Nigeria and the literary community, no doubt, lost a renowned scholar, poet, humanist and award-winning novelist in the death of Prof. Isidore Okpewho. Aged 74, Africa’s foremost scholar of Oral Literature died in Binghamton, New York, United States, on September 4, 2016.
It will be recalled that Okpewho lived and taught in Upstate, New York, since 1991. Since his passage, former colleagues and students have paid glowing tributes to the late academic. His former colleague at the University of Ibadan (UI) and now Dean of Arts at Bowen University, Prof. Dan Izevbaye said that Okpewho’s demise marks the end of a glorious era in scholarship in African Oral Literature.
He also stressed that the deceased brought his background in Classics to bear on his Oral Literature scholarship. In the words of Prof. Niyi Osundare, Okpewho was one of those teachers that just could not resist the celebration of knowledge. He also pointed out that it was during the deceased headship of the Department of English, University of Ibadan that the department bubbled with life and purpose.
According to him, it was during this period that the Department’s annual African Literature Conference attracted world-class scholars such as Terry Eagleton and Houston Baker. Similarly, his former students, Prof. Isidore Diala of English Department, Imo State University, Prof. JOJ Nwachukwu-Agbada of Abia State University and Prof. Nduka Otiono of Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, lamented the great loss. Nwachukwu-Agbada particularly eulogized the deceased for his scholarship and creative writing which are focused on the psychology of the individual and not politics or leadership.
The great scholar, writer and university administrator was born on November 9, 1941 in Agbor, Delta State. He grew up in Asaba, his maternal hometown, where he attended St. Patrick’s College, Asaba. Later, he proceeded to the University of Ibadan for his university education.
After graduating with First Class Honours in Classics, Okpewho launched a glorious career in publishing at Longman Publishers and then as an academic after obtaining his Ph.D from the University of Denver, USA and a D.Litt from the University of London.
The deceased teaching career spanned University of New York at Buffalo, 1974-1976, University of Ibadan, 1976-1990, Harvard University, 1990-1991, and State University of New York at Binghamton, 1991 till his death. Apart from his foundational books, The Epic in Africa: Toward a Poetics of the Oral Performance (1979) and Myth in Africa: A Study of Its Aesthetic and Cultural Relevance (1983), he co-edited The Oral Performance in Africa. He also wrote Blood on the Tides: The Ozidi Saga and Oral Epic Narratology. His four novels are The Victims, The Last Duty, Tides and Call Me by My Rightful Name. It is to his credit that these novels are widely studied in Africa and other parts of the world and some of them have been translated into world languages.
For his numerous works and contributions to national development, Okpewho was honoured with the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) in Humanities in 2010. He was also elected President of the International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA). He was a Fellow of The Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars (1982), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (1982), Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford (1988), the W.E.B Du Bois Institute at Harvard (1990), National Humanities Centre in North Carolina (1997) and the Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2003).
Okpewho will be remembered for his love for knowledge, research, teaching and mentoring. He was a great scholar, teacher and role model. One of the best ways to immortalize him is for other academics to emulate his shining examples. We commiserate with his family, his friends and colleagues, Delta State, Nigeria and the literary community for the great loss. May Almighty God grant him eternal repose.
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