Adelaja Ifedapo
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Adelaja Ifedapo | |
|---|---|
 Ifedapo in 1953 | |
| Premier of Asase Lewa | |
| In office 1 May, 1953 – 11 November, 1960 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Folarin Layeni |
| Foreign Minister of Asase Lewa | |
| In office 1 May, 1953 – 11 November, 1960 | |
| President | Edudzi Agyeman |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Folarin Layeni |
| Vice-Chairman of the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International | |
| In office 2 September, 1929 – 11 November, 1960 | |
| Chairman | Edudzi Agyeman |
| Preceded by | Edudzi Agyeman |
| Succeeded by | Folarin Layeni |
| Chairman of the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International | |
| In office 10 July, 1912 – 2 September, 1929 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Edudzi Agyeman |
| Member of the Presidium of the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International | |
| In office 10 July, 1912 – 11 November, 1960 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Adelaja Ifedapo October 30, 1870 Longwoodtown, Gundayaland, Odo |
| Died | November 11, 1960 (aged 90) Edudzi Agyeman City, Asase Lewa |
| Political party | Asalewan Section of the Workers' International (1912-1960) |
| Other political affiliations | Pan-Bahian Section of the Workers' International (1907-1912) Estmerish Section of the Workers' International (1901-1907) Social Democracy of Estmere (1890-1901) |
| Education | Darford College, University of Morwall (BA, BPhil, PhD |
| Occupation | Politician • revolutionary • academic |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Asalewan Section of the Workers' International Asase Lewa |
| Branch/service | People's Revolutionary Army |
| Years of service | 1918–1960 |
| Rank | Political commissar |
| Battles/wars | Asalewan Revolution Great War |
Adelaja Ifedapo (30 October 1870 - 11 November, 1960) was an Asalewan politician, political theorist, historian, diplomat, and councilist revolutionary who founded the Asalewan Section of the Workers' International in 1912 and played a leading role in the Section until his death in 1960. One of the principal early theorists of Pan-Bahianism, Adelaja served as a key leader of the movement's left-wing from its origins until his death. Furthermore, following the Asalewan Revolution's completion, Adelaja served as the first Premier and Foreign Minister of Asase Lewa, helping forge early links between Asase Lewa and other socialist states and playing a role in the establishment of the Congress of Bahian States and United Bahian Republic. Ideologically a Nemtsovist, Councilist, and Pan-Bahian, he and Edudzi Agyeman formalized and developed these ideas into the philosophy of Nemtsovism-Tretyakism-Adelajism-Edudzism.
Adelaja was born in the colonial city of Longwoodtown, now Ajase, to a Gundaya father and Bahio-Imaguan mother from modern-day Imagua and the Assimas, and grew up in an upper-class Eucleanized Bahian family in Longwoodtown before studying political philosophy and history at the University of Morwall in Estmere. Shortly after enrollment, raised tuition fees at the University forced him to drop out of the university and obtain employment as a dockworker; his considerable experiences with racial discrimination in Estmere and life in the Estmerish working-class amidst the widespread economic inequality of Long Peace-era Estmere led to his political radicalization and involvement with the early Estmerish trade union and socialist movements, joining Social Democracy of Estmere in 1890 and helping form the Estmerish Section of the Workers' International in 1901. After obtaining a scholarship from the Federation of Autonomous Workers' Unions, Adelaja re-enrolled at the University of Morwall; there, Adelaja became the leader of a small circle of left-leaning Bahian students and was catapulted to prominence following the publication of his PhD dissertation, Houreges and Colonizers, which analyzed the notion that the Sogoulie failed primarily because of the rebels' inability to unite across tribal lines or arouse widespread lower-class support, and more broadly blamed the Hourege for Bahia's underdevelopment, and by extension colonization, as Bahian elites did not have a material interest in economic development to the same extent as the Euclean bourgeoisie.
Influencing Pan-Bahianism's large-scale rejection of reactionary, neo-Houregic politics, Houreges and Colonizers cemented Adelaja's position in the early Pan-Bahian movement and he became a leading organizer at the Pan-Bahian Congress of 1907, where he split with Daniel Amankose in leading a left-wing minority of delegates in calling for a revolutionary, rather than gradualist, overthrow of the Toubacterie, and formed the Pan-Bahian Section of the Workers' International shortly thereafter. After the Pan-Bahian Section partitioned itself into Sections delineated by colonial territory in 1912, Adelaja led the Odonian Section's rapid growth throughout the 1910s and supported its decision, following the Section's outlawment and the leadership's flight to Kedzito, to proclaim revolutionary war in 1918, considered the beginning of the Asalewan Revolution. Though leading the Odonian Section for most of the 1920s, Adelaja's power within the Section became eclipsed by Edudzi Agyeman in concert with the decline of the intelligentsia's power in the Section and rise in the power of its working-class and peasant wings, and Edudzi replaced him as the Section's leader in 1929.
Nevertheless, Adelaja remained the second-most powerful figure in the Section and he remained the Section's primary liaison with the international Councilist movement, influential in securing military support from the revolutionary states of Valduvia, Chistovodia, and Dezevau in the 1940s and early 1950s. Furthermore, Adelaja began a long-term political alliance with Edudzi during the Lokossa Rectification Campaign in the late 1930s after the Section's retreat from Kedzito to the Highland district of Lokossa, with the two men leading the mass purge of Abidemists from the Section. Following decolonization and the withdrawal of Estmerish troops in 1951, and in the context of mass discontment in Asalewan society thanks to severe economic crisis during and after the Solarian War, and to disatisfaction with the conservatve, pro-Estmerish rule of home rule Prime Minister Arko Kwarteng and Kwarteng's outlawment of the leading opposition party, the Labour Party, the Section achieved victory and completed the Asalewan Revolution in 1953, after which Adelaja became the first Premier and Foreign Minister of the new state of Asase Lewa.