World African Library

Behold the biggest World African Library!
African Heritage Research and Cultural Library ( AHRCL) is the biggest acclaimed African World Library , which is located in Adeyipo village, Ibadan.It has been visited by Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Adebayo Faleti, and host of foreigners. Taiwo Abiodun  was there.
The environment
Located  in Adeyipo village , Lagelu local government in Ibadan ,Oyo State,   the Library established here is the world acclaimed  biggest and richest African Heritage Research and Cultural Library ( AHRCL). For Adeyipo village , it has  not only become a Film  village or tourist center but the world renowned Library , Film Village and Cultural Centre .The  environment is quiet and serene , it is a world renowned African Library of no equal . The  village is about 20 kilometers to Ibadan .Only few mud houses could be seen there. While  different  structures and architectural designs of the Library add  aesthetics to the small village  that is in the bowel of the rural community .
In the library are different sections like Music, books, artifacts , traditional or local materials .Hung  on the walls are big photographs like Professor Wole Soyinka,Bob Marley, Sunny Ade, Nelson Mandela , Steve Biko , James Brown , Nkrumah , Azikiwe, Awolowo,  and other great  Africans and African in Diaspora who had by one way or the other contributed to the development of Africa.Here we have libraries for Arts, Science,African  talking drums , flute , Literature works , books from Classic to contemporary among others,Not only this , at the back of the library is a botanical garden where one can get African leaves and herbs to cure different ailments. Some buildings are under construction while plans are on to continue  the project for the village  had donated enough land for African research.Some buildings are also available for lodging with facilities .
Speaking with The Nation,the brain behind the project  Professor Bayo Adewale said "  We donate to African Studies in Africa, we have   the largest  African collection in the world here .
University of London is 250, 000 only , they don't do African studies in Nigeria but here we have over 500 , 000  Books on Africans  where scholars , students and teachers and researchers ,from Nssuka, Zaria ,  Lagos, London , USA , Caribbean Island  do come here  for research work not only this but  those who cannot get to other countries or were not given visa do come here for their works/ research ."
In the beginning
According to Adewale the genesis of the prestigious library started about 28 years ago in Ila Orangun, Oyo State when he started piling up his personal books together to form a library  and like the proverbial little drops of water  that makes an ocean.Adewale affirms that  he had wanted to leave  a legacy behind .
African Leaves and herbs
Behind the expansive library is a big botanical garden where all sorts of herbal, and medicinal leaves are planted " take for example we have this leave called Omonigedegede , which is medicinal ,you don't see the roots ,  and it survives on leaves .If used and prepared by  the natives  you will know its for medicinal purpose (it is for protection as  enemies cannot catch you ), This is part of African research done here "
Africanised Library
He said " That centre Is my own token contribution to educational development of  the entire of Africa and Entire Black Race , and the objective is to minister  unto the needs of the community community on one hand and to people  and researchers archives documentation on one hand and , it's a combination of rural / Urban project .it's the first rural community -based African studies research  library on the continent meaning that there is no other research library  that is research -oriented", he continued , "in the universities we only have the Africanized section of library but we are talking about whole library now. Dealing with all disciplines ... That is why we have ,the tag ' first rural community based and  collects books in Afrcian studies
The library is Africanise  library  ,it collects books on African studies as in  African education ,literature , politics, music,sociology  science  so it's an Africanised library and we are trying to reorientate the researchers to begin to look inwards , Africanise to look inwards and geared their researched to be Afrocentric rather than Eurocentric , there is  problem ,,,we want researchers to be  relevant to Africa , things that would benefit Africa , we don't ..we want them to research on Napoleon Bornarpate , we want research like agbekoya, so it's an Africanised Library , research worlds should be geared towards the problems of Africa , Africa has so many problems which can be ...the western world , the Europeans , ..the white people have done a lot into their ,,,now  we want the researches in Africa to look inward  and do research work that would benefit the Africa ,ie, poverty in Africa, What we want to do is what will benefit the ordinary African and the Black race ,
We have the music of Africa auditorium , audio / visual section , rural community development building , all these we have in our centre as we have Dr.Olaiya Music  of Africa , Auditorium, Afe Babalola ,  N.Idowu , Wole Soyinka building,
Acquisition
We engage in exchanged books in Pacific , North America, Black America ,..altogether we have six different libraries in the centre :we have the music library where we collection of Music , Research Library ( Africanised  ), Wole Soyinka  Writers library , Vilage Library, School's library  so Adeyipo is  a big international library for all fields in Africa.
