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Reading the Diary of Akinpelu Obisesan in Colonial Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Olufunke Adeboye
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Abstract:

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This article considers the private diary not just as a historical source or literary text, but mainly as a symbolic cultural creation with sociological and psychological dimensions. The multiple identities of Akinpelu Obisesan, a member of the colonial intelligentsia in Ibadan, are analyzed, giving us insight into the transformations in Yoruba masculinity in the colonial period and his own attempts at self-invention. The article also emphasizes the overlap between the personal and the general: between the private and the public domains and how the diarist straddles, and is in turn affected by, sociocultural currents reverberating from these two sites.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , September 2008 , pp. 75 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2008

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