Northern Identities

Recent years have witnessed an explosion of academic and popular interest in the issue of social identity. Yet the subject areas of regional and sub-regional identities, and historical engagements between ’the regional’, ’the local’ and ’the national’, remain very neglected. Seeking to make a contribution towards redressing these areas of neglect and to further advancing our knowledge and understanding of the general issue of social identity, this volume of essays offers the reader an exploration of some of the rich and varied, historical interpretations of ’the North’ and ’Northernness’. The focus rests mainly, but not exclusively, upon the North of England. Taken as a whole, the essays highlight the contingent, fluid, and ambiguous nature of ’Northenness’, its complex and shifting interplay with feelings of localism and nationalism, and the profound, if varying, influences of class, race, gender, sport, tourism, music and political and economic structures and concerns upon ’northern’ identities. This book will hold a general appeal to readers interested in the issue of social identity, especially in its regional and local manifestations and engagements. It will find a wide readership across the humanities and social sciences. It should be compulsory reading for those in New Labour addressing the issue of the ’North-South divide’.

This anthology of essays, Northern Myths, Modern Identities, explores the various ways in which northern mythologies have been employed in the cultural construction of ethnic, national and supra-national identities from 1800 to the present.

Northern Ireland is frequently characterised in terms of a two traditions paradigm, representing the conflict as being between two discrete cultures. Demonstrating the reductionist nature of this argument, this book highlights the complexity of reality.

When conflict, competing identities, and segregation collide; Identity, Segregation and Peace-building in Northern Ireland explores the implications for peace-building in Northern Ireland, and across the globe.

This unique collection of articles on literature in northern Nigeria is in three parts. Part one presents an overview of the running theme, in which Na’Allah explores the theoretical relationship between literature, history and identity in northern Nigeria, using the proverbial story of the blind man who holds a lamp while walking alone in the night. Similarly, Tsiga undertakes in a long bibliographical essay, a notable survey of the relationship between literature, history and identity in northern Nigeria, chronicling the development of life writing in the region dating back three hundred years. Part two focuses on the relationship between literature and history in northern Nigeria and begins with the article in which Illah investigates the theme. He uses the image of the bus to underscore the point he makes concerning the uniqueness of northern Nigerian literature, which continues its journey, even without a spare tyre. Equally in this part, Balogun discusses Yerima’s Attahiru, Ameh Oboni: The Great as theatres of colonial resistance; just as Methuselah also examines the heroism celebrated in Ahmed Yerima’s Attahiru. Adamu revisits the trans-fictional use of the Grimm Brothers’ tale in the early published Hausa written narratives, while Yunusa and Malumfashi examine similar historical concerns in Abubakar Imam and Sa’adu Zungur, respectively. This part concludes with Garba assessing the transformation of the written Hausa prose narratives into radio broadcasts; while Abiodun examines in a historiographic survey the various forms and composition of Ilorin music. In what might have been the scholar’s last conference article before his sudden death, Nasidi, in Part three, opens the debate on literature and identity in northern Nigeria, eloquently theorising on the relationship with Foucault, his favourite philosopher. AbdulRaheem illustrates how the literature of the people of Ilorin is their identity marker, while Kazaure investigates the split character in Labo Yari’s Man of the Moment. Ibrahim explores identity in marriage between migrants and natives in Kanchana Ugbabe’s Soul Mates, while Aondofa investigates globalisation and indigenous television. Using Tiv film typology, like Aondofa, Sulaiman examines the use of diction in characterisation in the film industry. The third of the contributors on the film industry, AbdulBaqi, uses films shown on DSTV’s African Magic channels to investigate matrimonial harmony in North Central Nigeria. Jaji revisits the antecedents and prospects in the relationship between prose and identity in northern Nigeria. Giwa offers a detailed investigation of Zaynab Alkali’s The Initiates on gender politics. Similarly, Muhammad and Muhammad are concerned with identity and the gender politics in Bilkisu Abubakar’s To Live Again and The Woman in Me. The last article in the book, jointly written by Yusuf, Anwonmeh and Agulonye, offers the only viewpoint on children’s literature in northern Nigeria.

This is the first book to analyse art from the northern frontier zones of Roman Britain and to interpret the meaning and significance of this art in terms of the formation of a regional identity. It argues that a distinct and vibrant visual culture flourished in the north, primarily due to its status as a heavily militarized frontier zone.

Civilization and culture have traditionally been regarded as mutually exclusive concepts. In this comparative case-study of Northern Ireland, Máiréad Nic Craith explores the commitment of unionists to a civic, 'culture-blind' British state; contrasting this with nationalist demands for official recognition of Irish culture. The 'cultural turn' in Northern Irish politics and the development of a bicultural infrastructure is examined here in the context of differing interpretations of equality and increasing demands for intercultural communication within, as well as between, communities.

Originally published in 1989, this book examines how the inter-ethnic relationships of the clans of the pastoral Rendille, Gabbra, Sakuye and some Somalis of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia came about. It also examines the uses to which these inter-ethnic relationships are put: for example in managing herds. Oral history is combined with cultural comparison and the analysis of social structure. Blending synchronic and diachronic perspectives, the book synthesises historical ethnology in the Continental tradition with social anthropology. Historically it overturns some established ideas about how the Horn of Africa was settled. Anthropologically it shows how relations may exceed the bounds of the ethnic group as the conventional unit of study.