Tai Solarin, 20 August 1922 – 27 July 1994. Public domain.
My friend and colleague Lola Tinubu, co-founder of the Association of Black Humanists, shared with me that today, August 20, is Tai Solarin Day 2021. Dr Tai Solarin was an open atheist humanist born in Nigeria this day in 1922. He died in 1994. He was a leading civil rights activist, imprisoned for challenging the system. He campaigned vigorously against religion in school and, alongside his wife, established the first humanist school in Africa, which is still one of the best schools in Nigeria.
Lola shared with me this piece that she wrote: “Every freethinker on the planet should know about Tai Solarin. He was born in Nigeria on 20 August 1922. His actual name was Augustus Taiwo Solarin, but he was popularly and affectionately known as Uncle Tai Solarin. Tai is shortened Taiwo. He was one of twins. Taiwo in Yoruba means, the first to taste life. He was the first of the twins to be born. His twin sister was Kehinde Solarin. She died in 1991. The first to be born in multiple births in Yoruba Land is called Taiwo. The second is Kehinde and the third is Idowu.
Tai Solarin served in Britain's Royal Air Force during World War II, and finished a bachelor's degree in history and geography at the University of Manchester. He had his post-graduate studies at the University of London. His wife was an English woman, Sheila Mary Solarin (nee Tuer).
On return to Nigeria, he became a leading educator. Tai Solarin as well as being an educator became one of the leading post-Independence civil rights critics and activists in Nigeria. He was also an author and a philosopher.
In Nigeria, where religion dominates the public space, Tai Solarin was an open atheist humanist. As well as his political activism, he was a humanist activist. He was bent on letting Nigeria knew that you could be good without religion.
From 1952 to 1955, he was the Principal of Molusi College in Ijebu Igbo in the southwest of Nigeria. The governing board of the school demanded that he opened the school each day with hymns and prayers and that his students attended church every Sunday. He protested this vigorously. He wanted schools to be a religion-free zone so as to allow young people to think for themselves. He left Molusi College because he did not agree with the imposition of religion on young people.
Tai Solarin went on with his wife, Sheila to establish the first humanist school in Nigeria. His school is still going strong in Nigeria. It is called Mayflower School, in the southwestern part of Nigeria.
Tai Solarin was defiant until his very last breath. He was imprisoned for criticising corrupt governments in Nigeria. He was not afraid of being tortured or killed. He spoke out loud against bad governance, against any harmful practices of religion, culture, and tradition. His school is still one of the very best in Nigeria.
What remains unique about Tai Solarin was how he got away with being an open atheist humanist in Nigeria. Ordinarily being an open atheist humanist should be a problem in Nigeria, but Nigerians saw a good human in humanist Tai Solarin and loved him! In honour of his memory, Tai Solarin University Of Education is named after him.
Happy Tai Solarin Day!“
Thanks, Lola, for sharing the life of this fascinating man with me!
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