This message is eligible for Automatic Cleanup! (usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com) Add cleanup rule | More info --I didn't know that. Thanks for the information. I must look into that.
GE
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, July 26, 2019 4:08 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Nnaemeka, Obioma G <nnaemeka@iupui.edu>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Molara Ogundipe - poet, writer, literary critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist..... 1940-2019Please be cautious: **External Email**
GE.
Thank you for this update. You left out the fact she was the first to locate the influence of Yoruba culture on Okigbo's poetry, in particular the panegyrics of His Majesty the Timi of Ede.
OAA
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
-------- Original message --------From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@ccsu.edu>Date: 26/07/2019 20:54 (GMT+00:00)To: usa <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Cc: "Nnaemeka, Obioma G" <nnaemeka@iupui.edu>Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Molara Ogundipe - poet, writer, literary critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist..... 1940-2019
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Molara Ogundipe - poet, writer, literary critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist and an Africa- centered , nationalist intellectual.
1940 - 2019
Twenty five years ago, Molara Ogundipe launched one of the most incisive and formidable works on "the Woman Question," so to speak, namely, Recreating Ourselves African Women and Critical Transformations . New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1994. This work continues to be one of the shining jewels in feminist scholarship and literary critique, and we look forward to a reprint of this book by the publishers, in honor of this great scholar, who joined the ancestors on June 18, 2019. Recreating Ourselves is as insightful, refreshing, illuminating and relevant today, as it was when first published, and should continue to be central in any discourse on African women, politics and culture.
I happened to be about 200 miles from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the time of Molara Ogundipe's passing , but her death coincided with a major internet blackout in Ethiopia that started around June 10, 2019. The attempted coup d'etat of June 22, 2019, associated with the assassination of at least four leading politicians and administrators, and about two hundred casualties and "foot soldiers," led to another internet outage, this time lasting for more than a week. So the passing of the great African feminist icon and a great friend, unfolded without my knowing about it. The television channels at my disposal did not carry the announcement. I did not have a clue about her physical demise and her new status, until weeks after the tragic event. So by the time I got to the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and the Third Annual Conference in honor of Fela Kuti- "our great Fela," in her words (p.169)- my friend Molara Ogundipe had been recreated .
Molara and I had many things in common. She modified her name, I did the same. She, too, was a founding member of the organization Women In Nigeria in 1982, along with Ayesha Imam, Ifeyinwa Renee Iweriebor, Halima Mohammed, Norma Perchonock, Therese Nweke, Jibo Ibrahim, Salihu Bappa, Bilkisu Yusuf, myself and others. We shared similar perspectives on political economy and history. "African women must also make theory, contrary to the inherited prejudice that 'Europe is theory. Africa is native informant….'" she warned (p.6). Her political typology of novels emerging from Africa was exemplary of her methodology, where she distinguished between seven types of African novels, having been inspired by Festus Iyayi's 1979 novel, Violence (p. 97). "Europe's triumph after the 1400's was not due to superior intellect or courage but to the capacity for acts of unbelievable cruelty and political treachery such as the world had perhaps never known before," recalled the sage (p.217), in a discussion inspired, no doubt, by accounts of what Marx characterized as "Primitive Accumulation."
But no one offered a more profound critique of the writings of Soyinka, Achebe, Okot p' Bitek and other literary figures, than the great Molara Ogundipe. She cautioned Soyinka on his depiction of the activism of Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and the nature of the Women's Movement of 1947, and concluded that Soyinka's vintage prose, and the effective surrealist narrative of childhood in his autobiography, Ake, were marred by chronological missteps that she proceeded to address, with the fervor and professionalism of an inveterate expert detective( p. 105). Few could surpass her power to demystify literary concepts and theories and uncover patriarchal, colonial and neo-colonial untruths.
Molara Ogundipe- poet, literary critic, writer, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist, and Africa- centered, nationalist intellectual - left us many writings, many thoughts and diverse poetic treasures, including:
- Sew the Old Days and Other Poems. Ibadan, Nigeria: Evans Bros, 1985
- Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1994
- Women as Oral Artists.(eds.). Special Issue of Research in African Literatures. With Carole Boyce Davies. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press and Ohio State University, 1994
- Moving Beyond Boundaries.(eds.). With Carole Boyce Davies. NY: New York University Press, 1995
Thank you, valiant fighter for justice, women's rights and human rights !
We will continue to learn from your insights, your struggles, and your wisdom
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
www.africahistory.netChief Editor- "Africa Update"www.vimeo.com/gloriaemeagwali
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries2014 Distinguished Research Excellence Award in African StudiesUniversity of Texas at Austin2019 Distinguished Africanist AwardNew York African Studies Association
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