April 5th of this year signaled the return of the Owomoyela lecture series after a hiatus of several years due to the covid epidemic and staff transitions within the Center for African Studies. Dr. Ousman Kobo, as the new CAS director, together with Dr. Adélékè Adéẹ̀ kọ́, Interim Chair for the Department of African American & African Studies, and Ọ̀ túnba Gbénga Shólèsì, Vice President of the Yoruba Club 21, initiated plans to host the program’s 6th annual lecture.
Professor Akı́nwùmı́ Ògúndı̀ran from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, accepted the invitation to deliver the lecture. Dr. Ògúndıran is Chancellor’s Professor and Professor of Africana Studies, Anthropology & History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is also editor-in-chief of the African Archaeological Review. Ogundiran’s research interests focus on the history and archaeology of the Yoruba world, Atlantic Africa, and the African Diaspora. Ogundiran's latest book, The Yoruba: A New History (Indiana University Press, 2020), is the winner of the 2022 Vinson Sutlive Book Prize and the 2022 Isaac Delano Book Prize in Yoruba Studies. He is a past fellow of the National Humanities Center and a Member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.
His lecture, “The River that Never Rests”: A Deep History of Yorùbá Cosmopolitanism, explored archaeological and historical currents of Yoruba culture that permeate not only Nigeria but much of West Africa, and challenged traditional emphases of ‘pre’ and ‘post’ colonial eras. His visual and narrative presentation in the Frank W. Hale Black Cultural Center engaged students, faculty and community members and inspired lively discussion. The presentation will soon be available online.
Welcoming remarks by Dr. Kobo and by Dr. Fernando Unzueta, Associate Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs further celebrated the full operation of CAS as well as the resumption of the annual lecture and scholarship activities.