Boluwatife Akinro

Locating Slavery in the Contemporary Yoruba Social Imaginary

This project investigates the conceptualization of slavery in Yorubaland through elite discourse–
the modes of communication that entrench hegemonic ideology– to understand if there is a
legacy of slavery to speak of in contemporary Yoruba communities. It explores the politics of
memorialization, and the social relations they legitimize, to access popular understandings of
slavery and servitude. Through these politics, four motifs can be seen as central to
understanding the concept of slavery. When elites are memorialized, it is in a way that
emphasizes their royal blood, martial prowess, ancestral wealth and legitimate belonging to
kinship networks. It is against each of these criteria that the concept of slavery is juxtaposed.

Akinro, Boluwatife. “Between Pride and Prejudice: Thoughts of Conducting Ethnographic Research in a City of Greatness”. Dependency Blog. 4 March, 2024.

Lawal, Wale and Boluwatife Akinro. “Come and See: The Redeeming Inventiveness of Kenneth Ize and Mowalola Ogunlesi”. The Republic. 25 August, 2021. https://republic.com.ng/august-september-2021/come-and-see-ize-ogunlesi/ 

Akinro, Boluwatife. “Politics of Happiness: Nollywood in Nigeria's Crisis of Happiness”. The Republic. 18 January, 2021. https://republic.com.ng/december-20-january-21/politics-of-happiness-nollywood/ 

Akinro, Boluwatife and Joshua Segun-Lean. “The Prophetic Vision of Chinua Achebe: Reclaiming Africa's Past, Writing its Present, Shaping its Future”. The Republic. 13 January, 2020. https://republic.com.ng/december-19-january-20/prophetic-vision-of-chinua-achebe/ 

Akinro, Boluwatife and Joshua Segun-Lean, "Beyoncé and the Heart of Darkness". Africasacountry. 2019. https://africasacountry.com/2019/09/beyonces-heart-of-darkness 

Akinro, Boluwatife. “Creating Africa: Africa in the Global Contest of Looking and Representation”. The Republic. 24 June, 2019. https://republic.com.ng/june-july-2019/creating-africa/

Akinro, Boluwatife. (Panel Co-Organizer). “The Legacy of Internal Slavery in Contemporary Nigeria”. Lagos Studies Association Conference. June 2024. 

Akinro, Boluwatife. (Presenter). “Second Class Family: Tradition and Dependency in the Yoruba Household Structure”. Presented at the conference: Household as Coercive Regimes Conference. International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. November 2023.

Akinro, Boluwatife. (Presenter). “Fictive Kinship and the Vestiges of Slavery in a Yoruba Town”. Presented at the conference: Authoring Human Rights in West Africa and Beyond. University of Cape Coast, Ghana. January 2023.

Akinro, Boluwatife. (Co-moderator). Tori and Lokita (2022). BCDSS Film Series: “Who's Got the Power?”. September, 2023.

Akinro, Boluwatife. (Co-moderator). La Pirogue. BCDSS Film Series: “Who's Got the Power?”. April, 2022.

Akinro, Boluwatife. (Presenter). “Vassals and Vagrants: Value and Belonging in Yorubaland from c. 19th Century till Present”. University of Zurich, Switzerland. March, 2022.

since 2021            
Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2016–2019                
M.A. in English and American Studies, University of Paderborn, Germany

2010–2014                
B.A. in Honours, English and International Studies, Osun State University, Nigeria

since 2021             
Research Associate, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn, Germany

2019–2020                
Research Assistant, "Hybrid Narrativity Research Group," Universität Paderborn, Germany

2017–2019                
Student Assistant, University of Paderborn, Germany

2017                            
Editor (Intern), Education as A Vaccine (EVA), Nigera

“Preis für herausragende Abschlussarbeiten und besonderes studentisches Engagement der Universitätsgesellschaft” (2020)

DAAD Prize for Outstanding Achievement (2018)