A Nigerian, Professor Saheed Aderinto, recently won the 2023 Dan David Prize for research in History. Aderinto is a Professor of History and African Diaspora Studies at the Florida International University, United States. Aderinto was one of the nine announced recently as winners of the prestigious prize of $300,000 each for their contributions to history research. He won the prize in recognition of his “outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history.”
The Dan David Prize is the largest financial reward for excellence in the historical discipline in the world. Aderinto is said to be the first and only Nigerian that has won the great prize. The Chairman of the Dan David Prize Board and President of the Tel Aviv University, Professor Ariel Porat, described the works of the nine recipients as exemplifying outstanding research in history and related fields. Aderinto’s work was lauded by the award committee “for situating African history at the cutting edge of diverse literatures in the history of sexuality, nonhumans, and violence, noting that it is exceptional to see a single person leading scholarship in all of these fields.”
The committee also said: “Aderinto’s work challenges historians to think about what constitutes the past in completely new ways, to ask new questions about the makers of history and to question conventional assumptions about power, agency and authority.” President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Aderinto for achieving the great feat in historical discipline. He believed that the honour would further encourage the teaching and learning of History among Nigerian students.
Aderinto, the Founding President of the Lagos Studies Association, got his BA in History from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 2004. He also obtained his MA and PhD in History in 2007 and 2010, respectively from the University of Texas, Austin, United States. He started his teaching career at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee NC and later became Professor of History and African and African Diaspora Studies at Florida International University.
His notable works include, When Sex Threatened the State: Illicit Sexuality, Nationalism, and Politics in Colonial Nigeria, 1900-1958 (2015); Animality and Colonial Subjecthood: The Human and Nonhuman Creatures of Nigeria (2022); Guns and Society in Colonial Nigeria: Firearms, Culture, and Public Order, (2018); Sports in African History, Politics, and Identity Formation (2019); Children and Childhood in Colonial Nigerian Histories (2015); and African Kingdoms: An Encyclopedia of Empires and Civilizations (2017).
We commend Aderinto for his great achievement in historical research. We believe that his feat will spur others to bring more honours to Nigeria in their areas of specialisation. Despite the seeming neglect of the humanities, some Nigerians have placed the country on the global map through the arts. The literary exploits of the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Prof. Chinua Achebe, Flora Nwapa and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and others are legendary the world over. In music, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, Rema, Tems, Ayra Starr and others have taken Nigerian music to greater heights.
Aderinto’s scholarly achievement has further underscored the fact that Nigerians are excelling in diverse fields and bringing laurels to the country both in science, arts and music. While the situation at home is fast deteriorating on account of the brain drain in health and education, as well as absence of good governance, it is cheering that Nigerians in Diaspora are inspiring hope by winning awards.
Nigerians achieve so much outside our shores because of the conducive environment they found themselves in foreign countries where virtually everything works, including functional education and health systems and where there is steady power supply and enduring democratic cultures. The present Nigerian environment cannot nurture creativity. It is even toxic for scholarly achievement. Our nascent democratic experiment is nothing to write home about with the recurring corruption of the electoral process. The feat achieved by Aderinto is a pointer that there is no short-cut to success. It also shows that diligence has a way of rewarding itself. It reinforces the dictum that hard work pays. It shows that not much can be achieved through deceit or “yahoo-yahoo” route.
It is significant that this honour is coming to Nigeria through History, a hitherto neglected and abandoned discipline in Nigerian primary and secondary schools. Although the outgoing government had hurriedly reintroduced history in primary and secondary schools some months back, it would take some time for History to regain its lost glory. While we celebrate Aderinto for winning the Dan David Prize, we urge the government to make Nigeria work by enthroning an enduring and credible democratic culture.