Wednesday, April 23, 2014
6:30PM-8PM
Assembly Hall
The Second Annual J.A. Atanda Memorial Lecture presents Professor Toyin Falola,The Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of numerous books and essays and the series editor of numerous presses and publications. He was the recipient of the Cecil B. Currey Award for his book, Economic Reforms and Modernization in Nigeria, and the Herskovits’ finalist award for his memoir, A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt.
Professor Falola’s lifetime career awards include the Nigerian Diaspora Academic Prize, the Felix E. Udogu Africa Award, the Cheikh Anta Diop Award, the Africana Studies Distinguished Global Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award (Indiana University- Purdue University), Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, Fellow of the Historical Society of Nigeria and Distinguished Africanist Award, to name a few.
On the evening of Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014, a group of students, faculty, and other distinguished guests came together at the University of Chicago’s International House for the Second Annual J.A. Atanda Memorial Lecture. Professor Toyin Falola, PhD, the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin, delivered a lecture on “Indirect Rule and the Elasticity of Politics and Power.” Professor Falola drew on the work of Joseph Atanda, the namesake of the lecture, to explain the role of indirect rule on the political realities in Africa and especially in Nigeria today. Because culture and politics are so intertwined, Falola posited, the political influence of indirect rule had effects that resonated in both the cultural and the political arena. He concluded by commenting that indirect rule created a “mythology” about Nigeria’s past that continues to affect the politics of the nation even today.
This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Global Voices Lecture Series at International House, the Tonda Foundation, the Center for Global Health, and the Committee on African Studies.