NUDITY AND POWER IN NORTH-EASTERN YORUBA: A STUDY OF PRE-COLONIAL AND MODERN TRADITIONAL PRACTICES

Abstract

In recent years, research into sexuality studies has become popular. It is an inter-disciplinary field that dovetails into many sub-fields like nudity, art, culture, psychology and others. Nudity has generated many debates on the female body in Yoruba. It is culturally symbolic, connoting different meanings and power. Drawing evidence from pre-colonial and modern Akoko in the north-eastern part of Yoruba, this paper engages symbolisms of nudity in the history of north-eastern Yoruba people. Nudity is discussed as ritual dress for festival and protest. While nudity festival is discussed among virgin girls in the pre-colonial period, nudity protest is examined in modern times as a tool for controlling public policy. This paper argues that public nudity has defining power over humans in the society. While female nudity is a common practice in Yoruba, Akoko version stresses the inexhaustible power attached to it, particularly the indispensable value occasioned by the nineteenth century Yoruba insecurity. This research is also important because it straightens out unique specificities of power accrued to public nudity, especially how women transformed their body to sites of power and change. This paper combines historical research method and inter-textual approach to establish the discourse in broader Yoruba sexuality studies and power.