The Cloth of Field of Gold: Material Culture and Civic Power in Colonial Ibadan

Abstract

The article focuses on a political controversy which occurred in Ibadan, a city in south-western Nigeria, during 1939. At face value, the contentious issue was a particular design of damask cloth. Ruth Watson suggests that the controversy was actually far more complex and argues that it cannot be understood unless one develops an historical reading of political culture in the city. This reading explores the cultural/symbolic meanings of political practices and how, at certain times, these practices served to generate material forms of civic power.