Obichere, Boniface I.

Boniface Ihewunwa Obichere was born in 1932 in Awaka, Owerri, Nigeria. He attended the local teachers college before working as an elementary school teacher in Nigeria. After coming to the United States, he received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota (1961) and a M.A. from the University of (California at Berkeley or Minnesota) (1963). He earned his D. Phil from Oxford University, England in 1967 and later that year became an acting assistant professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). By 1969 he had earned the rank of associate professor and by 1973 that of full professor. He taught both undergraduate and graduate level African history courses for thirty years and was the advisor to numerous masters and doctoral students.

He specialized in West African history with a particular focus on African military history, African and African-American relations, African political leadership, Pan-Africanism, and the history of Nigeria, Asante, and Dahomey. In addition to numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews, he authored the book West African States and European Expansion: The Dahomey-Niger Hinterland, 1885-1898 (1971) and edited Studies in Southern Nigerian History (1982) and African States and the Military: Past and Present (1988). Obichere also actively participated in UCLA committees and outside organizations that covered his areas of interest. From 1972-1978 he served as the director of the UCLA African Studies Center and afterwards sat on its Faculty Advisory Committee. In 1974, he was the founding editor of the Journal of African Studies, a scholarly journal published by the African Studies Center, and in addition, worked on the editorial board of other journals. He was a member of numerous academic organizations and served as the director of the African Studies Association, and as a board member of such organizations as Operations Crossroads Africa; the L.S.B. Leakey Foundation; the African Institute for the Study of Human Values; and the Association for the Advancement of Policy, Research and Development. He participated in the United Nations Economic Conference for Africa and was also active in various charitable causes, such as the Biafra Children's Relief Committee.

From the description of Boniface I. Obichere papers, 1959-1996. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 64095220