Kenneth Dike

{{Short description|Nigerian historian}} {{Use British English|date=December 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}} {{Infobox person | name = Kenneth Onwuka Dike | image = Kenneth Onwuka Dike formal portrait.jpg | caption = Oil portrait of Kenneth Onwuka Dike as a young man, painted by Robert Sivell | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1917|12|17}} | birth_place = Awka | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1983|10|26|1917|12|17}} | alma_mater = Durham University | occupation = Educationist | children = 5 }} '''Kenneth Onwuka Dike''' {{IPAc-en||audio=Ig-Kenneth Onwuka Dike.ogg}} (17 December 1917 – 26 October 1983<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/13/obituaries/kenneth-o-dike-dies-in-a-nigerian-hospital.html|title=Kenneth O. Dike Dies In a Nigerian Hospital|date=1983-11-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-10-20|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>) was a Nigerian educationist, historian and the first Nigerian vice-chancellor of the University of Ibadan.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_igKd6ltR1gC&q=Kenneth+Dike+Igbo&pg=PA191|title=African Politics: Crises and Challenges|volume=388 of A Midland book|author=J. Gus Liebenow|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-253-3027-55|page=191}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YxiTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|title=Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria|volume=56|author=Richard A. Joseph|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-1-107-6335-37|page=52}}</ref>

During the Nigerian Civil War, he moved to Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1983-11-13|title=Kenneth O. Dike Dies In a Nigerian Hospital|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/13/obituaries/kenneth-o-dike-dies-in-a-nigerian-hospital.html|access-date=2020-05-31|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> He was a founder of the Ibadan School that dominated the writing of the History of Nigeria until the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kenneth Onwuka Dike (1962 - 1967)|url=https://ias-ibadan.org/african-studies-at-ibadan/staff/past-directors/9-kenneth-onwuka-dike-1962-1967|last=Utilisateur|first=Super|website=ias-ibadan.org|language=en-gb|access-date=2020-05-31|archive-date=23 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123071445/https://ias-ibadan.org/african-studies-at-ibadan/staff/past-directors/9-kenneth-onwuka-dike-1962-1967|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Dike was a pioneer in the movement towards utilising oral traditions in a multi-disciplinary approach in African historiography.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last1=Horáková |first1=Hana |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iqKLDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22general+history+of+africa%22+oral+sources+tradition&pg=PA207 |title=Knowledge Production in and on Africa |last2=Werkman |first2=Katerina |date=2016 |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster |isbn=978-3-643-90798-1 |language=en |chapter=African historians and the production of historical knowledge in Africa: Some reflections}}</ref>{{Rp|page=212}} He is credited with "having played the leading role in creating a generation of African historians who could interpret their own history without being influenced by Eurocentric approaches."<ref name="Sandiford">Keith A. P. Sandiford, ''A Black Studies Primer: Heroes and Heroines of the African Diaspora'', Hansib Publications, 2008, p. 151.</ref> He has been called the "father of modern African historiography".<ref>{{Citation |last=Chuku |first=Gloria |title=Kenneth Dike: The Father of Modern African Historiography |date=2013 |work=The Igbo Intellectual Tradition: Creative Conflict in African and African Diasporic Thought |pages=137–164 |editor-last=Chuku |editor-first=Gloria |url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137311290_6 |access-date=2024-11-18 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781137311290_6 |isbn=978-1-137-31129-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Career== Dike was born in Awka, Eastern Nigeria. He had his secondary education at Dennis Memorial Grammar School in Onitsha. He attended Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone and also Durham University for his BSc, the University of Aberdeen for his MA,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/11/13/obituaries/kenneth-o-dike-dies-in-a-nigerian-hospital.html|title=Kenneth O. Dike Dies In a Nigerian Hospital|date=1983-11-13|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-01-03|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and King's College London for his PhD. During the 1960s, as a member of the University of Ibadan's history department, he played a pioneering role in promoting African leadership of scholarly works published on Africa. As the head of the organizing committee of the First International Congress of Africanists in Ghana in 1963, he sought for a strengthened meticulous non-colonial focused African research, publication of research in various languages including indigenous and foreign, so as to introduce native speakers to history and for people to view African history through a common eye. He was the first director of International School Ibadan.<ref name=African>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA201|title=Dictionary of African Biography, Volumes 1-6|author1=Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong|author2= Henry Louis Gates|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|year=2012| isbn=9780195382075|page=201}}</ref> In 1965 he was elected chairman of the Association of Commonwealth Universities.<ref name=Sandiford /> Ebere Nwaubani argues that Dike was the first modern scholarly proponent of Africanist history.<ref name=Ebere/> His publications were a watershed in African historiography. Dike has been described as the first African to get a PhD in history.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cooper |first=Frederick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Am22AgAAQBAJ |title=Africa in the World: Capitalism, Empire, Nation-State |date=2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-36931-3 |pages=53–54 |language=en}}</ref>

