Molara Ogundipe - poet, writer, literary critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist..... 1940-2019

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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Jul 26, 2019, 3:54:51 PM7/26/19
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Molara Ogundipe -   poet, writer,  literary critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist  Feminist  and  an  Africa-  centered , nationalist  intellectual.

1940 -  2019

 

Twenty five years ago,  Molara Ogundipe  launched  one of the most incisive  and  formidable  works on “the Woman Question,”  so to speak,  namely,   Recreating Ourselves  African Women and  Critical Transformations . New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1994. This work continues to be one of the shining jewels in feminist scholarship and literary critique, and we look forward to a reprint of this book by the publishers, in honor of this great scholar, who joined the ancestors  on June 18, 2019. Recreating Ourselves is as insightful, refreshing, illuminating and relevant today, as it was when first published, and should continue to be central in any discourse on African women, politics and culture. 

 I  happened to be  about 200 miles from  Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,  at the time of  Molara Ogundipe’s  passing ,   but   her death  coincided with  a major internet  blackout  in Ethiopia that started around June 10, 2019.  The attempted coup d’etat  of June 22, 2019,  associated with the assassination of at least four leading politicians and administrators, and about  two hundred  casualties and “foot soldiers,” led to another internet  outage, this time lasting  for  more than a week.   So the passing of the great  African feminist  icon and a great friend,  unfolded without my  knowing about  it.  The television channels at my disposal did not  carry the announcement.  I did not have a clue about her  physical demise and her new status, until weeks after the tragic event. So by the time  I got to the  University of Lagos, Nigeria,  and the Third Annual Conference  in honor of Fela  Kuti- “our great  Fela,” in her words (p.169)-  my friend  Molara  Ogundipe  had  been recreated .

Molara and I had many things in common. She modified her name,   I did the same.  She, too,  was a founding  member of  the organization  Women In Nigeria  in 1982,  along with Ayesha  Imam,  Ifeyinwa  Renee Iweriebor,  Halima Mohammed, Norma Perchonock, Therese Nweke, Jibo Ibrahim, Salihu Bappa, Bilkisu Yusuf,  myself and others.  We shared similar perspectives  on  political economy and  history.  “African women must also  make theory, contrary to the inherited prejudice that  ‘Europe is theory. Africa is native informant….’”  she warned (p.6). Her  political typology of novels emerging from Africa was exemplary of her methodology, where she distinguished between seven types of  African novels, having been  inspired by Festus Iyayi's  1979  novel,  Violence (p. 97).   “Europe’s triumph after the 1400’s was not due to superior intellect or courage but to the capacity for acts of unbelievable cruelty and political treachery such as the world  had  perhaps never known before,”  recalled the sage (p.217), in a discussion inspired, no doubt, by  accounts of what Marx characterized as "Primitive Accumulation."

  But no one  offered a  more profound critique of the  writings of Soyinka, Achebe, Okot p’ Bitek  and other literary figures, than  the great  Molara Ogundipe. She cautioned Soyinka on his depiction of the activism of  Funmilayo  Ransome Kuti and the  nature of  the Women’s Movement of 1947, and concluded that Soyinka's  vintage prose, and  the effective surrealist narrative of childhood  in his autobiography,  Ake,  were  marred by chronological missteps  that  she  proceeded to  address,  with the fervor and professionalism of an inveterate expert  detective( p. 105). Few  could  surpass her power to  demystify  literary concepts and  theories and  uncover patriarchal,  colonial and neo-colonial untruths.

 Molara Ogundipe-  poet, literary critic, writer, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist  Feminist,  and  Africa-  centered,  nationalist  intellectual -  left us many writings, many thoughts and  diverse poetic treasures,  including:

  • Sew the Old Days and Other Poems. Ibadan, Nigeria: Evans Bros, 1985
  • Re-Creating Ourselves: African Women & Critical Transformations. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1994
  • Women as Oral Artists.(eds.). Special Issue of Research in African Literatures. With Carole Boyce Davies. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press and Ohio State University, 1994
  • Moving Beyond Boundaries.(eds.). With Carole Boyce Davies. NY: New York University Press, 1995

Thank you, valiant  fighter  for justice,  women’s rights  and  human rights !

