Description
The establishment of the University College, Ibadan in 1948 led to fundamental reorganizations of Nigerian society. Tracing the history of this university over the subsequent 30 years, this thesis examines this process. Particular attention is given to the ways in which the natural and social sciences helped to create the idea of a ‘gendered Nigeria’ within a social landscape devoid of the Western understanding of gender prior to contact with Europeans. This thesis argues that the proliferation of binary gender was facilitated by a higher education apparatus which employed this category at an epistemological level. This idea is explored through a close examination of work produced contemporarily at the University of Ibadan in the natural and social sciences. In addition, this thesis examines the way in which the category of gender, once established, manifested in literature produced by graduates of the University. Renowned writers such as Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka were basally influenced by their experience at this institution, and the way in which gender operates in their work is evidence of this permeation. Alongside other state and social institutions, the University of Ibadan participated in bringing the Nigerian population into the fold of Western categories of social analysis.