At the University College of Ibadan, he became the first African professor of history and head of a history department. He founded the Nigerian National Archives, and helped in the founding of the Historical Society of Nigeria. His book ''Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885'' dealt with 19th-century economics and politics in the Niger Delta. He focused on internal African factors, especially defensive measures undertaken by the delta societies against imperialist penetration. Dike helped create the Ibadan School of African history and promoted the use of oral evidence by African historians.<ref name="Ebere">{{cite journal|first=Ebere|last=Nwaubani|title=Kenneth Onwuka Dike, 'Trade And Politics,' and the Restoration of the African in History|journal=History in Africa: A Journal of Method|year=2000|volume=27|pages=229–248|doi=10.2307/3172115 |jstor=3172115 |s2cid=153769587 }}</ref> Dike was also the first president of ASUTECH (Anambra State University of Technology, now Nnamdi Azikiwe University).<ref name="African" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=waYuAQAAIAAJ&q=Kenneth+Dike+Anambra+State+University|title= Foot Prints on Awkaland|author=Ifeanyi Anagbogu|publisher=Selloak International|year= 2002|page=2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GkAOAQAAMAAJ&q=Kenneth+Dike+Anambra+State+University|title=New Encyclopedia of Africa, Volume 2 Gale virtual reference library|author1=John Middleton|author2=Joseph Calder Miller|publisher=Thomson/Gale|year=2008|work= the University of Michigan|isbn=9780684314563|page=95}}</ref>

== Publications == His publications include the following: ''Report on the Preservation and Administration of Historical Records in Nigeria'' (1953), ''Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885'' (1956),<ref>{{Cite news|title=Dad was disappointed that despite lessons from civil war, Nigeria still divided — Kenneth Dike's son |url=https://punchng.com/dad-disappointed-despite-lessons-civil-war-nigeria-still-divided-kenneth-dikes-son/ |date=4 December 2016 |access-date=5 March 2022 |newspaper=The Punch}}</ref> ''A Hundred Years of British Rule in Nigeria'' (1957), and ''The Origins of the Niger Missions'' (1958).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Institute of African Studies of Ibadan - Past Directors|url=https://ias-ibadan.org/african-studies-at-ibadan/staff/past-directors|website=ias-ibadan.org|access-date=30 May 2020|archive-date=28 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228222752/https://ias-ibadan.org/african-studies-at-ibadan/staff/past-directors|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A biography entitled ''Life and Thoughts of Professor Kenneth O. Dike'' was authored by Alexander Animalu.<ref>{{cite book|last=Animalu|first=Alex|title=Life and Thoughts of Professor Kenneth O. Dike|location=Enugu|publisher=Ucheakonam Foundation|year=1997}}</ref>

==Personal life== He and his wife, Ona, had five children.<ref name=African/>

==Gallery== <gallery mode="packed" heights="180px"> File:ASC Leiden - NSAG - van Dis 4 - 200 - Prime minister of Northern Nigeria Ahmadu Bello opens Sultan Bello Hall - Ibadan, Oyo State, South West Nigeria - 1-13 February 1962.tif| The opening of Sultan Bello Hall by Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, University College Ibadan, on Second February 1962 (Kenneth Dike to the right of Sir Ahmadu Bello) File:ASC_Leiden_-_NSAG_-_van_Dis_4_-_202_-_Prime_minister_of_Northern_Nigeria_Ahmadu_Bello_opens_Sultan_Bello_Hall_-_Ibadan,_Oyo_State,_South_West_Nigeria_-_1-13_February_1962.tif|The opening of Sultan Bello Hall by Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello, University College Ibadan, on Second February 1962 (Kenneth Dike to the left, Ahmadu Bello to the right) File:KennethDike.jpg|alt=Loosely painted oil portrait on board|Kenneth Onwuka Dike as a university student at Aberdeen University </gallery>

==References== {{reflist}} *Toyin Falola, ''The History of Nigeria'', Greenwood Press, 1999.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dike, Kenneth}} Category:1917 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Fourah Bay College alumni Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Academic staff of the University of Ibadan Category:Harvard University faculty Category:20th-century Nigerian historians Category:Nigerian male non-fiction writers Category:Nigerian expatriate academics in the United States Category:Nigerian archivists Category:Historians of Nigeria Category:Vice-chancellors of the University of Ibadan Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen Category:Igbo historians Category:Igbo academics Category:People from Anambra State Category:Founders of Nigerian schools and colleges Category:20th-century Nigerian educators Category:Nnamdi Azikiwe University people Category:Historians of Africa Category:People educated at Dennis Memorial Grammar School Category:20th-century archivists