Introduction

The university at Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba civilization and the centre of the Yoruba world, sprawls graciously among the hills outside the old town. A university is the epitome of modernization and global civilization, while Ile-Ife town is synonymous with a specific culture and an ancient tradition. The university, now ‘O. bafemi Awolowo University’, started life at Ibadan in 1962 on the premises of Ibadan Polytechnic as the ‘University College, Ife’. It became first the ‘University of Ife,’ and then, in May 1987, after the death of one of the founding fathers of the Nigerian nation, was given the name it now carries. Appropriately its motto is ‘For Learning and Culture’.

When the university moved to Ile-Ife, it was welcomed by the locals. The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hezekiah Oluwasanmi responded by instituting a ‘town and gown’ policy. In 1967, he set up and chaired a committee charged with ‘(fostering) a relationship with the local community and (with formulating) a policy governing that relationship’ (Akinrinade 1989: 41). The policy was taken forward particularly energetically by the Institute of African Studies, a research body charged with investigating Nigerian cultures at the grassroots. O. la Rotimi, researcher, man of the theatre whose ideas are central to this chapter, provided an insight into the institute's approach.