So sad to hear about Professor Hakeem Danmole’s transition. He was a very dear friend, a good man, and an incisively fascinating colleague, a solid and committed historian of Ilorin Emirate and of Islam in Nigeria. He was one of the eight examiners for my doctoral defense, and one of the two external ones. The other was Professor Bolanle Awe. During the defense, our arguments over issues related to Igbomina-Ilorin relations became so intense, with neither of us willing to concede, that my Supervisor, Professor Adeagbo Akinjogbin, had to intervene to declare a truce, and to encourage both of us to continue our highly animated discourse in other ways after the thesis defense. We remained friends, of course, and maintained very meaningful and intellectually beneficial and collaborative engagements for many years thereafter.
May his gentle and magnanimous soul rest in peace.
Funso Afolayan
Department of History
University of New Hampshire