I have just learnt of the passing of Professor Lalage Bown through the Nigerian National Council for Adult Education (NNCAE) WhatsApp platform and I thought I should hasten to send in my heartfelt condolences to the whole of UK, Lalage's family, the University of Glasgow and many of my colleagues over there. Lalage was an iconic forerunner within the field of adult education who traversed the breadth and length of Africa like a colossus. She established and was instrumental to the establishment of the first generation academic units of adult education in many parts of Africa. I worked closely with her at the University of Lagos, Nigeria in the 80s where she created the first Department of Adult Education and where she went ahead to become one of the most energetic Deans of Education. Professor Lalage Bown set aside time to read my scripts when I began my academic career. She was equally available for illuminating correspondences as recently as 2020. This icon was the gift of the UK to Africa and the world.  

Lalage was a truly inspirational member of our profession, and we all will feel privileged to know her. 

Sad news indeed.

So sad at a time when many of us still wanted her around. She is the Adult Education Icon in East Africa having founded the then Department of Extra-mural studies at Makerere University College in 1953. 

May her Soul Rest In Peace. If there is any work to be done, I will be available to contribute to her tributes. 

Lalage Bown, a trail blazer in global Adult Education movement, was both multi-tasking and multi-talented. She radiated warmth, love, and compassion throughout her life. The life of Lalage Bown thus offers some important lessons.

First, it shows that everything that has a beginning will always have an ending. The young woman of twenty years who graduated in History at Oxford University chose to serve overseas, leaving behind the comfort  and serenity of her environment and people for the more challenging terrain of Africa. She moved from Ghana to Nigeria, to serve in the building of the Department of Extramural Studies at the University College, Ibadan, then to Zambia before moving to Uganda and finally returning to Nigeria, first to the Ahmadu Bello University in the North of Nigeria and back to the South of Nigeria, serving as Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Lagos before returning to the UK for the last leg of her work.

Another lesson taught by her life is that it is rewarding to support the downtrodden. Her contribution to literacy promotion was part of her conviction that education must be made available to every living person. She made this important point when she delivered the Address to the International Literacy Day celebrations at the UNESCO headquarters in 2009. She was a gentle feminist who believed that women should under no circumstance be marginalised. Yet another lesson was that it is important for academics to be engaged in real life situations. Just like Alan Rogers, Lalage engaged the communities in which she found herself. She was an activist. She served as the founding Secretary of the African Adult Education  Association and as an active participant at the building of the Nigerian National Council for Adult Education. For her role in these institutions, she has received awards and recognitions. A special issue of the journal, Adult Education in Nigeria, was dedicated for the celebration of her birthday in 1997 when she was named the 'mother of Adult Education' in Africa.

Lalage was a team player. She deliberately cultivated the friendship of her colleagues. In Nigeria, she engaged Emmanuel Tugbiyele and S H O Tomori, frontline academic  adult educators, in the training of the adult education professionals. She co-edited a book on Adult Education with S.H.O.Tomori, and another book with J T Okedara, then of the Department of Adult Education at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.  She also looked outside the Ivory Towers for the sustenance of adult education movement as she got the likes of S.S. Fatunde of Oyo State and Hamidu Erubu of Ahmadu Bello University, and she worked tirelessly to build a community of adult educators. Lalage believed in the use of the media and Hauwa Yusuf, Head of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, in Europe was among her latest friends who visited in her small town in the UK. 

She was also an internationalist.  She was an active member of the Roby Kidd-conceived International Council for Adult Education based in Toronto, Canada. She made Syracuse in the United States a home, and built the friendship with the core adult education experts and specialists in that new world. She worked in partnership with the German Adult Education movement and Jakob Horn and Heribert Hinzen were among her regular contacts. Her passion to get the outside world work with the Africa adult education project led, partly, to the publication of the Handbook of Adult Education in West Africa by Hutchinson Press in 1977, supported with funds from the German Adult Education Association. It was therefore a most welcome development when she was deservedly was inscribed into the list of the Hall of Fame of Adult and Continuing Education in the United States.

