Before the modern : the burden of origins and traditions -- Incipient order : settlers and returnees making the nation (1850-1880) -- Making monarchy : political centralization on the colonial margin, 1893-1914 -- Making the nation : identity and modernity on a colonial margin, 1918-1940 -- Elites know their boundaries : power in medical discourses 1937-1950 -- A nation unfulfilled : global ideas, Nigerian nationalism and the reorientation of elite power in Abeokuta, 1930-1950 -- Conclusion