African Drumming Laws Explorer

Drumming Laws in Western Nigeria

The following list of resources pertains to research on colonial era drumming laws in Western Nigeria. These materials provide access to the approximately 100 drumming regulations passed by local governments throughout Western Nigeria from 1956 through 1975. Moreover, this comprehensive bibliography covers areas such as colonial law, customary law, ethnomusicology, anthropology, history, local government and administration, and geography.

Colonial Law

Primary

Annual Volume of the Laws of Western State of Nigeria (Govt. Printer, 1967-1976).

Legislation of the Western Region of Nigeria (Govt. Printer, 1952-1964).

Secondary

The Interaction of English Law with Customary Law in Western Nigeria: I & II, Journal of African Law, vol. 4, pp. 40-50, 98-114 (Ayaji, 1960).

The Interaction of English Law with Customary Law in West Africa, International & Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 13, pp. 574-616 (Daniels, 1964).

Law Libraries in the Western Region/State of Nigeria, International Library Review, vol. 20(2), pp. 227-32 (Okewusi, 1988).

Legal Development in Nigeria, 1957-1967: A Practicing Lawyer’s View, Journal of African Law, vol. 11(2), pp. 77-85 (Williams, 1967).

Customary Law

Customary Law in the New African States, Univ. Chicago Committee for Comp. Study of New Nations, Reprint Series, No. 4 (Fallers, 1965).

Judicial Administration in a Changing Society - Customary Courts in Western Nigeria, Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America, vol. 8(3/4), pp. 435-46 (Kayode, 1975).

The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba People (Ajisafe, 2003).

Native Courts and Native Customary Law in Africa, Judicial Advisers’ Conference, Special Supplement to Journal of African Administration (Great Britain Colonial Office, 1953).

The Nature of African Customary Law (Elias, 1956).

Restatement of Customary Law in Nigeria, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (Azinge, 2013).

A Survey of African Law and Custom with Particular Reference to the Yoruba Speaking Peoples of South-Western Nigeria (Oyewo & Olaoba, 1999).

The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa, ch. 11 on Laws and Customs (Ellis, 1974).

Ethnomusicology

A Descriptive Catalogue of Yoruba Musical Instruments, Catholic University of America, Studies in Music No. 37, Ph.D. Dissertation (Thieme, 1969).

The Drum and Its Role in Yoruba Religion, Ademola Journal of Religion in Africa, vol. 18(1), pp. 15-26 (Adegbite, 1988).

Ogboni Drums, African Arts, vol. 6(3), pp. 50-52, 84 (Ojo, 1973).

The Talking Drums of Nigeria, International Library of African Music, vol. 5(4), pp. 36-40 (Akpabot, 1975/1976).

Yoruba Drums, Journal of Yoruba and Related Studies, vol. 7, pp. 5-14 (Laoye I, 1959)

Anthropology

Nigerian Studies, or the Religious and Political System of the Yoruba, Cass Library of African Studies, General Studies, No. 48 (Dennett, 1968).

The Religion of the Yorubas (Lucas, 1948).

The Sociology of the Yoruba (Fadipe, 1970).

History

An Introduction to Western Nigeria: Its People, Culture, and System of Government (Adedeji, 1967).

Chieftaincy Politics and Communal Identity in Western Nigeria, 1893-1951, Journal of African History, vol. 44(2), pp. 383-302 (Vaughan, 2003).

The History of the Yorubas: From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the British Protectorate (Johnson, 2001).

The Ijebu of Western Nigeria: A Historical and Socio-Cultural Study (Olubomehin ed., 2001).

Themes in the History of the Ijebu and Remo of Western Nigeria (Olubomehin ed., 2010).

Sources of Yoruba History, Oxford Studies of African Affairs (Biobaku, 1973).

The Yoruba: History, Culture and Language, J.F. Odunjo Memorial Lectures, Series No. 5 (Olatunji ed., 1996).

Local Government and Administration

Local Administration in West Africa, pp. 190-97 on The Western Region (Wraith, 1972).

Local and District Councils - Should They be Forgotten?, Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 13(2), pp. 309-32 (Riley, 1975).

Local Government and the Traditional Rulers in Nigeria, ch. 4 on The Role of Traditional Rules in Local Government - Western Nigerian Experience in Historical Perspective (Aborisade ed., 1985).

Local Government in Southern Nigeria: A Manual of Law and Procedure Under the Eastern Region Local Government Law, 1955, and the Western Region Local Government Law, 1952 (Harris, 1957).

Local Government in Yoruba Towns: An Analysis of the Roles of Obas, Chiefs and Elected Councillors, D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford University (Lloyd, 1958).

Local Government System in Western Nigeria: A Comparative Evaluation Performance Under Civilian and Military Regimes, Indian Journal of Political Science, vol. 36(2), pp. 123-36 (Ajibola & Oyejide, 1975).

The Nigerian Local Government Administrative Practice and Management (Oyewo, 1987).

The Principles of Native Administration in Nigeria: Selected Documents, 1900-1947 (Kirk-Greene ed., 1965).

The Reorganisation of Nigeria’s Administration, Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 6(4), pp. 571-81 (Murray, 1968).

Geography

A Geography of Western Nigeria (Grant, 1960).

Nigeria and Western Nigeria Maps (Harvard Map Collection, 1958-1973).

The African Drumming Laws project works with newly discovered laws to understand how and why the British colonial government controlled and criminalized drumming in native African communities.

This project is a collaboration amongst

Harvard Library Innovation Lab

World Music Center at UCLA

LA Law Library

The Revolutionaries

Project History

The African Drumming Laws project works with newly discovered laws to understand how and why the colonial government controlled and criminalized drumming in native communities across Africa. This is the first initiative worldwide to educate the public about the legacy of colonial laws in Africa regulating the customary practice and ritual of drumming, in jurisdictions such as Western and Northern Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Malawi, The Gambia, and Seychelles.

The African Drumming Laws project was founded by Los Angeles-based librarian, legal scholar, and world percussionist Neel Agrawal. Formerly serving as the Global Law Librarian at the LA Law Library, Neel managed one of the world's largest repositories of African law, providing the opportunity to cultivate a large collection of colonial drum control laws. In order to appropriately contextualize the colonial suppression of native culture, Neel partnered with the World Music Center at UCLA, drawing on the expertise of colleagues Dr. Helen Rees and Dr. Jesse Ruskin. We borrowed materials from UCLA's extensive collection of drums and images to curate a 360 degree display at the entrance of the LA Law Library followed by an exhibit at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Additionally, LexisNexis and the American Association of Law Libraries provided a research grant to support the research throughout 2016.

Led by interactive media designer and developer Gaurav Bhatnagar, we created an interactive map of Western Nigeria containing and linking information on the nearly 100 colonial era drumming laws passed by District Councils beginning just a few years before independence, from 1956 through 1975. A summer fellowship at the Harvard Library Innovation Lab profoundly informed this interdisciplinary research through its vast archival collections, laying the foundation for a multimedia presentation designed to foster a deep understanding of this historical narrative cutting across disciplines such as ethnomusicology, foreign and comparative law, critical legal studies, history, political science, cartography, and anthropology. Academics and educators are encouraged to integrate this learning platform into their coursework so that we can continue cultivating this important project.

Contact Us

For more information, questions, comments or other feedback, please email Neel Agrawal at neel.k.agrawal@gmail.com.

Bibliography