Felix Ajiola

Felix Oludare Ajiola, is a development historian, Africanist political economist; and sociocultural anthropologist at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He holds a B.A, M.A &; PhD in African history. His research sits at the crossroads of African History {since precolonial era}, African Political Economy {colonialism and post colonialism}, Social, Cultural Studies, Environmental History and Urban Studies.

Dr Ajiola’s most recent published articles include ‘‘Urban Crime in the Lagos Traffic: An Ethnography at the Crossroads of Multiple Codes of Ethics (Journal of African Cultural Studies, 2024), ‘‘Public health and political governance: The colonial state and disease control in Lagos, 1924-1935’’, (Africa Review, 2024); ‘‘Cocoa transfer agreements, public letter writers and the rise of business elites in Southwest Nigeria,1986-2000’’ (Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte: Journal of Business History 2024). ‘‘Agrarian vista and rural economic development: Cocoa production and livelihood sustainability in Southwest Nigeria’’ (Eureka Journal of Humanistic Studies, 2023); ‘‘Occupational safety of municipal solid waste workers in Lagos’’, Journal of Arts & Humanities, (2023); ‘‘British colonial land-use policies and housing development in Lagos’’ (African Journal of Housing and Sustainable Development, 2022); ‘‘Isakole and the transformation of agricultural land conflicts in colonial Yorubaland’’, (Southern Journal for Contemporary History, 2021; ‘‘Early geography of the coronavirus disease outbreak in Nigeria’’ (Geo-Journal, 2020); ‘‘Colonial capitalism and the structure of the Nigerian cocoa marketing board’’, 1947-1960. Lagos Notes & Records, 20 (2020); Accumulation and dispossession: cocoa production, rural development and the structural adjustment programme in southwest Nigeria, 1986– 1996, (Lagos Historical Review,2018) and ‘‘Afro-European partnership for countering insurgency and counter-terrorism in Africa’’. In Usman Tar (ed) Routledge Handbook of Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency in Africa. (New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, 2021)

He is a co-editor of a new Festschrift titled ‘‘Nigeria and the global economy since 1900: Essays in honour of Professor Olutayo C. Adesina’’. Dr Ajiola won the Rahamon Bello Prize for the Best PhD dissertation in African and Diaspora Studies Award (2021) at the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos. He is a co-recipient of AHRC-UK Research and Innovation Grant on ‘‘A Study of COVID-19 Adaptation Strategies for Residents of Multi-Tenanted Housing in Lagos (2020).

Dr Ajiola is an active member and Fellow of the Lagos Studies Association (LSA).