Speaker: Akin Ogundiran
Time: 12:00 pm- 1:00 pm CST
Venue: 8417 Sewell Social Sciences Building
1180 Observatory Dr.
Talk Description
This talk examines the Oyo Empire (ca. 1600–1836) through the lens of domesticity, household organization, and the politics of dependency. Based on multi-sited excavations in the metropolis (Oyo‑Ile) and the colony of Ede‑Ile, Ogundiran argues that the Oyo Empire was constituted through layered domestic practices and that governance was deeply household-centered. Moving beyond formal political institutions, he will highlight the everyday practices—cooking, crafting, animal management, gendered labor, and household relations—that underpinned governance in one of West Africa’s largest states. The talk will show how innovations in domestic technologies transformed domestic labor, reconfigured the empire’s political economy, and expanded its participation in the merchant capital revolution of the early modern period.
Speaker’s Bio
Akin Ogundiran is the Cardiss Collins Professor of Arts and Sciences, Professor of History, and Courtesy Professor of Anthropology and of Black Studies at Northwestern University, where he also directs the Material History Lab. His research interest focuses on the archaeology and history of the Yoruba world (West Africa) from 400 BC to 1840 AD. Ogundiran’s publications include The Yoruba: A New History (Indiana University Press, 2020), recipient of the Vinson Sutlive Book Prize and the Isaac Oluwole Delano Prize for Yoruba Studies. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.
Hosted by the Department of Anthropology and co‑sponsored by the African Studies Program, this event reflects a shared commitment to interdisciplinary engagement.
The event is free and open to the public.