Background
Claude Ake was born on February 18, 1939 in Omoku, Nigeria.
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activist educator political scientist author
Claude Ake was born on February 18, 1939 in Omoku, Nigeria.
Claude's earlier education was in Nigeria and London. Claude Ake gained a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1966.
Claude Ake began his career as an educator at Columbia University in New York in 1966 and later taught at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He served as dean of the faculty of social sciences at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria during parts of the 1970s and 1980s. He also was a professor of political economy at the school. He held various academic positions at universities around the world, including the University of Nairobi, the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, and the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria. He was also a visiting professor at Yale University at the time of his death. He also worked with petroleum companies, such as Royal Dutch and Shell, to look into environmental issues. Ake also worked for the Journal of Political Economy and wrote such books as "A Theory of Political Integration", "Revolutionary Pressures in Africa", "A Political Economy of Africa", and "Democracy and Development in Africa". Claude Ake was also the founder and director of the Center for Advanced Social Science, headquartered in Port Harcourt, Nigeria in 1991.
In 2003 the Claude Ake Visiting Chair was set up at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, in collaboration with the Nordic Africa Institute, to honor the Ake's memory. The Chair is open to social scientists researching at African universities on issues related to war, peace, conflict resolution, human rights, democracy and development on the African continent.
Quotations:
"In Nigeria, companies like Shell are struggling between greed and fear."
"Power is everything, and those who control the coercive resources use it freely to promote their interests."
Ake had crackling intelligence and an outspokenly severe view of African politics and nevertheless a quality of understanding which was remarkably subtle and complex. But he was able to communicate the complexity in a straightforward manner. Ake was not only the top African political scientist, but an extraordinarily courageous person.
Quotes from others about the person
The chairman of the Council on African Studies at Yale, David E. Apter said of Ake: "In the very short time he was here, he developed a following among the students, both graduate and undergraduate, which was truly extraordinary. There were graduate students who wept at his death. Everyone was really shocked. It was an amazing testimonial to the man."
George Bond, the director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University's School of International Public Affairs, said: "He was one of the pre-eminent scholars on African politics and a scholar-activist concerned with the development of Africa. His concern was primarily with the average African and how to improve the nature of his conditions."
Claude had a wife Anita and three sons: Mela, Ibra, and Brieri.
