Folake Oritsegbubemi Onayemi is Professor of Classics and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. She was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Classics in Nigeria and the first black woman to be Professor of Classics in sub-Saharan Africa. She is an expert on comparative Greco-Roman and Nigerian literature, cultures, and mythology, particularly relating to the roles and representations of women.
Education
Folake Onayemi attended the University of Ibadan for her BA in Classics, followed by an MA, MPhil, and PhD ; she was the first woman to be awarded a PhD in Classics in Nigeria, with a thesis entitled Fear of Women's Beauty in Classical and African/Yoruba Literature. During her PhD, she spent time as a Visiting Scholar at Brown University, Rhode Island.
Career
Onayemi was appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Classics of the University of Ibadan in 1994, becoming the first woman to hold this position in the Department, and was successively promoted through the two grades of Lecturer, to Senior Lecturer in 2002, and Reader in 2005; in 2008, her promotion to Professor made her the first woman Professor of Classics in the University of Ibadan and the first black woman to be Professor of Classics in sub-saharan Africa. Her inaugural lecture, delivered on 23 June 2016, was entitled "Paradigms of Life from Ancient Greek Literature", and explored the continuing relevance of works by Homer, Sophocles, and Plutarch to life in contemporary Nigeria. Onayemi has also been a Visiting Professor at the Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, ; Visiting Scholar in the Department of Classics, University of Ghana ; held a Nigerian Academy of Letters Bayo Kuku Postdoctoral Fellowship, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship , and an Alexander S. Onassis Foundation Fellowship. She is an advisor to the American Council of Learned Societies’ Humanities Programme, and the Nigerian Representative at the International Federation of the Societies of Classical Studies ; she also edits the departmental journal Nigeria and the Classics. Onayemi's research is chiefly in the field of comparative studies of Greco-Roman and Nigerian or African literature and culture, a field to which she and her colleagues at Ibadan have made a highly significant contribution. She focuses in particular on the roles of women and their representation in literature and drama, on which she has published two books and numerous articles, but has also published comparative studies of Greek and Yoruba religion, and articles on the role of Classics as a discipline in contemporary Nigerian and African culture and society. She is also the author, with Kofi Ackah, of A Guide to Ancient Greek Literary History, a textbook intended to introduce African students of Classics to a wide range of ancient Greek literary texts and their historical contexts. Onayemi appeared on an episode of the BBC World Service's 'The Forum', entitled 'The Iliad: Beauty, Brutes and Battles', discussing the Iliad's origins, themes, and continuing relevance to people across the world, on 7 Dec 2016; the programme was presented by Bettany Hughes, and the other participants included Edith Hall. In March 2019, she delivered a keynote lecture entitled 'Yoruba Adaptations of Classical Literature' at an international conference on 'Classical Antiquity and Local Identities: from Newfoundland to Nigeria and Ghana', held at Memorial University. Onayemi will deliver a keynote lecture at the 'Global Classics and Africa: Past, Present, and Future' conference at the University of Ghana, Legon, in October 2020.
Selected publications
Books
Onayemi, Folake Nature and Language of Love in Roman and African/Yoruba Literature. Hope Library of Liberal Arts No 4. Ibadan: Hope Publications.
Onayemi, Folake Ethnic Identity, the Concept of Female Beauty and conflict in Classical and African Cultures' Programme on Ethnic and Federal Studies Monograph New Servers No. 12.
Articles and book chapters
Onayemi, Folake The Medea Complex in Fagunwa's Yoruba Novel in Egbe Ifie and Dapo Adelugba African Culture and Mythology, Ibadan: End-Time Publishing House, pp. 188 - 205.
Onayemi, Folake The Other Woman in Classical and Yoruba Societies in Egbe Ifie Coping with Culture, Ibadan: Opotoru Books, pp.46 - 54.
Onayemi, Folake Who Sacrifices - An Explanation to the Greek Question from a Yoruba Point of view, Storiae Letteratura 210, Roma. pp. 639-648.
Onayemi, Folake Classics in Nigeria, Daedalus: University of South Africa Classical Journal. Vol. 3 No. 2.
Onayemi, Folake Women and The Irrational in Ancient Greek and Yoruba Mythology, Ibadan Journal of Humanistic Studies Nos 11& 12 pp. 79-89.
Onayemi, Folake Women Against Women: The Mother-in-law and Daughter- in-law Relationship in Classical and African Literature in Egbe Ifie Papers in Honour of Tekena N. Tamuno Professor Emeritus at 70. Ibadan: Opoturu Books, pp.138 - 148.
Onayemi, Folake Image of Women in Classical and African Proverbs and Popular Sayings, Journal of Cultural Studies Vol. 6 No. 1 pp. 114 - 133.
Onayemi, Folake Courageous Women in Greek and Nigerian Drama, Antigone and Tegonni, Ibadan Journal of European Studies. No. 3 pp. 153 - 161.
Onayemi, Folake Women, Sex and Power in Classical and Nigerian Drama: Lysistrata and Morountodun in Akintunde and Labeodan, Women and Culture of Violence in Traditional Africa, Ibadan: Sefer Books, pp. 41 - 51.
Onayemi, Folake Threptia and Sanjo: The Pay Back: Parent-Child Relationship in Ancient Greek and African Yoruba Cultures, Daedalus: University of South Africa Classical Journal. Vol. 4 No. 1.
Onayemi, Folake Finding A Place: Women's Struggle for Political Authority in Ancient Roman and Nigerian Societies, Women's History Review U.K.
Onayemi, Folake Representation of Women's Leadership in Ancient Greek and Modern Yoruba Drama: Assembly Women and Lagidigba. In Akintunde Women Leadership: The Nigerian Context. Ibadan: Sefer Books.
Onayemi, Folake, Sin, Punishment And Forgiveness In Ancient Greek Religion: A Yoruba Assessment, Journal of Philosophy and Culture Vol. 3 2006: pp. 72-101
Onayemi, Folake & Nigel Henry, New Approaches to the Humanities: the Key Role of Classics, in Sola Akirinade, Rethinking the Humanities in Africa, pp.241-50