We will continue to learn from your insights, your struggles, and  your wisdom  




Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
www.africahistory.net
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries
2014 Distinguished Research Excellence Award in African Studies
 University of Texas at Austin
2019   Distinguished Africanist Award                   
New York African Studies Association

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Jul 26, 2019, 4:13:11 PM7/26/19
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, Nnaemeka, Obioma G
GE.

Thank you for this update.  You left out the fact she was the first to locate the influence of Yoruba culture on Okigbo's poetry, in particular the panegyrics of His Majesty the Timi of Ede.

OAA



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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 26, 2019, 5:43:54 PM7/26/19
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magnificent

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Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Jul 26, 2019, 5:44:15 PM7/26/19
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I didn't know that. Thanks for the information. I must look into that.


GE
 




Cc: Nnaemeka, Obioma G <nnae...@iupui.edu>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Molara Ogundipe - poet, writer, literary critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist..... 1940-2019
 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Okey Iheduru

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Jul 26, 2019, 6:51:48 PM7/26/19
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Thank you, Gloria for this tribute to Molara Leslie Ogundipe. Leslie was THE public intellectual before that term because hackneyed. I learned a lot about gender and patriarchy from her newspaper column articles than I read in any book, let alone classes-- in my four years as an undergraduate (1979-1983) at UNN, there were hardly any courses specifically dealing with women or even gender, except some ephemeral treatment in sociology. We'll miss her greatly, but her legend lives for ever!

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Biko Agozino

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Jul 26, 2019, 7:48:28 PM7/26/19
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'At a symposium organized by the Nigerian Association of University Women in 1974, with market women of the city of Ibadan on the panel, the trading women revealed interest in problems patently different from our middle-class ones. They were, in fact, contemptuous of some of these problems, in particular the resentment of polygyny by middle-class and Westernized women. They mainly felt that men could not be expected top be loyal to one  woman while some outrightly claimed that they needed helpmates in the form of co-wives to assist with housework. They needed younger wives to share or preferably take over the chores of kitchen and bed, so they, the older wives, can be freed to concentrate on travels for business reasons. It may be argued that these women are victims of false consciousness and social brain-washing, but for them, the old pre-capitalist system exists, works and is respected by them. We may ask if they have their humanity, their dignity, their human rights and self-fulfilment, guaranteed within this system. Their only objection was to the rupture or disruption of the older system of marriage, where the older wife is now relegated to the background by an uncaring husband or where the younger wife would not keep (to) her lower and deferent place within that system.' - Molara Ogundipe-Leslie in Bene Madunagu (ed.), Women in Nigeria Today, Zed, London, 1985. DISCUSS.

Biko

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Jul 26, 2019, 9:49:47 PM7/26/19
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Thank you Biko.

The germane question is who is the victim of false consciousness the old or the westernized?  Polygyny contextualized.

The truth is in Molara Ogundipe Leslie a cultural institution just took her leave of us; an African cultural Royalty just took her bow, danced to the Other Side to keep her tryst with the ancestors.

Let the talons once again rear their heads from the confines of the scabbards dip into the indigo ink well and give honor to whom honour is due!

OAA



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Date: 27/07/2019 00:48 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Molara Ogundipe - poet, writer,literary  critic, social activist , Marxist scholar, Stiwanist Feminist..... 1940-2019

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'At a symposium organized by the Nigerian Association of University Women in 1974, with market women of the city of Ibadan on the panel, the trading women revealed interest in problems patently different from our middle-class ones. They were, in fact, contemptuous of some of these problems, in particular the resentment of polygyny by middle-class and Westernized women. They mainly felt that men could not be expected top be loyal to one  woman while some outrightly claimed that they needed helpmates in the form of co-wives to assist with housework. They needed younger wives to share or preferably take over the chores of kitchen and bed, so they, the older wives, can be freed to concentrate on travels for business reasons. It may be argued that these women are victims of false consciousness and social brain-washing, but for them, the old pre-capitalist system exists, works and is respected by them. We may ask if they have their humanity, their dignity, their human rights and self-fulfilment, guaranteed within this system. Their only objection was to the rupture or disruption of the older system of marriage, where the older wife is now relegated to the background by an uncaring husband or where the younger wife would not keep (to) her lower and deferent place within that system.' - Molara Ogundipe-Leslie in Bene Madunagu (ed.), Women in Nigeria Today, Zed, London, 1985. DISCUSS.

