Introduction
With a very humble beginning at a temporary site at Ibadan in 1962, the University of Ife now known as the Obafemi Awolowo University has grown to become one of Nigeria’s leading universities of all times.Footnote 1 The Department of History was one of the pioneer academic units in the University in its Ibadan years from 1962 to 1967.Footnote 2 With its pioneering staff composed mainly of expatriate scholars such as N. Montgomery Hyde, R. S. Smith, H. R. Lynch, T. W. Roberts, and O. H. Myers and visiting scholars from the Department of History of the University of Ibadan such as Professors J. F. Ade-Ajayi and S. O. Biobaku, the Department took off with nineteen special honors students and ten combined honors students in 1962.Footnote 3 The appointment of Dr. I. A. Akinjogbin as a Lecturer in 1963 and the coming of other early indigenous lecturers such as A. Fajana, A. O. Anjorin, K. Folayan, P. A. Igbafe, and Mrs. F. A. Okediji boosted the academic staffing situation of the Department during its Ibadan years.Footnote 4
Table 1. Academic Staff of the Department of History (2022)
Source: Compiled by Authors (2022)Footnote 5
Table 2. List of Ph.D. Theses, Authors, and Years of Award of Doctorate Degrees
Source: Compiled by Authors (2021)
By 1967 when the University was moved to its permanent site at Ile-Ife and the early 1970s, the academic staff situation, academic programs, and student enrollment of the Department had been greatly expanded. For instance, the early academic staff had been joined by such scholars as S. O. Osoba, G. O. Ekemode and S. O. Akintoye, O. Omosini, R. A. Olaniyan, G. I. O. Olomola, J. A. Adefila, M. Omosule, A. Olorunfemi, A. A. Adediran, O. O. Falola, F. Soremekun, S. O. Arifalo, M. O. Oloyo in the 1970s and Akanmu Adebayo, Olasiji Oshin, Olusola Akinrinade, Olukemi Rotimi, Funsho Afolayan, among others, in the 1980s. These scholars continued to build on the solid foundations laid by the pioneers of the Department from the last decades of the twentieth century up to the first decades of the twenty-first century when life took its course for some of them. Those who died early include Anjorin and Ekemode. Some of them retired from active services, such as Akinjogbin and Arifalo, and both of them died after several years of retirement. Osoba, Olomola, Omosini, Olaniyan, Omosule, and Olorunfemi are still enjoying their lives in retirement. Some of them transferred their services to other universities within and outside Nigeria, such as Ade Fajana, Philip Igbafe, Johnson Adefila, Fola Soremekun, Toyin Falola, Akanmu Adebayo, Olasiji Oshin, and Funsho Afolayan, while others have remained in active services in the Department, such as Biodun Adediran, Sola Akinrinade, Kemi Rotimi, Akin Alao, Bimbo Adesoji, and other later scholars.
The Department of History at Ife Today: Brief Academic Staff Profiles
The Department of History at Ife today has a total number of seventeen academic staff. These include the five professors who have been profiled in the first part of this paper – namely Abiodun Adediran, Olusola Akinrinade, Akin Alao, Olukemi Rotimi, and Bimbo Adesoji. Among the remaining twelve academic staff are five senior lecturers, five lecturers grade I, one lecturer grade II, and one assistant lecturer. Three of these academic staff are women, and all of them have different academic backgrounds, diverse specializations, rich academic and administrative experiences, as well as robust records of community service.
Dr. Adetunji Ojo Ogunyemi is a Senior Lecturer and a specialist in Economic History of Nigeria. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in History from the Lagos State University (1989) and his master and doctorate degrees in History from the University of Lagos in 1998 and 2008. He joined the services of the Department in 2008 as assistant lecturer and attained senior lectureship in 2014. Dr. Ogunyemi specializes in the history of budget and budgeting in Nigeria, and he has published widely in this and other areas of Nigerian historical development. His articles have appeared in reputable outlets within and outside Nigeria, such as Journal of Asian and African Studies, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, and the Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, among others. Dr. Ogunyemi has supervised many undergraduate and postgraduate students in his areas of competence, and he has a great record of administrative services within and outside the university.
Dr. Solomon Tai Okajare, a Senior Lecturer, was educated at the Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti and the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, where he studied for his bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees. He joined the Department in 2013 as Lecturer Grade I and rose to senior lectureship in 2016. He specializes in Diplomatic History with emphasis on pre-colonial inter-state relations in Nigeria and contemporary global politics. He has published widely in these areas in reputed journals such as Modern Africa, Social Transformations, AAU African Studies Review, and a host of others. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Nigerian and African political and diplomatic history in addition to his supervision of students’ research projects.
Dr. Saheed Balogun Amusa is Senior Lecturer specializing in socio-cultural and political history of Nigeria. He attended the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko for his bachelor’s degree in History and the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for his master and doctorate degrees which he obtained in 2010 and 2015, respectively. Dr. Amusa joined the Department in 2008 as Graduate Assistant and was promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 2018. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Historical Society of Nigeria and African Journal of AIDS Research (AJAR), among others.
