Deceased October 31, 2013
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In Memory
Jid was the founding director of the University of Oklahoma’s African and African American Studies program, which became a full-fledged department only after his death in October 2013. He single-handedly ran that program for years with few resources. Today it is the thriving Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies, named after an Oklahoma icon in the civil rights movement.
At Jid’s funeral here in Norman, Okla., person after person and family after family spoke at the service, all with stories about how Jid and his wife, Njambi, supported them as Africans coming to Oklahoma to go to school. It seems that any African student—from any part of the continent—who came as a foreign student to virtually any institution of higher learning in Oklahoma (not just OU) was helped by Jid. He would often pick them up at the airport and have them stay at his home until they could get settled in their own housing. Sometimes they were flying into Tulsa instead of nearby Oklahoma City, but it didn’t matter. He would drive the two hours each way to Tulsa to pick them up and get them where they needed to be. He offered advice on how to navigate America, Oklahoma and whatever degree program they were entering. And he remained someone they could call on throughout their time in Oklahoma. Jid apparently did all this, which must have amounted to nearly a full-time job, without any compensation, while teaching full time at OU and without advertising to his colleagues that he was doing it.
The chapel at his memorial service was standing room only, and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a service more moving. The number of people he helped and whose lives he had changed was huge.
Elyssa Faison, chair, University of Oklahoma History Department