History and Society
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Date
1976-02-24
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Publisher
University of Ife Press
Abstract
MR VICE-CHANCELLOR. I feel honoured and privileged that I have
the opportunity to deliver my inaugural lecture before this distinguished
audience. I understand that it is the first to be delivered by a
historian in this University. However. I must confess to some diffidence
in doing so. For one thing. I am a rather new comer to the
University. and newer still as a member of the unit that has formal
responsibility for history as a subject. Although I have been a happy
member of the community of historians since I came here as a research
professor. I became a member of the department of history
only when I was redeployed in the recent restructuring and reform
of the University as a system. It is against this background of limited
experience that I entertain the feeling that. by addressing you now.
I might be rushing like a fool where angels have feared to tread.
Nonetheless. I feel encouraged by the fact that the world of scholarship
is a universal one. and that the real purpose of an inaugural
lecture is better served if delivered at the beginning. or as close as
possible to the beginning. of one's tenure as a professor.
In the tradition of our people. I wish to pay homage to those who
have had the duty of cultivating the discipline of history in this
University. Dr. Saburi Biobaku must be mentioned first in spite of
the fact that he was associated with the department only for a
fleeting moment. He did a great deal for history and related disciplines
as founder and first director ofthe Institute of African Studies
at a time when the African component of the curricula of the University
was still scanty and needed tending by a protecting hand. Up till
now, Dr. Biobaku has remained tireless in popularising the idea of
history and in stimulating public awareness of the value of cultural
studies in a technological age. As far as history within the University
of Ife is concerned. Professor I. A. Akinjogbin easily comes to the
forefront as the longest serving member, and as the single individual
who has had the privilege and the challenge to have been the head
of the department for almost a decade now. Professor Akinjogbin
has devoted his entire career as a' university teacher to the department.
Indeed, the image of the department bears clear imprints of
his own as a scholar. It could hardly have been otherwise since the
department itself is less than fourteen years old. The growth of the
department in this relatively short period has been remarkable.
and all who, in their varied ways, have contributed to it deserve
commendation. I feel honoured to be a member, and, as a believer in
collective effort, I pledge my loyalty to the task of developing the
discipline in a virile and purposive way. I believe there is a lot still
to be done to build an Ife School of history-especially in the area of
research and postgraduate training, in the latter of which the department
is still very much a toddler.
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Keywords
History, Society