Dr. Remijius Friday Obinta is an Economic Historian who was trained at the Obafemi Awolowo University for his bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees, which he obtained in 1998, 2009, and 2016, respectively. He was appointed Graduate Assistant in 2001 and he is currently a Senior Lecturer. His primary areas of research and teaching competences are forestry, environmental history and inter-group economic relations. He has published in VUNA Journal of History and International Relations and Journal of Studies in Humanities, among others.
Dr. Ismail Shina Alimi was trained at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for his bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees, which he obtained in 2006, 2011, and 2016, respectively. He joined the Department as Assistant Lecturer in 2011, and he is at present a Senior Lecturer. His areas of interest are social and political history of Nigeria with biases for history of newspaper press, labor agitation, and political development of Nigeria. Dr. Alimi has published widely in reputable journals such as African Study Monograph and Journal of Pan African Studies, and so on.
Dr. Emmanuel Osewe Akubor was trained at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for his bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees. He joined the Department in 2013 as Lecturer Grade I and as a specialist in Economic History of Nigeria. He has published widely in his areas of competence in such journals as Journal of Historical Society of Nigeria, Historical Research Letters, and a host of others, in addition to several teaching and administrative experiences.
Dr. Meshach Obukohwo Ofuafor was educated at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Political Science. He obtained his Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy degrees in History at Ife before obtaining his doctorate degree in History at the University of Ibadan. Dr. Ofuafor’s areas of interest are international relations and migration studies. He has published a number of articles in such journals as AAU African Studies Review and Current Research Journal of Social Sciences, among others.
Dr. Opeyemi Anthony Iroju was educated at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for his bachelor and master’s degrees and the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, for his doctorate degree. He joined the Department as Assistant Lecturer in 2009 and rose to the rank of Lecturer Grade I in 2015. He is a specialist in social and political history of Nigeria with a focus on the minority ethnic groups in the Nigeria’s Niger-Delta region. He has a number of published research articles in his areas of specialiation in the Journal of Pan African Studies, the International Journal of Tropical Disease and Health, and others.
Dr. Morenikeji Grace Asaaju was trained at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, for her bachelor and master’s degrees and at the Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies at Bayreuth University, Germany, for her doctorate degree. She was appointed Graduate Assistant in 2012 and was promoted to the rank of Lecturer I in 2018. Dr. Asaaju specializes in Nigerian social and political history with special interests in women studies, gender space/relations, and political development. She has published in Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies, African Notes, among others.
Other academic staff of the Department include: Mr. Charles Adedeji Ogidan – a Lecturer Grade I and budding specialist in International Relations and Diplomatic History; Mrs. Damilola Dorcas Fagite – a Lecturer Grade II with bias for social and medical history of Nigeria; and Mrs. Dolapo Abiola Aderemi – an Assistant Lecturer with special interest in political history of Nigeria since the pre-colonial period. These budding historians have also published historical articles in learned journals within and outside the country and are doing great in their teaching and research endeavors.
It is important to note that there have been other scholars who had academic stints in the Department in recent times but who left the services of the University to continue their careers elsewhere. This list includes Dr. Oluwatoyin Babatunde Oduntan who was appointed as Assistant Lecturer in the Department in 2003, having obtained his bachelor’s degree in History from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, and a master of science in International Relations from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. Dr. Oduntan obtained a master of philosophy degree in History from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, in 2005 and a doctorate degree in History from Dalhousie University, Canada, in 2010. He was with the Department of History at Ife from 2003 to 2011 when he joined the Department of History at Towson University, Maryand, USA.
Professor Olukoya Joseph Ogen is another scholar in this category. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in History Education from Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife and master and doctorate degrees in History from the University of Lagos. He joined the services of the Department in 2006 as Lecturer Grade II and rose to the rank of Lecturer Grade I in the same year after obtaining his doctorate degree. He left the Department to join the Department of History and International Studies of the Osun State University, Osogbo, in 2009 where he rose to the professorship in 2012. The duo of Dr. Oduntan and Professor Ogen contributed immensely to historical scholarship and training at Ife within the short period of their affiliations with the Department and they have continued to do well in their new bases afterwards.
