Tributes to Prof. Oyelęyę Oyediran

Babafemi A. Badejo, Ph.D

During my years at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1978-1982, many Nigerian members of the academic community visited as guest lecturers, visiting Profs on sabbatical, etc. With Peter Badejo, Saidu Goje, Segun Oyekunle and others, we always took it upon ourselves to reach out to these compatriots, help them settle down and keep them company so that they will not be home sick. We dragged them to Friday night parties that included Africans from Africa like Joseph Njimbidt Ngu, Tim Ngubeni and Tony Brobbey; Africans from America like Cobie “Kwasi” Harris; Africans from the Carribean like Carlene Edie and many brothers from Haiti whose frechified names I am not able to remember right now. We had formed a formidable group at UCLA on building a pan-African orientation. It was not all parties, we were a strong anti-apartheid pressure group within UCLA and we picketed the Bank of America every Saturday pushing for it to divest from apartheid South Africa.

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Tributes to Prof Oyelęyę Oyediran