Adébísí Afọláyan: The Celebration of a Living Legend – His Life, Works and Everything In-Between Edited by Michael Ọládẹ̀jọ Afọláyan | Foreword by Toyin Falola

Description

Legend has it that there was a man with huge popularity and cult following in a distant village community of old. He once thought to himself that he needed to ascertain the truth or falsity of the genuineness of his followership. A Sage warned him not to believe what he was seeing until he could see what he could not believe. And so, the sage then advised him to just make an announcement about a terminal illness he had been diagnosed with, and that it would require a small amount of money in order for him to get over the debilitating ailment He went all over the community, talking to his family members, friends, colleagues and all those admirers. He appealed to them for support, but while everyone sympathized with him, not a single one was willing to come to his aid by donating the money needed to get him cured. He was disappointed but within him he still understood that people probably genuinely loved him, it was just that they did not have the material things to support him at this time. He returned to the Sage, who provided him another strategy to further measure the loyalty of those people that surrounded him. He instructed him to arrange with his doctor and announce to the same group of people that he had finally succumbed to the weight of the illness and eventually died, and that the funeral had been arranged at a stipulated place and on a particular date. On hearing this, the same group of people who had nothing to give to get this friend and relative cured came around to donate large sums of monies, and expensive materials – cattle, food, drinks, and other merchandise to celebrate his death. They purchased expensive clothing materials and called upon the best musicians far and wide to come and grace the occasion. They were dolling out bales of money to celebrate the dead man. It was during the people’s festive moods at the fake funeral that the man entered the room with his hands full of whisks and bludgeons to pummel the hypocrites out of his sight and out of his life.

This unique Festschrift honors the living legend Professor Adebisi Afolayan, unlike most that pay tribute to the deceased. His “village community” genuinely reveres their popular man in both words and actions. This three-part book opens with writings by intellectuals or his interests, then showcases his prolific, versatile contributions spanning English language to musicology. This reveals his relentless pursuit of impacting scholarship. Also, colleagues, family, friends and students provide unfettered praise of this multifaceted nonagenarian – a religious family man, comedian, musician, accessible intellectual juggernaut. Overall, the book captures how “the rubber hits the road” in celebrating not the typical deceased honoree but a living versatile icon who richly merits this rare tribute from his admiring community.

In all, this Festschrift is about a man of talent and ability about whom we can say, in the words of William Shakespeare, “doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus…, one of his extended children, Dr. Precious Afolayan, describes him, “an ordinary man with an extraordinary personality. This Festschrift snugly fits the model of what Francis Bacon said:

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few are to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” This one is to be tasted, swallowed, chewed, digested. read curiously, wholly, and with diligence and attention.

© January 2024 | ISBN: 9781943533718 | Published By: Pan-African University Press