Undergraduate Training at Ife Today: Objectives, Programs, and Courses
The Department of History occupies two floors at the Humanities Block II, Faculty of Arts, at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where its departmental office, staff offices, teaching archives, and students’ secretariat are located. The philosophy underpinning programs in History draws from the understanding that studying the past deepens students’ awareness of the present and equips students with the capacity to make proper judgments. These courses are designed to imbue in students the appreciation of human values, as well as the skills that will enable them to make critical, objective, perceptive, relevant, and applicable analyses of social reality. The specific objectives of the B.A. History (Single and Combined Honors) programs are to
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• give students a thorough understanding of Nigerian history and historiography planted firmly in the context of African history and historiography;
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• educate students on historical movements of global importance from other continents so as to enable them acquire better knowledge of the world and thus promote world peace;
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• make students comprehend the historical forces and developments that have shaped and are still shaping the lives of the peoples of Nigeria, Africa, and the entire world;
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• develop in students a sense of commitment and capacity to consciously relate to these forces and developments in such ways that Nigerian and African unity, independence, and prosperity can be achieved and sustained; and
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• provide students with advantages usually associated with historical training – i.e., critical and analytical faculties and balanced judgment needed for excellence in administration and management.Footnote 6
With its array of eminently qualified academic staff, the Department offers three and four-year programs leading to the award of the Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in History (Single Honors). It also runs a number of combined honors programs in collaboration with selected Departments in the Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences, and Administration, as earlier specified. In addition, the Department collaborates with the Faculty of Education to run B.A. (Education/History) combined honors program.Footnote 7
These combined honors programs were designed in the late 1980s and early 1990s to expand the academic horizons of history students and widen their job opportunities after graduation. It was equally the initiative of the Department of History at Ife to encourage students to subscribe to history at a period when enrollment was dwindling. Other departments of history in Nigerian universities at this time resorted to changes in the nomenclatures of the departments. Thus, such appellations as international studies, strategic studies, diplomatic studies, and war studies, among others, were added to the names of departments of history in many Nigerian universities. Also, in response to the severe challenges of teaching and practice of history in Nigeria since the late 1980s, the Department has engaged in constant reviews of its programs and curricula to make them more relevant to national needs.
Thus, in recent years the undergraduate curriculum for the B.A. Honors Degree in History has undergone intensive and deliberate review to further enrich the contents and so increase the quality of service which the graduates will be capable of rendering both at the national and international levels. In addition, the B.A. degree program (single and combined honors) is intended to make graduates more competitive in the national and international labor markets and to be equipped with the necessary entrepreneurial skills if they choose to employ themselves. These programs take into account the role and increasing stature of Nigeria on the international scene and seek to meet the demands that will inevitably be made on Nigeria to know more about other parts of the world.Footnote 8 For this reason, apart from a core of compulsory courses, a wide range of elective is available to meet varied interests.
In achieving these objectives, the following courses are offered and taught by specialists in the Department:
HIS 101: Culture History of Africa to c.1500 A.D. (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 102: History of Africa, 1500–1800 A.D. (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 103: European History, C. 1300–1789 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 104: European History, C. 1789–1945 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 105: North Africa, C. Seventh Century (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 106: North Africa, 1500–1800 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 107: East and Central Africa up to 1800 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 108: Southern Africa, C. 1400–1800 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 109: Ancient Civilizations up to the Fall of the Roman Empire (3 Units/Required)
HIS 110: Major Civilizations since the Fall of Rome (3 Units/Required)
HIS 201: Early History of Nigeria to C. 1500 A.D (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 202: History of Nigeria C. 1500–1800 A.D. (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 203: History of West Africa from the Earliest Times to 1500 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 204: History of West Africa, 1500–1800 A.D. (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 205: North Africa in the Nineteenth Century (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 206: North Africa in the Twentieth Century (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 207: East and Central Africa in the Nineteenth Century (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 208: East and Central Africa in the Twentieth Century (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 209: Southern Africa, 1800–1910 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 210: Southern Africa, 1910 to the Present (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 211: The United States of America. C. 1500–1865 (3 Units/Required)
HIS 212: The United States of America since 1865 (3 Units/Required)
HIS 301: History of Nigeria, 1800–1900 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 302: History of Nigeria, 1900 to the Present (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 303: Introduction to Economic History (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 304: Methods of Historical Research (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 305: West Africa in the Nineteenth Century (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 306: West Africa in the Twentieth Century (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 307: People of African Descent in the Diaspora (3 Units/Required)
HIS 308: The ECOWAS (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 309: History of Latin America (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 310: The African Union (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 311: History of the Far East (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 312: History of the Commonwealth (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 313: African Political Thoughts (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 314: The United Nations (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 401: Philosophy of History (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 402: Contemporary Problems in the Philosophy and Practice of History (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 403/404: Special Paper (3 Units/Compulsory for Single Honors’ Students)
A. The Nineteenth Century Yoruba Civil Wars (3 Units)
B. The Jihad of Usman dan Fodio (3 Units)
sbbamusa@oauife.edu.ngC. Economic Change in the Lagos Colony and the Southern Protectorate, 1861–1914 (3 Units)
D. Independence Movements and Nation Building in Nigeria (3 Units)
HIS 405: Africa and European Imperialism (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 406: The Politics of Decolonisation in Africa (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 407: Economic History of Nigeria till C. 1800 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 408: Economic History of Nigeria since 1800 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 409: Tsarist Russia, 1760–1905 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 410: The USSR since 1905 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 411: Comparative Study of Economic Systems (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 412: Comparative History of Industrial Growth (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 413: Comparative Democratic System (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 414: Comparative Race Relations (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 415: History of Science and Technology (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 416: Land and Labour in Africa, C. 1850–1950 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 417: History of International Relations since 1945 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 418: The Third World in International Relations (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 421/422: Research Project (6 Units) Footnote 9
From the compulsory/elective courses listed above, it can be seen that undergraduate students of history at Ife are exposed to a variety of issues in Nigerian, African, and global history to equip them with useful historical knowledge about states and societies around the world.
