Akin Adesokan is 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 ...
writer, scholar and novelist with research interests into twentieth and twenty-first century African and African American/African Diaspora literature and cultures. He is currently the associate professor of
comparative literature at Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and, with over 40,000 students, its largest ca ...
. He exerts influence on Nigerian cultural environment through commentary, advocacy, and writing.
Education
Adesokan has a Ph.D. from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
in 2005, an MA from the same university in 2003, and a bachelor's degree from 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 19 ...
(1990) where he emerged the best student in the Theatre Arts department. He also won the Faculty of Arts prize as well as th
National Council of Arts and CulturePrize.
Arrest
On November 7, 1997, while returning to Nigeria from a fellowship in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, Adesokan was arrested by security agents of the
Sani Abacha
Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful c ...
administration and held incommunicado at one of the country's notorious detention centers, along with his friend and fellow writer,
Ogaga Ifowodo.
Writing and publications
His first novel is titled
Roots in the Sky' (2004), which won the Association of Nigerian Authors' Prize for Fiction in manuscript form back in 1996. He has won th
PEN Freedom-to-Write Award(1998), and th
(1999).
Of his work, he says "My writing is an attempt to bear an honest witness to my time, to the experience I have as a human being, as a Nigerian, as an African. The African experience – slavery, wars, colonialism, diseases, neo-colonialism. There are other dimensions of experiences that are perennial, that aren't easy to grasp historically or as past events, and one tries to respond to these."
In 2001, he published
Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics' (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press).
Other works include
Celebrating D. O. Fagunwa: Aspects of African and World Literary History', co-edited with
Adeleke Adeeko (Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2017, 314pp) and
Knocking Tommy's Hustle' (2010), a fictional piece.
He has also written columns on politics and culture for ''
Premium Times
''Premium Times'' is a Nigerian online newspaper based in Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory. It was launched in 2011. The online medium is notable for investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which ...
'', ''
Chimurenga
''Chimurenga'' is a word in the Shona language. The Ndebele equivalent, though not as widely used since the majority of Zimbabweans are Shona speaking, is ''Umvukela'', meaning "revolutionary struggle" or uprising. In specific historical terms ...
'', and many others.
Professional associations
Adesokan belongs to the;
* African Literature Association
* African Studies Association
* Association of Nigerian Authors
* Modern Language Association
* Society for Cinema and Media Studies
References
External links
* https://africasacountry.com/author/akin-adesokan
* https://pen.org/penbarbey-freedom-to-write-award/
* https://www.hrw.org/legacy/worldreport/Ps-01.htm
* https://www.ncac.gov.ng/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adesokan, Akin
Living people
Nigerian writers
Cornell University alumni
University of Ibadan alumni
Nigerian expatriates in Austria
Nigerian expatriate academics in the United States
Year of birth missing (living people)