Olali tasks Africans on heritage preservation

By Abubakar Imam and Bashirat Omotosho

The Assistant Director of the African Studies Institute, University of Georgia, United States of America, Dr David Olali, has enjoined Africans to deliberately preserve their heritages delicately for others to respect the people of the continent, saying that the world needs Africa more than Africa needs the world.

Dr Olali gave this advice last Thursday (May 13, 2026) while delivering a Special Faculty Lecture, titled “Meaning-Making Machine; Coloniality, the afterlives of academic discipline and Reconstitution of Knowledge through comparativity complex theory”, organised by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin at the Faculty Boardroom.

The don said that no outsider, no matter how well-intentioned he is, would work for the preservation of African heritages as they are busy doing the same for theirs.

Dr Olali, who is also the founding Director of The Comparative Heritage Project, said that it is only when Africans protect their heritages that others would treat their heritages as such.

He said that the current dispensation is a product of the past while the future would be built from what is currently unveiling.

He explained that the challenge of inferiority complex facing Africans should be confronted headlong as the black is in no way inferior to the white or the people of the so-called first world.

The visiting don, who obtained his doctorate degree in Critical Comparative Scriptures, encouraged Africa and particularly Nigeria to respect what it has for other nations to respect it.

While noting that there is nothing wrong in comparative analysis of knowledge production and propagation, Dr Olali insisted that comparism is not what you do after knowledge is formed but what you do before its formation.

He said that the act of comparing community knowledge system and academic knowledge system is itself an act of knowledge production, noting that the negotiations between the two enhances human development in so many ways.

Dr Olali urged African scholars to change the way they pursue their trade to ensure that they achieve the essence of intellectualism.

He explained that the world is changing much faster than the speed of the internet and, therefore, there is always the need to follow the trend.

Dr Olali said that African scholars must be bold to assert their claims as he said that courage would always be needed to enhance knowledge production, migration and transmission for the benefit of mankind.

He added that Africans, particularly its intelligentsia, should not allow themselves to be bullied by any power as he said that the quality of their knowledge and exposure would be put to question if they allow themselves to be bullied.

He encouraged them to always come forward with their understanding of the world, saying that Africans should stop importing solutions to their challenges but should insist on local solutions to such challenges.

Dr Olali said that adequate courage must be built by Africans to ensure the indigenisation of whatever machines and knowledge that comes their ways.

The don, who said that the University of Ilorin was the first campus that he would deliver a lecture since his departure from the country in the year 2010, paid glowing tributes to the University for what it has achieved over the years.

He said that the campus of the University reminded him of so many things he did and that happened to him when he was much younger.

Dr Olali said that the University of Ilorin is an embodiment of everything it claims, pointing out that the University has provoked him instead of he provoking it as he had earlier intended.

In his welcome address, the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Ibrahim Abdulganiyu Jawondo, said that the lecture was organised to bring knowledge to the doorsteps of the staff members and students of the Faculty and the University at large.

Prof. Jawondo said that the lecture series would not only be maintained but would also be improved upon for the benefit of all.

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN, described the lecture as an enduring instance of the tradition of the University of always attracting, embracing and propagating knowledge.

Prof. Egbewole, who was represented by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Moji Taibat Bakare-Odunola, commended the Dean and the entire Faculty for organising a very meaningful academic event for the benefit of all.

The Vice Chancellor congratulated Dr Olali for doing justice to the topic, saying that the University appreciated his coming and would always wish to have him again.

The event was attended by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services), University of Ilorin, Prof. Olalere Adeyemi; the Director of the Centre for International Education, Prof. Lateef Onireti Ibraheem; and three former Deans of the Faculty, Prof. Oyeronke Olademo, Prof. Abdullahi S. Abubakar and Prof. AbdulRasheed Abiodun Adeoye, among several others.