A Guru at 70!
By Toyin Falola
This month, A. B. Assensoh, our mentor and friend, turns 70. PAUP has released the first installment of his memoir, titled A Matter of Sharing.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=a+matter+of+sharing
This great man was honored at the University of Texas at Austin with the Nelson Mandela Award given to an African who has distinguished him/herself in public leadership positions. The awardee must be known for promotion of freedom for Africans both at the national and international levels. He/she must have shown resilience, courage and determination in the pursuit of African liberation.
Professor A. B. Assensoh's illustrious career is well documented in his memoir, A Matter of Sharing. Professor Assensoh received his Ph.D. in Comparative History from New York University in 1984. He conducted postdoctoral research in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, West Yorkshire. His postdoctoral research focused on "Developing societal and specifically American Civil Rights & Liberation Movements," with an emphasis on issues of leadership. Assensoh is presently serving as a Professor Emeritus in the Department of African-American & African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University as well as a Courtesy Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Oregon. Previously, he was the Director of Graduate Studies and Admissions for the African-American and African Diaspora Studies at Indiana University.
Prof. Assensoh's contribution to African and African diaspora studies has been enormous, which is best reflected in his prolific publication record. The scope and scale of his publications can be understood through the wide range of topics that he addresses in his scholarship. His first monograph, Kwame Nkrumah: Six Years in Exile, 1966-1972, published in 1978, is a brilliant reflection of political conditions in western Africa in the late 1960s. His other major publications include: Polygamy in the Ashanti of Ghana: A Histo-Political Overview and An Histo-Political Overview of the Development of Folklore Among the Ashantis of Ghana in West Africa both published in 1984, An Overview of Political Risk Reporting in Africa: The Liberian Example (1985); Africa in Retrospect (1985); Essays on Contemporary International Topics (1986); Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and America's Quest for Racial Integration (1986); Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana: His Formative Years and the Shaping of His Nationalism and Pan-Africanism, 1935- 1948 (1990), African Political Leadership: A Comparative Study of Jomo Kenyatta, Julius K. Nyerere, and Kwame Nkrumah (1998); African Military History and Politics: Coups and Ideological Incursions, 1900-Present (2001); and Malcolm X: A Biography (2013). Prof. Assensoh's has also published numerous research articles in various distinguished journals such as Journal of Black Studies, African and Asian Studies, The Journal of Politics, African World Journal, and Journal of Third World Studies. Apart from his scholarly contributions he also wrote a play, titled Campus Life, published in 1981, and Black Woman, An African Story, a historical novel, which was published in 1980.
As pointed out in a book in his honor, titled Intellectual Agent, Mediator and Interlocutor: A. B. Assensoh and African Politics in Transition, his scholarship has covered all major areas in African studies: the military, leadership, political heroes, ethnicity, governance, conflicts, arms proliferation, religions, civil wars, boundary disputes, and much more. Without his work, our understanding of African politics would be much diminished. After he retired as a professor, he registered for a degree in Law at the University of Oregon, and completed his LLM in December. In his 70s, as he fuses law with politics, we expect more energies from him to move us forward.
Congratulations, our leader.
Toyin FalolaDepartment of HistoryThe University of Texas at Austin104 Inner Campus DriveAustin, TX 78712-0220USA512 475 7224512 475 7222 (fax)
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