Graduate Training at Ife: History, Programs, Courses, and Research Outputs
The Department of History and historical studies in Ife have grown together since 1962. The Department has developed expertise in many spheres of historical studies. Today, it has specialists in cultural, social, political, and economic history, as well as in the history of international relations. Available expertise covers the history of virtually all geographical regions of the world. To facilitate research activities, the Department began in 1967 to collect archival materials especially on the nineteenth-century history of Nigeria.Footnote 10 The Africana Section of the Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library of the University is well-equipped and now holds manuscripts, photocopies, and microfilms, a rich body of materials on the Twentieth Century history of Nigeria made up largely of British local colonial administrative records and newspapers. The Department has also benefited from its proximity to the research library of the University of Ibadan, the National Archives at Ibadan, the Nigerian Institute for Social and Economic Research (NISER), the National Library, and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.
The aim of postgraduate studies in the Department of History at Ife is to give advanced training to potential academics and to train teachers of History in schools. The program prepares candidates for jobs in public administration as well as in the private sector of the economy. It is particularly intended to train specialists for appointments in external affairs and international organizations in need of expertise in the field of African studies, as well as tp train interpreters of world affairs such as journalists, reporters, broadcasters in media, and other corporate organizations. The Department offers a Master of Arts (M.A.) in African History, Diplomatic History, and Economic History; a Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) in History; and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History.Footnote 11
The postgraduate courses at Ife are very rich in African culture history, historiography, political history, diplomatic history, and international relations. The existing postgraduate courses in Ife are:
HIS 601: Methods of Historical Research (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 602: Advanced Philosophy of History (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 603: African Political Thought Since 1900 (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 604: Problems and Issues in African Historiography (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 605: The State-Formation Process in Pre-colonial Africa (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 606: The Military in African History (3 Units/Electives)
HIS 607: History of Colonization of African States (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 608: The Decolonization Process in Africa (3 Units/Compulsory)
HIS 609: The African Diaspora (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 610: Contemporary Africa (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 611: Diplomatic History of Europe since Versailles (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 612: History of Strategic Thought from 1914 to the present (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 613: History of International Relations of African States since Independence (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 614: History of International Organizations (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 615: Politics of Regional Integration in Europe (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 616: Politics of Regional Integration in the Third World (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 617: Pre-colonial African Economic History (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 618: Colonial African Economic History (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 619: Topics in the Economic History of Advanced Economics (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 670: Economic Cooperation in Africa (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 621: Labour and Social Change in Africa since 1945 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 622: Development Planning in Nigeria since 1945 (3 Units/Elective)
HIS 650: Long Essay
The Department of History at Ife has qualified and competent academic staff who teach these postgraduate courses as well as supervise students’ research essays and theses. At Ife, an academic staff without the doctorate degree in relevant discipline is not eligible to teach or supervise postgraduate students. At present, there are fourteen academic staff with doctorate degrees who handle postgraduate courses and supervise postgraduate students’ research. The postgraduate training at Ife has benefitted immensely from the documentary resources in the African Section and other units of the main library of the University, which is named after the University’s second Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hezekiah Oluwasanmi (1966–1975).Footnote 12
With its rich postgraduate courses, qualified staff and academic resources, the Department of History has, over the years, produced thousands of undergraduate, master and doctorate degrees’ holders who authored and submitted research dissertations and theses in various aspects of African History, Economic History and Diplomatic History. Many of these graduates are currently professors, senior academics, teachers, professionals, public servants, administrators, and politicians among others within and outside Nigeria.
Below is a list of doctorate theses submitted to the Department of History at Ife from 1977 to date:
The “Ife School of History”: The Achievements and Successes of the Department
The Department of History at Ife has recorded significant achievements in historical scholarship and historical training. Since 1965 when the Department produced its first set of bachelor degree graduates, it has produced thousands of bachelor, master, and doctoral graduates who have continued to excel in their various professional callings within and outside Nigeria. The students and products of the Department of History have diverse ethnic origins in Nigeria and Africa. While majority of its products are of Yoruba ethnicity due to its founding by the government of the defunct Western Region of Nigeria and its location at the heart of Yorubaland, it has over the years trained people of other Nigerian ethnic backgrounds such as Hausa/Fulani, Igbo, Ijaw, Efik, Edo, Urhobo, and Isoko, among others, as well as international students from Liberia, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and so on.Footnote 13 There are also academic staff of the Department who are from diverse backgrounds.
