It’s said that Nigerians hear news about Nigeria first from ‘the abroad’. In this case, it was true. My cousin, Ayotunde Obe, based in the UK, had early 24 December sent me a forwarded WhatsApp message: “She passed away today. May the Lord be with all of such she left behind.” Beneath the message was the picture of Professor Sophia Bosede Oluwole with a short profile.
The Igbara-Oke Connection
So, how did he know?
“I got the information on Ugbara Chats.” This is the WhatsApp platform for folk from Igbara-Oke, my town — the headquarters of Ifedore Local Government in Nigeria’s Ondo State, which has a national monument, and about which the famous Ulli Beier in his conversation with the late professor attested: “In the fifties and early sixties it was a favourite stop-over for truck drivers on the way to Benin City. The road side restaurants sold the best pounded yam and the best bush meat in the whole of Nigeria. I enjoyed many wonderful meals there.” When the Benin-Ore was built, Igbara-Oke lost that to Ore (also in Ondo State).
That she was a subject in Ugbara Chats is because she was born there, even as many in the town today may not know her — as travel journalist, Pelu Awofeso, found out on Boxing Day, when he went looking for her family house. Fortunately, he found Chief Joseph Odofin, who as Sapetu of Igbara-Oke, is the town’s prime minister, and old enough to know late Abiodun Aloba, an editor in the old Daily Times of Nigeria stable, who went by the pen-name Ebenezer Williams, and Professor Sophie Oluwole’s older brother by about 14 years. They were born in Igbara-Oke by Timothy Aloba, a trader in clothes, who was also born in Igbara-Oke by a father who was from Benin-City. Prof Oluwole in that conversation with Beier said when she was growing up she “thought” of herself as Edo (Benin) but as an adult she always prefaced any discussion about her origin with “I was born in Igbara-Oke.” It seemed that she identified more with Igbara-Oke because not only was she born there, she also spoke Yoruba with Igbara-Oke intonation. “I never learnt the language (Edo),” she told Beier, “I can hear a little but I cannot speak it.”
Philosopher by accident and fear of Soyinka
She’s acclaimed to be the first Nigerian, male or female, to earn a Ph D in philosophy but studying philosophy was, according to her, “the greatest accident in my life.” In a lengthy but interesting must-read interview with The Punch’s Jesusegun Alagbe, her first choice of career, nursing, was discountenanced when she encountered a skeletal-looking patient in a hospital while she was in what was known as a modern school.
I went to the Soviet Union, but I didn’t finish. I came back home to register at the University of Lagos. For the first year, I wanted to study English, Geography and History because I could use my school certificate to do so. But when I wanted to register for English, I was scared away….I was told that Wole Soyinka was a teacher there and that among all the students that year, only one person passed. I ran away. So I was left with deciding which other course I needed to add to Geography and History. Because Philosophy had no prerequisite then at UNILAG, I was forced to go there. It wasn’t a matter of choice. So in my first year, I did Geography, History and Philosophy. Unfortunately, I am not a good historian; I don’t remember things easily. So after the first year, I ran away from History. I wanted to go for Geography, but then I had an intention of having a second degree and for you to have a second degree in Geography, you must be good at Mathematics, which I was never taught at the Teachers’ Training College. Finally, I opted for Philosophy. However, there was a problem as there were not enough lecturers there. So I became dubious, I was attending classes at both the departments of Geography and Philosophy, but the lecturers didn’t know. Along the line, the Department of Philosophy got new lecturers. Meanwhile, at the end of each session, every department must submit the names of its students. So, my name appeared on the two departments’ lists. The heads of the two departments started fighting over me. Both were arguing, ‘She’s always coming to my class.’ So I was made to face a trial and choose where I wanted to belong. I told them I was sorry for my action and that I would choose Philosophy. Like I said, I didn’t understand Mathematics and I would need it if I wanted to study Geography. When all is said and done, I felt comfortable with Philosophy.
Her wonderful discoveries
In the interview with Alagbe, she said that as a philosophy researcher, she “discovered many wonderful things.”
She spoke in many interviews and forums on Ifa, science, culture, etc. She never minced words. This one is with Nigerian cinematographer, Tunde Kelani.
Listen to her radio interview with Nigerian journalist, Jimi Disu, where she, among other things, debunked Esu as being Satan (devil) and explained the meaning of government in Yorubaland.
She held everyone spellbound at the 2014 Felabration Debates.
And she wrote many books, including this one on the “two patron saints of classical philosophy” — Socrates and Orunmila — which I bought a couple of months ago while in Abeokuta. I have to now read it.
She rarely spoke about her immediate family but she was Mrs Oluwole and she had three children as revealed in this obituary in TheCable newspaper which I recommend that you should read.
Professor Sophie Bosede Oluwole (nee Aloba) won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
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