NEWS & EVENTS

Award Description

The Don Ohadike Book Prize of the Igbo Studies Association (ISA), USA, will be awarded to the author of a book published in 2017 and chosen as the best among a number of competitors. The award, a cash prize of $200.00 (two hundred dollars only) and a plaque citing the achievement of the author, will be made at the annual conference and meeting of the Igbo Studies Association, USA, at the Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois, May 9-12, 2018

Eligibility

Scholarly works in any language and published in any country in the area of Igbo Studies or the Igbo as a people or the eastern parts of Nigeria are eligible for consideration for the award.

Submission Deadline

December, 30, 2017

Submission Process

       
• Send the Title of the book you wish to nominate to the President of ISA (USA).
• Have the Publisher also send a Letter of Nomination, detailing the book’s significance.
• Have the Publisher provide full information of its Contact Person, Name of the Publishing House, full street address, e-mail address, phone number, and fax number.
• Have the publisher provide 6 copies of the book to be distributed to the Award Committee, in care of: The President, Igbo Studies Association (USA), Dr. Ada U. Azodo, School of the Humanities, African and African American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies, Indiana University Northwest, GARY, Indiana 46408-1197; E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Office Phone: 219-980-6629; Cell Phone: 219-644-5255.

Award Committee

A Committee of five members chosen from the general membership will be appointed by the Executive Management Team at its first fall meeting on September 2, 2017. The Award Committee will pay particular attention to significance, originality and quality of the work.

About Don Ohadike

Don Ohadike studied history and archeology, earning a Doctorate degree (1984) and a Master’s degree (1977) from Birmingham University, England, and a Bachelor’s degree (1975) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. His scholarship spanned the fields of slavery, anti-slavery and anti-colonial resistance in Africa and the African diaspora, not to mention food security, disease and epidemiology in Nigerian history.

He was well published in academic journals, and among his book publications are:

• 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.
• Pan-African Culture of Resistance: A History of Liberation Movements in Africa and the Diaspora. Binghamton: Institute of Global Studies, Binghamton, 2002.
• “Introduction” (1996 edition). Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, written at the invitation of the Heinemann African Writers Series.
• “The Sacred Drums of Liberation: Religions and Music of Resistance in Africa and the Diaspora” (a completed manuscript to be published posthumously).

Scholars describe Don Ohadike as a good citizen and a fine human being. He was a passionate researcher of Igbo history and worldview, and a teacher and mentor to his students and the Igbo society at large. The eminent scholar, teacher, storyteller and historian, was the former Director, African Studies and Research Center at Cornell University.

On November 8, 1999, Don Ohadike at the African Studies Association (ASA) Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded the association that has become known today as the Igbo Studies Association, USA, with a mission of objectives and goals as follows, to:

promote and encourage research and scholarship on Igbo history, culture, social movements, linguistic, literary and artistic expressions, science and technology; to forge intellectual links and network with scholars, policy makers, and activists inside and outside NIGERIA; to participate actively and collaboratively in continental and global debates with interested organizations in Nigeria, the U.S.A. and other countries on issues specifically relevant and correlated to Igbo studies; and to work proactively for the promotion of Igbo language with interested organizations and/ or institutions in diverse regions of the world (Igbo Studies Association (USA) Mission Statement).

Fuller information on the Bio-Bibliography of Don Ohadike, the man and his work, can be accessed at the following link: http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/1063.html