Sophie Bosede Oluwole (nee Aloba, 12 May 1935 – 23 December 2018) was a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

professor and philosopher, and was the first female doctorate degree holder in philosophy in Nigeria. She was a practitioner of

Yoruba The Yoruba people (, , ) are a West African ethnic group that mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute ...

philosophy, a way of thinking which stems from the ethnic group based in Nigeria. She was vocal about the role of women in philosophy, and the disproportionate representation of African thinkers in education.

Life and work

Sophie Bosede Oluwole was born on May 12, 1935, to Timothy Aloba, in the town of Igbara-oke. Her paternal grandfather was from

Benin City Benin City is the capital and largest city of Edo State, Edo State, Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in Nigeria according to the 2006 census, after Lagos, Kano (city), Kano, and Ibadan, with a population estimate of about 3,500,000 as of ...

and ethnically Edo. She went to school in Ife, and was critical of the education system in the 1940s, saying a woman's career prospects were "not your ambition: it was your parents' ambition." In an interview with Jesusegun Alagbe, a journalist for ''

The PUNCH ''The Punch'' is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded On August 8, 1970. Punch Nigeria Limited was registered under the Companies Act of 1968 to engage in the business of publishing newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. It was designed to i ...

Newspapers'', Oluwole describes an event during school, where she was sent to a hospital to distribute food and medicine, and was scared by the desperately sick patients, saying "That day, I knew I was not going to be a nurse." She studied History, Geography and Philosophy at the

UNILAG The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in th ...

in Lagos, and eventually settled on philosophy. Following her first degree, she was employed in UNILAG for a time as an assistant lecturer in 1972, and went on to complete her PhD at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 196 ...

, making her the first female to hold a doctorate degree in philosophy. Oluwole taught African Philosophy for six years between 2002 and 2008 at the University of Lagos. At a time, she also served as the first female Dean of Student Affairs in the same institution. Oluwole's teachings and works are generally attributed to the

school of philosophical thought, which was ingrained in the cultural and religious beliefs (

Ifá Ifá is a Yoruba religion and system of divination. Its literary corpus is the ''Odu Ifá''. Orunmila is identified as the Grand Priest, as he revealed divinity and prophecy to the world. Babalawos or Iyanifas use either the divining chain kno ...

) of the various regions of

Yorubaland Yorubaland () is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 or about 60% of the land area of Ghana. Of this ...

. According to Oluwole, this branch of philosophy predates the Western tradition, as the ancient African philosopher Orunmila predates

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

by her estimate. These two thinkers, representing the values of the African and Western traditions, are two of Oluwole's biggest influences, and she compares the two in her book ''Socrates and Orunmila.'' She died in the early hours of 23 December 2018, aged 83.

Bibliography

* (1992) ''Witchcraft, Reincarnation and the God-Head'' (Issues in African Philosophy); * (1997) ''Philosophy and Oral Tradition''; * (2014) ''Socrates and Ọ̀rúnmìlà: Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy''; * (2014) ''African Myths and Legends of Gender'' (with Akin Sofoluwe).

Secondary literature

* Remembering the African Philosopher, Abosede Sophie Oluwole: A Biographical Essay, Ademola K. Fayemi, in ''Filosofia Theoretica'', Issue Dedicated to Late Prof. Sophie Oluwole. *Sophie Olúwọlé's Major Contributions to African Philosophy, ''Hypatia'', Published online by

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

: 27 May 2020.

References

External links

Sophie Oluwole: Nigerian philosopher who put Yoruba thought on the map
obituary in

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

.
Oluwole speaking about Socrates and Orunmila
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oluwole, Sophie 1935 births 2018 deaths Nigerian philosophers University of Lagos alumni Yoruba philosophers University of Ibadan alumni Yoruba women academics Academic staff of the University of Lagos Nigerian women academics People from Ondo State Iyalawos Nigerian women philosophers 20th-century Nigerian philosophers 21st-century philosophers