Lalage as an academic believed firmly in the maintenance of the universal academic gold standard in the discipline of adult education. She insisted that adult education should maintain academic integrity in all the facets of the presentation.  That was one of the reasons universities consistently used her services until she voluntarily pulled back. Her stand gave respectability to the discipline, and we are grateful to her.

In a reaction to her death, Gbolagade Adekanmbi, a Nigerian adult educator who has been  living in Botswana for about three decades,  described the news of her transition as “truly heart-breaking, with a harrowing  search for the right words to describe the depth of the loss”.  That the extent to which the death of this great lady has caused us all grief. My own immediate reaction was to recall the celebration of her birthday at ninety organised by Mike Osborne and his staff in Glasgow when the world of adult education shared views of the many sides of the old woman who remained vigilant and alert to the end. 

She should have been made a world leader to bring peace to an increasingly  troubled world. She was a pacifist that the likes of Roger Boshier of New Zealand/Canada would have appreciated. For me I am eternally  indebted to her for recommending that I be appointed Lecturer at the University of Ibadan to teach the History of Adult Education at the new Adult Education undergraduate programme that was to begin in November 1971. I have remained in that duty since her recommendation was approved by the University Governing Council. 

Emeritus Professor Michael Omolewa, Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Thanks for your message informing us about the sad passing of Lalage.

She was a remarkable woman and great proponent of a broad view of the importance of adults having access to learning. She was an inspirational speaker and I remember attending a seminar she gave where she had arrived without her notes. Undeterred she spoke from memory about the liberating and transformative outcomes of adult education. 

 

The adult education community has lost one of her champions.

In her last letter she reminded me that she first came to Germany in 1947 at the age of 20 as a member of a group of British university students to meet with other students from all over Europe to think about a peaceful living together with other nations on the continent. One could imagine her twinkle around her eyes mentioning that they worked day and night in a half-ruined hotel in Bonn-Bad Godesberg where a decade earlier Chamberlain and Hitler met.

Actually our exchange in this letter was around comparing the 100 years celebrations in the UK and the Adult Education Report of 1919 by the Ministry of Reconstruction, and the Volkshochschulen in Germany who became a constitutional matter in 1919. We each had supported the anniversaries in our countries, she as a patron and speaking at many events, and we had to combine it also with the 50 years anniversary of DVV International. I was hoping for deepening the comparative view John Field had started in a journal recently.

Lalage was a close friend of Helmuth Dolff and a strong supporter of DVV (German Adult Education Association). Dollf served as Director General for 25 years and during that time especially in the 1970s they were most successful in building an international adult education movement. Together with Roby Kidd from Canada, Paul Mhaiki from Tanzania and Paul Bertelson from Denmark they initiated the foundation of the International Council for Adult Education in 1973, and Lalage joined as Rapporteur General of the First ICAE World Assembly in Dar es Salaam.

During the 1970s Lalage served as Professor of Adult Education at several African Universities, including Ghana. Together with Olu Tomori she wrote A Handbook of Adult Education for West Africa which was milestone for the adult education field, and supported and widely disseminated by the DVV Africa Bureau in Accra.

Lalage was my first external examiner when I was Director of the DVV Office in Freetown and a Visiting Professor at the University of Sierra Leone in the 1980s. It was a pleasure working with her drawing on her exceptional broad experience working with students and the University administration combining critical comments on dissertations with recommendations for further developments. She was followed-up as external examiner by Paul Fordham. And in her last letter she mentioned living in the same village with Ada who survived Paul, and that she saw her often. 

Heribert Hinzen

At a time of substantial challenge as we were creating and forging the Faculty/School I came to know Lalage. Even though she was emeritus at the time she was still active and engaged, and she was one of a small handful who was immensely supportive of me and irrepressibly positive about our prospects (and wasn’t she right!). She was and those of us who knew her, even a little, have been privileged to have done so.

