Molara Ogundipe
One of the members of the older generation of Nigerian writers, academics and feminists, Professor Molara Ogundipe, died on Tuesday 18 June, in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, Nigeria at the age of 78.
She was born on 27 December 1940 in Lagos. In the early 50s, she was one of the pioneering students of the elite public girls secondary school, Queen’s School in Ede, now in Osun State. At that time, all the teachers were British. The first African to ever teach in the school was Grace Alele, who taught Mathematics and became Grace Alele-William, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin. Because of Alele, Ogundipe got interested in Mathematics even though she was an excellent arts student.
After Queen School, she attended University College, Ibadan, then a college of the University of London, where she made a first class in the Department of English. She was the first woman to do so. For a long time, she taught English and Comparative Literature in several universities in Nigeria, Africa and America with only her first degree. She only got a PhD much later at Leiden University.
It was in her last year at the University College, Ibadan in 1962 that she became a Marxist. This interest blossomed at the Columbia University, New York, where she worked with Lionel Trilling in 1965 as visiting scholar, This was a period pulsating with Flower Movement, Hippie Movement and Black Power.
Her academic and journalistic essays are often rigorous and clarifying. In 1964, she wrote “The Palm Wine Drinkard: A Reassessment of Amos Tutuola.” This essay remains one of the best on Tutuola, the fabulist whose English, strictly speaking, is not English. In the piece, Ogundipe celebrated the women in “The Palm Wine Drinkard.” She would later write on women in the novels of Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiongo, Festus Iyayi and other writers. Her “Female Writer and Her Commitment” was published in The Guardian in 1983. But, arguably, it was in her essays, “The Rural Woman in Africa” published in 1982; ”Re-creating Ourselves: African Women and Critical Transformations” published in 1994; and “Not Spinning on the Axis of Maleness” published in an anthology, “Sisterhood Is Global” that she really articulated a more illuminating position on women.
She also laced her only collection of poems, “Sew the Old Days and Other Poems” with subtle feminist ideas. In a 1989 special edition of Matatu titled, “Black Women’s Writing: Crossing the Boundaries” edited by Carole Boyce Davies, her 1977 well-informed interview with Paul Marshall, the African-American writer, who was in Nigeria for FESTAC 77, was published. In a very detailed and interesting conversation she had in 1992 with Irene Assiba D’Almeida, titled ”African Literature, Feminism and Social Change” published in Matatu in 2001, she revealed some significant parts of her life’s journeys.
Since her death was announced, some social media commenters have been mistaking her for Mrs Phebean A. Ogundipe, the author of a memoir, “Up-Country Girl”, and renown educationist who co-authored “Practical English” with Tregido. They are two different high-achieving women. The burial rites for Professor Molara Ogundipe, who used to be called Molara Ogundipe-Leslie at a point in her life, will be announced soon by her two daughters and other family members.
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Tribute to Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie.
Dr Ogundipe was a woman who lived life on her own terms. I first encountered her as a 2nd year student at the Ogun State University as an English student. I will always remember her and the memories we shared. She taught me or better to say didn’t teach me Poetry. Dr Leslie did not teach her students; according to her she gives you the “tools to learn and you do research on your own” She was ahead of her time as a teacher also apparently because of her exposure to western way of teaching. Dr Leslie as she was called at that time was a hard scorer. She called my name in class because I had the highest score of 52% in the assignment she had given. Once she called my name and I stood up she retorted “so you are the one who have the audacity to bear my name.” that threw the class into an uproar of laughter. Despite the fact that students didn’t like her initially she had a knack for saying things that just made everyone laugh. She asked to meet me in her office and from then a guarded respectful lecturer-student friendship was borne. Soon enough she thrusted me into “Graduate Assistantship” for the Poetry class. I was assigned the task of giving assignments to my peers, reading and discussing the poems with the class and reporting back to her which sometimes were done at her home. I did my best with the responsibility but back then I felt it was a case of the blind leading the blind.
In hindsight, I appreciate cutting my teeth at that early stage of my life in some sort of leadership and tutelage as it has served and continues to serve me in my journey. Dr Leslie believed and invested in young people, in spite of my protest as a result of my feeling of inadequacy she refused to relieve me of the responsibility. Dr Leslie was quite different from any lecturer. She mixed freely with some of her students and took us as protegees. I recall countless visits by her to my little room off campus. I recall our trips alongside my friend Sola Adewunmi to University of Ibadan, Guardian Newspaper and NTA at Victoria Island where we met the likes of Dr Victoria Eze-Okoli? former Director of Productions NTA and all her efforts to get us into media outlets so we can have some experience in the Broadcasting Industry. Dr Leslie’s carefree attitude which was termed extreme by some could be seen by all at Ogun State University as she would sometimes show up at students’ parties with no care about what anyone thought of it. She was a feminist who believed in the independence of the female gender.
Dr Leslie was extremely prudent with money” she was an Ijebu woman to the core. Her request at every visit to my room was for a bottle of 7 up. I finally asked her one day why 7Up and not Coke or Fanta? She quipped “because it contained more than the rest for the same price.”
Dr Leslie was a Pan-Africanist who believed so much in Africa, promoted African culture, books written by African authors and ideology. Dr Leslie can often be spotted wearing Adire or Ankara and mostly adorn African hairdos.
My last physical contact with her was at the Marriot Hotel in Washington D.C where she was a participant in a lecture series. By this time, she had dropped the Leslie ended her Professorial job at Arkansas and was heading to Europe for another Professorial appointment. We exchanged a few emails after that. I remember her as a mother who loved to work, travel and spoke fondly of her daughters. I am privileged to have known her closely and to proudly say good night to my teacher, friend and mentor.
As I look back I appreciate the enriching experience of travel, of exposure, the political talks and debates that ensued among us; the disagreements over faith and feminism during those visits, trips and encounters with you, they are in part the reason I am who I am today. Thank you for the impression you left on my mind as an activist, speaker and writer and may your soul rest in peace Dr Omolara Ogundipe Leslie.
By Omolara Akin-Taiwo
ENGLISH DEPT
OSU 83/87 SET