Dr. Gbadegesin’s lecture By: Melat Gebre @02640216

Dr. Gbadegesin’s lecture was mainly about the importance of character, self-actualization, education, and how it is a combination of these important tools that allow us to become prosperous and individual. He also emphasized how we must then take our talents and give back to our community because it is our responsibility.
Dr. Gbadegesin began his lecture with an ancient African story. It was about a beautiful woman named Iwa who became married to the God of Wisdom. Iwa was the granddaughter of a powerful God and she agreed to marry her husband on the condition that he is not allowed to stress her out and if he does she will leave him. Once Iwa and her husband became married, her husband began to have more clients and he then became a very prosperous man. Iwa then begins to complain that her husband is not doing the house chores correctly, which in turn stresses her out and she leaves her husband. Once Iwa leaves her husband, the number of clients her husband receives goes down and he is no longer prosperous. The moral of the story is that Iwa represents character and once you lose your character (your Iwa) you lose everything.
Dr. Gbadegesin then mentioned some people who came before Jesus and Socrates and those people include The Goddess Ma’at, Vizier Ptahhoter, and Pharaoh Amenemope. He then went in more depth about some ancient Egyptian Gods and nobles. Gods are not except from the principles of morality. Ptabhotep once said “A man of character is a man of wealth”. Dr. Gbadegesin mentioned how a lot was learned from Egyptian texts written by Pharaohs and coffin texts written by nobles. In 1962 Time magazine suggested that coffin texts influenced Moses.
Dr. Gbadegesin then talked about the connection between Ancient Egypt and the Africa. These connections include physical, both the Egyptians and Africans are black, spiritual and philosophical which includes moth metaphysical and ethical. Dr. Gabadegesin then spoke about how humans are constantly remaking themselves and he said if a human is not constantly self-improving then he/she is not a human.
He ended his lecture with the belief that Iwa endures all, “Honor may vanish from your house…Iwa endures”. I really enjoyed Dr. Gbadegesin’s lecture I felt that the drums added an authentic aspect to his lecture. I believe that character is a trait to have and I thought it was creative how Dr. Gbadegesin stressed this character trait through an ancient story.