Prof. Babson Ajibade

Babson Ajibade is Professor of African Arts and Visual Culture. He is a former Head, Department of Visual Arts and Technology, former Dean, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, and current Director of Academic Planning, Cross River University of Technology, Calabar. Having taught video (and film) studies and Mass Communication in two other Nigerian universities on part-time basis, his research has been mostly in the area of African visual arts and popular culture, visual arts in education, communication in rural development/social change and on the Nigerian popular video films. An art, media and communications consultant, he holds a BA (Fine Arts) from the University of Benin and MA (Directing) from the University of Calabar. He also has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the Institute for Social Anthropology/Centre for African Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland, and a PhD from the University of Calabar. A painter, designer and media collaborator, Babson’s career has engaged him in various contexts of artistic production, including art exhibitions in Nigeria, Switzerland and Belgium. He has been on the crew of text books and audio-visual teaching materials production for primary and secondary school pupils in Nigeria. One of his video productions (with Mirella Mahlstein) is The Bus Stop, funded by Medienfalle in Basel, as part of the celebrations for the World Refugee Day in Basel, Switzerland, 18-19 June 2005. Babson has published extensively on art, media, communication, video film, culture and society. He has presented papers at international conferences including the AEGIS First European Conference of African Studies at SOAS, London: June 29-July 3 2005, and at the special student panel during the Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) Film Festival, Linacre College, Oxford, 18-21 September 2005. Aside from his numerous academic journal publications, his text books include Audio-visual Media and Techniques (With Efiong Omini), Promotion, Arts and Design: An Integrated Approach to the Basics and Creative and Media Arts: A Practical Source Book, which he edited with Efiong Omini. These books are used by students of fine arts, mass communication, graphics and design in Nigerian universities. He is the author of three Creative Arts books used for teaching art and culture in JSS 1-3 classes in Nigerian secondary schools.
Babson Ajibade has consulted for a variety of organisations such as Future Histories, Talawa Theatre Company and the V&A Theatre Collections, London; Family Health International (FHI)/Strengthening Nigeria’s Response to HIV/AIDS Programme (SNR); the USAID-funded Malaria Action for States (MAPS); and the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), among others. For these organisations and more, Babson Ajibade has consulted in the areas of Review, Editing, Layout and design and Finalisation of states and national level SBC Strategic Documents; Orientation of state teams/ACSM Core Groups in Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC), and the adaptation of National Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM) framework to states, including Messages and Materials Development for Ministries. As Member, Technical Work Group (TWG) for the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework (NSF) Development, Babson participated actively in the development of the six-year National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan (2010-15). As Creative/Technical Consultant to Freedom Band, one of the five competing bands of the annual Carnival Calabar, he brings invention and technical creativity to the celebrations, using pyrotechnics, mechanisation, special/visual effects and spectacle in floats design and visual performance. His most recent inventions are the BMV-6 Ventilator, which ventilates 6 persons simultaneously; the DC Solar Element Stove, which enables users to cook at about 30% the cost of traditional electric cooktops; and the Automatic Linear Brickmaking Machine. The Brickmaking Machine is multilingual, and users can operate in the English, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo languages.

Checkout Babson’s inventions, innovations and research activities: https://www.unicross.edu.ng/Babson_Ajibade/#.