I was introduced to Professor Akin Mabogunje’s work when I joined the Department of Estate Management at the University of Lagos in 2011. As a new junior lecturer, I had to read the key text being used by my course leader. It was here that I first encountered Mabogunje’s work on urbanisation in Nigeria.
I never met Mabogunje, who died in Lagos on 4 August 2022 at the age of 90. And though my first experience of his work was not as a student, today his writings play a key part in what my own students learn. Each year when I stand before a class of young people to introduce the semester’s work to them, I feel compelled to justify why they must read a text that was written before we were all born.
