130. On Flourishing, Fugitivity & The Power Of The Monster’s Story / Dr Bayo Akomolafe

In Conversation with Nathalie Nahai

In today’s conversation, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Bayo Akomolafe - a widely celebrated international speaker, teacher, public intellectual and essayist, whose convening of the concepts of ‘postactivism’, ‘transraciality’ and ‘ontofugitivity’ have ignited richer, more vibrant explorations of what it means to deepen into our collective potential.

The author and editor of We Will Tell Our Own Story! with Professors Molefi Kete Asante and Augustine Nwoye, and These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to my Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books, 2017), Bayo is a recipient of the 2021 New Thought Walden Award, which honors people who use empowering spiritual ideas and philosophies to change lives and make our planet a better place.

Currently writing his third book as part of a trilogy of creative publications, Bayo is the author of multiple essays on matters ranging from the nature of science, the coronavirus pandemic, and racism, to tricksters, climate chaos, and unschooling.Having been invited to be the Coordinator/Special Envoy of the International Alliance for Localization, a project of Local Futures (USA) in 2014, Bayo temporarily left his lecturing position in Covenant University, Nigeria, to help build this Alliance for a more beautiful world.

Among other universities, Bayo has been Visiting Professor at Middlebury College, where he taught on postactivism and ‘transraciality’ (his neo-materialist take on racialization), and he has taught at Sonoma State University (CA, USA), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada), and Schumacher College (Totnes, England).

He is a widely appreciated author and facilitator, globally recognized for his poetic, unconventional, counterintuitive, and indigenous take on global crises, civic action and social change. Bayo currently teaches with the Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies (CLIE) program at Pacifica Graduate Institute (CA, USA) and as Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of Vermont.

I had the precious opportunity to meet Bayo at the Planet Local Summit in 2023, and I was so captivated by the poetic way in which he shared his provocative, shape-shifting ideas, that I simply had to invite him to join me here in conversation, so I could share this with you.

Recorded on 5th December 2023.

WEBSITES

• https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/
• https://www.dancingwithmountains.com/
• https://www.emergencenetwork.org/
• https://scienceandnonduality.com/

POSITIONS

• Host – We Will Dance with Mountains: Into the Cracks!
• Executive Director – The Emergence Network (A Post-Activist Project)
• Board Member – Science and Non-Duality (USA)
• Board Member – Mutual Aid Network (USA)
• Consultant – UNESCO / Imagining Africa’s Future
• Board Member – Real Economy Lab (UK)
• Lecturer – CLIE, Pacifica Graduate Institute, California (USA)