Don Ohadike: Eight Years After
By Toyin Falola
Today marks the eight year that we lost Professor Don Ohadike, an outstanding scholar who acquired a tremendous reputation in African history, one of the very best in the field of resistance to colonial rule in south-eastern Nigeria and the social history of the Igbo of West Africa. A man of grace, wit, and kindness, he cultivated the affection and friendship of a large number of people, from the Gambia to the Cameroon. Always smiling and unruffled, he took criticisms very lightly, and his large heart never remembered a past conflict. His book, The Ekumeku Movement, is an impressive analysis of resistance to colonial rule in south-eastern Nigeria, one that broadens the discourse on resistance in general through fresh data, original interpretations, and a conclusion that previous scholars have made an error by assuming that resistance was limited to large African groups. He laid the foundation of what we now call Anioma Studies, with his Anioma: A Social History of the Western Igbo People --the very first to explore how a dynamic group was able to navigate change at a most dramatic period in their history. This book has created a vigorous Anioma identity, propelled further by the work of Dr. Kurinum Osia. The lot fell on me to bring into completion his final book, Sacred Drums of Liberation: Religions and Music of Resistance in Africa and the African Diaspora, a careful work that links culture with resistance.
In a note to me early this morning, his brilliant and committed daughter, Sandra Ohadike, wrote:
May the roads rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rain fall soft upon your fields
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Ezigbo Nnanyi Anyi Funanya...RIP Dad.
Don is well and alive in our memories and libraries.
Toyin Falola
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