About the center
" I started the Centre , originally that center was mainly a library center as time went by we diversified them to the African  culture , meaning that we incorporate  the culture of Africa , African section .The music of Africa auditorium ,the rural community  development building ,  we have chalets  for visitors  so all these we put together  which from the cultural aspect of the objective of the centre .The library itself started with  about 500,000  volumes of books in Ila Orangun  way back in 1988 ,and we started about 500 books  of the direct founder  the books I used in my college days  of the director founder , in 1988, when we told the world that we started African Heritage has taken off  this they laughed at us ,we started acquisition of books .In a matter of months we have had  over 12,0000 volumes  , from Europe, America, Afro  America ., Pacific .. , ,we have grown to 100,000 volumes of books becoming the third  largest Africanised largest in the world after  world western and London University
Why establish it rural area?
According to Adewale , "it was a deliberate action , the rural area is conducive to knowledge acquisition  because of its serenity , the other reason is that  most of the pople living in rural areas are largely uneducated  and we take it as our duty to spread the gospel of education  to this second citizen of the world apart from that  we want to debunk the idea that library services is meant for the elite , that is not how it should be, library services should be for us all , we should all have the benefit of our library facilities we want .. So we think that Library is not elitist , people in the rural areas should also benefit from library services and so  we are succeeding in that ,we discover that people in rural areas are also yearning  for it , we discover that  they are also  yearning to be educated , to be learning  and into our library system" .
He continued " African music  should be listened to to educate and dig into history of why such thing happened for example like music  concerning to civil war of many years ago , they listen to local musicians like music concerning the civil war like  Haruna Ishola sang the war music , saying he sang it  during the civil war , he mentioned Benjamin Adekunle  and  people in Rural  community would like to know  who they called Black Scorpion , the meaning of   Gowon (Go On  With One  Nigeria) that is one way we spread education"
On the cassettes and LPs in the musical library , Adebowale said they are our materials we can easily  translate the cassette into local language of the people , so these people would listen to music , record their voices and know or learn  how to take care of themselves , know what to do in political setting, how they can treat snake bite ,,they listen to this and  they do their own research work here ".
Giants have visited the library
The founder of African Heritage and Cultural Library said those using the library cuts across the globe irrespective of race, religion , sex, academic rating as it's door is opened to all , his words "  Our users of the library cut across all areas in the society for example  , the people from primary school, nursery school , students from secondary schools , form university.We received visitors virtually on  weekly basis there .We have hosted Professor Akinwunmi Ishola , Femi Osofisan , Niyi Osundare , Dr. Tony Mahiro is a regular caller , Adebayo Faleti would spend weeks  doing research.This is where Faleti finished his 'Fere Bi Ekun' film .Not only this we have featured John Pepper Clark, Association of Nigerian Authors used to  come  here to organize their reading at Adeyipo village , not to talk of   actors and actresses , the village is fast becoming a film village and several films had been shot here .
