Celebrating the thoughts of a Philosopher King: Toyin Falola Celebrates Prof. Nimi Wariboko

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Abiodun Gbada

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Nov 23, 2020, 7:33:13 AM11/23/20

to USA Africa Dialogue Series

SCHOLARS from different parts of the world, on Saturday celebrated the works of an academic and author, Prof. Nimi Wariboko, who is the Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics at Boston University, United States.

The virtual event, convened by a Professor of History and Humanities Chair, University of Texas at Austin, Toyin Falola, had over 40 presentations by scholars from the US, Canada, Ghana, Norway, Australia and Nigeria, including The PUNCH columnist, Dr Abimbola Adelakun.

Falola noted that the conference, themed, “The philosophy of Nimi Wariboko: A conference on ethics, society, religion and African social traditions’, was to celebrate “the thoughts of a Philosopher King”, and that it was time to reverse the trend of celebrating people only when they have died.

The guest speaker, Mark Lewis Taylor, a Professor of Theology and Culture, Princeton Theological Seminary at Princeton University, in his presentation said, “What is most interesting is the way Wariboko interprets the disruptive eruption of the Pentecostal incredible as a response to an engagement with the post-colonial incredible and its suffering, in order to wrestle with both toward a promise of transcending the disruption at work in both.”

Wariboko, who thanked everyone, especially the convener, for his usual commitment to developing and promoting African scholars, said, “I have learnt a lot from everybody and I didn’t do those works to impress anybody; an idea comes to me and I put it out but I’m happy people find my works useful.