Olufemi Vaughan

Olufemi O. Vaughan is a Nigerian academic whose research and teaching focuses on African Political and Social History, African Politics, Diaspora Studies, African Migrations and Globalization, Religion and African States. He is currently the Alfred Sargent Lee '41 and Mary Ames Lee Professor of African Studies at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. Quotes With great introspection, personal fortitude, and progressive Christian values, Professor Olupona, through this initiative, is opening doors for many young African scholars even as they strive to overcome the challenges of doctoral training in many African universities. In many dialogues with him, I admire Professor Olupona’s single-minded devotion to these amazing African scholars. Olufemi tributes to Professor Olupona Over the years, I have had the pleasure of learning from Professor Olupona, drawing from his deep well of wisdom and generosity of spirit. Highly productive scholars can be inward looking most of the time perhaps because of the intense demand of research and obligations to the rigor of academia. Despite the enormous professional demands on him, Professor Olupona found quality time for everyone, especially young scholars. He deploys his professional capital to build a formidable Pan-African infrastructure that has sustained an outstanding pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowship program. Olufemi tributes to Professor Olupona The relationship between northern and southern Nigeria have been defined by Islam and Christianity respectively since the 19th century. The Sokoto caliphate and a Muslim reform movement brought Islam to the Hausa and Fulani peoples in the north, and Christianity arrived to the southern fringe of this region in the mid-1800s. As the influence of Christianity grew, Christians challenged Muslim dominance of the caliphate using Christian principles of universality, and the act of converting others to Christianity became a political action. Meanwhile, British colonial structures reinforced the dominance of a Hausa identity as a “northern” concept, in so doing strengthening divides between Hausa and Fulani peoples of the north and the non-Muslim (Christian and pagan) peoples of the south and creating the Middle Belt as a new political social identity. Discussion on Insecurity and Militancy in the Middle Belt of Nigeria The Middle Belt was once dominated by pagan faiths, and later the indigenous converted to Christianity, but as Hausa and Fulani Muslims migrated southwards since the late colonial period, the demographic balance of the region has tipped more in their favor. These new settlers began contesting property rights with indigenous Middle Belt Christians, leading to conflicts over resource distribution, land claims, and control over local government agencies between Christians and Muslims that continue to contribute to instability in the Middle Belt to this day. Discussion on Insecurity and Militancy in the Middle Belt of Nigeria External links Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Socialists from Africa Category:Pan-Africanists Category:Historians from Nigeria Category:Political scientists Category:Academics from Nigeria