ABSTRACT
Colonial capitalism has transformed significant social relationships into commodity relationships. It has thereby differentiated the colonized society along new lines, so that people's life-chances are determined by their access to and exclusion from resources introduced by the colonial political economy. At the very simplest level of analysis, Ibadan, like other societies, divides into two, those who have, and those who have not. The distinction is given expression in the Yoruba word mẹkunnu, best rendered in English as 'an ordinary person', or in the plural as 'the common people'. 2 Depending on the context, the mẹkunnu may be distinguished from the olowo (wealthy), who constitute the most obvious antithesis, but also from the omowe (educated), ọlọla (noble, in Ibadan, implying chiefs), or alagbara (powerful).
