14 Comments

I had a similar experience: woke up last night thinking about him, and just now googled him and the first word was obituary--which led me to your article. Thank you for writing about Anani. I took 2 classes and an independent study with him in the 1990s. He was the best professor and probably the best thing about Brown University.

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completely lyrical Ben. Love Substack

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Beautiful tribute to a man and the learning he inspired. Humbling and crucial to contemplate the power of one fine teacher and human who himself was not a writer. I will share this. Thank you.

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Loved reading this, Ben. Are you in Amsterdam? I'm in Sonoma County, and this was such a highlight for my day of reading, writing, NBCC work! xoJane

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I'm still in France, Jane. Will be here forever as there is no vaccination happening! At least spring is bursting out all over.

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Que bela homenagem!

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This is a lovely tribute, Ben. Thank you for sharing it.

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Ben, I loved reading this. What an incredible mentor to have had at an age when it could really change your life choices

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Beautiful and warm words for a very special man who I am sure touched many hearts!!

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love every story you share here. Much appreciated, Ben...

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Beautiful tribute, Ben! I met you when you came to meet with Anani at Brown during graduation, I believe. He was beaming with pride. I shared this story with my students in AFRI 1941 Archiving the African Diaspora: The Life and Works of Anani Dzidzienyo. The background in that photograph is still the same. A university photographer/videographer will document the space before we start to pack up the books and papers for donation to the Brown and Tougaloo College libraries. The one thing I've been discovering in Anani's passing is that he wrote a lot as we are finding a lot of publications he penned. A digital CV is one of the course projects. He's also part of a generation who wrote but did not always publish those writings. We're trying to find creative ways to get those writings out there now.

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Hi Keisha-Khan, I THOUGHT I recognized your name when I was looking up tributes to Anani. I saw your tweets and was intrigued by your class. I love that you are teaching archiving (though I hate that I can't be in your class!) and I love even more that you are finding things he wrote. I always thought it was such a shame that he didn't publish more. If I can be of help in making some connections in the publishing world, please drop me a line. I have also found more photographs of that day that show the office, if those are of any use to you.

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Let's connect via email.

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I love the way Anani leads to Arthur.

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