dan kunene was a wonderful, quiet, but persistent man. he was best known to us, in afr lit, as a staunch, consistent supporter of african language literatures, which he devoted his lifework to. he always tried to have the ala dedicate itself to at least a couple of panels on afr lang lit, and in his case, of course, it was south african.
i think of dan as a model for us of a man who was able to continually stress the importance of his valuable agenda, without alienating anyone: even when few people attended the panels, he gave us the understanding of their importance, and i believe they were able to grow thanks to dan. he wasn't alone, of course. many of our members also believed in oral literature, african language literature, the need to keep alive the scholarship in it. i think of bob cancel who, like so many others, studied at u wisc with their great africanist faculty, of which kunene was a stalwart member. recently aliko songolo was honored at asa for his scholarship, and guess what: he mentioned all the students at wisconsin who inspired him. dan inspired many many students. and befriended many more scholars at the ala. a wonderful man.
ken harrow
May their souls rest in peace and may our Ancestors receive them well.--
On Wed, Jun 1, 2016 at 7:37 AM, 'Michael Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--Daniel P. Kunene (1923-2016): Retired Professor, African Languages and Literature (University of Wisconsin-Madison) - pioneer scholar, famous for Heroic Poetry of the Basotho, poet, linguist, anti-apartheid activist . . .
Rev. Fr. T. M. Ilesanmi (1940-2016): Retired Professor, African Languages and Literatures (Lgs & Linguistics), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria - literary critic, musician, liturgist, clergy, fun to be around . . .
Two weeks; two losses; too much . . . way too much!
May those who know them be comforted.
Michael O. Afolayan
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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
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Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
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-- kenneth w. harrow professor of english michigan state university department of english 619 red cedar road room C-614 wells hall east lansing, mi 48824 ph. 517 803 8839 harrow@msu.edu
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