The African Studies Association mourns the passing of Professor Bethwell Allan Ogot (August 3, 1929 – January 30, 2025), a pioneering historian and one of Africa’s most influential voices in the study of history, theory, and methodology. Ogot taught at Makerere University and the University of Nairobi where he chaired the History Department.
Professor Ogot is remembered not only for his scholarly rigor but for his conviction that “a human being is, by nature, historicus.”[1]
His legacy continues at African Studies Association through the Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize, awarded annually to the author of the best book in East African studies the previous year.
1 Ogot Bethwell, A, History as Destiny and History as Knowledge: Being Reflections on the Problems of Historicity and Historiography (Anyange Press, 2005).
