This is a study of Ibadan, the largest indigenous African city south of the Sahara. Ibadan began its existence as a war-camp and has retained, to a large extent, the structure of an overgrown village. In the core of the town, settled in the nineteenth century, the people live together in large family compounds. The new elites live in the peripheral modern suburbs but here individual homes are the rule. The two sections of the city depend on one another economically and the commercial and industrial development of new Ibadan is modifying the life of the old city. The book is a symposium based on a series of papers presented at a seminar organised by the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan. Each contributor is an expert in his own field and together they provide a comprehensive survey of the history, geography, sociology and political structure of this remarkable city. All sides of the city's life and structure are examined in relation to one another; the book deals with the city as a whole and not single aspects of it.
