Chief Obafemi Awolowo was born in 1909. He was a Nigerian nationalist, a political leader, and a principal participant in the struggle for Nigerian independence.
Obafemi Awolowo was born in Ikenné, Western State, Nigeria, on March 6, 1909. He received his early education in the mission schools of Ikenné, Abeokuta, and Ibadan. Often he worked at odd jobs to raise money for tuition fees, and his entrepreneurial spirit continued to express itself in the various careers which he subsequently sampled: journalist, teacher, clerk, moneylender, taxidriver, produce broker. His organizational and political inclinations became evident as he moved to high-level positions in the Nigerian Motor Transport Union, the Nigerian Produce Traders’ Association, the Trades Union Congress of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Youth Movement, of which he became Western Provincial secretary.
Despite his interest in business ventures, Awolowo wanted to
continue his formal education. In 1944 he completed a University of London
correspondence course for the bachelor of commerce degree. His greatest
ambition, however, was to study law, which he undertook in London from 1944 to
1946, when he was called to the bar. Returning to Nigeria in 1947, he developed
a thriving practice as a barrister in Ibadan.
Though this is not an exhaustive submission on his contributions to Nigeria’s politics, there is a more thorough treatment of Awolowo’s life is his autobiography, Awo: An Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo (1960). An excellent examination of the growth of the Action Group is in Richard L. Sklar, Nigerian Political Parties: Power in an Emergent African Nation (1963). These are regarded as the works with an extensive discussion on the man, Obafemi Awolowo.
He died in Ikenné on May 9, 1987.
Sources:
Adekson, J. B. Nigeria in Search of a Stable Civil-Military System
(Westview Press, 1981).
Metz, Helen Chapin, ed., Nigeria: A Country Study (Federal Research Division, 1992).