Baba was self-made, extremely humble and self-reliant. From his education to his career, from his religion to his worldview, he engaged with the world as a man who would be its master. Baba was proud to be, as he said it, “first and foremost” a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and, then, a historian. Thus, the man who was an icon of history, a great man in the academic world and a mentor cum patron to the myriads of people, young and old, that he drew to him was, to his family, absolutely enigmatic in his principles and their application, in his idiosyncrasies and lifestyle, even in his communication, he was the enigma.
Memories of Baba will always be with us.
Tributes
Leave a tributeWhile your on earth Dad you lived a life of God, you showed us how enjoying and fun serving God could be. Your mentorship speaks volumes to everyone who had encountered you. God used you to bless this world sir and us all. While I was in Ujay your family and house was my second home away from my home, we were all treated as yours.
The life of your children is an indication that God truly works and they are indeed a blessings from God for being who you are. Words can’t be enough to describe you Dady. You are a father To all not just your kids.
Our consolation is that We are happy your with the lord watching over us all again. Rest with the lord sir till we meet again . Adieu Dad!
Rex.
The Sabbath Baba Washed My Foot For Holy Communion, I Felt Like It Was God Himself That Washed My Foot Because I Instantly Felt This Heavenly Peace Within Me.
#GoWellBaba!
I'll Miss You,Your Intellectual Guidance Towards My Intellectual Growth, Your Fatherly Love & Above All, Your Prayers For Me, My Family & All Of Us Always..!
God Bless Your Soul Prof, Amen!
Baba, we look forward to seeing you again, when every tear will be dried.
He was
An epitome of humility,
An ambassador of Peace,
A bundule of Smiles,
An ICON to reconed with,
An example for the godly ,
An encourager,
A blessing to many.
A father to Many
A mentor to Me
Rest on Baba
Leave a Tribute
I woke up yesterday (7. 05.2020) to the sad news of the passing of Professor John Garah Nengel. So many deserving tributes have poured in celebrating his life. Baba Nengel, as we fondly called him was a good man, a Christian who lived the word. I received calls and messages from current and former students (undergraduate and post graduate), from HODs across the various institutions Prof. Nengel had served as assessor and external examiner – I was continuously reminded of Baba Nengel’s generousity, humility, total commitment and dedication to duty.
My intervention here is an intellectual tribute, a snapshot for those who perhaps did not have Baba Nengel’s intellectual biography. On a personal note I first encountered Baba Nengel, when I took his 200-level elective on pre-colonial warfare in Africa. Prof. Nengel was an excellent teacher, a soft-spoken fountain of knowledge. Prof was the departmental resident expert on Central Nigeria, his flagship 400level course on Plateau and the Adjoining lowlands made the UniJos BA History particularly unique. This was by enabling students to have an in-depth understanding of the history of central Nigerian polities.
Prof. Nengel supervised my UniJos MA dissertation, strict but compassionate, thorough and detailed with his feedback. Whether it was feedback on a draft paper, writing reference letters, reviewing lecture material with junior colleagues, he was always generous with his time and intellect. After his retirement, Baba Nengel continued to support the editorial process of our departmental journal – Mandyeng: The Journal of Central Nigerian History.
Regards scholarship Prof. Nengel’s contribution not only provided insights on the history of central Nigeria, his contribution was also methodological. His scholarship focused on two key themes, drawn from his postgraduate studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS, London for his MA 1980; and his PhD which he successfully defended at the University of Jos, in 1989. From his SOAS MA Prof. Nengel kicked of an interest in the problems and issues around the history of the Sokoto Jihad in Central Nigeria. His inquiry and output explored the spread, engagement, structures and resistance to the jihad from a uniquely central Nigerian perspective. His PhD, which as is the case with most academics became his seminal work, his magnus opus!! A Central Nigerian pioneering application of the methods of studying ethnic polities through the lens of intergroup relations. Since 1989, so many have followed in his footsteps – to the extent that within the historical community of academics in Nigeria, we could refer to a UniJos school of inter group relations. A collective of scholars who have studied the inter and intra dynamics of inter group relations amongst the polities of Central Nigeria, Prof. Nengel was the pioneer.
One of my last calls to him before the restrictions that accompanied the COVID19 pandemic was to present him with a copy of a most deserving Festschrift his former students led by Prof. Okpeh Ochayi Okpeh, the current President of the Historical Society of Nigeria had published in his honour and were planning a public presentation, alas – it shall be a post houmous outing!!! We have lost a Teacher, Mentor, and an excellent scholar. RIP BABA NENGEL.
It has been bittersweet knowing you left us Elder Nengel. Sweet because I am thoroughly convinced that for you to live is Christ and to die is gain; bitter because everyone’s life you touched will surely miss your absence.
I felt the same way around you I felt around my now deceased father. It wasn’t difficult to figure out why I felt this way - it was your keen interest in a life of continuous pious devotion! You were happiest and most fulfilled during family devotions - the more were present for worship, the happier you were. The more we participated, the more excited you became. It was very obvious you had an intimate relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ!
