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From: Ajibola Olaitan <olakitan02@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 07:18:52 -0800 (PST)
To: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
ReplyTo: Ajibola Olaitan <olakitan02@yahoo.com>
Subject: Prof. Olukotun's Column
ADELEYE: CAN THE IBADAN HISTORY SCHOOL BE RECREATED?
AYO OLUKOTUN
"Ignorance of History that is, absent or defective collective memory does deprive us of the best available guide for Public action" Prof.William Mcneill"
Institutions that endure and flourish as well as individuals of deserved eminence are the pride of their nations. Oxford University in Britain advertises her worth and preeminence in the educational sector by the fact of having produced 50 Nobel Prize winners, 26 British Prime Ministers including David Cameron and 30 International leaders among which is former United States President Bill Clinton. That distinguished track record speaks far more eloquently than several rebranding projects designed to lift the image of any nation.
The death recently of Dr R.A. Adeleye one of the icons of the Ibadan history school provides a vantage point to reflect on that once famous epistemic community and in the manner of historians ask what might have been, had the orderly development of that school not been rudely interrupted or our Universities, created as world class centres of learning, sent into a protracted meltdown. As Adeleye's magnificient book, "Power and Diplomacy in Nigeria 1804-1906, illustrates the Ibadan history school was renowned for diligent application of historical craft to the enterprise of reconstructing the history and cultures of the Nigerian peoples; a history forcibly driven underground by the Colonial jackboot.
The leading lights of the school include: Kenneth Dike, J.F. Ade Ajayi, Obaro Ikime, Fred Omu and Tekena Tamuno among others. It also harboured several non Nigerian scholars such as R.J. Gavin, Michael Crowder, and Abdulahi Smith. Although it was warehoused at the University of Ibadan the community was spread across the country as its major practitioners took up academic appointments in several other universities. For examples, Abdullahi Smith went over to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and became the Director of Arewa house Kaduna, a monumental library of relevant sources for the history of Nothern Nigeria. Similarly, Olatunji Oloruntimilehin went over to what was then the University of Ife and Fred Omu author of a classic study on history of the Nigerian media went to teach at University of Benin. In this sense, the Ibadan history school is a short hand for the early anti-colonial wave of the writing of history in Nigeria.
In what turned out to be the last time, I would meet Dr Adeleye, he recalled to me that he supervised the doctoral dissertation of a Professor of history at Lagos State University, who was at the time the Commissioner of Education in Lagos State. In this manner, the school noted for its deployment of a variety of historical sources including oral tradition as well as an inter-disciplinary approach reproduced itself and became the dominant tradition in Nigerian history writing until it was challenged by the radical school under the stimulus of Prof Bala Usman at Ahmadu Bello University, which emphasized the neglected role of the lower classes in making history.
Although, the Zaria school which drew inspiration from the Dar-Es-Salam University in Tanzania was intellectually stimulating, its output and impact, were comparatively slim when viewed in the light of the Ibadan School. For reasons beyond the scope this write-up, the Zaria School in spite its innovative concept building could not repeat the success of the leftist British School which featured E.P. Thompson, Christopher Hill and of course Eric Hobsbawm who by the time he passed on a few years ago had become Britain's foremost historian.
But let us get back to Ibadan. The brilliance of that school, and its harvest of solid empirical studies bear witness to the impressive academic output in Nigeria at that point. The vitality of those times is captured in the ascendancy of several other knowledge communities such as the Ife Literary and dramatic school with star intellectuals such as Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Kole Omotosho and a host of others: the School of Engineering at the University of Lagos built around Ayodele Awojobi; the Nsuka Circle of Poets and Literary critics as well as the Port Harcourt School of Political Economy which flourished around Claude Ake .
As the opening quote suggests, one of the ways of seeking direction and rummaging through seasons of uncertainty and decline is by revisiting the past. It is sad to recall that not only is the Ibadan history school defunct, the glamorous academic tradition which it both represented and catalysed is in tatters and tragic disrepair. Today, most of what passes for academic publishing within the country can be safety ignored. The Universities themselves are afflicted with serial strikes which render them uncompetitive and unattractive in an age in which the generation and circulation of knowledge have become defining parameters of progress.
History as a discipline has not only taken a back seat but it is unraveling as leading Nigerian Historians such as Toyin Falola and Banji Akintoye have had to relocate to other climes to profess their discipline. Of course the decline of history and the humanities is partly a global affair connected with economic recession and, a shrinking job market. Still, there is a difference between decline and a great leap backwards. A nation that relegates its history loses its identity and the capacity to draw imaginaries or inspirational guide from her past.
On one occasion, in the course of conversation with the late eminent Professor of Economics, Ojetunji Aboyade., he said to me that when he arrived at the University of Cambridge to begin doctoral study in Economics, his supervisor recommended to him a little known, hard going and some what esoteric book dealing with the transition of European countries from feudalism, to capitalism between the 15th and 18th century. "It was much later "Aboyade said to me " that I appreciated the relevance to economics of what at first looked like a punishing and pointless voyage through dense pages of writing on European economic history".
There must be a connection between Aboyade's stature as an economist and his wide ranging exploration at the instance of his supervisor of history. Even science and technology as well as innovations have histories that are worth knowing and it is not for nothing that some of the best universities of technology on the globe harbour vibrant humanities departments.
Let us now return to the question raised at the beginning whether the recreation of the Ibadan history school which located Nigeria at an advantageous position on the world map is possible. In other words; Can Nigerian Universities produce academics in the mould of the Adeleyes of this world in the near future? On current terms, the answer is of course a resounding No. It is possible however, to envisage a modest rebound of a once glorious academic culture under a visionary and proactive political leadership that will not wait for a long strike before coming to the aid of distressed universities but one that is armed with a road map of their return to visibility and that is ready to muster the necessary follow up intervention and engagement with stakeholders that will bring that road map to fruition. Is anyone listening?
Olukotun is Professor of Political Science and Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, at Lead City University, Ibadan
