Obafemi Awolowo University, formerly known as the University of Ife, was founded in 1961 and is located in Ile-Ife, a city of 250,000 people in southwestern Nigeria. Ile-Ife is famous as the center of an ancient West African civilization and the home of a museum … Read More … Read MoreObafemi Awolowo University (1961- )
Akinwande Ouwole “Wole” Soyinka, the first African writer to win a Nobel Prize in Literature (1986) was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria on July 13, 1934. His father, Canon S.A. Soyinka, was an Anglican minister and his mother, Grace Eniola, was the daughter of an Anglican … Read More … Read MoreWole Soyinka (1934- )
The current President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, was born on December 17, 1942, in Daura, Katsina, Nigeria. His parents were Mallam Hardo Adamu and wife, Zulaihat. He was the 23rd child of his father. At the age of 19, Buhari enrolled in the Nigeria Military … Read More … Read MoreMuhammadu Buhari
(1942- )
Lagos is the largest city and chief port of modern Nigeria. The area that is now Lagos was settled by Yoruba people during the fourteenth century. The founders created a coastal village they called Eko. In the 1760s, Portuguese traders settled there and began using … Read More … Read MoreLagos, Nigeria (ca. 1350- )
Yakubu Gowon, Nigerian head of state during its civil war, was born in Northern Nigeria in 1934. Gowon joined the Nigerian army in 1954, and became a Second Lieutenant on his 21st birthday in 1955. From this point until 1966, Gowon was a professional soldier … Read More … Read MoreGeneral Yakubu Dan-Yumma Gowon (1934- )
The Niger Delta Conflict began in the 1990s in regards to the ongoing conflict between the militia groups of Nigeria, the Nigerian government, and the foreign oil corporations set up in the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta is a major producer of petroleum for nations … Read More … Read MoreNiger Delta Conflict, 1990s–
Fela Kuti was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria in the year 1938 as Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-KutFela Anikuplap Kuti. He later shortened his name to Fela Kuti, as he saw his birth name as a symbol of slavery and oppression. He also was popularly known as … Read More … Read MoreFela Kuti (1938-1997)
Karen Ann King-Aribisala is a Guyanese-born novelist who was raised and currently resides in Nigeria. She left Guyana as a young child, moving with her parents to Nigeria around the time of the Nigerian Civil war (1967-1970). Her father introduced her to books at an … Read More … Read MoreKaren King-Aribisala (n.d.)
In 1953 when Northern Nigerians were beginning to consider secession from the Nigerian colony that would soon be a nation, Nnamdi Azikiwe gave a speech before the caucus of his political party, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in Yaba, Nigeria on … Read More … Read More(1953) Nnamdi Azikiwe, “Speech on Secession”
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] Ile Ife, or Ife, is an ancient Yoruba city in southwestern Nigeria famous for its art. Between 700 and 900 A.D., the Ife began to develop as an important artistic center. By the 12th Century, its artists were creating bronze, stone, and terracotta sculptures, … Read More … Read MoreIle Ife, Nigeria (ca. 500 B.C.E.- )
