Colleagues organise essay contest to honour Darah at 70

IN celebration of the 70th birthday of Professor of English and former Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian Newspaper and his contributions to intellectual and socio-economical advancement, his colleagues at Delta State University and abroad have planned a festschrift to celebrate this landmark.

An eloquent public intellectual, Darah is a pioneer scholar of Udje performance poetry of the Niger Delta, founding president of the Nigeria Oral Literature Association (NOLA), and former Chief of Staff at Delta State Government House.

He began his teaching career at University of Ibadan, his alma mater and later taught at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, as well as Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. He now teaches at Delta State University, Abraka, where he has played a key role in the internalisation efforts of the department of English and Literary Studies, which is his home department.

Apart from the field of folklore and literature, his abiding multidisciplinary engagements extend to culture, politics, history, law, sociology, media and communication, philosophy, among others.

To celebrate Darah’s academic prowess in these areas, essays have been invited within these disciplines for consideration in inclusion in the proposed book to be published in his honour at his 70th birthday celebration in 2017.

According to the organisers, “the well-researched essays, not more than 15 pages long following MLA format, may focus on topics related to the wide-range of his scholarly interest or his publications, which include public commentaries in the press.”