" We have hosted  artistes like Baba Wande , Lere Paimo , Ojo Pagogo , Baba Geebu  who come here to shoot films  at least about four or five films had been shot here
" ' The Virgins' I wrote in 1984 which is the first book I wrote , Kelani adapted to a film tilted 'The Narrow Path', and I wrote the book here .Infact I used this place as my research place where I did my PhD research works because all books are available for use here"
Immortalizing  Professor Wole Soyinka
"We are building an enclave , African Writers Enclave in honour of professor Wole Soyinka , we intimated him with the fact that we are buiidng this , that we are doing that , we wrote him and he even gave us his phone number  incase we  need his assistance .If  you click on Soyinka on Internet ..you will see our small effort in immortalizing his name , our intention is to establish the biggest library in Africa in honour  of Wole Soyinka ,, world literature , Chinese literature , our Soyinka is an international man, an icon , and he has become a global Scholar . The  other thing  we are planing is to train writers  we gave them fellowship ,,and we are putting in place in the nearest future , literature prize  in Adeyipo that is for Soyinka.
Musicians also trooped to our musical auditorium like Tunji Oyelana , Apola King , Idowu Animasaun who came and spent some days like Apola King , Idowu Animasaun, Orlando Julius also donated virtually all his works ,
Financial implication
But how does he finance all these projects? He stated " To start with that,  we have donors all over the world to assist us ,people like Afe Babalola who donated  a rural community building , Chief  N.O. Idowu who helped us  to complete visitor's chalet , and organization  such as Mobil who donated 8, 000 blocks ,,several of that , those who donated cash  at times 50,000,naira at times 50 naira , ,we recall their names on our honour plaques. Aside all these we go to Bank to take overdraft , most at times my account is always  in red in the Bank , at times  some rural women  here would offer themselves for free labour , cheap labour, free labour etc.
" In terms of buildings  and acquisition of  the books we had spent up to something like 2 billion naira  to the center  .
"In appreciation of donors and great philanthropists we  named some of these buildings  after some people , we acknowledge them when alive , let them know that Nigerians  appreciate them , people like Victor Olaiya ,a first generation musician , Soyinka has done so much , N.O .Idowu was a philanthropist of note ,he is our father , we named Visitor's chalet in his honour .Naming these buildings after people is based on merit not financial capability, that is why we honour them for example we  have the JP Clark Garden, we also have a building   named after John Pepper Clark who was here for four days for a retreat.We still intend to name some areas  and buildings after Nigerians   and some others Blacks in the world - to immortalize them".
Difficulties encountered
Adebowale said he was discouraged when he startd the project   but refused to bow out ." The land we are using here was given to us free of charge , and it  runs to about 20to30hectares ,,we did not pay a kobo.It was the Village or Community head that donated the land ,  they wanted to assist their son / humanity .When we started people did not give us  any encouragement,  some said we would soon die and that witches and wizards are there   ( since the place is rural )  but we are resolute , we put God forward and damned the consequence , I said what we have is benevolence witches  and wizards not a malevolent Witches and Wizards .
"Professor Magaret Peil doubted us  and said we could not succeed that there are no infrastructure in Nigeria , and I told her that we shall succeed  and  yet we did not look back , she said  I must be joking ,,,we cannot succeed ...no problem" We  were lucky that the villagers were very , very  accommodating.When you have negative criticism it can push you to achieve.When the woman heard the news of our success , she could not believe it .It is a huge success".
Apart form this , the library does not generate income from the project , he said " The rural community people don't pay a kobo to study here , they are here free of charge but workers pay .The secondary school people 400 naira a year , University student pay 500 naira per year while workers pay 1,000 naira per year .About five governors have come here and marveled at what they saw. I am appealing to the President - elect Major General Mohammadu Buhari to please come to our aid , I am also begging the State Governor Senator Abiola Ajimobi to help us financially .All students in Ibadan and lecturers are aware of this Adeyipo Village which is very popular all over the globe.We need bothe the Federal and State's government's assistance  as we still have some buildings under construction".
Born on the 6th June , 1944. Adebowale is an Associate  professor of Creative Writing  and in charge of Education foundation  at The Bells University, Otta."I teach General English , philosophy, French , I also organize workshops.I have succeeded in introducing Drama ,,and people have been cooperating with us"
Adewale is a writer and has authored over 20 literature books being used in both Primary and secondary schools, including higher institutions.