Prof. Isaac Adeagbo Akinjogbin
Historian| 1930 – 2008
Prof. Isaac Adeagbo Akinjogbin of the Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly, University of Ife), Ile-Ife, Nigeria, and a great Nigerian historian died on July 27, 2008. He was the doyen of the Ife School of history. The transition of this great historian and distinguished scholar has ended a glorious chapter in Nigerian intellectual history in particular and African historiography in general. He was an astute and forthright scholar with a flair for originality. As a scholar, he placed his life, works and credibility on a scale higher than most. Prof. Akinjogbin engaged in deep and profound cultural and historical studies, examining a wide range of cultural, historical and ideological processes and issues of the Yoruba people. His most famous book, Dahomey and Its Neighbours, 1708-1818 (Cambridge, 1967) has become a classic in African historiography.
Born in Ipetumodu, Ife North Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria in 1930, Prof. Akinjogbin would be educated at Ijebu Ode Grammar School, Fourah Bay College in Freetown, and later at the University of Durham (St Cuthbert’s Society) in England where he gained his B.A (Hons.) in Modern History in 1957. Between 1957 and 1960 Akinjogbin was affiliated with the Yoruba Historical Research Scheme headed by Dr. Saburi Biobaku, as a Junior Research Fellow. In this position, he was sent back to England to conduct research at the Public Records Office in London. In 1960, he became a Commonwealth Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. In 1963 he was awarded the Ph.D degree in African history. In the same year, he joined the University of Ife as a lecturer in the Department of History. In 1965, he was appointed the Acting Director of the Institute of African Studies and in 1968 when he became a full professor he became the substantive head of the Department of History. He was buried on September 06, 2008. May his soul rest in peace.
Olutayo C. Adesina, Ph.D, Department of History, University of Ibadan