Biko

On Friday, 26 July 2019, 18:51:49 GMT-4, Okey Iheduru <okeyi...@gmail.com> wrote:


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Michael Afolayan

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Jul 27, 2019, 6:10:22 AM7/27/19
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"Few  could  surpass her power to  demystify  literary concepts and  theories and  uncover patriarchal,  colonial and neo-colonial untruths." (GE)


Beautifully written; truthfully expressed. Your reflection is so timely. We forget our heroes too soon. Two, may be three, five or ten days after we mourn them, they are wiped off the slates of our memories. If not for Toyin Adepoju, Abiola Irele would have been long gone. Pius Adesanmi is fading so fast, and the echoes of Molara is quickly fainting. Anyway, thanks for this thoughtful reflection over a life of commitment to sound scholarship and one that addressed and advanced issues of global relevance to humanity. Molara's courage to break barriers and tread on paths that even angels dread to tread will forever put her on the heavyweight scale in both academic and popular discourses. Your personal stories and acquaintances with her are sacrosanct. We need to hear more beautiful songs in memory of one of the less sung heroes of our time. Thanks, Gloria!
Michael



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Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

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Jul 27, 2019, 7:38:56 PM7/27/19
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Superb-

'Let the talons once again rear their heads from the confines of the scabbards dip into the indigo ink well and give honor to whom honour is due!' OA A

I was pleasantly shocked to see my name thus-'If not for Toyin Adepoju, Abiola Irele would have been long gone.'

There  was actually founded in Irele's lifetime  a vigorous Abiola Irele School of Theory and Criticism at Kwara State University which holds yearly seminars.

One of the more recent essays on Irele is by Adeshina Afolayan  "Abiola Irele and the Context of African Philosophy Discourse" in   Research in African Literatures., Vol. 49, No. 2 (Summer 2018), pp. 1-19.

Abstract : "The objective of this essay is to inscribe Abiola Irele into the African philosophical discourse through a philosophical scrutiny of his own negritude analysis. And the justification for this exercise goes beyond the attempt to recognize the philosophical import of Irele's literary oeuvres. It is also a significant attempt at challenging the parochial arrogance of (African) philosophy, which hinges the term “philosopher” around the narrow qualification of being a professional philosopher. The significance of expanding the African philosophical discourse creates the possibility for a transdisciplinary space that allows for a multifaceted confrontation of the African predicament around the discipline of philosophy. Grounded on the idea of discourse as “the continued, enduring and interactive exchange, creation, and debate of shared interpretations (meanings),” the essay outlines a sense in which Irele's critical analysis of negritude can serve as a means by which we can update the lopsided critique of ethnophilosophy. This makes it possible to reintroduce the significance of Africa's self-imperative within the urgency of modern consciousness."



A book of  poetry in honour of Adesanmi is coming out soon. The African Doctoral Lounge he started on Facebook is  very active.  The Kwasu Abiola Irele seminar dedicated a session to him this year.
Its vital, though, to learn from Western scholarship's centralising of its scholars, examining them in text after text, with some floating above the generality to become almost eternal presences-Plato, Kant, Descartes, Heidegger etc, although those are all philosophers with such continuity of attention to particular scholars across the centuries not so consistent in other disciplines, in my view.
 Molara Ogundipe wrote a fine essay in a newspaper on Soyinka's 1986 Nobel Prize win that brought her name to my attention for the first time. I eventually met her in her sister's office at the University of Benin and later when she gave a paper at a University of Leeds conference. I can still visualise her sitting at a desk in that office as I told her of ideas I was developing from Marcel Griaule's  work on Dogon cosmology on which she encouraged me.

thanks

toyin


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