Jacob Ade Ajayi

Jacob Festus Adeniyi Ajayi (26 May 1929 – 9 August 2014), commonly known as J. F. Ade Ajayi, was a Nigerian historian and a member of the Ibadan school, a group of scholars interested in introducing African perspectives to African history and focusing on the internal historical forces that shaped African lives. Ade Ajayi favours the use of historical continuity more often than focusing on events only as powerful agents of change that can move the basic foundations of cultures and mould them into new ones. Instead, he sees many critical events in African life, sometimes as weathering episodes which still leave some parts of the core of Africans intact. He also employs a less passionate style in his works, especially in his early writings, using subtle criticism of controversial issues of the times. Quotes People of my generation learned how Britannia ruled the world. Ajayi was reflecting on the education received by his generation under British colonial rule and explaining his motivation for developing historical scholarship that placed African perspectives at the centre. The nation suffers with no sense of history. Its values remain superficial and ephemeral unless imbued with a deep sense of continuity and a perception of success and achievement that transcends acquisition of temporary power or transient wealth. Ajayi was discussing the importance of historical consciousness in Nigerian society and the consequences of a society that fails to understand its historical continuity. Such a nation cannot achieve a sense of purpose or direction or stability, and without them the future is bleak. Ajayi was continuing his argument about the consequences of a lack of historical consciousness, linking knowledge of history with national purpose, direction and stability. We have so little consciousness of a time perspective. We act and react as if there is only today, no yesterday, no tomorrow. Ajayi was criticizing the lack of historical consciousness in Nigerian public life. He argued that Nigerians often acted without sufficient awareness of the relationship between the past, present and future. We seem to care a little about the past, we have no enduring heroes and we respect no precedents. Ajayi was discussing the consequences of Nigerians' weak historical consciousness and their limited attention to historical examples and precedents. We lack statesmen with any sense of history. Politics of the moment dominates our life, leaving no room for evaluating achievement or appreciating merit. Ajayi was connecting the weakness of historical consciousness with contemporary political culture, particularly the tendency for immediate political concerns to overshadow long-term evaluation of achievement and public service. History interacts with the nation. Ajayi was explaining the reciprocal relationship between historical development and the nation. He argued that nations are products of historical circumstances while historians also help shape collective memory and ideas of national identity. For the nation is a product of history in the sense of historical circumstances and events; and therefore the nation cannot escape from its past. Ajayi was explaining why a nation cannot separate its present identity and development from its historical experiences. The colonial intrusion was nothing more than an episode in the history of Africa. Ajayi used the concept of the “colonial episode” to place European colonial rule within the much longer history of African societies, rather than treating colonialism as the entirety or defining feature of African history. External links Category:1929 births Category:2014 deaths Category:Historians from Nigeria Category:educators from Nigeria