Organisation Donates $15,000 To Support Yoruba Studies At Ohio State

Yoruba Club 21, a Columbus-based socio-cultural group for people of Yoruba descent from Nigeria, has donated $15,000 to the Owomoyela Yoruba Studies Fund at The Ohio State University. The fund was established in 2012 through a $1 million bequest from Dr. Joan Owomoyela in honor of her late husband, Professor Oyekan Owomoyela, a noted Yoruba studies scholar and philanthropist.

Ohio State’s Center for African Studies administers the funds, which will be used to promote faculty and student research in Western Nigeria and in other parts of West Africa; enhance the center’s library collection and organise seminars, conferences and symposia on issues of Yoruba language and culture.

It would also be used to fund travel to and from the region to conduct research; create a student and faculty exchange program; and develop a certificate and degree program with an emphasis on Yoruba studies.

The donation from Yoruba Club 21 supports the endowment and represents community interest not only for Yoruba studies, but African studies at Ohio State.

The Center for African Studies plans to begin implementing Yoruba Studies programming spring semester.

This is the first and only culture specific endowment in African Studies in a major American university. The first Owomoyela Lecture was given on 4 May this year and the topic was “The Arts of Being  Yoru‘ba’”.

Yoruba Club 21 of Columbus, Ohio, organised a fundraiser in support of the endowment on 26 May earlier this year.

Professor Kelechi Kalu, then Director of the university’s Center for African Studies, oversaw the long gifting process before he became the Associate Provost for Global strategies and International affairs.