December 13, 2009

Academics in African Diaspora Reach Back to Help Universities Rebuild

Those who fled chaotic conditions look for ways to support colleagues who stayed

Pius Utomi Ekpei for The Chronicle

Akanmu Adebayo (left), a history professor at Kennesaw State U., has returned to Nigeria for a semester of collaborative research at the U. of Ibadan with Olutayo Adesina (middle), a lecturer in history, and Sola Abioye, a student, among others.

By Megan Lindow

Ibadan, Nigeria

Before Akanmu Adebayo left Nigeria, in 1992, he knew he was treading on dangerous ground. As the country languished under a military dictatorship hostile to academics, Mr. Adebayo, a professor of West Africa's economic history, worried that his lectures on topics like the role of institutional corruption in the region's underdevelopment could make him a target.

"You would have spies in your classes, reporting you anytime you mentioned anything," he recalls. "Colleagues would get home