The Carleton community came together at Dominion-Chalmers United Church for a celebration filled with poetry, music, dance, and spoken word to honour the legacy of professor Pius Adesanmi.

Adesanmi, a former director of Carleton’s Institute of African Studies (IAS), was among the 157 passengers who died in an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash on March 10 near Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

Benoit-Antoine Bacon, Carleton’s president and vice-chancellor, told the Charlatan that “this festival was the best way of celebrating someone who was so important to so many different people from around the world.”

Bacon read a poem by Maya Angelou to kick off the event as the first speaker of the night. “And when great souls die, after a period, peace blooms slowly and always irregularly,” he read from When Great Trees Fall by Angelou, at the event.

“I think I speak for everyone when I say we remember him as creative, accessible, artistic, socially concerned, community oriented. He was whole-heartedly devoted for the greater good for most people,” Bacon said.

CBC journalist Adrian Harewood and Ottawa radio host Sarah Onyango—both Adesanmi’s friends—were emcees at the event.

“Whenever Pius asked me to moderate or emcee an event—‘yes,’ nothing but ‘yes,’ without question, ‘yes.’ He was so much fun to work with, and his favourite mantra was ‘we make it work—no matter what it is, we make it work,” Onyango said at the event. “And it would work, it just would.”

Pauline Rankin, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and André Plourde, dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs, both also spoke at the event to honour Adesanmi.

“Pius made a difference in so many areas and on so many levels. . . Pius was our tree of life,” Plourde said. “He will forever be in our hearts.”

Adesanmi’s wife Olumuyiwa also spoke at the event, thanking the packed crowd at the church for coming together to celebrate his life.

“How do I begin to eulogize Pius Adebolla Adesanmi? How does a wife articulate the life and times of a genius who departed too soon, where do I begin?” she said.

“My ‘Bolla, our life together was brief, but you left me with lots of memories to last a lifetime. I mourn your untimely departure, but I celebrate the life that you lived.”

Among the performances of the night, included the West African Rhythm Ensemble from Carleton’s music department and prominent singer Neema Mugala.

 “We are so honoured to have been asked to perform tonight,” said Kathy Armstrong, director of Carleton’s West African Rhythm Ensemble. She said the piece they chose to perform at the event “embodies a lot of what Pius espoused in his teaching and his being.”

Several high commissioners from African countries also spoke at the event: including commissioners from Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa.

“I am deeply honoured to count myself among the lives that professor Pius Adesanmi touched,” said Sibongiseni Dlamini-Mntambo, South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada. “Our hearts are still heavy with grief, mourning a friend of the mission, a friend of a beautiful country—South Africa.”

Dlamini-Mntambo shared several memories she had with Adesanmi at the event. She recalled Adesanmi “always giving it to [her] straight,” when she asked him for advice on her writing.

“True friends don’t tell you what you want to hear, they tell you what you need to hear,” she said. “Today, it feels like a member of our family—a son—has left. But, I accept that we should not forecast on the sadness in his passing, but let us celebrate his life—the life of a brother. I am blessed to have known him.”

Kennedy Aliu, a fourth-year African studies and sociology student, was among several students from the IAS students’ association who shared stories about their time with Adesanmi at the event.

“As someone who was close to Pius on a personal level as well as an academic level, it was really honouring to see this event happen to celebrate him,” Aliu told the Charlatan. “Pius was a journalist, a satirist, he was a writer, he was a public intellectual—he was so many things to many people in so many spaces. only an event like was able to encapsulate all these complexities of his life.”

A fund has been set up by the IAS to honour Adesanmi’s legacy to “support students and continue his life’s work,” according to the university. Donations are now being accepted on Carleton’s FutureFunder webpage.

Photo by Temur Durrani

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