My cousin is an esteemed Professor of Law and Dean of Postgraduate Studies in one of Nigeria’s most respectable universities. About a week ago, he and I had a fond conversation about Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi, a scholar who was clearly in a league of his own. Two days after that conversation, I received a text message from a dear friend of mine who is a Professor of Agriculture also in one of Nigeria’s top universities. It was a brief text but the message was resounding: “The great Prof. Ade Ajayi, the icon who was your professor has died. He was 85 years old. May his soul rest in peace”.
As one of the greatest historians that have ever walked the face of this earth, Professor Ade Ajayi was a scholar in every description of that word. There were no bounds to his knowledge of African history and his devotion to the teaching and advancement of historiography as a focus of the academic discipline of History around the world was without parallel. He was not only a very handsome man but he was graceful, quiet, humble and polite beyond compare. Yet, even other Professors who worked with him knew that the stage belonged to him – and they reverenced him. So also did he command the respect of historians all over the world who had any interest in African history. It is impossible for Wikipedia to fully capture the essence of Professor Ade Ajayi but I am confident that I speak for thousands when I say that those of us who knew him, and studied under him, will never forget who he was and what he meant to our individual development.
One of the greatest blessings of my life in academics was to have had the privilege of being Professor Ade Ajayi’s student at the Ibadan School of History (in the University of Ibadan) over three decades ago. Thanks to his contributions to scholarship and his presence there, the quality of scholarship that came out of Ibadan made the Ibadan School of History the most highly regarded Department of History of any university anywhere in Africa. Never a man to engage in trivialities, Professor Ade Ajayi walked and worked with a mission and maintained the kind of commitment to purpose that would be expected of anyone who knew what the cause of his life was.
Having lived his life and done his job, the great Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi is now at rest. He is being eulogized by world leaders and scholars. That is a very good thing. I hope, however, that the classy and committed life that he lived would serve as a reminder to African leaders and scholars (and indeed all of us) that we each have a responsibility to our world – and that the works of our hands live beyond our years.
Adieu Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi. Rest well sir, and thank you for giving of yourself as much as you did to a society and world that needed your presence and your God-given skills.