The Department has contributed immensely to the promotion of Yoruba culture history and understanding in furtherance of the mandate of the university, as captured in its motto, “For Learning and Culture.” In this regard, Professor I. A. Akinjogbin, the doyen of Ife School of History, building on the foundations laid by Professor S. O. Biobaku, his professional mentor, researched deeply into Yoruba history and produced many remarkable masterpieces on Yoruba history emphasizing the centrality and eminence of Ile-Ife.Footnote 14 The first and second generations of historians produced by the Department also worked largely on aspects of Yoruba pre-colonial history. For instance, the research theses submitted to the Department in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s were dominated by themes on Yoruba history and Nigeria’s culture history. Thus, by the 1970s, the Department of History at Ife had been noted and recognized as center of excellence in Yoruba history and studies with its hosting of the University’s Yoruba History Research Project.Footnote 15
In furtherance of its promotion of research into Yoruba history, the Department of History at Ife promoted an interdisciplinary approach to Yoruba studies by collaborating with scholars in cognate disciplines such as archaeology, sociology, linguistics, anthropology, and religion, among others within and outside Nigeria. In the area of history and archaeology, the Department of History at Ife, gave archaeology a pride of place in the training of its students from the early years of its existence. The Department appointed Dr. Omotoso Eluyemi, the first Yoruba man to obtain a doctorate degree in Archaeology, as a lecturer in 1973. Dr. Eluyemi and other archeologists taught courses in archaeology to History students at Ife from 1973 to 1984 when Archaeology was finally excised from the Department of History as an autonomous academic unit.Footnote 16 He was Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Ife from 1984 to 1989 when he was appointed as the Director-General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. Dr. Eluyemi was a cultural archaeologist and historian who successfully used archaeology to advance Yoruba history with emphasis on the critical use of oral traditions to inform archaeological science, and vice versa. Most of his scientific excavations were conducted within and outside Ile-Ife at places like Egbejoda, Agidi, and Sekunde.Footnote 17 The contributions of other eminent archaeologists such as Ope Onabajo to the Department of History at Ife cannot be over-emphasized.
Apart from archaeology, scholars from other cognate departments and disciplines within and outside the Faculty of Arts have collaborated and have continued to collaborate with the Department of History in the reconstruction of history and training of historians. Notable among these scholars are Professor Olusola Akiwowo of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Professor E. D. Adelowo of the Department of Religious Studies, Professor O. O. Oyelaran of the Department of African Languages and Literatures, Professor M. A. Makinde of the Department of Philosophy, Professor B. M. Ibitokun of the Department of English, Professor O. Aluko of the Department of International Relations, among several other scholars.
As part of its academic culture and traditions, the Department holds regular monthly staff seminars where well-researched academic papers are presented by members of academic staff and discussed critically by attendees who usually include colleagues from cognate Departments. Papers presented at the Departmental seminars in a year are compiled in special annual seminar collections of the Department, and presenters also go ahead to reworking the paper and publishing them in learned journals. The academic culture of regular seminar presentations among staff and postgraduate students has been sustained in the Department over the years. For instance, in this year 2021, one staff seminar paper had been presented in addition to several presentations from postgraduate students.Footnote 18
Hosting and attendance of academic conferences have also been part and parcel of historical scholarship and training in the Department of History at Ife. Individual members of the academic staff are encouraged to attend at least one academic conference in a year and present research papers. The Department has also organized may historic academic conferences over the years where historians and other scholars participated and presented academic papers. Some of the major historic academic conferences organized/hosted/coordinated by the Department and or the University over the years include
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- International Conference on “Yoruba Civilisation” held 26–31 July 1976Footnote 19
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- National Conference on Oral Traditions, Poetry in Music, Dance and Drama’ held in January 1986 (with the Institute of African Studies)
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- The 31st Annual Conference of the Historical Society of Nigeria held 18–24 May 1986
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- The Centenary Conference on the “1886 Peace Treaty and End of Yoruba Inter-state Wars of the Nineteenth Century” held 21–25 September 1986Footnote 20
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- National Conference on “Federalism in a Changing World” (Sponsored by the Office of the Minister for Special Duties, The Presidency, Lagos), held 7–8 December 1987
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- Inaugural Annual Conference of the American Studies Association of Nigeria held 20–23 February 1991
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- National Conference on “Culture and Society in Nigeria” in collaboration with Centre for Black and African Art and Civilisation (CBAAC) held in 2007Footnote 21
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- National Conference on “Chieftaincy Institution in Nigeria” in collaboration with the Centre for Black and African Art and Civilisation (CBAAC) held in April 2008Footnote 22
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- National Conference on “Migration in Yorubaland” in Honor of Late Professor I. A. Akinjogbin held in 2010
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- Special International Conference on “OAU at 50” in Collaboration with Network of Nigerian Historians held 28–31 October 2012Footnote 23
These conferences brought together historians and other scholars from different parts of the world for academic and intellectual deliberations on issues of Nigerian, African, and global importance.
