Prof. Udenta O. Udenta, will on Tuesday, 5th of September, click 60 full revolutions around the sun.
To mark this feat, the main auditorium of NAF Centre, Kado Abuja, will be lit with revolutionary thoughts and reflections., with guests from the academic, political, professional, civic, business and diplomatic communities.
Prof. Udenta, is Director with the Centre for Alternative Policy Perspectives and Strategy (CAPPS), Abuja, Nigeria, he was, at various times, a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Igbo Studies/School of Humanities at Abia State University, a pro-democracy/human rights activist, a National Secretary of one of Nigeria’s leading political parties between 1998-2000 and a Director with the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), The Presidency, Abuja (2001-2009).
Udenta has further cemented and reinforced his place among the sages in the creation of knowledge as a thinker, theorist, and—more importantly—as part of those who have put theory into praxis with his epochal presentation of 21 volumes this September.
The 21 works span a wide range of subjects, including politics of course, but also prose, poetry, culture, and literary criticism.
Three of the 21 books with Udenta’s name now on the spine, namely ‘Art, Society, and Identity’, ‘Arts and Social Commitment in African Poetry’, and finally ‘Revolutionary Aesthetics and the African Literary Process’, especially qualify as his magnum opus.
These writings present Professor Udenta Udenta as a Marxist scholar, philosopher, and theorist who supports welfarism rather than the strict state control of all resources and means of production as the traditional Marxists advocate. Udenta, in contrast to most other intellectuals, is largely motivated by praxis and practicality, i.e. knowledge applied to assist society rather than knowledge for its own sake.
He has always been preoccupied with the HOW question because of this. Philosophers have “interpreted the world, what remains is changing it” as iconic philosopher Karl Marx would put it. Udenta thinks that the questions of “what” and “why” have been fairly resolved. What is still unclear is HOW society will address the plethora of issues that have previously been discovered and considered.
His experience mentoring many inspired him to co-found The Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts (TAS), a bimonthly gathering place for intellectuals of all stripes to discuss the state of the nation and global affairs and suggest answers.
The monthly Mbari Forum of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), which takes place at the Maman Vatsa Writers Village in Mpape Abuja monthly, was likewise revitalised and given fresh impetus by Udenta.
Comrade Prof. Udenta O. Udenta Clocks 60
