Félix IROKO : A legacy in iroko !

How does your journal “True”, may not pay tribute to Professor Félix IROKO, iroko of African history, died 13 November 2020, in the wake of the article devoted to another intellectual icon of the knowledge of the past of our continent, Professor Iba Der THIAM from Senegal, which died out on 31 last october. Just like his elder, Iba The THIAM (83 years) whom he joined in immortality, Félix IROKO (74 years) was a soldier of the African Renaissance. A concept created by Professor Cheikh Anta Diop in 1946 and strengthened at the beginning of the years 1960 by the writing of the general history of Africa which is also following its course, with the second phase. A renaissance that rhymes with the appropriation by the people of African historical consciousness. And, this is where Professor IROKO’s invaluable contribution lies., through his works which have contributed enormously to African historiography.

Far from the old clichés of historical history, Professor Félix IROKO, who defended his state thesis at the prestigious Paris Sorbonne University, like Professor Iba Der THIAM has mainly focused his work on both the identity and otherness of peoples and civilizations . Whether in , man and termite mounds in Africa , or in Cowries in West Africa, from the 10th to the 20th Century, or even in the Slave Coast and the Atlantic Trade : the facts and the judgment of history, three of his many masterpieces, Professor IROKO showed intellectual courage by being interested in the history of mentalities, where many others cling to the facts, just the facts. Inveterate and tireless researcher, he traveled hills and valleys, nooks and crannies, with a turtledove heart, crocodile skin, an ostrich stomach in the quest for historical truth. All things which have earned him international recognition worthy of his investment. Member of prestigious learned societies, he is one of the rare Beninese intellectuals celebrated in Dakar in 2004, on the occasion of the Conference of African Intellectuals and the Diaspora, organized under the aegis of the African Union. Professor IROKO, also took an active part in writing the first sentence of the General History of Africa supervised by UNESCO. Lover of classroom scientific debate, the Professor through carefully documented work, has demonstrated, than in Africa, old people do not have a monopoly on historical memory. And therefore, the death of every old man in Africa, is therefore not synonymous with a burning library, a true anti-thesis of the famous formula of the great Malian traditionalist and historian Amadou Hampaté ” in Africa, every time an old man dies, it’s a library that’s burning” .

Nonconformist, and great connoisseur of tradition, among others, de sa tradition Yoruba , Professor Félix IROKO, deserves more the official tributes of the REPUBLIC. As is the case under other skies, in Senegal for Iba Der THIAM, in Ivory Coast for Bernard DADIÉ, to cite only these cases. This is the best way to celebrate intellectuals of one’s rank in the hope of generating vocations., in a country where unfortunately, politicians of all stripes think they are the heart of the Republic, forgetting that she is also intellectual.

Ouorou-roasted Babero