The Ogbu Uke Kalu Center for Christianity and African Culture will be inaugurated at Abia State University on June 20, 2019.
In a statement made available by Edward Kalu, a planning committee member, said the late Ogbu Kalu was Nigeria’s preeminent scholar of Christianity.
The Inauguration will also be marked by an international conference with speakers from different parts of the world. According to Kalu, the Keynote will be delivered by Professor Toyin Falola, the distinguished scholar of humanities from the University of Texas at Austin. Other notable speakers are Professor Afe Adogame of Princeton Theological Seminary and Professor Chima Korieh of Marquette University, Wisconsin, USA.
Speakers will address various themes such as the intersection of popular and traditional culture, African problems with traditional modernization methods, Linguistic identities and culture in Africa, Cosmopolitanism, hybridity, and African pluriversalism, Globalization, Afropolitanism, and African religious futures.
“In his keynote Address, Professor Falola will tie all the themes together as they relate to the works of Professor Kalu, while also explaining what the Center stands for as well as its future goals and contributions to Nigeria. Falola will show how Kalu created many ideas of his own that involved the “unsung heroes” from five perspectives which are his account of the African agency is what makes his work so revolutionary and significant”.
Kalu explained further that the late Professor Kalu was one of the world’s seminal scholars, focusing mostly on African Christianity, Global Missions, and Global Pentecostalism. Kalu argued that, historically, African Christianity grew out of African cosmology and primal religion.
The Center is not only to preserve his legacy but to continue with his work on the relationship between Christianity and Africa.
The Center will focus on inter-religious dialogue and assist Nigeria to avoid religious violence.
A book by Kalu, The Divided People of God, will be re-launched and distributed for free at the conference.
The new center will build on Professor Kalu’s approach, while also extending the value of his work to current and future generations of all those who are interested in the study of Christianity