Indominable, intrepid, dedicated, engaging, inclusive, imaginative, radical...these are all terms which come to mind when thinking about Lalage. However, there is a phrase which, in other circumstances may seem something of a cliché, but which in her case conveys the essence of her underpinning philosophy- put simply, she was fearless in ‘speaking truth to power’. 

When, in 1992, I had the privilege of being appointed as her successor in Glasgow University as Director and Professor of Adult and Continuing Education I was both delighted and apprehensive in equal measure. Delighted, as DACE (the Department of Adult and Continuing Education) had become, under Lalage’s leadership, not only one of the largest but also one of the most far sighted and innovative departments of its kind in the UK. (Learning from her, I used to remind anyone who would listen that DACE had more adult learner registrations than the University’s entire full-time student population at the time.) I was also rather apprehensive-she had set the bar so high, how might it be possible to ‘follow in her footsteps’?

However, I need not have worried: Lalage’s contribution was so distinctive that she would have been a hard, if not impossible, act for anyone to follow. From the moment she heard of my appointment Lalage was unstinting in her support for the new head of the department in the university that she loved so much. She immediately whisked me off for a few wee drams to celebrate, followed by many great discussions over dinner in our old favorite, the Ubiquitous Chip.

The stories of her time at Glasgow warrant a book in their own right: she looked outward from the university, connecting with the important regional authorities at the time, to the wider community, the media, the City of Glasgow, museums and the like. An annual highlight for her, involved a visit to all the outlying DACE centres throughout the west of Scotland. She also looked inward to the university, working tirelessly to engage with colleagues in all Faculties and Departments about the importance of widening access, promoting lifelong learning, part-time study opportunities and outreach activities. She also played a significant role in the major committees of the university. Her interventions in Senate were legendary- in one account, when there was a disagreement over what she regarded as some minor matter but which some members viewed as a ‘crisis’, she stood up to say, in her typical ‘truth to power’ way, that unless colleagues had shared her experience of being at an equivalent university meeting in Africa when the room they were in was surrounded by an aggressive group of men wielding spears, they had no right to use the term ‘crisis’! 

Her extraordinary charisma was evident in the memories of so many staff and students- plus Glasgow taxi drivers, who all seemed to know ‘The Prof’. But perhaps one of the most memorable occasions was when she was awarded an honorary degree by Glasgow University- a rare honour, of which she was very proud- and her powerful charge to the graduands resulted in a tremendous standing ovation.

I respected, and loved, Lalage, and like many from all over the world, already miss her dearly- we’ve had so many fun times in Glasgow, Shrewsbury and Dublin. Just over two years ago Lalage took the lengthy train and ferry to Dublin to speak at a seminar I hosted on the topic of …learning in later life. Needless to say, she not only stole the show, but kept me up late into the night chatting and drinking- Irish whiskey, rather than her favorite Scotch, but, as ever, she didn’t complain!

Maria Slowey

Professor and Director of Adult and Continuing Education, Glasgow University (1992-2004)

Director, Higher Education Research Centre, (previously VP) Dublin City University (2004-2021)

All Lalage Bown's colleagues, friends and admirers will feel deeply indebted to Robert Hamilton for this fine account of Lalage's life and achievements.

There is universal sadness at Lalage's death.  Everyone who met her personally remembers the impact she made on them, the interest she took in their lives, experiences and ideas, and the effort she made to help and encourage them.  Over the past 40 years I have helped organise numerous conferences at which she has been present. When not herself a keynote speaker (as she often was) Lalage was always first choice to sum up proceedings, and not just because she discharged her task so graciously, never leaving anyone out who deserved thanks or praise.  It was quite as much for her skill at picking out and rehearsing key elements in the discussion and yet challenging participants by reminding them of dimensions of the issue they insufficiently addressed, agendas for future reflection and research.  And afterwards in the bar or over dinner Lalage was invariably the the centre of lively and cheerful conversation, making sure that newcomers were welcomed into the circle and encouraged to say their piece.

