Waja

Obarè B. Bagodo, PhD.
Maître de Conférences (Reader/Associate Professor)
Université d’Abomey-Calavi, République du Bénin–Email :
[email protected]

The present review is the third emanated version from two precedent texts more or
less differentiated by the titles and contents. The first text was accepted for the 5th
Congress of the Association of African Historians to be held in Ouagadougou in
November 2011 initially, and postponed sine die finally. The second was presented
at the 13th Conference of the West African Archaeological Association held in
Abidjan in February 2013. However the three texts refer to the same cartographic
problems in both the UNESCO’s and Cambridge’s series.
General History of Africa is the UNESCO’s series. The first eight volumes
are published between 1980 and 1999. The publication of a ninth volume into three
tomes from 2015 onwards is not concerned with the present study. The contents of
the precedent eight volumes are allocated among twenty-eight and thirty chapters,
with editors submitted to the intellectual authority of thirty nine members of an
International Scientific Committee.
The Cambridge History of Africa is the second series, with also eight
volumes. The contents are allocated among nine and thirteen expanded chapters
(e.g. volumes I, II, III, IV and V referred to in the review). The series publication
started earlier in 1975 with volume IV, followed by volumes V (1976), III (1977), II
(1978), and I (1982), under the intellectual authority of volumes’ editors in close
collaboration with two general editors only.
Both in history and archaeology, as well as in geography and geology, the
map consists of not a simple illustrative decoration, but first and foremost of a
visual, active, and powerful enlightenment (Wood and Fels 1992; George et al.
1974). In this regard, the cartographic illustrating of the two series referred to above
shows lax and faulty technical, locational and graphic lacunas. Such problems
persisted up to nowadays because of an accommodating and conniving silence
Abstract
observed by scholars and advertised users. A critical review is then required as a
matter of scientific commitment and professional awareness, for due statement and
expectation of corrections.
For such a review, the methodological approach has selected the Gulf of
Guinea region, in focusing the illustrative review on volumes III, IV, V and VI of
UNESCO’s series, and comparatively on volumes I, II, III, IV and V of Cambridge
University’s series. Critically comparative and mainly centered regionally, the
review reveals more lacunas in the UNESCO’s series. Amongst others, publications
such as Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa (Vogel et al. 1997), with thirty one
maps, and History of West Africa Vol. I. (Ajayi, Crowder et al. 1976), with twentynine
maps, are put aside for a future complementary review.
Taking into consideration the consistence of the problems in the UNESCO’s
series and the mandate of this UN organization to ensure qualified research and
education, the emphasis concludes, accordingly with a precedent call for required
corrections and subsequent revised editions of the height precedent volumes
(Bagodo, 2009a: 10-13), as well as on the benefit for the drafting/editing illustration
of the three tomes of volume IX started since 2015 onwards.

Samuel Oluwole Ogundele (Ph.D.),
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology,
University of Ibadan,
Ibadan, NIGERIA.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
This paper is an attempt to develop an understanding and knowledge of
archaeology within the broader context of cultural heritage
management/conservation in Nigeria. Nigerian archaeology is yet to witness some
exponential growth in several senses as a result of unbridled rigidity about the
conceptualisation and practice of the profession. Most Nigerian archaeologists are
still painfully unable to craft a spirit of openness and teamwork as they continually
allow competing legitimacies and sometimes, primordial hegemonies to occupy a
conspicuous space in their vocabularies of popular and professional discourses.
Consequently, the caricatures of archaeology and museum studies cannot be
shattered.
For archaeology to become a very socially engaging area of human
endeavour, it has to begin to dance creatively with such fields as museology, fine art,
robotics and cinematography. While it is a truism, that core archaeological
concepts and methods must not be jettisoned, the realities of today demand a much
bigger space for knowledge applications in order to capture contemporary
sensitivities and aspirations. This latter part of modern archaeological heritage
management straddles the sphere of museum operations. It entails site replication
using a myriad of cutting-edge digital technologies to make a given locale come
alive for educational/historical purposes and tourism.
Today’s Nigeria cannot afford to be doing archaeology as if it is a mere
academic pastime or esoteric enterprise, in the face of numerous challenges and
problems bordering on youth unemployment, underemployment, political
instability and shrinking economic space arising mainly from monumental
corruption, that has become a tradition of the political class including its business
associates.
There are several world-class archaeological site complexes in Nigeria that
are long overdue for a replication exercise. These include the Taruga iron-working
site in central Nigeria; Igbo-Ukwu burial chamber in the east and Old Oyo in the
west. A replication operation is not tantamount to a total transformation of a site
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W. Afr. J. Archaeol. Vol. 45 (1) 2015
into a tourist destination. Only a section or sections is/are needed. The remaining
part of the site is left for future archaeological research. This is sustainable
archaeological heritage management in action! This re-construction work derives
from thoroughgoing field and laboratory research and not speculation. Therefore,
profound heritage scholarship cannot be crippled or cannibalised when
archaeological sites are conceptualised of, as a special industry anchored on
history, economy, spirituality and social liberation. However, for optimum
efficiency in all its ramifications, a heritage management activity of this magnitude
has to give enough space to the philosophy of private-public entrepreneurism so
that it (heritage management) can remain afloat the stream of sustainable
development. Andah (1990) has also made some inroads into aspects of this subject
– Cultural Resource Management with a special emphasis on the African
experience.

