End of an Era: Renowned Literary Scholar Biodun Jeyifo Dies at 80

R Renowned literary critic, public intellectual and former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Biodun Jeyifo, is dead. He was 80.

Professor Jeyifo passed away in Ibadan on February 11, according to confirmations by the President of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, Professor Andrew Haruna, and one of his former students at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Professor Wunmi Raji. Details surrounding the circumstances of his death were still sketchy as of press time.

Haruna described the late scholar, fondly known as “BJ,” as a distinguished intellectual whose academic journey began at the then University of Ife, where he built a formidable reputation before later holding dual academic appointments at Cornell University and Harvard University in the United States.

Only weeks before his passing, an international event was held in his honour at the MUSON Centre in Lagos on January 5, 2026, to celebrate his 80th birthday. The gathering drew scholars and admirers who paid tribute to his immense contributions to literary criticism and African intellectual thought.

Reflecting on his legacy, Professor Raji recalled Jeyifo’s tenure as the second President of ASUU, noting that he took the union to “revolutionary heights” and vigorously championed the welfare and rights of university workers. Efforts to obtain comments from the current ASUU President, Professor Chris Piwuna, were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.

Born on January 5, 1946, Jeyifo was widely regarded as one of Africa’s foremost scholars in world Anglophone literature and cultural theory. He gained international prominence for his incisive critiques of capitalist modernity and its social and cultural contradictions.

His numerous publications include The Truthful Lie: Essays in a Sociology of African Drama (1985); Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, and Postcolonialism (2004); Things Fall Apart, Things Fall Together (2010); Against the Predators’ Republic: Political and Cultural Journalism, 2007–2013 (2016); and Apostrophes: To Friendship, Socialism and Democracy (2021).

Often mentioned alongside global postcolonial theorists such as Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak and Homi Bhabha, Jeyifo was celebrated for his deep engagement with postcolonial thought and cultural criticism. His passing marks the end of a defining chapter in Nigerian and African literary scholarship.