Lalage will of course will be remembered as much as a scholar, writer, academic leader, and a lover of books and literature, as a vivacious conversationalist.  For all her charm and outgoing disposition, Lalage was a clear-minded critic who would 'call out' specious arguments and faulty reasoning, so her honest opinions on a piece of writing or a proposed course of actions were sought and valued.  

How prescient were her parents when they named her 'Lalage', meaning chattering or talkative.  Lalage could talk and talk as my wife Julia and I were reminded just ten days ago the very week-end before she had her fatal Monday morning fall.  We found that a friendly 'catch-up' telephone call had lasted nearly an hour by the time it ended and I fear we had badly interrupted Lalage's writing of Christmas cards which she was engaged in when we called.  Conversation ranged over her plans for her Christmas stay with mutual friends, her brother's health and the recent passing of her sister and associated memorial events, her adventures on her last visit to London, her contributions to the local Talking Newspaper for the Blind, the North Shropshire bye-election (she fortunately lived to the following Friday to learn that the outcome was the one she fervently hoped for!), pieces of work she had been reviewing, plans to take family to the pantomime the following week-end, where and when to celebrate her coming 95th birthday, Shrewsbury Rotary Club, whether the conifer in her garden could be saved, the controversial decision of the local planners to approve development of a rather noisy restaurant over her back wall, the prospects of a possible surgical operation on her lungs, asking about our family and sharing news of her own, the support she had received from neighbours during the pandemic.  Full of enthusiasm and passion as ever, interested in everything, phenomenal recall of small details, gratitude for help received, optimism and realism in regard to her future plans to the effect that 'of course I may not be here, but whatever happens I have had a good life'.  She certainly left this life in full flow and in possession of all her mental faculties, with not a trace of self pity regarding the physical strain that all that 'getting about' caused her in her last years.

Personally I only knew Lalage for the second half of her life (and in a select few of her multiple roles and interests), visiting her for the first time in the late 1970s at the University of Lagos.  Because of her commitment to African university development and international exchange she was a natural choice to serve on the Commonwealth Standing Committee on Student Mobility and Higher Education Development when i was Education Director at the Commonwealth Secretariat.  We  later served together as Deputy Chairs of the Council for Education in the Commonwealth during which time she authored several important studies on Commonwealth academic exchange and student mobility, the first forty years of Commonwealth Educational Co-operation and the experiences of English-speaking African countries with regard to introducing universal primary education.  In all these endeavours she worked with a group of co-authors and for many of them it as much the experience of collegial working under Lalage's chairmanship as the final product itself, that lingers in the mind.  At the Council for Education in the Commonwealth, Lalage strove successfully to bring younger people, particularly women from a mixture of ethnic backgrounds, on to a Committee that had been populated by elderly white males.  And equally typical of her, when she felt she had made her contribution she moved on from committee responsibilities while continuing her support and participation in activities.

The professional association through Commonwealth institutions, and spilling over into other fora like the biennial Oxford conferences of the UK Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET) and Ghana School Aid led to close personal friendship; and Lalage often stayed at our homes in Surrey, the Peak District and now Cambridgeshire.  Julia and I feel nothing but gratitude that our lives have been touched and enriched by hers.

Peter Williams
(formerly at University of London Institute of Education and the Commonwealth Secretariat)

Sometimes a special individual enters your life and you’re never quite the same for knowing them. So it was with Lalage. An outstanding scholar, standing up for justice, challenging injustice…..an inspiration to us all. But perhaps what I will remember most about her was that unique ability she had to be genuinely interested in everyone she spoke to. From the most senior academic to the young waiter that served her breakfast on the morning of her 90th birthday celebrations, her interest in the individual was genuine and heartfelt. What a legacy she leaves us. It was a privilege to have spent time with her and if we can all be just a little bit more like Lalage the world will be a better place.

