The committee for the funeral of Prof. Bene Madunagu, a revolutionary activist, scholar and feminist, who died on November 26, 2024, has announced that she will be buried on Friday, January 17, 2025.
In a statement issued by Prof Biodun Jeyifo, the interment will be preceded by a celebration of her life and times on January 16 in a programme that will feature a feminist forum, funeral conference, cultural performances and tributes from comrades, friends and well wishers.
The deceased was born Benedicta Afangide on March 21, 1947, to the family of Chief Michael Afangide of Afanga Esang in Abak Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and Madam Angelica Afangide of Ikwek, Afaha Obong, in the same local government area.
She was educated at the University of Lagos and the University of Ibadan. She was an assistant lecturer at the University of Lagos before moving to the University of Calabar in 1976.
Bene, a professor of Botany, retired from the University of Calabar after years of mentoring generations of students in her department and ideologically influencing students in other faculties.
It was in the course of these struggles for progress and a humane social order that, for instance, she and her comrade and spouse, Dr. Edwin Madunagu, were sacked from their jobs at the University in 1978 along with scholars and activists in other universities and establishments.
This was in the aftermath of the nationwide students’ protest against “commercialisation of university education” by the military government of General Olusegun Obasanjo.
The protest is famously known in history as “Ali Must Go,” in reference to the call for the removal of the then federal commissioner for education, Colonel Ahmadu Ali, by Nigerian students.
The sacked couple were later fully reinstated by the government of President Shehu Shagari a few years later.
Undaunted, Comrade Bene remained active in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), becoming the first female chairperson of the University of Calabar branch of ASUU and a member of the union’s national executive. She was also a member of several scientific bodies, including the Botanical Society of Nigeria, Science Association of Nigeria, and the Association of African Women for Research and Development.
She was a leading light of the Nigerian Left, participating in various efforts towards the formation of a formidable organisation of socialists, Marxists, progressives, etc. as a platform to offer alternatives in the making of Nigeria.
Her commitment to popular democratic struggles was total, and her consistency of purpose was exceptional.
As a Marxist, Bene was active in the feminist movement nationally and internationally. She was part of the formation of the feminist movement, Women in Nigeria (WIN). She was the Chairperson of the executive board of the Girls’ Power Initiative (GPI), an organisation focussing on the health and empowerment of girls and women.
Bene was a recipient of many awards including that of Cross Rivers State in 2005 as “Erudite Scholar and Advocate of Equality and Girl Child Rights” and that of the Centre for Reproductive Rights of the University of California in the United States.
She was also a Fellow of the MacArthur Foundation.
Comrade Bene is survived by her comrade and spouse for over 50 years, Comrade Edwin Madunagu, and children – Mrs Unoma Madunagu-Agrinya, Ikenna Madunagu and Michael Madunagu, and indeed her many comrades in the Nigerian Left.
Prof. BENE MADUNAGU (1947 – 2024)
