{"id":36282,"date":"2021-03-10T19:58:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T19:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?post_type=cu_story&p=36282"},"modified":"2025-02-03T11:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T16:30:16","slug":"war-against-mediocrity-pius-adesanmis-legacy-for-africans","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/story\/war-against-mediocrity-pius-adesanmis-legacy-for-africans\/","title":{"rendered":"War Against Mediocrity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n War Against Mediocrity\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Pius Adesanmi’s Legacy for Africans<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It has been two years since Professor Pius Adesanmi tragically passed away on March 10, 2019. <\/em>Seyi Ishola was a student in Economics and African Studies at Carleton University and wrote this piece in 2019 about her former professor and mentor.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Seyi Ishola<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time I met the renowned professor and political commentator Pius Adesanmi was in 2010, when I first arrived at Carleton University.  Many of us took African studies courses as “easy electives;” little did we know! All I knew then was that he was a professor at the university and a well-known Twitter user. Fast forward to 2016, I returned to Carleton for a second degree and had the pleasure of being Pius’ student and mentee from then onward. It was an absolute honor to learn from such a distinguished African Professor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this story goes, I saw Pius Adesanmi one last time on the afternoon of March 8, 2019. He stood tall by his office door at the Institute of African Studies in his bright blue jacket and wore his loud contagious laugh with so much joy. He hugged me goodbye and mentioned that he would see me soon as I owed him some pounded yam. Unfortunately, the tragic news came only two days later. Pius had been on the Ethiopian Airlines aircraft that crashed just outside Addis Ababa claiming the lives of 157 people. A shocking end to such a great story!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Canada, friends, family, and colleagues gathered to celebrate his life at the Metropolitan Bible Church on the following Saturday. In other parts of the world, including Nigeria, many services were also held to celebrate his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We often take for granted the people we encounter daily. Pius Adesanmi was not just a professor but a fascinating storyteller, writer, poet, a well-known international speaker, political commentator, a husband, friend, and mentor. In 2001, his first book Wayfarer and the Other Poems won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize. He went on to win the inaugural Penguin Prize for African Writing in the non-fiction category with his essay collection, “You’re Not a Country, Africa!” in 2010. In 2015, he took his passion for Africa to TEDx Euston, where he delivered his talk titled “Africa is The Forward That The World Needs to Face<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am abiku.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prof; as often called, also taught an English course that many of his students would never forget. It is almost impossible to imagine an ENGL 2927 lecture (1) without hearing the story of an abiku<\/em>. The story about a young boy whose mother and grandmother adopted many tactics in an attempt to keep him alive and on this earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yoruba legend describes abikus<\/em> as spirits who come to earth as children but find our world dull and choose to return to their home – the other world. Abikus<\/em> are known to leave their stillborn bodies behind to their mothers; causing them much grief.  The custom offers a solution of marking the body as a way to keep an abiku<\/em> on earth. By doing so, the maker is unable to recognize him on returning to the other world. The abiku<\/em> becomes a little boy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof always started his semester off in African Literature with (t)his story.  He would share this story with all seriousness and then conclude with “I am abiku<\/em>.” He would go on to teach the class, sometimes breaking into French almost forgetting that he stood in front of an English-speaking majority. <\/p>\n\n\n

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He was deserving of the title as many of us will remember his passion for educating and inspiring fresh minds, and his war on mediocrity as something to strive for daily. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We remember he rightfully claimed his position at the Institute by shamelessly staging photoshoots in the corners of Paterson Hall. Many will never forget his tweets and how he often offended the people with his undiluted opinions about the state of Nigeria, but yet managed to remain cordial with them shortly after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pius had a steadfast love for Africa and was very passionate about its future. To this, he worked tirelessly in his position as the sitting director of the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University creating a space for (African) students to connect, learn, and feel at home. His door was always left wide open as an invitation to students whenever the need arose. He used the Institute as a point of contact to draw in students at Carleton who felt a bit lost, and those who were seeking a space to grow and fully develop their potential. For many of us, our professor sowed in us the ability to reach beyond the Canadian academic scope. I am a product of his teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His lessons taught us that the paths we choose to take, and how we use the tools available to us have a bigger purpose beyond the conversations we engage in within the classrooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dr. Pius Adesanmi. Photo by Akintunde Akinleye<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Memorializing a Brave Spirit<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It feels like an impossible feat to memorialize such a brave spirit. We continue to piece together memories of an incredible man in the ways he taught us how; through stories and their lessons.
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Pius taught us never to underestimate the power of words carefully pieced together to reclaim space and to demand more of the world that surrounds us. We go on to use these lessons in our works and our lives. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It is remarkable to see how many lives have been deeply impacted by Pius. He will forever be remembered for being a mentor to young African academics, writers, and creatives, and as one of the greatest intellectual to come out of Nigeria!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I browsed online platforms, I came across the epitaph Pius wrote in 2013 as a request from Nwokolo Chuma:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Here lies Pius Adesanmi who tried as much as he could to put his talent in the service of humanity and flew away home one bright morning when his work was over” (Nwokolo 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You left too soon Prof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Pius Adesanmi Sun re o (rest in peace)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pius Adesanmi’s Legacy for Africans It has been two years since Professor Pius Adesanmi tragically passed away on March 10, 2019. Seyi Ishola was a student in Economics and African Studies at Carleton University and wrote this piece in 2019 about her former professor and mentor. By Seyi Ishola The first time I met the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[566,588],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-36282","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-african-studies","cu_story_type-fassinate-2019"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/36282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/120"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/36282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36312,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/36282\/revisions\/36312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=36282"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=36282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}