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The Kenneth Dike Library at University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Kenneth Dike (de'ke)
Kenneth Onwuka Dike (17 December 1917 – 26 October 1983[1]) was a Nigerian educationist, historian and the first Nigerian Vice-Chancellor of the nation's premier college, the University of Ibadan.[2][3] During the Nigerian civil war, he moved to Harvard University.[4] He was a founder of the Ibadan School that dominated the writing of the History of Nigeria until the 1970s.[5] He is credited with "having played the leading role in creating a generation of African historians who could interpret their own history without being influenced by Eurocentric approaches."[6]
Career Dike was born in Awka, eastern Nigeria. He attended Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone and also Durham University for his BSc, the University of Aberdeen for his MA,[7] and King's College London for his PhD. During the 1960s, as a member of the University of Ibadan's history department, he played a pioneering role in promoting African leadership of scholarly works published on Africa. As the head of the organizing committee of the First International Congress of Africanists in Ghana in 1963, he sought for a strengthened meticulous non-colonial focused African research, publication of research in various languages including indigenous and foreign, so as to introduce native speakers to history and for people to view African history through a common eye. He was the first director of International School Ibadan.[8] In 1965 he was elected chairman of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.[6] Ebere Nwaubani argues that Dike was the first modern scholarly proponent of Africanist history.[9] His publications were a watershed in African historiography. Dike has been described as first African to get a PhD in history.[10]
At the University College of Ibadan, he became the first African professor of history and head of a history department. He founded the Nigerian National Archives, and helped in the founding of the Historical Society of Nigeria. His book Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885 dealt with 19th-century economics politics in the Niger Delta. He focused on internal African factors, especially defensive measures undertaken by the delta societies against imperialist penetration. Dike helped create the Ibadan School of African history and promoted the use of oral evidence by African historians.[9] Dike was also the first president of ASUTECH (Anambra State University of Technology, now Nnamdi Azikiwe University). _______________________________
From 1966-1970, during the Nigerian civil war, Dike was roving ambassador for Biafra and was based in Paris. Between 1970-1979, he took up professorship at Harvard University where he was the first Andrew Mellon professor of African History, and the chairman of the Committee on African Studies. John Womack, the 1959 chairman of the committee, said that Dike ‘was a loyal, active member of the department, and he taught very successfully.’ According to Womack until Dike arrived at Harvard’s History department, ‘there was no serious instruction, given in that field’.
In 1979, Dike returned Nigeria with his wife Ona Dike, to set up the Anambra State University of Technology (ASUTECH). At the time of his departure from Harvard, the History department described his leaving as a ‘serious loss’. Dike headed ASUTECH as its first president until his death on 26 October 1983.
Among Dike’s significant contributions to academia and the world, were his historiographic views most clearly stated in a 1953 article, ‘African History and Self-Government’. He countered the Western claim that Africa lacked history because African societies relied on oral tradition as opposed to written records. He argued for the integrity of African oral histories so long as they were used in conjunction with other sources. In this way, Dike was essential to the birth of ‘Modern African Historiography’ as we know it. Especially with the development of a multidisciplinary approach to African history—Dike himself used oral tradition in conjunction with archaeology, anthropology, and linguistic evidence to reconstruct African history. This multidisciplinary approach was also useful for test the accuracy of oral histories passed down from generation to generation. Dike used this approach in his revised PhD dissertation, ‘Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885’. Written in 1956 and published the same year as a book, Dike’s thesis helped to establish his reputation as a world-renowned historian, eventually earning him the title, ‘Father of Modern African Historiography’. ______________________________
Among Dike’s significant contributions to academia and the world, were his historiographic views most clearly stated in a 1953 article, ‘African History and Self-Government’.
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