What is it about?
Looks at how Biodun Jeyifo, Nigerian academic and social activist, has used journalism over time to comment on events in NIgeria from an oppositional perspective
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Why is it important?
The paper is one of a collection taking Jeyifo's 70th birthday as the moment to look back at his career and assess its impact. This is important because he is one of a small group of Marxist intellectuals who wielded influence in Nigeria in the 70s and 80s, both as teachers and writers. In Jeyifo's case, this influence has been extended through his use of journalism to address succeeding generations, bringing the lessons of recent history to bear on current problems.
Perspectives
I attended the university where Jeyifo was a lecturer in the mid-80s, and came under his supervision as a Phd student. As a freelance journalist, I also inhabited the same journalistic milieu through the recently established Guardian newspaper, to which we both contributed. I compiled my article, apart from using Jeyifo's online articles, from my own archive of newspaper cuttings made in the 1980s.
Jane Bryce
University of the West Indies, Cave Hill
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Desperate optimism: Biodun Jeyifo and Talakawa journalism, Journal of the African Literature Association, January 2018, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/21674736.2018.1433750.
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