Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo (born 22 November 1937 — 9 March 2009) was a
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
n historian known for the history and historiography of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, more particularly
IgboIgbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern and south Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
history and the history of Southeastern Nigeria. Themes emphasized include pre-colonial and colonial history, inter-group relations, the Aro and the slave trade (1), the art and science of history in Africa, non-written-sources and the reconstruction of African history, history and nation-building.
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo was a Nigerian historian.
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo (born 22 November 1937 — 9 March 2009) was a
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
n historian known for the history and historiography of
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, more particularly
IgboIgbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern and south Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...
history and the history of Southeastern Nigeria. Themes emphasized include pre-colonial and colonial history, inter-group relations, the Aro and the slave trade (1), the art and science of history in Africa, non-written-sources and the reconstruction of African history, history and nation-building.
Introduction
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo was a Nigerian historian. He was made a historian by the men and forces that gave birth in the 1950s to the celebrated
Ibadan SchoolThe Ibadan School was the first, and for many years the dominant, school in the study of the history of Nigeria. It originated at the University of Ibadan in the 1950s and remained dominant until the 1970s...
of History which for about three decades was the most prominent school of history in Africa. He developed to become a prominent member of that school, which devoted its time to preaching and demonstrating the possibility of and the necessity for African history and historiography as a specific genre of the world branch of knowledge known as history. In pursuing the mission of this school through teaching, research, writing and publication Adiele Afigbo produced a wide variety of works which established inter alia the possibilities of basic reconstructionist history, of African historical methodologies and of the close link between the art and science of history on the one hand and state formation and statecraft on the other. In the process he gave full rein to eclecticism with respect to sources and methods, using as the occasion demands and warrants elements from myth and other oral sources, from archaeology, linguistics, material artifacts and written sources (2). In the last analysis he defines a historian as a clinical student of human experience who seeks to tell the story as it is and to explain it. With respect to style and presentation he believes in lively narrative and analysis while heeding Aristotle's advice which says write in the language of the ordinary man but think like an intellectual.
Early life and education
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo was born at Ihube,
OkigweOkigwe is the second largest city in Imo state of Nigeria. The city lies between the Port Harcourt-Enugu-Maiduguri rail line.Thus has grown into a major cattle transit town for the southeast and south subregions. Okigwe has a population of 535,765 . Most of the population is made up of immigrant...
, in present day
Imo StateImo State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria and lies to the south of this West African country, with Owerri as it capital and largest city.-History:...
. His formal education began in 1944 at Methodist Central School, Ihube where he came under the influence of remarkably dedicated teachers, the most outstanding of whom was Mr. Oji Iheukumere, the head teacher, a native of Uzuakoli, in today's
Abia StateAbia State is a state in southeastern Nigeria. The capital is Umuahia, although the major commercial city is Aba, formerly a British colonial government outpost. The state was created in 1991 from part of Imo State and its citizens are predominantly Igbo people...
who was a noted church musician and disciplinarian. At Ihube Central School Afigbo's brilliance manifested early which made his teachers encourage him to go to secondary school in spite of the opposition of his parents who were intimidated by the cost of post-primary education. He succeeded in his bid and went to St. Augustine's (CMS) Grammar School, Nkwerre Orlu in Imo State. with an Okigwe Native Administration scholarship won in a competitive examination. There again he came across a crop of teachers who left a definite imprint on him. Foremost among those were Mazi F,C. Ogbalu, a teacher of Igbo language and culture and the founder of the Society for The Promotion of Igbo Language and Culture, C.G.I. Eneli a history graduate of the University College, Ibadan and E. C. Ezekwesili, the principal of the college and a history graduate of the University of Southampton, UK. These three helped to determine his future academic career. From St. Augustine's Grammar School Afigbo gained admission to study history at University College, Ibadan (then affiliated with
University of LondonBased primarily in London, England, United Kingdom, the University of London is a federal mega university made up of 31 affiliates: 19 separate university institutions, and 12 research institutes...
), with a scholarship from the government of Eastern Nigeria. There again, he met scholars noted for their brilliance and beneficent influence – J.D. Omer-Cooper, J.C. Anene, J.F. Ade Ajayi and K.O. Dike. There were also his colleagues – Obaro Ikime and Philip Igbafe who not only read history with him, but with him went on to pioneer the “made in Nigeria PhD” at the infant University of Ibadan with the help of post-graduate scholarships awarded by the university to the best graduating students. Adiele Afigbo had not only graduated top of his class, but also was the first among his colleagues to complete his Ph.D. With this, he became the first person to receive a doctoral degree in History from a Nigerian university.