Furthermore, a lot of landmark publications have come out of the Department of History at Ife. Apart from books and journal publications from individual members of academic staff of the Department, the Department as a body has coordinated several publications from its stable. There is the Ife Journal of History, which has been published since the early 1990s as the academic flagship journal of the Department, and the African Historian, which is the journal of History Students at Ife. The current edition of the Ife Journal History was released in 2019.Footnote 24 There is also a Departmental Book Series tagged the Ife History Series. The most famous edition of the series was Topics in Social and Economic History of Nigeria, edited by I. A. Akinjogbin and S. O. Osoba in 1980. The Department also published War and Peace in Yorubaland, 1793–1893 in 1998 and The Chieftaincy Institutions in Nigeria in 2010. The most recent effort in book publications from the stable of the Department was in 2018 when Security Challenges and Management in Modern Nigeria was published.
Another significant achievement of the Department of History at Ife is that its scholars have contributed to the growth and development of Departments of History in newer Nigerian universities particularly since the 1980s. For instance, Professor Deji Ogunremi who was the pioneer Head of Department of History at the Lagos State University was one of the pioneer products of the Department. Also, Professor Olufemi Omosini was the Foundation Dean and Pioneer Head of Department of History at the Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti, from 1982 to 1986 where he built the Department from scratch to greatness. Professor Omosini was also part of the success story of the Department of History at the Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University) Ago-Iwoye where he served as the Head of Department from 1989 to 1990.Footnote 25 Professor S. O. Arifalo single-handedly built the Department of History and International Studies of the Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba-Akoko in the year 2000. He had earlier joined the Department of History at Ado-Ekiti in 1992 after he retired at Ife in 1991. Professor Siyan Oyeweso, trained at Ife for his bachelor, master, and doctorate degrees, was one of the early academic staff of the Department of History at the Lagos State University, which he joined in 1984. He was also the pioneer Provost of the College of Humanities and Culture of the Osun State University, Osogbo, established in 2006. Professor Olutayo Adesina of the Department of History at the University of Ibadan was the pioneer Head of Department of History at the Osun State University, Osogbo (Ikire Campus). Professor Adesina had all his degrees – bachelor, master, and doctorate – from the Department of History at Ife. There are a number of Ife-trained academic historians in many Nigerian federal, state, and private universities.
Within the Obafemi Awolowo University, the contributions of the Department of History to the academic and administrative development of the University are obvious. For instance, Professors I. A. Akinjogbin and A. A. Adediran served as Deputy Vice-Chancellors of the University from 1974 to 1976 and from 2003 to 2007, respectively, with significant achievements. Also, Professors I. A. Akinjogbin, S. A. Akintoye, A. A. Adediran, G. O. I. Olomola and A. A. Alao served as Directors of the Institute of Cultural Studies of the University at different times in their careers. Furthermore, Professors I. A. Akinjogbin, B. O. Oloruntimehin, K. Folayan, O. Omosini, R. A. Olaniyan, A. A. Adediran and O. T. Akinrinade were Deans of Faculty of Arts at various times between 1971 and 2007. Professor R. A. Olaniyan additionally served the University as Provost, College of Arts and Education, Foundation Dean of Division of Student Affairs, Chairman, Board of Directors, Obafemi Awolowo University Press Ltd., Chairman, Faculty of Arts Consultancy Committee, among other university leadership roles, as well as Foundation President of the American Studies Association of Nigeria (ASAN).Footnote 26 In addition, Professors Toyin Falola and R. A. Olaniyan are Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. Several other members of the academic staff from the Department have held top academic and administrative positions within and outside the university at Ife. The Department of History has also assisted in the documentation of the history of Obafemi Awolowo University over the years. For instance, Professor S.A. Akintoye edited the First Ten Years of the University of Ife in 1973, Professors O. Omosini and Abiodun Adediran edited Great Ife: A History of Obafemi Awolowo University (1962–1987) in 1989 and Professor Abiodun Adediran edited Fifty Years of Obafemi Awolowo University (1962–2012) in 2013. Footnote 27
In all, the Department of History at Ife has continued to excel in the realms of historical scholarship among its past and present academic staff and its products have continued to do well in all walks of human endeavors within and outside Nigeria. A few of the leading lights of its alumni in the corporate world include Dr. Adesina Sylvester Adesegun (Former Controller of UN Refugee Education Program in Africa, Asia and the Middle East), Joshua Akinyemi Majasan (Renown University Administrator), Chief Olaiya Oni (former Nigeria’s Minister of Education), Hon. Babatunde Lawrence Afuye (Former Member of Ekiti State House of Assembly), Professor Modupe Adeola Adelabu (Former Deputy Governor of Ekiti State), Professor Julius Omozuanvbo Ihonvbere (Member, Nigerian House of Representatives), Alhaji Musa Ayeni (Former Deputy Governor of Ondo State), Hon. Kehinde Bamigbetan (Former Lagos State Commissioner for Information), Erelu Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi (Wife of the Current Governor of Ekiti State), Mr. Sikiru Adetona Ayedun (Former Commissioner for Culture and Tourism in Osun State), Mr. Sam Oritsetimehin Omatseye (renowned journalist and poet), among numerous others.
