Professor A. S. Ajala
Head of Department
08034906801
The
processes which led to the establishment of the Department of Archaeology and
Anthropology date back to 1946 when as a post-graduate student, Kenneth Onwuka
Dike (later Professor of History and the first Nigerian Vice Chancellor of the
University of Ibadan), discovered the potentials of archaeology in providing
the missing time-depth to Nigerian History. The discovery came when he read the
article by Thursthan Shaw, who later became the founding Head of the Department
of Archaeology and Anthropology. After Professor Dike was appointed the Vice
Chancellor of this great university, he ensured that a research professorship
in Archaeology was one of the three to be created in the Institute of African
Studies. This was the first step towards the establishment of a Department of
Archaeology. Thus in 1963 Professor Thurstan Shaw appointed to that research
professorship as well as headship of the Archaeology Unit at the Institute of
African Studies.
Senate and Council approved the
establishment of the Department of Archaeology in the Faculty of Science for
the 1970/71 session. It has existed since 1962 as a research unit of
Archaeology in the Institute of African Studies. That research unit
successfully executed several major projects which included excavations at
Igbo-Ukwu in Anambra State, Iwo Eleru in Ondo, Daima in Borno State, Benue
valley, and Ijaye Orile in Oyo State. The Department’s Teaching Museum was started
off with materials recovered from these expeditions. In 1967, members of the
Archaeology Research Unit of the Institute of African Studies started giving
lectures in Nigeria Pre-History to students of the History Department in the
Faculty of Arts. The Department moved in April, 1987 to a wing of its permanent
building on Appleton Road (near the Mathematics/Statistics Complex). As at
today, the Department has fully occupied its permanent buildings. Although the
Department was established in 1970, the undergraduate Archaeology programme was
not begun until 1971.
The Department started off by
offering combined honours degree option with some related subjects in both the
Faculties of Science and Arts. At the end of the 1976/77 session, the first set
of students to take the single honours degree in Archaeology graduated. Since
then, Archaeology has been offered as both single and combined honours subject
in the Faculties of Science and Arts. Combinations are available with Botany,
Geography, Geology and Zoology in the Faculty of Science and with Classics,
History, Islamic Studies and Religious Studies in the Faculty of Arts. The
Department at present has a total of about 300 undergraduate and 13
postgraduate students.
From the 1982/83 session, the
Department has been offering an Anthropology option and the Department formally
became the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology as from the 1983/84
session. Students can graduate with either a B.A. or B.Sc. in Anthropology. After series of Workshops and Seminars, the
Department came up with a proposal for the establishment of a Masters programme
in Professional and Academic Tourism in 1996. The programme, which was
established at the Centre for Sustainable Development,
started in 2010/2011 session. It has since been graduating students in
Professional and Academic Masters and Ph.D. in Tourism Development. The
Department also started a Professional Masters in Forensic Science in Archaeology
in 2013 and has graduated more than 100 students. Proposal for Academic Masters in Forensic Science
in Archaeology had been prepared for approval at the Faculty and Senate and
ratification by the University Council.
The Department operates a display
museum and a Departmental Archaeology Store for researchers. There is also a
teaching collection of artifacts and other archaeological materials from
African and Overseas sources. We also have Library stocked with most recent
publications in archaeology and anthropology. The Department has a photographic
room, drawing office, archaeology workrooms and laboratories (including
palynology, geoarchaeological and forensic science archaeology laboratories).
There are over 3,000 35 mm transparencies on various aspects of Archaeology
while there are over 3000 microscope slides of the pollen grains and spores of
Nigerian plants. From time to time the Department organises Public Lectures and
Seminars on Archaeology and Anthropology. A new Anthropology Museum is
underway.
Vision
To
make the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology a destination for foreign
and local scholars.
Mission
To
reinvent tradition and African identity as a new cultural process and values
for a new world order based on sustainable environment, viable and enduring
socio-economic partnership, democratic political institution and credible
intellectual integrity.
Philosophy
The guiding philosophy of the Department has
been the following:
To
Ø Ascertain
the cultural and natural heritage of the Nigerian peoples with a view to:
Ø Shed
light on how they interacted with one another and the rest of the environment
from the earliest time known;
Ø Explore
how such insights might contribute to the promotion of national unity and
identity, self-reliance and ecologically sustainable development.
Objectives
The primary objective of the
Department is to offer a practically oriented Archaeology/Anthropology
programme relevant for meaningful human existence at several levels – national
and international – but with special focus on Africa. To this end, Social-Cultural/Physical
Anthropology and Archaeology are treated as related components of the study of
man. The main fields of the Department at the moment are Archaeology and
Social/Cultural Anthropology and in future, we hope to offer Physical Anthropology.
Material culture occupies a central place, serving as a major bridge between
archaeology and Ethnography. The orientation for all these fields is
ecological. Consequently, Environmental Archaeology is the other major point of
focus of our programme. The geographical focus of our programmes is Africa and
the primary aim of both teaching and research programme is not only to properly
situate the hitherto greatly maligned African man but to offer programmes that
contribute directly and constructively to African peoples’ development and
progress as well as to their being properly understood by others.
Our Department
has Impacted the Society Positively in various ways. Many of our lecturers are
consultants to the various Cultural and Tourism Ministries and parastatals in
Nigeria. We have impacted the various policies of the Federal, State and Local
Government in the nation through our teaching programmes and consultancy
services. Most of the personnel in the Cultural
and Tourism Ministries and parastatals are products of our department. They are
Civil Servants at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Information, National
Tourism Development Cooperation (NTDC) and some occupying position of Directors
in the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). Others work at the
Centre for Black Arts and African Arts and Culture (CBAAAC), Council for Arts
and Culture. Some work in foreign embassies, banks, law enforcement agencies,
and as Customs officers.
Our products
are lecturing in many Universities in Nigeria, University of Ibadan, University
of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Jos,
University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife, University of Ilorin,
Kwara Stae University, Malete, and some others as academic and non-academic
staff. One of ours is at the University
of North Carolina, occupying the Chair of Africana Studies Department. At Arizona
State University of Anthropology one of our product is a Professor of African
Archaeology. Many of our ex-students are PhD students in various universities
in United States of America and in Britain. We have one of our ex-students
spending his post doctorate at the Institute of African Studies, at Cambridge
University, in UK. Our staff have generated well over one thousand publications
in reputable journals and books, published locally and abroad. They are well
travelled and experienced and have served as consultants to many governments,
private and international bodies.
As at the present time we have fifteen
Academic Staff Members ( 7 Professors, 1 Reader, 4 Senior Lecturers, and 3
Lecturer 1) and 10 Non Academic Staff. (1 chief Technologies, 2 Assistant
Technologists, 1 Principal Technical Officer, 1 Art Officer, 1 Principal
Executive Officer, 1 Executive Officer, 1 Museum and Information Officer and 1
Senior Data Processing Officer). We have 280 Undergraduates and 35
Postgraduates from Masters to PhD Level.
Feel free to contact us any time
Department Academic Programmes