Celebrating B.J. at 60

Abstract

Thursday, January 5 was a very special day for the Nigerian literary community. It was the day Professor Biodun Jeyifo, who has had one of the most notable careers in African and modern literature turned 60. Jeyifo, or B.J. as he is better known, or Bamako Jaji (his pseudonym) is one of Africa's leading literary critics, a central radical critic, a polyvalent mind, and clearly, a scholar and intellectual of the very first rank. It is hard to speak in moderate terms of the skills and accomplishments of this scholar of the word, as a public intellectual, as literary theorist and critic, and as a man of action in the Nigerian radical movement.