Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the just concluded presidential election made this known via his social media on Friday, while describing Adesanmi as one of the best persons he met on earth.
Human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has mourned the loss of a Nigerian-born Canadian professor, Pius Adesanmi whose death in an Ethiopian plane crash in 2019, was exactly four years on Friday.
Sowore, presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the just concluded presidential election made this known via his social media on Friday, while describing Adesanmi as one of the best persons he met on earth.
He noted that Adesanmi’s demise created a loophole nobody had filled in the public intellectual space in the past four years.
He said, “Four years ago, one of the best persons I’ve ever met died in a plane crash in Ethiopia. Since his demise, the gapping hole left in the public intellectual space could not be filled.
“Pius Adesanmi is witty, humble, wise, sound and undoubtedly revolutionary in thought. He was also clairvoyant enough to predict his early demise from this earth (many times). Each time I hear of a pilot declaring an emergency they don’t tell the tower operators how many passengers they’re carrying on board, they normally say we have so so so “souls on board.” Now I understand why.
“We lost a powerful soul on board that unfortunate Ethiopian Air Boeing 737 Max crash. May @Pius Adesanmi’s soul continue to rest in power!”
A beautiful soul! Remembering @pius_adesanmi who died in a fatal @Boeing 737 MAX crash in Ethiopia four years ago! May he continue to Rest in Power! pic.twitter.com/o1kUW8EyBp
— Omoyele Sowore (@YeleSowore) March 10, 2023
After graduating from Titcombe College Egbe in modern-day Kogi in 1987, Adesanmi was admitted to the University of Ilorin. By 1992, he had earned a first-class degree in French studies and literature.
From Ilorin, he went to the University of Ibadan, where he earned a Master's degree in French in 1998, and became a shining light among the literary gems that populated Ibadan at the time. Adesanmi learned from people like Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare, and Wole Soyinka, to name a few.
He later earned a Ph.D. in French Studies from the University of British Columbia and was awarded the title of doctor of philosophy in 2002. He was an assistant professor of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University in the United States from 2002 to 2005. As a brilliant scholar, he was granted an American green card quickly.
Adesanmi became a professor of literature and African studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, in 2006. From 1993 to 1997, he was a Fellow of the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA), and in 1998 and 2000, he was a Fellow of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS).
Adesanmi died on 10 March 2019, when Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed shortly after take-off.