Akin Adesokan

Akin Adesokan is a Nigerian writer, scholar and novelist with research interests into twentieth and twenty-first century African and African American/African Diaspora literature and cultures.[1] He is currently the associate professor of comparative literature at Indiana University Bloomington.[2][3] He exerts influence on Nigerian cultural environment through commentary, advocacy, and writing.[4]

Akin Adéṣọ̀kàn
Born
Akin Adesokan

Nigeria
NationalityNigerian
Alma materCornell University,University of Ibadan.
Occupation(s)Writer, Professor

Education

Adesokan has a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2005, an MA from the same university in 2003, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Ibadan (1990) where he emerged the best student in the Theatre Arts department.[5] He also won the Faculty of Arts prize as well as the National Council of Arts and Culture Prize.[6]

Arrest

On November 7, 1997, while returning to Nigeria from a fellowship in Austria, Adesokan was arrested by security agents of the Sani Abacha administration and held incommunicado at one of the country's notorious detention centers, along with his friend and fellow writer, Ogaga Ifowodo.[7]

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.[8] He has won the PEN Freedom-to-Write Award (1998),[9] and the Lillian Hellman-Dashiell Hammett Human Rights Award (1999).[10]

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.”[11]

In 2001, he published Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics (Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press).[12]

Other works include Celebrating D. O. Fagunwa: Aspects of African and World Literary History, co-edited with Adeleke Adeeko (Ibadan: Bookcraft, 2017, 314pp)[13] and Knocking Tommy's Hustle (2010), a fictional piece.[14]

He has also written columns on politics and culture for Premium Times, Chimurenga, and many others.[15][16]

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
  1. "Akin Adesokan | Department of Comparative Literature". Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  2. Newsroom, IU Bloomington. "IU's Institute for Advanced Study to host NEH institute on 'Recasting Lives in African Cities'". IU Bloomington Newsroom. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  3. "Akin Adesokan | Department of Comparative Literature". Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  4. Feldner, Maximilian (2019). Narrating the New African Diaspora | SpringerLink (PDF). African Histories and Modernities. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-05743-5. ISBN 978-3-030-05742-8. S2CID 166639291.
  5. Adeboboye, Tope (May 6, 2007). "A Witness to these Times...The Akin Adesokan Interview". AfricanWriter.com. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  6. "A Witness to these Times...The Akin Adesokan Interview - AfricanWriter.com". AfricanWriter.com. May 6, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  7. "A Witness to these Times...The Akin Adesokan Interview - AfricanWriter.com". AfricanWriter.com. May 6, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  8. Adeboboye, Tope (May 6, 2007). "A Witness to these Times...The Akin Adesokan Interview". AfricanWriter.com. Retrieved July 22, 2022.
  9. Adeboboye, Tope (May 6, 2007). "A Witness to these Times...The Akin Adesokan Interview". AfricanWriter.com. Retrieved May 27, 2020.
  10. "Akin Adesokan's Roots in the Sky". nwokolo.com. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  11. "A Witness to these Times...The Akin Adesokan Interview - AfricanWriter.com". AfricanWriter.com. May 6, 2007. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
  12. Adesokan, Akinwumi (2011). Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-00550-2.
  13. Adeduntan, Ayo (July 30, 2017). "Celebrating D.O. Fagunwa: Aspects of African and world literary history". The Guardian. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  14. "Akin Adesokan | Department of Comparative Literature | Indiana University Bloomington". comparativeliterature.indiana.edu. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  15. Times, Premium (December 1, 2019). "Cultivating Critical Self-Reflexivity: Tejumola Olaniyan, A Tribute, By Akin Adesokan - Premium Times Opinion". Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  16. Adesokan, Akin (June 7, 2019). "AKIN ADESOKAN - Morning yet on Another Day of Indaba | The Elephant". Retrieved May 25, 2020.
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