An evening of tributes for Abiola Irele

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From right: Professors Aduke Adebayo, Ayo-Banjo-Ademola-Dasylva-Ayo-Bamgbose-Pai-Obanya Dan-Izevbaye-Dapo-Irele-and-Tunde-Ayelari.

From right: Professors Aduke Adebayo, Ayo-Banjo-Ademola-Dasylva-Ayo-Bamgbose-Pai-Obanya Dan-Izevbaye-Dapo-Irele-and-Tunde-Ayelari.

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

Evening of Wednesday December 13, 2017, family, friends, students and scholars gathered at the Quadrangle, Faculty of Arts of the University of Ibadan, UI, venue of “An Evening of Tributes”, held in honour of literary critic, late Professor Francis Abiola Irele. The event was put together by The Committee of Friends in conjunction with the Department of European Studies, and the Faculty of Arts of the premier university.

The occasion had in attendance Professor Dan Izevbaye, Professor Remigius Onyejekwe Oriaku, Professor Dele Olayiwola, Professor Olatunji Oyesile, Professor Oladipo Irele, younger brother to the deceased, Prof. Obododimma Oha, Professor Duro Adeleke, Dr Eyiwunmi Bolatito Olayinka, wife of the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, Dr. Tunde Awosanmi, Dr Kayode Omotade, Dr Mathew Umukoro, Emeritus Professor Pai Obanya, Professor Festus Adesanoye, Professor Jacob Eyitayo, among several others.
At the occasion, various scholars paid their tributes to the literary critic as they shared testimonies of how they met him and his impact in their lives as well as his contributions to scholarship.

In his welcome address, the Dean of Faculty of Arts, Professor Ademola Omobewaji Dasylva, noted that he first met the deceased through his works before they had personal contact saying, “At a conference in Toronto, Canada, he related with me and others as if we were mates. There can’t be a dull moment with Professor Irele. He was a great mentor and a workaholic”.

The Head of the Department of European Studies, Professor Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru, described him as a leader, a father, a teacher stressing, “Many of us didn’t meet him but we met his legacies. He left many of his books for us in the department”.

The Chairman of the occasion, Professor Ayo Bamgbose, in his remark, lamented that often Nigerians forget people who made contributions to scholarship and these same people are celebrated abroad adding, “Abiola Irele should be among the first to be celebrated because he was among the best literary critics”.

He said, “The qualification that I have to stand here as the chairman of this occasion is that I entered University of Ibadan with Abiola Irele in 1957. In the class of 12, Irele was the most talented in literature, music, art, name it. He was everything. He did not limit himself to book like most of us. He was someone who was restless. He did English here and went to France and studied French and he was fluent in French than Frenchman. He was a restless spirit because he always moves. I am happy that Ibadan has not forgotten him”.

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Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo described him as one of the champions of Negritude Movement as well as a first class critic who will be difficult to beat in critic. “He was a charming scholar who combined many gifts. He interacted very easily with everybody”, Banjo added.

Professor Dan Izebaye who spoke on “Biola’s Significance”, said that the deceased would not only generate scholarly idea or researchable topic, he would equally create an avenue for papers to be published. He said, “Biola is a great person. He will surely be missed because nobody can do what he has been doing. He can’t be replaced. Abiola Irele’s pursuit is the pursuit of African imagination. Through his books, students have cultural and literary enlightenment and he was deeply rooted in African culture. It is something to be friend with Irele. He is full of jokes”.

From-right-Professors-Aduke-Adebayo-Ayo-Banjo-Ademola-Dasylva-Ayo-Bamgbose-Pai-ObanyaDan-Izevbaye-and-Dapo-Irele
Attendees

One of Irele’s supervisees, Professor Grace Aduke Adebayo, having narrated how they met at University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU as her external supervisor and how he was instrumental to her being employed in the university described him as a thorough and hardworking scholar. “If he supervises you, you have to read a lot. He will not allow you to write a proposal for the first year. In the first year, he gives you books to read which you must summarise and submit to him. Now, during the supervision, there will always be deadlines and you better keep to his deadlines. He was strict and does not suffer fools lightly. He is easily annoyed but when he has calmed down, he will try to win you back. He makes people feel important. He was humble. He left lots of legacies. I want to thank Irele for training and mentoring me”.

Irele was a Nigerian academic best known as the doyen of Africanist literary scholars worldwide. He was Provost at Kwara State University, founded in 2009 in Ilorin, Nigeria. Before moving back to Nigeria, Irele was Visiting Professor of African and African American Studies and of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.

Abiola Irele was born in Ora, Nigeria, and moved to Enugu very early in his life. While he was of Edo ethnicity, and had been born in an area where Ora was predominantly spoken, the first language he learned was Igbo, which he learned from the servants who worked for his father and took care of him growing up. After moving to Lagos in 1940, he began to speak Yoruba. In 1943, after a fight between his parents, Irele returned with his mother to Ora, where he picked up and developed a fluency in the Ora language over the course of a year. However, after returning to Lagos in 1944 to live with his father, he began to predominantly speak Yoruba and maintained it as his ethnic identification.

Abiola-Irele-family-members

Irele’s first encounter with literature was through folk tales and the oral poets who recounted “raras” in the streets. During the years of his formal education, he began to read more English literature.

Irele graduated from Ibadan University in 1960. Immediately after graduation, he went to Paris to learn French and completed a Ph.D in French at the University of Paris, Sorbonne, in 1966. On his return to Nigeria, he was employed on the Languages Faculty at the University of Lagos, and then at the University of Ghana, Legon. He was editor of Black Orpheus magazine, from 1968 until 1975. He also held teaching positions at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), and in 1975 at the University of Ibadan, where he was Chair of Languages. In 1989, he moved to Ohio State University in the U.S. as Professor of African, French and Comparative Literature.

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