In Memoriam: John Conteh-Morgan (1948–2008)

It is no exaggeration to say the death on March 3 of Professor John Conteh-Morgan came as a severe shock to all of us involved in African literary and cultural studies. As an intellectual whose work ranged over a wide field, and as a member of the editorial team of Research in African Literatures with which he was associated from 1992, before he took over the editorship in 2003, John proved in various ways a central figure within our community of scholars. He was also one of the most stimulating colleagues whom I had the privilege to know and to work had the privilege to know and to work with. His passing away has thus meant for me personally the loss of one who was not only a respected academic colleague but also a valued intellectual companion.

I first met John in the summer of 1984, at Lomé, Togo, where we were both serving as resource persons at a summer course organized by the Village du Bénin for teachers of French in English-speaking West Africa. He struck me at once by the breadth of his interests, his keen appetite for ideas and what I can only call the sharpness of his mind, a trait that he never ceased to demonstrate in the years that followed this first encounter—years during which we had become colleagues at The Ohio State University.

In considering his academic career, which began at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, and continued at The Ohio State University, it is of interest to note that John brought to this career an educational and intellectual background that spanned two traditions—British and French. Although, as a Sierra Leonean, he grew up in an anglophone environment, John began to acquire French early, at the Secondary School run by Dutch Catholic brothers, which he attended in Free-town; he has always credited the school for nurturing his passion for French. He completed his pre-university education at Albert Academy, the school associated with the United Methodist Church and the mission his father served as teacher and headmaster for over forty years. He entered Fourah Bay College in 1966, but left for France the following year, to study at the University of Besançon where, between 1967 and 1972, he obtained both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in French literature. He returned to Sierra Leone in 1972 to take up appointment as Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone.

When he left for England two years later to study for his doctoral degree at Sussex University, he chose to write a thesis on the concept of tragedy in the work of Albert Camus, under the supervision of John Cruickshank, the leading authority at the time on Camus. After obtaining his D.Phil. in 1978, he resumed his position as Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in French, rising to the position of Associate Professor. He was appointed Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, just before he came to The Ohio State University in 1992 on sabbatical leave. The offer of a tenured position as Associate Professor in French and African American and African Studies in 1994 led to his decision to settle permanently in the US. Before then, he had been a Phelps-Stokes Fellow at Maryville College, Tennessee, in 1981, and had spent the year 1986 to 1987 as a Commonwealth Fellow at the University of Leeds. Martin Banham has offered lately a testimony of John's impact during his sojourn at Leeds: "We greatly valued the year he spent with us at Leeds as a visiting Commonwealth Fellow. He acted here too—memorably in a production of The Strong Breed. Leeds remembers John, Miriam and his family with affection and respect."

John had been working all along on his first book, which upon its appearance in 1994 established his reputation as a scholar. Fifteen years on, Theatre and Drama in Francophone Africa: A Critical Introduction, published by Cambridge University Press, has remained a seminal work. Building on...