A memorial fund has been set up in honour of Pius Adesanmi, the director of the Institute of African Studies (IAS) who was one of 18 Canadians that passed away in the Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10.
“Pius was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy,” Carleton president Benoit-Antoine Bacon, said in a statement issued by the university following the crash.
The fund, which has been established by the IAS, hopes to preserve and honour the life of Adesanmi, according to the fund’s website.
“One of the most important minds of the African diaspora, he inspired his Carleton colleagues with his brilliance and cemented his close ties to faculty, staff and students with his kindness, thoughtfulness, enthusiasm and unforgettable laugh,” the statement on the fund’s website said.
According to the website, the fund will “support students and continue his life’s work.”
Pauline Rankin, the dean of Carleton’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), said the fund will support both undergraduate and graduate students, but more details of how the fund will work has not yet been decided by the university and Adesanmi’s family.
“When scholarships are set up in anyone’s name when we lose a faculty member, the university takes full lead form the family, and lets them decide how they want the scholarship to be organized and then distributed,” she said.
Kennedy Aliu, a fourth-year African studies and sociology student, said he hopes the fund will be used to provide funding for students who are interested in African studies, and is set up as a way to, “remember Adesanmi and remember the work that he has done.”
“We all agreed that was the best way to memorialize Pius and who he was,” he said.
According to Nduka Otiono, assistant professor at the IAS and one of Adesanmi’s closest friends, the fund is an important way of continuing Adesanmi’s work.
“Pius transcended race, gender, creed, culture, and what have you, and so it is very important that the University and the Institute has recognized the necessity of preserving this legacy,” he said. “This is so central behind the establishment of this fund, and it is so central to the vision and the hope that it’s going to serve its purpose.”
Otiono also said he hopes the fund will “be generously supported by our various communities and the international community to sustain this all too important work of offering an opportunity to otherwise disadvantaged minorities, who without such help might not have the opportunity to actualize their potentials.”
“There has just been such an international outpouring of grief in wake of Pius’s death,” Rankin added. “I suspect that people will give generously to this fund, especially when they know it’s going for student support, and he was such an ardent supporter of learning and of students.”
Hundreds of people attended a celebration of life service on March 16 for Adesanmi at the Metropolitan Bible Church.
The IAS will be organizing an on-campus Festival of Life to honour and celebrate Adesanmi on March 26.
