Biodun Jeyifo

Biodun Jeyifo (5 January 1946 – 11 February 2026) was a Nigerian academic, critic, public intellectual, cultural theorist and a specialist in world Anglophone literature and culture. Quotes Ordinarily, people don’t talk much about truth itself, talk less about the death of truth. They talk about their children, their siblings, their neighbours and their jobs – if they have jobs. They give thanks or give curses for small and large acts of grace or misfortune. Anything and everything but truth or the death of truth. Truth is not dead. For if truth is dead, we are dead, too. And I mean that in near literal terms, not as a metaphor or allegory. we must start in the colonial period and not only must we start there, but we must do something else that is not usually done, we must recognise immediately that colonialism is meaningless if it is not understood as colonial capitalism. It is not just colonial subjugation; it is colonial capitalism. It is a system of capitalist exploitation, capitalist organisation of production and distribution in a colonial context…Because colonialism by itself is by nature very exploitative and fascist”. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength – Psalms, 8:2 The quote with which I begin this piece is a well-known passage from the Christians’ bible. Usually it means something along the following line: because they are naturally honest and innocent, wisdom and truth come from children more readily than from their parents or from adults in general. But note that the particular quotation at the head of this piece talks, not of “wisdom” or “truth”, but of strength. Strength from children, especially when weakness, confusion and defeat are what you get from adults? Yes, a strength, a passion, a will that seems to come from the natural “estate” of childhood or youthfulness. When you think of contemporary youth revolts and movements that are making a huge difference where most other traditional or modern organizations and institutions like trade unions, ethnic societies, faith communities and political parties seem weak, fragmented and lost, that is what you have: “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength”. External links Category:Academics from Nigeria Category:Social critics Category:1946 births Category:2026 deaths