TRIBUTE
ADEKEYE ADEBAJO: Giant iroko tree of African studies falls
‘The ultimate cultural bridge builder, Irele continuously interpreted the francophone world of black poetry and prose for an anglophone audience’
Nigerian scholar Abiola Irele, who died in Boston this month at the age of 81, was undoubtedly the foremost prophet of the concept of negritude, to which he devoted his intellectual career for five decades.
I first met him as an undergraduate while studying German at the University of Ibadan in 1985, when he was head of the modern languages department and a professor of French. Later in my academic career, I would meet “Prof” in diverse US cities during annual African Studies Association conferences, where we talked about issues relating to Nigeria, Africa and the world. After Irele’s death, tributes flooded in from around the world. Harvard-based Nigerian scholar Biodun Jeyifo described him as “indisputably the world’s greatest scholar of negritude”. Kenya’s Princeton-based Simon Gikandi noted that “more than any other scholar of his generation, Irele brought a forceful intellect, a cosmopolitan outlook, and authoritative voice to the study of African literature”. US academic Kenneth Harrow eulogised him as “a major voice for African studies, a generous humanist, an insightful scholar … an iroko tree in our forest of scholars”. Irele studied at the University of Ibadan before obtainin...
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