Black Orpheus and the Organic Intellectual

This essay honours two polyglot Nigerian intellectuals—Harvard University’s Abiola Irele and Oxford University’s Raufu Mustapha—who grew up in different parts of the country from their ancestry, and died abroad a month apart from each other in July and August 2017 respectively. I honour Irele’s work on culture and poetry, and Mustapha’s on religion, ethnicity and identity politics; as well as Nigeria’s foreign policy. ABIOLA IRELE: THE LAST PROPHET OF NEGRITUDE Francis Abiola

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