Mbonu Ojike: An African Nationalist and Pan-Africanist

Abstract

This chapter examines Mbonu Ojike’s roles as an author, an African cultural crusader, an outspoken and fearless Nigerian nationalist, a pan-Africanist, a student organizer and leader, a newspaper columnist, a politician, as well as an activist for social justice and racial equality.1 Ojike’s uncompromising rejection of alien culture, particularly European civilization and colonial domination, and his anti-European imperialist movement earned him the title of “The King of Boycottables.” Yet Ojike was a beneficiary of European civilization and even campaigned for the retention of some aspects of that civilization in Africa. This type of contradictions, as well as controversies and “scandals” surrounding Ojike’s scholarship, political career and activism are also examined. For instance, how can we reconcile Ojike’s pride in the instruments of colonial economic exploitation— banks, postal system, telegraphs, roads, cars, railroads, schools, factories—with his uncompromising rejection of European civilization and colonialism? How did one who was once a devoted Christian and product of mission education become an avid critic of and crusader against Christianity?