February 15, 2007
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Bernard Müller, « Il était une fois les Yoruba... », Cahiers d’études africaines, ID : 10.4000/etudesafricaines.213
“Once upon a Time, the Yoruba...”. The Weal and Woe of the Yoruba Bourgeoisie in Nigeria. – Traditional Yoruba Theatre is undergoing a crisis that can be used to understand its environment. The “Yoruba Ethnos-genesis” (1890-1980) seems to have turned into an “ethnoimplosion”, as society is being violently rearranged in an anomic context of proliferating centers of power and violence. The Yoruba bourgeoisie wanted to rally a consensus around a cultural fiction that backed up the institutional network inherited from 19th-century missions; but this consensus has fallen apart due to the extreme social fragmentation resulting from the catastrophic economic situation. Who is still able to cite the names of Yoruba kings since the origins and tell their stories? The transmission of this legacy has been severed; and nationalistic plans have been scuttled.