In the academic historical profession, Ife-trained historians/scholars at the professorial level are everywhere within and outside Nigeria making scholarly waves as academics, researchers, and administrators. These include Professors Gabriel Ishola Olomola, Akinsola Olorunfemi, Abiodun Adediran, Bamitale Omole, Olusola Akinrinade, Akinkunmi Alao, Olukemi Rotimi, and Abimbola Adesoji (all home-based at OAU, Ile-Ife), Late Professor G. O. Ogunremi (University of Lagos and Lagos State University), Toyin Falola (University of Texas at Austin), A. G. Adebayo (Kennesaw State University, Georgia), Adebayo Oyebade (University of Tennessee), Julius Adekunle (Monmouth University), Tunde Babawale (University of Lagos), Olutayo Adesina (University of Ibadan), Siyan Oyeweso (Lagos State University and Osun State University), Rasheed Ajetunmobi (Tai Solarin University of Education), Ayo Olukotun (ABU, Lead City & Olabisi Onabanjo University), Dele Afolabi (Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso), Elisee Akpo Soumonni (Universite Nationale du Benin), and a host others who are yet to attain the professorial ranks but who are doing greatly well in universities within and outside Nigeria.
Historical Scholarship and Training at Ife: Challenges and Obstacles since Inception
The Department of History at Ife has been faced with a number of challenges and problems in its effort to practice historical scholarship and profession and train historians and teachers of history for schools and colleges. Some of these challenges are general problems faced by the Obafemi Awolowo University during its early years while some of them are problems that confronted Nigerian historians and historical profession since the 1980s. There are also specific problems that are peculiar to the Department as an academic entity on its own.
One of the major challenges faced by the Department in its early years was that of inadequate academic staffing. This was compounded by the Action Group internal political crisis, which engulfed the Western Region in 1962. The University of Ife, which was a creation of the government of Western Region of Nigeria, was badly affected during this period as many academic staff who were sympathetic to either side of the conflicting groups within the party were either victimized, sacked, or they willingly resigned their appointments from the University.Footnote 28 This was why Professor S. A. Akintoye rightly noted that the University of Ife was born, bred, and nurtured in the crisis of Nigeria’s First Republic.Footnote 29 The Nigerian Civil War of 1967–1970 also had a negative impact on staffing situation and ethnic relations in the University as many academics of Yoruba origin from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, moved down to the Universities of Ibadan and Ife and vice-versa.Footnote 30 These two political conflicts affected the Department of History as many expatriate and indigenous scholars who desired unbridled academic freedom and freedom of political affiliations resigned their appointments from the University and moved to the University of Lagos and other universities. The 1962 political saga shook the University to its foundation as it was just taking off, while the 1967 imbroglio affected the staffing situation in the University generally and the Department of History in particular. Many of its expatriate academic staff left, leaving Professor Akinjogbin and a few indigenous scholars behind to take the University to greater heights since the 1970s.Footnote 31
Another general challenge that faced the Nigerian tertiary education sector generally was the long years of military rule from 1966 to the 1990s and the attendant consequences for the historical scholarship and profession. The long years of military rule in Nigeria had grave consequences for humanities scholarship as a whole in Nigeria. Among other issues, the military rule brought an era of economic crisis culminating in the adoption of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in 1986, the devaluation of the naira, the general neglect of tertiary education, poor funding of the universities and research activities, and the specific marginalization of courses or subjects that were not considered directly relevant to the nation’s quest for technological development.Footnote 32 Topmost in these “irrelevant” courses or subjects are History, Philosophy, Religious Studies, indigenous languages, and other humanistic disciplines. The general impact of these was prolonged and intermittent strikes by university staff, violent demonstrations, and inevitable closures of tertiary institutions, leading to the massive relocation of many outstanding Nigerian scholars to universities in Europe, America, or even some African universities. It was during this period that Drs. Toyin Falola, Akanmu Adebayo, John Adefila, Victor Oshin, and Funso Afolayan left the Department of History at Ife for the United States with far-reaching consequences for the Department.
