Professor Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias FBA
It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of our colleague and friend, Professor Paulo de Moraes Farias FBA (1935-2026).
Professor Paulo de Moraes Farias at the African Studies Association of the UK conference hosted by the University of Birmingham in 2018.
Paulo was an eminent historian of West Africa whose intellectual interests spanned many centuries and different types of sources. He will be remembered for his scholarship on epigraphic sources for the Medieval period of West Africa, for developing new approaches to understanding the 17th century Timbuktu Chronicles, and for his engagement with oral traditions of the Mande, Songhay, Baatombu and Yoruba. In recognition of the significance of his scholarship, Paulo was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2017.
While Paulo led the way in his discipline, we shall also remember him as a kind and generous colleague who played a pivotal role in shaping African Studies at the University of Birmingham.
A member of the Centre of West African Studies from the late 1960s to his retirement in 2003, Paulo was a wonderful teacher and a committed supervisor and mentor to research students from all over the world, many of whom have since become scholars in their own right.
After his retirement, Paulo remained in close contact with the Department (now Department of African Studies & Anthropology): he was invited to give the 2015 Fage Lecture and attended research events up to the most recent times. He will be greatly missed.