By Nehru Odeh
Professor Biodun Jeyifo, renowned scholar, literary critic, public intellectual, Marxist, committed trade unionist and pioneer President of the Academic Staff of Nigeria University (ASUU) is dead.
The world-class intellectual, popularly known as BJ, died on Wednesday in Lagos.
He died of of renal failure.
Jeyifo’s death came one month and five days after he celebrated his 80th birthday in Lagos
Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Jeyifo earned a first-class bachelor’s in English from the University of Ibadan in 1970, followed by a master’s from the same institution in 1973, and a doctorate from New York University in 1975.
He also holds a DLitt (honoris causa) from Obafemi Awolowo University —formerly the University of Ife — where he taught for many years.
Reflecting on that period, Jeyifo noted that it was at Ife he became “the kind of teacher and person I had always tried to become.”
His distinguished career further includes senior professorships at Cornell University and Harvard University, where he was Professor Emeritus of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature until his passage.
The range of his scholarly and professional interests demonstrates his purposeful pursuit of knowledge that can bring about social change: African and Caribbean ‘Anglophone’ literatures; theatrical theory and dramatic literature, Western and non-Western; comparative African and Afro-American critical thought; Marxist literary and cultural theory; colonial and postcolonial studies; and twentieth-century revolutionary social philosophy and literature.
Jeyifo was generally regarded as the world’s pre-eminent scholarly authority on the works and career of Wole Soyinka.
His award-winning book on the 1986 Nobel laureate, “Wole Soyinka : Politics, Poetics and Postcolonialism” (Cambridge University Press, 2004), is regarded as the most comprehensive study of the author’s work, and the most sophisticated single author study of any writer in African postcolonial studies.
Aside numerous critical essays, his scholarly works include : The Truthful Lie: Essays in the Sociology of African Drama (1985); Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Post colonialism (2004); Things Fall Apart, Things Fall Together (2010); Against the Predators’ Republic (2016); Apostrophes : To Friendship, Socialism and Democracy (2021)
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He served as the first National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria and has been a notable voice in public discourse through his journalism and critical essays.
Jeyifo’s 80th birthday was celebrated with a symposium organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ), held at the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, on December 5.
The theme of the symposium, which brought together scholars, former students and activists to reflect on his life, intellectual contributions and political legacy, was “Pedagogy, Curriculum and Decolonisation: Then and Now.” Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka also graced the occasion.
While expressing gratitude to former students and colleagues for the celebration, Jeyifo said the event was not only about him.
“I was extremely lucky to belong to a generation of intellectuals and human beings,” he said, naming colleagues such as Bala Usman, Claude Ake, Edwin Madunagu and his wife, Bene.
“I have been deeply moved by all the sessions. I have been lucky in my students; many became like younger brothers and sisters to me.
“The places I feel safest and most cherished are with my former students,” he said.
Participant at the symposium included Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka; Premium Times Publisher, Dapo Olorunyomi; TheNEWS/ P.M.NEWS Executive Director, Kunle Ajibade; and Professor Priyamvada Gopal of the University of Cambridge who delivered the keynote addressed.
Also at the event were Dr Yemi Ogunbiyi; Sam Omatseye; Dr Bisi Anyadike, and Dr Ogaga Ifowodo among others.
Source – P.M.News
(vitalnewsngr.com)