Apart from these general challenges of the University of Ife, tertiary education and humanistic courses as a whole, the Department of History at Ife has had some peculiar and specific challenges of its own. One of these peculiar challenges is the question of combined honor’s degrees which has been very dominant since the 1990s. The combined honors programs became the norm when enrolment to the History program dwindled drastically as a result of official government neglect and relegation of history as a school subject and colleges/universities course. It was also introduced by the Department in order to retain its name as Department of History in an age when other departments of history took to nomenclature change or addition. While the combined honors programs with such courses as economics, political science, sociology and so on did the “magic” of winning students enrolment, it did damage on the number of courses that students can offer within the Department. This is because combined honors student will have to take some compulsory and required courses in the other department of his/her combination. The implication of this is that he/she will not be able to take some courses in the Department of History which are taken by single/special honors students. A graver damage is that combined honors students in the Department of History at Ife do not write or submit research or long essay to either the Department of History or to the department of their combination.Footnote 33
In addition, the historical training at Ife also faces a strong challenge of delay in timely completion of programs particularly at the postgraduate level. At Ife, students used to spend three to five years on master’s degree in History programs which are officially supposed to last for three or four semesters while the duration for the doctorate programs lasted for four to ten years until very recently. This delay was usually attributed to cumbersome administrative procedures which involved filling of administrative forms which did not add any value to the research theses or course works of the students. This challenge had a telling effect on the Department of History as it negatively affected the number of students who enrolled for postgraduate programs and successfully completed them. Many a times, students opted out of the programs out of frustrations emanating from administrative procedures of paper and form works in addition to other unofficial challenges including uncooperative supervisors, lack of fund, among other factors. This has consequently resulted in the small number of postgraduate products of the Department. In fact, the Department had only produced twenty-nine Ph.D. degrees in its sixty years of existence. This number is considerably low when compared with numbers of doctorate degree holders produced by the Departments of History of the University of Lagos or the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, which were established in the same year with the Obafemi Awolowo University in 1962.
Moreover, an obvious challenge in historical scholarship and training at Ife is the acute shortage of academic staff trained at Ife. During the golden years of the Department in the 1970s and 1980s, it could boast of over twenty-five academic staff on permanent and visiting bases. It got to a time in the late 1990s and early 2000s that the Department had less than ten academic staff. Apart from the general decline in the enrolment of students for history programs across the country occasioned by the official governmental relegation of the discipline, what was responsible for the drastic decline in the number of academic staff at Ife was that the Department/University did not have a good policy of retention of promising students for academic career. Another reason was that most of the retiring and relocating professors did not reproduce themselves through successor scholars. Although Akinjogbin reproduced himself in Abiodun Adediran; and Ekemode and Anjorin died very untimely; Folayan, Olaniyan, Omosini, Olorunfemi and Omosule did not really “reproduce” themselves.
Faced with acute shortage of academic staff in the early 2000s, the Department resorted to recruiting young graduates from other universities who had come for postgraduate training at Ife. This new strides saw the appointment of A. O. Adesoji and O. J. Ogen who had obtained their bachelor’s degrees from the Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo (although an affiliate of the Obafemi Awolowo University); O. B. Oduntan who obtained his bachelor’s degree from Ogun State University, Ago-Iwoye; C. A. Ogidan who obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Lagos State University, Ojo; A. O. Ogunyemi who obtained his bachelor and master’s degrees from the Lagos State University, Ojo and the University of Lagos respectively; S. B. Amusa who obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko; and M. O. Ofuafor who obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria among other later scholars. Until the penultimate recruitment of academic staff in 2011 and 2012, the number of academic staff who did not obtain first degrees from Ife outnumbered those trained at Ife. Also, the last two academic appointments made in 2013 were those of Okajare and Akubor who had their trainings at Ado-Ekiti and Akungba, and Zaria, respectively. While it is acknowledged that recruitment of non-Ife trained scholars is not a bad thing in itself, the position here is that the Department’s non-retention of some of its best students for several years and the retiring scholars’ non-‘reproduction’ of themselves were factors in the acute shortage of academic staff which bedeviled the Department in the 1990s–2000s when the likes of Adefila, Falola, Adebayo Oshin, and Afolayan left for overseas.
Conclusion
This article has provided useful historical information on the trends of staffing situation, students’ enrolment, undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as the achievements and challenges of the Department of History at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, from its inception in 1962 to the present. As shown in the article, the Department of History at Ife has been blessed with a number of highly successful professional historians who have worked and have continued to work in the Department to contribute to the reconstruction of African past and train new generations of African historians. The Department has produced hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate students who are doing well in the academia and corporate world within and outside Nigeria today. Significantly, rather than join the craze for nomenclature change which characterized many Departments of History in Nigerian universities in the 1990s and 2000s, the Department of History at Ife retains its name but gives opportunities for combined degrees in History and related disciplines like English, Economics, Philosophy, International Relations, Religious Studies, Political Science, and Sociology. Finally, in spite of the general challenges that faced the Nigerian academia and the historical profession in Nigeria generally in the 1980s and 1990s, and its own peculiar challenges as a department, the Department of History at Ife has been able to maintain its status as a leading center of African and Yoruba historical and cultural studies.
