Professor Wande Abimbola, is the Awise Awo Agbaye (World Spokesperson for Ifa and Yoruba Religion). From 2003—2005, he was the Special Adviser on Cultural Affairs and Traditional Matters to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He has served as the Vice Chancellor (i.e. President) of the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), and has also served as the Majority Leader of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He was installed as Awise Awo Agbaye in 1981 by the Ooni of Ife on the recommendation of a conclave of Babalawos of Yorubaland in West Africa.

Abimbola received his first degree in History from University College, Ibadan, in 1963 when that college was a college of The University of London. He received his Master’s Degree in Linguistics from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, in 1966, and his Ph.D. in Yoruba Literature from the University of Lagos in 1971. Abimbola was the first PhD graduate of the University of Lagos. He became a Full Professor in 1976.

Wande Abimbola has published extensively on Ifa and Yoruba Religion and culture. Click here to read more about OrisaWorld.