The first Abiola Irele Seminar in Theory and Criticism was held recently at Kwara State University, Malete, Kwara State. The seminar series is aimed at celebrating what Irele stands for as a renowned scholar as well as help in the postulation of theories and criticism.

In his keynote address at the opening, Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na'Allah, noted that Africa, nay Nigeria, should not be where it is at the moment in terms of development and contributions to the comity of nations globally considering the enormous wealth and resources the country is blessed with in terms of materials and humans.

He argued that it is unimaginable that a country that is blessed with the likes of Irele and all his works has remained stagnant. "Can you have Prof. Femi Osofisan? They changed you, brought new concept to understanding literature; they created new ideas that for elementary and secondary schools pupils and students; we can develop new thinking to issues and life. There are numerous contributions Nigerian scholars have made, but it is so painful that we are not talking about them."

Na'Allah maintained that in instituting the Abiola Irele School of Theory and Criticism, his university understands clearly Nigeria's precarious situation, noting that the effort was part of plans to bail out the country by the Kwara State University.

"What we are doing today ought to have been long ago. This is by the grace of God going to be a permanent school that will continue forever. Like we have the Moscow School and other schools, we hope that, in the future, theories will be coming out, that people will be saying, 'this is from Irele School of Theory and Criticism'."

He said the theories emanating from the school would be used to understand and explain the world through the African eyes.

"This is the goal," he underscored. "Though the starting is small, but it is very clear to us and we know where we are going. Our goals are clear, to ensure that every year, during the summer, people will be talking about theories and scholars who are interested would come here to theorise, re-evaluate and re-energise and help Africa to continue to grow and compete, explore avenues for the development of the continent.

"Today we are talking about China, the second largest economy in the world. China is engaging with us as a continent. We know how it was when the western world engaged with us some years back - it was a master-servant relationship. When they came, it was like they asked us to close our eyes to pray; by the time we opened our eyes, they had taken our lands and everything. They ran away and they are still running away with them.

"Now, what will be the current engagement methodology or strategy of Africa with China? How are we going to do it and how are our politicians going to do it? Are we still going to be engaging them from the position of weakness, or is it from the position of strength? We should have a very clear mind as we engage with the world.

"We are in the 21st century, the global age. Is it going to be another century of slavery or is it for us to be where we ought to be? Is our cocoa going to be for Africa's development or is it just sending them to Europe and returning it back to us as finished products?"

The university boss also hinted about plans to set up a centre for Wole Soyinka in the university, where students and scholars from around the world interested in researching into Wole Soyinka could come to do their research.

"We want to document everything about Soyinka and keep for posterity."

Coordinator of Abiola Irele Centre of Theory and Criticism, Prof. Adeleke Adeeko, remarked that how elated he felt about the project and his appointment as the first coordinator. As he put it, "I am happy that we are doing it here and in the name of this great scholar. You could not have a better person for this. I am very happy. We have to justify how the Irele collections here will be useful for research."

He said the centre will have endowment for scholars and students to come from different parts of the world to use the Irele collections in the university library, adding, "It is something that the university hopes to institutionalized, as it is done all over the world."

According to Adeeko, the Johannesburg Workshop on Criticism and Theory is the only thing close to the project initiated by Kwara State University on the entire continent. Continuing, he said, "This is the inaugural one; we hope next year which would be Prof Irele's 80th birthday, we are going to make use of the old man, the way he has not been used before. And I said that with due respect - all his friends, students, scholars from all over the world - we would contact them to come to KWASU to celebrate this great man and scholar.

"We would sell to them this vision. Our goal is to make it a lasting institution. We want to use the goodwill of Irele's name to build this institution.

World literature, we are world literature; we cannot let the world shave our head without us being there. If you want to shave our head, we want to be there, not in our absence."

A highly elated Irele described the centre as a major occasion for him and specifically thanked the Vice Chancellor for the honour. He went down memory lane and narrated how he came in contact with literature, criticism and theories. He said 1970 was the first time he came in contact with what could today be called a theory.

Professor Irele also gave his opinion on some concepts like theory, criticism including providing some thoughts on the way Africa works and how literature was not being given its rightful position.

"It is a major honour for me to be recognised. It is a great honour and I'm very, very grateful. And I see a bright future with this initiative. I feel honoured and a little bit embarrassed but I really feel honoured.

"The idea that an important and significant thing like this is named after you can be embarrassing. I do not want to be immodest, and too modest that I do not deserve it. I do not want to go that route; all I can say is, it was very unexpected and so really, I feel honoured".

He argued that the project aligned with one of the things he and some other scholars were trying to do in order to take charge of the continent's culture, particularly literature.

"Not people over there (west), dictating the tones and terms and so on to us. What we are doing is that our authors are published here. They are reviewed here and taught at the university here - that is very important. All these other universities, Harvard and the likes, they have great reputations but sometimes that kind of reputation imposes a certain responsibility on them which they do not always take on.

"I cited the effort by Harvard to have something like World Literature and the way they are going about it, they want to create a fad. That is not our goal here; our goal is truly to instruct our people about what they have. This country has one of the most prolific and interesting literature, and the most significant literature in the world today is that literature that comes out of Nigeria; very few Nigerians are aware of that fact.

"So, a thing like this becomes very important and useful and significant. I am happy that the VC here has thought about it."

On his aspiration for the centre, Irele said it was that the centre would welcome scholars every year and sometimes during the year for specialized works in literature, adding, "When we say literature, we mean more than just literature; we mean culture, theory and criticism. It is not just literature but it embraces culture, the whole way of life. So it is a very important initiative."