NEWS & EVENTS

The Don Ohadike Book Prize of the Igbo Studies Association will be awarded annually at the ISA Annual Meeting to the author of the best book on Igbo or Eastern Nigerian Studies published in the previous calendar year. The cash prize amount shall be $200 and a plaque. In the event that there are co-winners, the payment will be equally divided amongst the co-winners. To be initiated in 2016, the award will be made possible by an initial donation of $500 by Professor Chima Korieh. 

The Don Ohadike Book Prize of the Igbo Studies Association will be awarded annually at the ISA Annual Meeting to the author of the best book on Igbo or Eastern Nigerian Studies published in the previous calendar year. The cash prize amount shall be $200 and a plaque. In the event that there are co-winners, the payment will be equally divided amongst the co-winners. To be initiated in 2016, the award will be made possible by an initial donation of $500 by Professor Chima Korieh. 

Eligibility

Scholarly works published in any country, in any language in the previous calendar year are eligible for the award. Edited collections, new editions of previously published works, bibliographies, dictionaries and works of fiction are not eligible. For the purposes of this award Eastern Nigeria is defined to include the territories of the former eastern Region and such work must contain a substantial portion dealing with the Igbo nation.

For the purposes of this prize, scholarly works will be understood broadly to encompass works informed by an understanding of the scholarship in a given field or fields. In making its selection the prize committee will pay particular attention to significance, originality and quality of writing.

Deadline: December 30

Submission Process

To nominate a book, publishers should send a nomination letter outlining the book's significance. They should provide their name, publisher, address, email address, telephone, fax, the title(s) nominated, and a copy of each title to each member of the proposed Don Ohadike Book Prize Committee:

2016 Ohadike Prize Committee as Suggested

Prof E. C. Ejiogu (Chair)
Prof Akachi Ezigbo

Prof Raphael Njoku
Dr Ijeoma Nwajiaku

Please also send an email indicating the contact person, publisher, address, email address, telephone, fax, and the title(s) of the nominated publication(s) to the Igbo Studies Association at ….. 

About Don Ohadike: (1941-2005)

Don Ohadike was born on October 4, 1941 in the city of Jos in Plateau State, Nigeria.  Until his death, Prof Ohadike was the Director of Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. Professor Don Ohadike, the prominent scholar of West African history was the founding father of what became the Igbo Studies Association. Prior to joining Cornell, he held academic appointments and prestigious visiting and postdoctoral fellowships at several institutions, including Stanford University in 1988 and Northwestern University in 1988-1989; University of Jos in Nigeria as Chair of History Department from 1984 to 1988; and as lecturer at the School of Humanities, University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria from 1977 to 1979. Ohadike earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history from the University of Birmingham in England in 1977 and the University of Jos in 1984, respectively; and his B.A. in history and archaeology from the University of Nigeria in Nsukka in 1975.

Ohadike was among the best and most productive scholars of his generation in the field of African history and more specifically West African history. In the field of African and Diaspora history, Ohadike represented the uncommon combination of an active scholar, a committed teacher and a good citizen of the university and the profession. Above all he was a very fine human being. This combination enabled him to pursue new paths of exploration and analysis in the research and teaching of African and African Diaspora history. He was impressive in the range of his work and the depth of his knowledge of African history. His scholarly work covered several areas including slavery in Africa; anti-slavery and anti-colonial resistance movements in Africa and the African Diaspora; disease, epidemiology and food security in Africa; and Nigerian history.

Ohadike authored several books and articles in scholarly journals. His published books include: The Ekumeku Movement: Western Igbo Resistance to the British Conquest of Nigeria, 1883-1914 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1991), Anioma: A Social History of the Western Igbo People (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1994), and Pan-African Culture of Resistance: A History of Liberation Movements in Africa and the Diaspora, (Binghamton: Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghamton University, 2002). He also completed a manuscript on resistance movements in Africa and the African Diaspora, tentatively called The Sacred Drums of Liberation: Religions and Music of Resistance in Africa and the Diaspora. He was working on the manuscript just a few days before his passing. A clear indication of Ohadike's highly regarded status in the field of Igbo history and culture was the invitation by Heinemann, the original publishers of the famous African Writers Series, to write the introduction to Chinua Achebe's masterpiece Things Fall Apart, which he did for its 1996 edition.

Don Ohadike was an outstanding and exemplary teacher. His commitment to teaching and to bridging his scholarship and practice in the classroom was clearly illuminated in the record of highly innovative courses that he taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels. All the courses he taught embodied his philosophy of bridging his research and teaching. His course on African Cultures and Civilizations, which he taught for 14 years, attracted more than 100 students per semester. Ohadike was known as a great storyteller and students often left his classroom with smiles on their faces. Over the years Ohadike had gained the reputation among his former students as a passionate, compelling teacher and a highly respected mentor.

In Igbo society, a person's greatness is measured by earned titles and by a concurrence reached with the guardian spirit called chi. Ohadike had them both; he was indeed a great person with many accomplished and well deserved titles.[1]