Alex Ikechukwu Okpoko
Department of Archaeology and Tourism,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
and
Augustine Onyekwelu Onu
Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Introduction
As noted by Okwueze (2003), religion can be understood as a regulated pattern of
life of a people in which experiences, beliefs and knowledge are reflected in man’s
conception of himself in relation to others, his social world, the physical as well as
the metaphysical world. In sociology, there are broadly two approaches to the
definition of religion. The first, following Durkheim (1912) defines religion in
terms of its social function. According to Durkheim, religion is a system of beliefs
and rituals with reference to the sacred which binds people together into social
groups. In this sense, some sociologists have extended the notion of religion to
include nationalism. The second approach in line with Weber’s view, religion is
defined as any set of coherent answers to human existential dilemmas: birth,
sileness or death-which make the words meaningful. In this sense religion is the
human response to those things which concern us ultimately.
The implication of this definition is that all human beings are religious,
since we are all faced by the existential problems of disease, aging and death.
Drawing from Okwuese (2003), a major concern which has emerged in the study of
religion is the examination of its relationships with economic, political, cultural and
social institutions as well as its diverse functions and dysfunctions in the life of
society. The universality of religion manifest itself in the ease with which we see in
virtually all societies, certain sacred ritual and belief which obtain in circumstances
with unpredictable outcome and in which people more often than not appear
subjected to forces beyond their own control (Okuweze, (2003). These events bring
with them uncertainties and anxieties concerning so many questions about life,
death, success or failure in human endeavour. The answers, which come to allay
these anxieties, are often couched in supernatural and transcended values that make
religion the only source, which can provide the succor that can help man cope with
the frustrations, anxieties and vicissitudes that characterize human life (Oyo,
1988:127, cited from Okwueze, 2003:5).
From the above it becomes apparent that Africans are intensely religious. The basic
tenets of their indigenous religions hold a belief in a supreme deity. The supreme
being is a divine creator, a being who is the essence and the total of goodness and
benevolence. He is the light and life, the creator of law, order and all that is good in
the world. He is the universal cosmic energy, the unity behind all things.
Below the Ultimate Reality are the minor gods. These are personifications
of natural phenomena. They constitute a power external to man and society and
beyond man’s understanding or control. The family consists not only of living
individuals but also of the ancestors and those who are not yet born. The forbears are
thought to have great power over the conduct of the living. This they exercise from
the sacred realm, the other world which seems to mirror the organization of the
material world very closely. These unseen personalities (God, gods and ancestors)
receive attention from man in terms of sacrifice and offering.
Today, as a result of Christian missionary enterprise in western education
and modern medicine, many Africans are Christians. Many have become Moslems
or adherents to some other historical religions. Besides, the pressure of overpopulation
and the growth of urban centres are forcing many Africans to migrate
seasonally in search of new ways of making a living, and those who do not settle,
return with alien beliefs and customs. All this notwithstanding, the traditional
religious beliefs and practices still play an important part in their lives and are
powerful unifying force as was the case in the days of those. And the future appears
bright for the indigenous religious beliefs and practices for it will be some time
before the effects of the absorption of alien customs in many African societies can
be fully appreciated.