SYNW
Congratulates Prof. Remi Raji on Conferment of Chieftaincy Title of Mogaji Adegboro
Clan.
The title “Mogaji” is
the foundation and the pivot of the Ibadan traditional system, the very
foundation on which the superstructure of the system is expected to rest – from
the peace, progress and patriotic contribution of every Ibadan household to the
sustenance of a system that becomes the envy of other areas of Yorubaland. In
strict interpretation, it is a distinctive first recognized traditional title
in Ibadanland which connotes the first grade in the hierarchy of Ibadan chiefs.
Wole Adedoyin, in a
statement issued and signed in Ibadan on Tuesday, felicitated with the former
Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan and the former President of
the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) on the recognition.
According to the
Statement, the recognition was inspired by his (Remi Raji) contributions to the
development of Ibadanland as the second largest city in Africa, Oyo State as a
state and Nigeria as a country.
In the ancient days,
the Mogajis were military leaders and their authority extended to tribute areas
in the countryside. Today, Mogajis, who live in town, control family land. The
Mogajis of the town are superior to the village heads whom they appoint. A
recognized Mogaji may be followed and obeyed by several thousand people in the
town and the rural districts, although his own extended family does not
normally exceed 300 individuals.
Wole Adedoyin commended
Prof. Remi Raji’s extended family for nominating him as the head and leader of the
historic and renowned Adegboro Clan.
SYNW finally urged the
newly installed Mogaji not to disappoint his people and Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji
(Aje Ogunguniso I).
Aderemi Raji-Oyelade
(born 1961) is a Nigerian poet, writing in English. He is popularly known by
his pen name as Remraj.
Remi Raji, a Salzburg
Fellow and visiting professor and writer to a number of institutions, among
them Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, the Universities of
California at Riverside and Irvine, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and
Cambridge University, UK, Raji has had scholarly essays published in journals
including Research in African Literatures and African Literature Today. He has
read his poems widely in Africa, Europe and America. In 2005, he served as the
Guest Writer to the City of Stockholm, Sweden.
His volumes of poetry
include Webs of Remembrance (2001), Shuttlesongs America: A poetic guided tour
(2003), Lovesong for My Wasteland (2005), Gather My Blood Rivers of Song (2009)
and Sea of My Mind (2013). Raji’s works have been translated into French,
German, Catalan, Swedish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Croatian and Hungarian. He has
been an Alexander von Humboldt Scholar to Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
Remi Raji was elected
as the Publicity Secretary of the Oyo State chapter of the Association of
Nigerian Authors (ANA) in 1989. His second elective position was as Vice-Chair
of the ANA in 1997. He became the substantive Chairman of the ANA from 1998 to
2000, at the election of Dr. Wale Okediran to the national executive committee
of the ANA. Raji served as the Year 2000 Editor of the ANA Review, the official
journal of the association. On 3 December 2011, during the 30th-anniversary
celebration of the founding of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Remi Raji
was elected as the ANA's 11th President.
Raji was the National
Coordinator of the resuscitated Nigerian PEN Centre in 1999 before he was
elected as the Secretary of the Centre, a position he held till February 2010.
During this period, Raji facilitated international workshops and strategic
meetings of African PEN Centres within Africa and in Europe. He was unanimously
elected as the first Coordinating Secretary of PAN, the Congress of PEN African
Centres, at a special meeting of the group on 22 November 2003 in Mexico City.
At his university,
University of Ibadan, the Professor of English and African Literatures and
Creative Writing has served in many administrative capacities which culminated
in his appointment as the Head of the Department of English in 2011. Over a
year after that substantive position, he was elected as the Dean of the Faculty
of Arts.
Books authored by Prof.
Remi Raji include: A Harvest of Laughters, 1997, joint winner of the
Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury Poetry Prize and winner of the
Association of West African Young Writers' VOCA Award for Best First Published
Book, Webs of Remembrance, 2001, Shuttlesongs America: A Poetic Guided Tour,
2001–2003, Lovesong for My Wasteland, 2005, Gather My Blood Rivers of Song,
2009, Sea of My Mind, 2013.
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