The University of Ibadan is an example of the university as a colonial project, one that sets the standard of success, of living the good life - the ‘civilised’ life. It was created in 1948 in south western Nigeria to produce docile and compliant colonial subjects, there to serve the interests of the imperial core. Post national independence, it flourished -  proffering a new image conjugated by Nigerian thought and culture for a brief and bright moment.  But then war came,  British funding was withdrawn, and Nigeria’s economic independence was funneled into Western mandated streams, draining the university of its promise.  Now it has become something of a shadow of its former selves, from the ‘Good old days to harsh reality’. And at the same time it is also the protagonist in a real life fairytale of social mobility that provides many, including my mother, the opportunity to assert an identity in contradiction to a predestined path. Allowing for self possession, mobility, independence and new horizons.

How to reconcile these multiple and contradictory realities? What could this poisoned colonial chalice become if it is made in another image? Can it be made otherwise?  Do we need to start again? What is an African university? How do I tell the story of the University of Ibadan?