RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Gratitude to All Who Contribute to my Growth

Dear OVA (Oluwatoyin):

 

I promised myself not to write anything else for the Dialogue for a while until I saw what sounds like a "WILL" or a "Last Testament" from you! I wondered if you were making a hint at something some of us need to know about.

 

Of course, I totally did agree with you on the names of wonderful and generous senior scholars, who have "...contributed to my [your] Growth." In my own situation, most of them -- led by Mwalimu Ali A. Mazrui of blessed memory, Professors Abiola Irere, Toyin Falola, Nana Molefi Kete Asante, Emmanuel Akyeampong,  Abu Abarry, Victor Essien and many more -- are also on my own list. However, I may issue a similar list (and even longer one)in praise of them all, plus a few others, toward the end of my life's journey, maybe at 99 years old! On your part, should we expect any bombshell soon, hence the message below?

 

Indeed, I have asked above about a possible bombshell because when my spouse and I boldly walked into a bank in Indiana, USA, a decade ago, to get two or so witnesses for a codicil we were adding to our "Will", eyebrows were raised, and the questions started to fly: "Is A.B. dying?" "Are the Assensohs going bankrupt?", Etc. We were doing so because she was leaving (with our children) on a Fulbright Fellowship overseas, and I was supposed to travel there to see her on some occasions.

 

In fact, earlier on, I also remember Mrs. Coretta Scott King (when I served as Director of Research and Associate Editor for her husband's papers at Stanford University/King Center, Atlanta) mentioning how and why her late great husband (MLK, Jr.) died intestate (without a "WILL"). As she explained often, any time she reminded Dr. King that he needed a "Will", due to his constant travels and some threats to his life, he (Dr.  King) reportedly asked her, "Coretta, do you expect me to die soon?" 

 

So, dear OVA, if everything is certainly OK, then we are at peace for being such a grateful person! Blessings always!!

A.B. Assensoh, Chongqing, China.

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju [toyinkaidara@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 2:02 AM
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fwd: Gratitude to All Who Contribute to my Growth

I hereby thank everybody who contributes to my professional development.

I have in mind particularly

1. Professor Abiola Irele for commissioning me to write for the Oxford Encyclopaedia of African Thought  the essays "Ifa/Odu", "Orisa", "Ori", "Modern African Art", "Adinkra" and  "Mazisi Kunene" and for providing other opportunities for academic writing I was not disciplined enough to take advantage of.

2. Professor Toyin Falola, for getting me a contract to write a book on Ifa, which I am yet to deliver and for recommending me to write an essay on the contributions of the Nigerian Diaspora to Nigerian development in Challenges for Nigeria at Fifty : Essays in Honour of Professor Abdulahi Mahdi edited by A.M. Ashafa.

3. Owusu-Ankomah for commissioning me to write an essay on his art for the landmark book on his work, Owusu-Ankomah : Microcron Begins.

4.  Obododimmah Oha for the information on the call for papers for the journal Reconfigurations, which enabled the publication of my essay exploring the art and autobiographical writings of Vincent van Gogh in relation to Ifa in the context of autobiographical theory.

5. The editors I gained contact with through the Society for the Academic Study of Magic  who made sure I wrote  reviews on Cyberhenge : Modern Pagans on the Internet and on Neville Drury's Stealing Fire from Heaven : The Rise of Modern Western Magic.

6.Professors Molefi Kete Asante and Carol Boyce Davis, editors of the Encyclopaedia of African Religion and Encyclopaedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences and Culture, respectively, who commissioned me to write essays on the Beja and the Gulu and on developments in contemporary African culture represented by the Mbari club and the journal Transition.

7. Dr. Masagbor, for commissioning me to write essays in the book The Way of Prose Fiction : Exploratory Perspectives, edited by Richard Masgabor.

8. John Pollard's encouragement of my contribution to the  European Modelling Symposium 2006.

9. The organizers of the Metapolis and Urban life workshop in the Ubiquitous Computing Conference 2005 in connection with my paper "Navigating Spaces of Consciousness : A Dialogue". 

10. Professor Rowland Abiodun for his fantastic letter to Cambridge University Press praising my  blog Walks of Art and the educational network I founded and run, Compcros : Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems in relation to my review of his book Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art.

These initiatives span my academic training in literature, my self education in Western and African cognitive systems  and my work in educational entrepreneurship.

11. My mother, Jhalobia Ojemu and my sisters, Ifuemi and Ameto Adepoju, for their unstinting moral and financial support in many years of seeking.

Encouragement by others, particularly those who provide opportunities and offer commendation and creative advice, is priceless. 

A number of others whose efforts in my interests are priceless have not been mentioned here. 

That will be done in another context. 

Thanks

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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