F. Abiola Irele

Francis Abiola Irele (commonly Abiola Irele, born 1936) is a Nigerian academic who has been called the doyen of Africanist literary scholars worldwide. He is currently Provost at the newly founded Kwara State University in Ilorin, Nigeria.^[1] Before moving back to Nigeria, Irele was Visiting Professor of African and African American Studies and of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.^[2][3]

Irele graduated from Ibadan University in 1960. Immediately after graduation, he went to Paris to learn French and completed a Ph.D in French at the University of Paris, Sorbonne in 1966. He held teaching positions at the University of Ghana, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), and University of Ibadan. In 1989, he moved to Ohio State University in the U.S. as Professor of African, French and Comparative Literature.

Selected publications

• The African Imagination: Literature in Africa and the Black Diaspora, Oxford University Press (paperback 2001), ISBN 0-19-508619-8
• The African Experience in Literature and Ideology, Indiana University Press (reprint 1990), ISBN 0-253-33124-2
• Joint editor with Simon Gikandi of The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, Cambridge University Press (2004), ISBN 0-521-59434-0
• "Négritude: Literature and ideology" in The African Philosophy Reader, ISBN 0-415-96809-7

Further reading

• F. Abiola Irele, What is Africa to me?: Africa in the Black Diaspora Imagination (Distinguished Lecture at Ohio State University, 30 October 2002), accessed at ^[4] 14 February 2007 - includes video.
• Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, "Literature, Culture and Thought in Africa: A conversation with Abiola Irele", in West Africa Review, Issue 7 (2005), accessed at ^[5] February 14, 2007.
• Wumi Raji, Churchill College Celebrates Abiola Irele (report of 70th-birthday celebration, November 2006), accessed at ^[6] 14 February 2007.

References

1. Kwara State University-The University for Community Development
2. Reviews of his essays, OUP website
3. Faculty page, Harvard University Archived January 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
4. Distinguished Lecture Series - Ohio State University
5. Literature, Culture, And Thought In Africa: A Conversation With Abiola Irele, Harvard University
6. Churchill College Celebrates Abiola Irele

External links

• Photographs of Abiola Irele from the EBR African American Cultural Life digital collection, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville