An American in Africa

Ogundayo teaches during year in West Africa

Dr. ’BioDun Ogundayo is back at Pitt-Bradford after a year at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey, Niger, in West Africa.

Ogundayo, associate professor of French and comparative literature and director of the African Studies program, won a prestigious U.S. State Department’s Fulbright Scholar Award in March 2022, making the year abroad possible. The goal of the Fulbright program is improving intercultural relations through an exchange of scholars, teachers, scientists and artists. Nominated U.S. citizens are posted to countries around the world each year.

“I had the opportunity to teach students about America while being African,” said Ogundayo, who was born in Côte d’Ivoire and attended boarding school in Ghana before settling in North America to finish his graduate studies in Kingston, Ontario, and Buffalo, N.Y.

Ogundayo taught large lecture classes – 600 students in English for Sociology classes, 174 in African Oral Traditions and 40 graduate students in literary theory and methodology. He also supervised and mentored students working on their graduate degree theses.

Each class, he said, lasted four hours. Due to logistical challenges (incessant power outages, etc.) and security concerns, he had to pivot from his research focus from the oral traditions of the Mossi people in the neighboring country of Burkina Faso to editing a collection of essays about Afrofuturism, a recent and multimedia cultural theory that reassesses and promotes positive Black experiences. He wrote a chapter for inclusion in the volume as well, “The Afrofuturism of Afrodiaspora Fiction: Reimagining the World.”

Ogundayo’s fluency in many languages – including French, English, Hausa, Yoruba and other West African languages – allowed him to easily adapt to his Fulbright post and neighborhood. During his stay, he regularly engaged students and residents of Niamey, especially his neighborhood of Bobiel. He also attended Catholic Mass and Communion in a country that is 99% Islamic. The local market was one of his favorite places to visit because they had fresh non-genetically modified produce, and he could haggle prices and interact with traders. He gained a deeper sense of the culture from these interactions.

Ogundayo said he loved the smells of the market and enjoyed cooking fresh vegetables, fish from the Niger River and lamb, which was a staple meat. He also had visits from friends and relatives while there.

Having returned to the United States and his teaching, Ogundayo is serving as the regional coordinator of Pitt’s Center for African Studies and is charged with the recruitment of students at Pitt’s regional campuses for Africa study abroad and African language programs. He is one of Pitt-Bradford’s four affiliated faculty members with the Africana Studies program at the Oakland campus.