Department of History and International Studies

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Browsing Department of History and International Studies by Subject "Chief's law"

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    Contestation and Social Disorder: Chieftaincy Contestation in Yorubaland, 1945 —1956
    (ACU Journal of Humanities, 2020-06) Alo, Lawrence
    By about the 1940s, chieftaincy disputes had increased tremendously. It created obvious social disorder in several towns in Yorubaland. Historical methodology will be adopted using essentially archival materials. Matters relating to chieftaincy and taxation resulted in riots in Iseyin in 1918, at Ilesa in 1941 and at Oyo in 1955 to mention just a few instances. The colonial administration responded to it decisively by sentencing the various culprits involved in the riots. All over Yorubaland, as elsewhere, chieftaincy contestations took a new dimension. It took the dimension of concerted efforts at forwarding correspondences, in form of petitions, to the colonial administration in respect of chieftaincy disputes. Also, the medium of Newspapers were used considerably to elicit public support for themselves in connection with particular chieftaincy disputes in question. The example of the Gbelegbuwa chieftaincy disputes is a case in point. Also, the Risawe chieftaincy disputes in Ilesa almost resulted into civil disturbance, but for the memory of what was done to the culprits of the 1941 riots. To all intents and purposes, quasi-administrative measures, the intervention of the police and the Chiefs' LOW of 1955 contributed immensely in the process of resolving these chieftaincy disputes and prevented the possibility of escalating social disorder