Hutton Honors College

The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in "Our Flat World"

An Undergraduate Discussion Supper with Nigerian Journalist Kunle Ajibade
Author of Jailed for Life: A Reporter's Prison Notes

Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 6-7:30 p.m.
Harlos House, 1331 E. Tenth St.
Sign-up Required (Details Below)

Nigerian journalist Kunle Ajibade has lived a life described by many as one of courage and calm. Mr. Ajibade was summarily sentenced to life in prison in 1995 by a tribunal acting under the authority of General Sani Abacha, then the supreme military ruler of Nigeria, for an article published in TheNews, a magazine he served as editor. Mr. Ajibade has described a time of fear, arrests and exile of prominent writers and leaders of civil rights organizations, and the deaths and the hanging of some in Nigeria--experiences mirrored in other countries at other times. In response to an international outcry, his term was reduced to 15 years, and when General Abacha died in 1998, Mr. Ajibade was released and went on to write his prison memoir, Jailed for Life: A Reporter's Prison Notes. The book won the first Victor Nwankwo Book of the Year Award instituted by the Nigerian Book Fair Trust. His second book, What a Country!, was published in 2008, and he has continued his work as a journalist, reporting and commenting on the ongoing struggles for democracy and freedom around the world.

IU undergraduates are invited to join him for supper and an informal conversation about his experiences as a journalist in Nigeria and about his views on recent and current events around the world. This event is co-sponsored by the Hutton Honors College and the Wells Scholars Program.

SIGN-UP INFO: If you are interested in attending this undergraduate event, please check your schedule to make sure you are available for the entire event and e-mail Anna Duquaine (aduquain@indiana.edu), indicating you wish to sign up for the "Nigerian Journalist" program and include your name, e-mail address, year in school, and field(s) of study. Space is limited so we will let you know by e-mail if a space was available when you replied.

Mr. Ajibade will also be giving a public lecture on Wednesday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m. in the Center for Global Change (201 N. Indiana), on "The Arab Spring and the Imperatives of Good Governance in Our Flat World." This event is free and open to the public. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of Comparative Literature, the African Studies Program, the Cultural Studies Program, the Should of Journalism, the Wells Scholars Program, and the Center for Global Change.

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