(Sunrise 24 September 1939. Sunset 28 April 2025)
By Idowu Olayinka
Professor Adebisi Sowunmi (nee Jaiyesimi) was a pioneer Nigerian academic. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany in 1962 at University College Ibadan/University of London. She received a postgraduate scholarship in 1963 to undertake PhD research in Palynology. In order to accomplish this, she travelled to Sweden to study with Gunnar Erdtman, who supervised her PhD. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in 1967 from the University of Ibadan.
Born in Kano to an Anglican priest she attended the famous St Anne's School Ibadan for her secondary school education. She was married to the late eminent Professor of Mathematics, C. O. A. Sowunmi, of blessed memory.
She was appointed a post-doctoral research fellow in the Archaeology Unit at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan in 1967. Four years later, she established the Nigerian University Palynology Laboratory. She was the Founder and President of the Palynological Association of Nigeria and served as President of the West African Archaeological Association.
She was in 1982 promoted a Professor, thus earning the distinction of being the first Nigerian Female Professor of Environmental Archaeology and Palynology.
During the course of her inimitable and illustrious career, she pioneered the study of Environmental Archaeology and Palaeo-Ethnobotany in Nigeria. She published extensively in her areas of specialisation and she was very active till the end. She was at the 2023 National Conference of the Palynological Association of Nigeria which held at the Otunba Subomi Balogun Conference Centre at the University of Ibadan. She chaired some of the Technical Sessions during the Conference. One of her seminal research publications came out in 2025 in a peer-reviewed journal and it is fair to state that her works will remain cited for ever.
Throughout her career Professor Sowunmi held various visiting positions; in 1997 she was at the Department of African Archaeology, Uppsala University, and in 1998 at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London and the Departments of African Archaeology and African Archaeobotany, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität.
She supervised seven PhD students, and is noted for being an inspirational teacher. She worked on gender issues in archaeology in Nigeria, including modifying androcentric course titles.
Her research achievements included the first identifications of the age and paleoenvironment of the Gwandu Formation, the first descriptions of Eocene pollen of the Ogwashi-Asaba Formation, the first study of Late Quaternary vegetation and environmental history of Nigeria, and the first study of pollen from an archaeological site in Nigeria.
She was conferred an honorary doctorate degree in the Humanities by Uppsala University in recognition of her outstanding scholarship and research and teaching contributions in environmental archaeology and paleobotany in 2003.
Mama Sowunmi, as she was fondly referred to in the University of Ibadan community, was an institutional builder. Apart from serving as the Head of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, she had an uncommon commitment to her alma mater. She was an influential member of the Council Committee that fashioned out the Vision of the University of Ibadan for the Twenty First Century. The Committee assignment came at a time when morale was extremely low in the Nigerian University System in the early to mid-2000s. It is gratifying that the work of the Committee has proved invaluable in serving as a road map for the future of the University.
She used every opportunity to champion anything that could project the female gender. She insisted that her name be written as M. Adebisi Sowunmi as against the conventional way the name of female members of staff of the University of Ibadan would have been otherwise written as First name, Initial and Family name. In her case that would have been Margaret A. Sowunmi. The Senate of the University had to grant her request and I doubt so much if any other female member of staff before or after her ever had such a special waiver!
I had different interactive sessions with Mama, especially during my stint as Vice- Chancellor. She would often call me on phone and declare ‘Idowu, Je ka ri ra’ (meaning Idowu, come to see me). Our discussions invariably centred around the challenges with the Nigerian University System. Any time she heard any negative story about the leadership of the University the next logical and natural thing for her was to summon me to her residence at Bodija. Ever so loving and accommodating, I was always very successful at convincing her that the situation was under control.
Notable Publications
• M.A. Sowunmi. 1972. Pollen morphology of the Palmae and its bearing on taxonomy. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
• M.A. Sowunmi. 1973. Pollen grains of Nigerian plants: I. Woody species. Grana
• R.J. du Chêne, M.S. Onyike & M.A. Sowunmi 1978. Some new Eocene pollen of the Ogwashi-Asaba Formation, south-eastern Nigeria. Revista Española de Micropaleontología 10(2), p. 285-322.
• M.A Sowunmi. 1981. Aspects of Late Quaternary Vegetational Changes in West Africa. Journal of Biogeography 8: 457-474.
• M.A. Sowunmi. 1985. The beginnings of agriculture in West Africa: botanical evidence. Current Anthropology
• M.A. Sowunmi. 1995. Pollen grains of Nigerian plants: II. Woody Species. Grana 34: 120-141.
• M.A. Sowunmi. 1998. Ecological archaeology in west Africa : the state of the discipline in ANDAH (B.W.) et al., Africa: the challenge of archaeology. Ibadan, Heinemann Educational Books, pp. 65–100
• M.A. Sowunmi, 1998. Beyond academic archaeology in Africa: The human dimension. African Archaeological Review
She was a member of the Chaplaincy at the Chapel of the Resurrection, University of Ibadan. She was ever so forthright. Mama will be sorely missed by all of us who knew her as a honest, outspoken and transparent leader of men and women.
Today, 24 September 2026, is Mama Sowunmi’s 87th posthumous birthday. Rest in perfect peace, Mama.
Professor Idowu Olayinka is a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan
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