Renowned scholar Professor Biodun Jeyifo, a literary critic, public intellectual, Marxist, and committed trade unionist, has died one month after marking his 80th birthday.
Jeyifo, popularly known as BJ, died on Wednesday of renal failure, one month and five days after he celebrated his 80th birthday in Lagos.
Born in Ibadan, Nigeria, Jeyifo earned a first class bachelor’s in English from the University of Ibadan in 1970, followed by a master’s from the same institution in 1973, and a doctorate from New York University in 1975.
He also holds a DLitt (honoris causa) from Obafemi Awolowo University — formerly the University of Ife — where he taught for many years. Reflecting on that period, Jeyifo noted that it was at Ife he became “the kind of teacher and person I had always tried to become.”
His career further includes senior professorships at Cornell University and Harvard University, where he was Professor Emeritus of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature until his death.
Jeyifo is generally regarded as the world’s preeminent scholarly authority on the works and career of Wole Soyinka. His award-winning book on the 1986 Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Postcolonialism (Cambridge University Press, 2004), is regarded as the most comprehensive study of the author’s work, and the most sophisticated single-author study of any writer in African postcolonial studies.
Aside from numerous critical essays, his scholarly works include The Truthful Lie: Essays in the Sociology of African Drama (1985); Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Post colonialism (2004); Things Fall Apart, Things Fall Together (2010); Against the Predators’ Republic (2016); and Apostrophes: To Friendship, Socialism and Democracy (2021).
He served as the first National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria and was a notable voice in public discourse through his journalism and critical essays.
Beyond his academic work, Jeyifo was known for shaping literary criticism and cultural studies in African universities and for his engagement with issues of social justice, politics, and education. He taught at the University of Ibadan and the University of Ife before moving to the United States, where he held teaching positions at Oberlin College, Cornell University, and Harvard University.
In recent years, his work and legacy were celebrated by scholars, students, and cultural institutions, including a public symposium held in Lagos in January to mark his 80th birthday, where his contributions to scholarship, curriculum development, and public debate were examined.
Jeyifo’s career spanned more than five decades, during which he remained active as a teacher, writer, and public intellectual whose work influenced generations of scholars, journalists, and writers in Nigeria and beyond.