Early career
On obtaining the Ph.D. Adiele Afigbo was appointed a lecturer in his parent department of history, a position he held for two years before fleeing to the
University of NigeriaThe University of Nigeria is in Nsukka town of Enugu State of Nigeria. It was founded by the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is the first indigenous university in Nigeria, although not Nigeria's first University, which was the University of Ibadan...
, Nsukka in the wake of the Nigerian civil war. During the duration of hostilities he served in the Directorate for Propaganda of the Ministry of Information, Republic of Biafra. He promptly resumed his interrupted academic duties after the war and rose very fast on the academic ladder – Lecturer to Senior Lecturer in History in 1970 and Senior Lecturer to Professor in 1972, thus reaching the top of his profession after only five years input as an academic. He has been heard to jocosely complain that in all his working career he has had only two promotions! A year after attaining to professorship he was appointed the Head of the Department of History and Archaeology. The year after he became also the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. On more than one occasion he held the Directorship of the Leo Hansbury Institute of African Studies. At different times in the following years he held the following public appointments among others – pioneer Director of Research at the National Institute for policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos; Commissioner first for Education and then for Local Government in the Government of Imo State; Chairman of the Michael Okpara College of Agriculture,
UmuagwoUmuagwo is a town in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State in Nigeria. The population is mostly Christian and Igbo-speaking...
in
Imo StateImo State is one of the 36 states of Nigeria and lies to the south of this West African country, with Owerri as it capital and largest city.-History:...
and Sole Administrator of the Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri. He has also won many coveted academic honours : Honorary Member of the Historical Association of Great Britain, Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria, the Nigerian National Order of Merit, the (foundation) Fellowship of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. His traditional chieftaincy titles include Ogbute-Okewe-Ibe, Ogbuzuo, and Olaudah.
Work as historian
Any attempt to understand the work of Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo as a historian must be made at many levels and from different directions. On the territorial level he is a historian of Africa, a historian of Nigeria, a historian of Southeastern Nigeria (3) and finally a historian of the Igbo. On the disciplinary front he is a political historian, an economic and social historian as well as a peculiarly fecund student of historiography. Myth, History and Society, one of the three volumes of his essays edited by Professor Toyin Falola is devoted to theorising on the methods of doing history in Africa, on the sources of history in Africa, on the place and purpose of history in Africa and other related issues (4). In many publications he sought to use the particular to illuminate the universal, and the universal to illuminate the particular. Thus, for instance, he used a detailed study of the textile process in Southern Nigeria to throw much helpful light on the socio-cultural dynamics of the societies of the region. In a similar manner he used the rise and expansion of the pre-colonial great states such as Benin to show that the so-called segmentary societies as well as the so-called mini-states of pre-colonial Africa are, among other things, fossilized reminders of the conditions from which the great states arose.
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo broke away early from the action-reaction thesis that ruled the new African historiography when he joined the history profession. He did so by emphasizing in his works basic reconstructionist history, the study of peoples and cultures in their own right instead of, as he put it, seeking to put the battle dress of Saul on his little David; the study of inter-group relations as a fruitful approach to understanding pre-colonial African societies; the dynamic and multi-faceted character of myths and traditions and thus the need for scholars to adapt their methods accordingly; the recognition of historical studies as a form of statecraft while not making history the slave of politics and politicians (5). Perhaps it is this richly diversified approach to history, to historical studies and historical sources that helps to explain the range and volume of his publications which some of his colleagues have found astounding bearing in mid the environment of lack and deprivation in which African academics operate.
Death
Adiele Eberechukwu Afigbo died in Enugu, Nigeria in the early hours of Monday , March 9 2009 after a brief illness.
Works
- The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeastern Nigeria 1891-1929 (Longman, London, 1972
- Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (University Press Limited, Ibadan 1981)
- The Igbo and Their Neighbours: Inter-group Relations In Southeastern Nigeria to 1953 (University Press Limited, Ibadan, 1987)
- Groundwork of Igbo History (Vista Books Limited, Lagos,1992)
- Image of the Igbo (vista Books Limited, Lagos, 1992)
- The Abolition of the Slave Trade in Southeastern Nigeria 1885-1950 (University of Rochester Press, 2006)
Collected Works Edited by Toyin Falola
- Nigerian History Politics and Affairs (Africa World Press, Trenton New Jersey, 2005)
- Igbo History and Society (Africa World Press, Trenton New Jersey, 2005)
- Myth, History and Society (Africa World Press, Trenton New Jersey, 2006)