Bolanle Awe

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Bolanle Awe
Born (1933-01-26) 26 January 1933 (age 88)
Nigeria
NationalityNigerian
Known forNigerian Women's history, Oral history
Spouse(s)Olumuyiwa Awe

Bolanle Awe (born 26 January 1933) is a Nigerian history professor.

Life[]

Awe was born in Nigeria, on 28 January 1933. She attended Holy Trinity School, Imofe-Ilesha, St James Primary School, Okebola, Ibadan, and St Anne's School, Ibadan.[1] She took her A-levels at the Perse School in Cambridge. She went to St Andrews University in Scotland where she obtained a masters in history, before taking a doctorate in history at Oxford University. Awe then returned to Nigeria, where she became a lecturer at the University of Ibadan.

She rose to be a professor at the same university.[2] She was one of the historians who allowed their evidence to include oral traditions. This meant that she was able to trace back histories before the arrival of Europeans. She was also active in identifying how the role of women in history was being overlooked and she co-founded the Women's Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC) to promote the coordination of women's studies research and new methodologies to study Nigerian women.[3] In 1982, she was made an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.[4]

On Christmas Day, 1960, she married Olumuyiwa Awe. He would also become a professor and they would have children. Her husband died in 2015 at the age of 82.[2][5] She was one of six people who assisted Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in founding the popular Nigerian confraternity National Association of Seadogs in 1952.[6] There is some debate as to whether it was her or her future husband who were involved.[5]

From 1990 to 1992 she served as the first chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW). However, she resigned the post in 1992 after the government restructured the Commission, placing it under the control of the First Lady of Nigeria, Maryam Babangida.[7]

In 1998, she retired[4] and the following year, the department of African studies published a small book about her.[8] After her retirement, she continued to research and in 2005 she became the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.[4]

Works[]

  • Bolanle Awe, ed. Nigerian Women in Historical Perspective. Sankore Publishers; Ibadan: Bookcraft, 1992 (ISBN 978-2030074).
  • Ojetunji Aboyade and Bolanle Awe, editors. Footprints of the Ancestor: The Secret of Being. Special edn. Ibadan, Nigeria: Fountain Publications, c.1999
  • Awe, Bolanle. OBA (DR), Samuel Odulana Odugade I: the 40th Olubadan of Ibadanland: a biography / Bolane Awe, P. Adedtun Ogundeji S, Ademola Ajayi. 2nd edition, Centenary edition, Mapo, Ibadan: Tafak Publications, [2014].

References[]

  1. ^ Olujimi, Toluwanimi (2006-05-01). "Nigeria: Founding Fathers Laid Foundation for Under-Development". Vanguard. Allfrica.com. Archived from the original on 2006-05-05. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
  2. ^ a b Bolanle Awe - A Quintessential teacher, historian Archived 2016-02-23 at the Wayback Machine, 2014, MyNewsWatchTimesNG.com, Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  3. ^ Awe, B., & Mba, N. (1991). "Women's Research and Documentation Center (Nigeria)". Signs, 16(4), 859–864. Retrieved from
  4. ^ a b c Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong; Mr. Steven J. Niven (2 February 2012). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. pp. 301–. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
  5. ^ a b "Oluwole Awolowo finally laid to rest today at Ikenne-Remo, Ogun state" Archived 2016-03-31 at the Wayback Machine, AnchorOnline. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  6. ^ "'How Soyinka & I set up Pyrates Confraternity' – 82 year old Prof. Awe reveals". Information Nigeria. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2016.
  7. ^ Amina Mama (1995). "Feminism or Femocracy? State Feminism and Democratisation in Nigeria" (PDF). Africa Development / Afrique et Développement. 20 (1): 37–58.
  8. ^ Bolanle Awe: Portrait of an Academic and Activist. Women's Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC), Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. 1 January 1999. ISBN 978-978-2213-24-2.
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