The news of the demise of the renowned histo­rian, erudite scholar, administrator par excellence and winner of Ni­geria National Merit Award, Professor Jacob Festus Ade Ajayi, came to many as a rude shock coming few months af­ter he marked his 85th birth­day with pomp and pageantry at the new Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan. It also came few weeks after the transition of another eru­dite historian, Professor E.A. Ayandele.
J.F. Ade Ajayi died at the­old age of 85. He was fortu­nate to receive genuine enco­mium and appreciation from an appreciative people for his contributions to scholarship, particularly African history and humanities in general, during his last birthday cel­ebration on Monday May 26, 2014. There were also two well written tributes by emi­nent scholar, historian and columnist, Professor Jide
Os­huntokun and politician cum prolific writer, Chief Ebene­zer Babatope, in the dailies.
The above notwithstanding, I owe it a duty to pay a deserved tribute to a scholar from whose fountain of knowledge I drank so much as a student and now as a writer and researcher.
Ade Ajayi was a nationalist in the mould of the renowned nationalists of Nigeria’s pre independence era like Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikwe, H.O. Davies, Obafemi Awolo­wo, Ahmadu Bello amongst others. The difference between Ade Ajayi and the aforemen­tioned is that while the above mentioned fought for political independence, Ade Ajayi and his likes fought for Blackma’s n dignity as a complete human being with clear concept of God, civilization, history and not savage.
One of the reasons ad­duced for the European impe­rialism in Africa is civilizing mission. Before the coming of Europeans to Africa, their preconceived notion was that Africa was a dark continent from which nothing good could come out. Africans were not civilized or, to put it succinctly, Africans were savages. They had no concept of God, no his­tory, no religion, no education. The African was just living a meaningless life. Denying Af­ricans of history, racist histo­rian, Trevor Roper asserted that “Africa had no history before the coming of history, if they had at all; it was a meaningless gyration of barbarian tribes in an obscure corner of the globe”.
Consequently, the history that was taught in African schools established by the Eu­ropeans, including University of Ibadan, was European his­tory. European scholars had er­roneously concluded that since there was no written record in Africa, particularly South of Sahara, there can be no history either to study, write or teach. However, the pioneering efforts to write and study African his­tory were credited to the duo of late Professor Kenneth O. Dike and late Professor Saburi Biobaku. The duo blazed the trail in the study of African history. Dike worked on Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, while Biobaku worked on Egba and Their Neighbours. J.F. Ade Ajayi who can be described as the third leg of the tripod on which the study of African his­tory rested worked on Chris­tian Missionaries Activities in West Africa and later History of West Africa and that of the Yorubas. Some of his works include Yoruba warfare in the 19th Century, Christian Mis­sions in Nigeria. 1841-1941, the Making of a New Elite. General History of Africa, A. Thousand years of West Af­rican history (Co-editor), The History of West Africa, Long­man, London 1971, (Co-editor with Michael Crowther). All the above mentioned books from the three eminent histo­rians and nationalists went a very long way to debunk rac­ist historians’ insinuations that African had no history and won a psychological victory for Africa like the attainment of political independence.
Another step taken by Dike and Ajayi to promote the study and writing of African his­tory was the establishment of the Ibadan School of History. This was a group of scholars interested in introducing Af­rican perspectives to African history and focusing on the internal historical forces that shaped African lives. Ibadan school also pioneered the use of oral tradition, cognomen, oriki, orile, ceremonies etc, as well as multi-disciplinary approach in the study of African history. It is remarkable that all aforemen­tioned works of Ajayi followed the above methodology.
As the pioneer school of history in Nigeria, all other Schools and departments of his­tory in other universities owed their development to Ibadan school of history and her schol­ars. This is where Ade Ajayi’s nationalistic efforts yielded im­perishable dividends.
Unfortunately, by the time of his demise, the fortune of a discipline he so much labored had nosedived. History as an academic discipline is no lon­ger given the deserved priority by policy makers in Nigeria and the effect is the socio-economic and political malaise staring the nation in the face.

J.F. Ade-Ajayi: A tribute