The African intellectual firmament has lost one of its brightest stars. Professor Biodun Jeyifo, the fearless literary critic, Marxist scholar, and pioneer President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has died at the age of 80, leaving behind a legacy of radical thought that reshaped the continent’s academic landscape.

His death is not merely the passing of an octogenarian; it is the silencing of a voice that for five decades spoke truth to power with unrelenting clarity. The Institute of African Studies (IAS) at the University of Ibadan, where Jeyifo once roamed as a colossus of critical theory, has been plunged into mourning. The "scholarly authority" on Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka succumbed to renal failure on Wednesday, just a month after his milestone 80th birthday, marking the end of an era for the Nigerian intelligentsia.

A Life of Intellectual Insurgency

Jeyifo, affectionately known as "BJ" to comrades and students alike, was never one to confine his brilliance to the ivory tower. As the founding President of ASUU, he did not just lead a union; he weaponized the intellect of the Nigerian academic against the encroaching decay of military dictatorships and neoliberal structural adjustment policies. His tenure laid the ideological bedrock for the union's decades-long struggle for university autonomy and the dignity of intellectual labor.

"He was a towering figure in African and global intellectual life," said Sola Olorunyomi, Director of the IAS, in a sombre statement released in Ibadan. "His intellectual clarity and moral courage left an enduring imprint on colleagues and students alike. We have lost a revolutionary twin of the Institute."

• The Soyinka Connection: Jeyifo was widely regarded as the world’s pre-eminent authority on Wole Soyinka. His seminal work, Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics and Postcolonialism, remains the definitive text on the Nobel laureate, dissecting the complex interplay between art and political activism.
• Global Footprint: Beyond Nigeria, Jeyifo conquered the global stage, holding the prestigious title of Professor Emeritus of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature at Harvard University. Yet, his heart remained tethered to the struggles of the African working class.

The Void Left Behind

The news of his passing has sent shockwaves through the global academic community, from Cornell University to the lecture halls of Obafemi Awolowo University. Tributes are pouring in, painting a portrait of a man who was as gentle in mentorship as he was ferocious in debate. He was a bridge between the post-colonial optimists and the disillusioned realists of the 21st century.

For the current generation of scholars, Jeyifo's life serves as a haunting reminder of a time when the Nigerian university was a crucible of revolutionary thought rather than a factory for certificates. His essays were not just academic exercises; they were calls to arms. As the literary world bids farewell to this titan, the question echoes: who will pick up the gauntlet? In the words of the IAS, his memory must now become "a charge to continue the work" of democratic possibility and intellectual integrity.