Nationality Nigerian Residence Ibadan, Nigeria | Spouse(s) Olumuyiwa Awe | |
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Born 26 January 1933 (age 84) ( 1933-01-26 ) Nigeria Known for Nigerian Women's history, Oral history Books Hearken to the Ancient Voices | ||
Life
Awe was born in Nigeria in 1933. She attended Holy Trinity School, Imofe-Ilesha, St James Primary School, Okebola, Ibadan, and St Anne's School, Ibadan. She took her A-levels at the Perse School in Cambridge. She went to St Andrews University in Scotland where she obtained a masters in history, before taking a doctorate in history at Oxford University. Awe then returned to Nigeria, where she became a lecturer at the University of Ibadan.
She rose to be a professor at the same university. She was one of the historians who allowed their evidence to include oral traditions. This meant that she was able to trace back histories before the arrival of Europeans. She was also active in idetifying how the role of women in history was being overlooked and she co-founded the Women's Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC) to promote the coordination of women's studies research and new methodologies to study Nigerian women. In 1982 she was made an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
On Christmas Day 1960 she married Olumuyiwa Awe. He would also become a professor and they would have children. Her husband died in 2013 at the age of 82. She was one of six people who assisted Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka in founding the popular Nigerian confraternity National Association of Seadogs in 1952. There is some debate as to whether it was her or her future husband who were involved.
In 1998 she retired and the following year the department of African studies published a small book about her. After her retirement she continued to research and in 2005 she became the Pro-Chancellor of the University of Nigeria in Nsukka.