques ainsi qu'à la vie et au passé des propriétaires et des chauffeurs ont été rassemblées et analysées. Cette enquête montre que 100 pour cent des chauffeurs sont des hommes. En ce qui concerne la propriété des taxis, la participation des femmes est en hausse. La plupart des taxis en circulation appartiennent à des gens âgés entre vingt-et-un et quarante ans. Le thème principal de cet article repose sur le fait que la lutte pour une mobilité sociale ascendante dépend des traditions culturelles qui déterminent la façon dont les chauffeurs et les propriétaires poursuivent leur but et choisissent leur identité.

Type
Mobility in south-west Nigeria
Information
Africa , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adejare, O., and Afolayan, A. 1981 ‘Semiotics: the unexplored level of variation in second language use’, paper read at SEAMEO Seminar, Singapore, 19–23 April.Google Scholar
Adu, A. L. 1965. The Civil Service in New African States. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Ake, C. 1976. ‘Explanatory notes on the political economy of Africa’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 14 (1), 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akeredolu-Ale, E. O. 1973. ‘A socio-historical study of the development of entrepreneurship among the Ijebu of western Nigeria’, African Studies Review, 16 (3), 347–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akeredolu-Ale, E. O. 1975. The Underdevelopment of Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.Google Scholar
Anifowose, F. O. 1973. ‘The Politics of Violence in Nigeria: a case study of the Tiv and Yoruba areas’, Phd thesis, Manchester University.Google Scholar
Bascom, W. R. 1942. ‘The principle of seniority in the social structure of the Yoruba’, American Anthropologist, 44 (1), 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bascom, W. R. 1951. ‘Social status, wealth and individual differences among the Yoruba’, American Anthropologist, 53 (4), 490–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bascom, W. R. 1969. The Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Cohen, A. 1976. Two-Dimensional Man. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Eades, J. S. 1980. The Yoruba Today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fallers, L. A. 1973. Inequality: social stratification reconsidered. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Falola, T. 1982. ‘Religion, rituals and the Yoruba pre-colonial domestic economy: myth and reality’, Ife Journal of Religions, 2, 27–37.Google Scholar
Falola, T. and Olanrewaju, S. A. 1986. Transport Systems in Nigeria. New York: Syracuse University.Google Scholar
Gugler, J., and Flanagan, W. G. 1978. Urbanization and Social Change in West Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gutkind, P. C. W. 1973. ‘From the energy of despair to the anger of despair’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 7 (2), 179–98.Google Scholar
Gutkind, P. C. W. 1975. ‘The view from below: political consciousness among the urban poor in Ibadan’, Cahiers d'études africaines, 57 (1), 5–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horton, R. 1961. ‘Destiny and the unconscious in West Africa’, Africa, 31, 110–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idowu, E. B. 1962. Olodumare: god in Yoruba belief. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Jordan, J. W. 1978. ‘Role segregation for fun and profit: the daily behaviour of the West African lorry driver’, Africa, 48 (1), 30–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joseph, R. A. 1978. ‘Affluence and underdevelopment: the Nigerian experience’, Journal of Modem African Studies, 16 (2), 221–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawuyi, O. B. 1986. ‘Reality and meaning: a review of the Yoruba concept of esu’, Afrika und Ubersee, 69 (2), 299–311.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1954. ‘The traditional political system of the Yoruba’, Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 101, 366–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1966. ‘Class consciousness among the Yoruba’, in Lloyd, P. C. (ed.), The New Elites of Tropical Africa. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
McCaskie, , 1983. ‘Accumulation, wealth and belief in Asante history’, Africa, 53 (1), 23–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neugarten, B. L. 1975. ‘Continuities and discontinuities of psychological issues into adult life’, in Rebelsky, F. (ed.), Life: The Continuous Process. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Olanrewaju, S. A. 1977. ‘The role of transport in African economic development’, African Development Studies, 1 (2), 40–50.Google Scholar
Onoghoete, G. M. 1980. ‘The Danfo Agbero–Bus Conductor Occupational Group in a Metropolitan Centre’, BSc dissertation, University of Ife, Ile-Ife.Google Scholar
Peace, A. 1974. ‘Industrial protest in Nigeria’, in de Kadt, E. and Williams, G. P. (eds.), Sociology and Development. London, Tavistok.Google Scholar
Peace, A. 1975. ‘The Lagos proletariat: labour aristocrats or populist militants?’ in Sandbrook, R. and Cohen, R. (eds.), The Development of an African Working Class. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Peace, A. 1979. Choice, Class and Conflict: a study of Southern Nigerian factory workers. Brighton: Harvester Press.Google Scholar
Plotnicov, U. 1965. ‘Nigerians: the dream is unfulfilled’, Trans-Action, 3, 18–22.Google Scholar
Pritchett, J. 1979. ‘Nigerian truck art’, African Arts, 12 (2), 27–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanda, A. O. 1982. ‘Premature Retirement as Avenues of Losing Revenue’, paper presented at the National Conference on Alternative Sources of Government Revenue, organised by NISER, University of Ibadan, 6–10 December.Google Scholar
Sandbrook, R., and Cohen, R. 1975. ‘Workers and progressive change in underdeveloped countries’, in Sandbrook, R. and Cohen, R. (eds), The Development of an African Working Class. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Williams, G. 1976. Nigeria: Economy and Society. London: Rex Collings.Google Scholar
Williams, G. 1980. State and Society in Nigeria. Idanre: Afrografika Publishers.Google Scholar