You were like a mighty sequoia under whose bows everyone small and mighty could find a comfortable shelter. It didn’t matter where we all came from, each one of us felt genuinely loved by you. Each one of us secretly felt you loved me the most…just fills my heart with tears of joy! You will be surely missed but I know you have fought the good fight, you have finished the race, you have kept the faith. And now there is in store for you the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to you on that day —and not only to you, Daddy, but also to all of us your children, relatives and loved ones who have longed for His appearing. Sleep on Dad. Love you so much!
Michael.
John Garrah Nengel; My Colleague, My Friend, My Brother
I knew John Nengel for more than forty years. We were close colleagues at University of Jos for almost twenty. He was the only one of my friends whom I would also consider a brother. Whereas Europeans like to draw boundaries, and much of my academic career was spent looking at this process, Africans prefer to find connections. “Brother” has much wider and more positive meanings in Africa than it does in Europe. With John I followed the African usage. Centuries ago a famous French writer, Montaigne, explained his friendship with Étienne de la Boétie: “Because it was he; because it was I.” Despite the obvious differences of origins and experiences, that was how I felt about John. With no other friend have I felt such a kinship.
I shall therefore begin with the one thing on which he thought very differently. I am sure that John would agree with my putting it first. His life was guided by his strong religious faith. He was brought up in the traditional practices of the Buji, but converted to Seventh Day Adventism in adolescence, and did not deviate from it. For him Christianity was not something to profess and proclaim, but to practise every day. I know that he often felt let down by fellow Christians who did who acted in selfish or inconsiderate ways. He was for a time puzzled by my also trying to behave morally despite my having no religious commitment. On how to deal with each other and with other persons we seldom disagreed. Religion was not a topic we felt we had to avoid. We talked freely, but we did not preach or evangelise. We learned much from each other. John was a remarkably tolerant man. Initially I assumed that he would not go to the hotels and drinking places that were a part of my life, or that if he did accompany me, he would be ill at ease or awkward. I misjudged him. He was above all sociable, and we enjoyed our company even if we drank different things. When we went out for lunch we were always amused when the jollof rice and Maltina were placed before me, on the assumption that I was a missionary, and the pepper soup and beer before him, on the assumption that he was a disreputable African.
As this suggests, a sense of humour was something we did share. His was robust. Just before I left Nigeria we wrote a Conference Paper: “From Cattle Dung to Chemical Fertilisers, Soil Fertility and Social Relations in Gurum Area, Buji District of Northern Jos, Plateau State: A Preliminary Analysis”. He was the one who first called it “The Bullshit Paper”. Life amused more than it annoyed him. He had the gift of laughter, and shared it widely. I shall miss that laugh.
The Bullshit Paper was not our only collaboration. We worked together a lot, both formally and informally. Our minds, skills, and knowledge were complementary. We shared a commitment to getting things right and to doing the research and fieldwork necessary to achieving that. Academic partnerships often break down because of clashing egos. I cannot deny that I am a show-off, but I do not recall John ever boasting. On the other hand he did not run himself down. Good academics know that there is much that they do not know, and, where necessary, John set about learning it. Few men or women of my acquaintance have had so clear an understanding of themselves and of what they could do.
John’s career was not an easy one. He was not ostentatiously a high-flyer. He was not among the first of the young men of his area to be given opportunities for success outside. Even when he reached Unijos, he was for a long time overlooked or neglected. He did not always make the obvious choices. As a child he took up with the Fulani, and was given a cow to manage. His father forbade this. Years later, when we were stuck in his blue Beetle behind a procession of Fulani and their herds of cattle, we calculated how much these would sell for, and how much less we were earning as university lecturers after so many devaluations of the naira. We came in jest to question whether he had made the right career choice. I first met him as I arrived in Jos in September 1979, just before he went off to London to do his Masters. In a week he did a lot to give me a sense of the city. As he believed that Europeans would melt if we walked in the African sun, we went round on his motor-scooter. This was valuable for me, but it would have been better for both of us if, instead, he had reached London just before I left for Nigeria. The English are not as outgoing as West Africans. He found it more difficult to adjust to London than I did to Jos. When I returned the next year on home-leave I found him for the only time in our friendship visibly unhappy and stressed out. Instead of doing his thesis on the Plateau, of which he knew so much, he had chosen to write on Mahdism in the Sudan, a well-studied question about which he then knew little. This was ambitious, but unwise. Back in Jos, he eventually got on track, and did eventually establish himself as a leading authority on the history of Central Nigeria, but this took longer than it need have.
His success showed above all determination and a proper sense of self-worth. All too often I have seen talented and even hard-working academics fail to reach the position that they should have had. John was clearly not one of them. But whereas in all else that I have discussed, John had virtues without the corresponding defects, faith without sanctimoniousness, dignity without pomposity, humour without frivolity, his determination could become stubbornness, as he recognised. I particularly recall that on one occasion when he returned from England he had to go back to Kano to collect what he had purchased and sent on. He refused to check that all the necessary documents were in his file. He was not careless, he was stubborn. He was sure he had everything. He had quickly to return without his stuff, without making excuses, but acknowledging the character trait which was responsible. He was a man who knew himself, and he was a good man to know.
I recently published a book which deals with Nigeria in the First World War. At the end of my preface, countering the image which so many have of Nigeria as a land of 419ers, I pointed out that it has also “persons of drive, integrity, and deep pride of race”, and that I had benefitted from working with some of these for almost two decades. I was not thinking just of John Nengel, but he was foremost in my mind.