USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Isidore

May His Soul Rest in Peace.

Ehiedu Iweriebor

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Toyin Falola [toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2016 6:37 AM
To: dialogue; Yoruba Affairs
Cc: jamesgibbs@btinternet.com
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Isidore

From: JAMES GIBBS <jamesgibbs@btinternet.com>

If approriate, please share with  Isidore's loved ones.

Yrs James 

Isidore Okpewho was a warm and supportive colleague  when I taught at the University of Ibadan, and I have learned of his death with great sadness.

Just a couple of memories. The first is of a man of great  physical presence. I remember seeing him  on the tennis-courts  near the UI Staff Club, immaculate, impressive, a 'picture of health', a formidable player, a competitive athlete.

The second  memory is of him describing a major turning point in his life. It was the moment, perhaps in the course of a  viva  for his Classics degree, when he was challenged about  the intensive study undertaken into Classical (Latin / Greek) poetry and the general neglect of, to borrow the title of  one of his  major publications,  'The Heritage of African Poetry'. 

Others will have heard about that episode, and I am sure he wrote about it with  details that my memory has not retained.  Whatever the details, the exchange encapsulated a challenge that Isidore devoted a major part of his life to taking up. His response was reflected in many of his  publications, papers and encounters with students.

Colleagues, students and readers are greatly indebted to Isidore Okpewho, and mourn his passing, the passing of a champion, a scholar, a teacher  who took up a challenge.

 

James Gibbs . 

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