I had written to Lalage in March of this year to find out a little about how she got interested in adult education, as I was hoping she would contribute a reflection in a possible book on what had explained her research focus – whether it came from books, people or enabling environments. She explained some of these connections below in a letter of March 2021.

We often invited Lalage to our annual conferences on African Studies in Edinburgh, and she would stay with us. I used particularly to admire her often being the first person to put her hand up to pose a critical question and especially if the speakers had given insufficient attention to the gender and adult education dimensions of their topics,

‘Very best wishes to you both too – with the beginning of Spring. I have kept busy during Lockdown, in spite of constant letters signed “Matt”, i.e. the Min of Health, telling me with ever more superlatives that I’m at risk and mustn’t go out anywhere! I’m just about to get my second jab/jag ……….

Like you, I’m beginning to dispose of books – of course, I gave 2,000 some while ago to help with the Oxford African Studies and more recently gave a heap as part of our BNET donation to the Jos University Library, which had been burnt down. We are contemplating a second consignment to them, so if you have some useful books which Edinburgh don’t need, please let me know.

About my own publications, quite a few were deliberately published in and for Africa, so not easily available in this country.

Don’t know what you want about origins, but when I was an undergraduate and presided over the Oxford University Socialist Club (and briefly as Speaker of the National Youth Parliament), I met several people who had come to university by an adult education route. In fact one was a contemporary of mine at Somerville, who had worked her way through the WEA. And I fell in with a student at Ruskin College (the workers’ college) called Jack Ashley. He came from Wigan and was a member of the Chemical Workers’ Union – later went to Cambridge and became president of the Cambridge Union; I mention him particularly because you might have heard of him – he later became a peer and was profoundly deaf. Also, I was a member of the National Union of Students and I and a Somerville friend ran their Hardships Committee, through which we met all kinds of working people who were struggling at University.  So I already had an interest in Ad Ed as a student, and then got a scholarship for what was the equivalent of a one-year Masters I guess: a practical and theoretical programme run by the Oxford Extra-Mural Dept. My research was on adult education and social and economic development in Africa, with Thomas Hodgkin. I’m afraid I never kept that work! Being at Oxford, I met and read several writers important in their day, e.g. Raymond Williams. Over the years, often living in fairly remote places, I bought a lot of books to try to keep up and also fructify my own  research, especially all the main relevant UNESCO works.

With Love to Pravina (like her I have been glued to the TV following all the US developments. It is frightening to see how many people are mesmerised by a shoddy fool like Trump),

Lalage’

 

I have only just seen the news of Lalage’s death, which brings great sadness.  Thank you for the wonderful tribute you published, and the others that followed your own.  As a recent past Principal of Somerville College, I met Lalage quite a few times and was always in awe of her.  But it was a benign feeling of awe:  I was always aware of her kind interest, and she was always ready to give helpful advice in the most friendly way.   She sought the help of Somervillians in providing books for the destroyed library that she supported, and she was an inspiration for me in part because she was steadfastly confident that the college and its alumni would always be voices for progress.  Nor did she hesitate to speak up at meetings of alumni and supporters, for the causes that she wanted us to support. Your obituary tells me so much more than I ever knew.  The College will be immensely proud of her, as Jan Royall’s tweet shows.  I feel it was a privilege to know her, and I also feel deprived of the chance to hear so much more from her.  Few people dying in their nineties leave behind such a strong sense that the world was not ready to lose them.

My condolences to all those close friends and family who have lost such an exceptional person from their lives.

Alice Prochaska

Principal of Somerville College Oxford 2010-17, and now Honorary Fellow

Lalage was a wonderful person and set an excellent example for all of us engaged in supporting adult learners and those working with them as educators and advocates. Lalage was one of the greats, but never positioned herself in the limelight, she was just there, very impressive as Lalage always was. A great loss, but we will remember Lalage. 

We were privileged in 2003 to host Lalage at the Institute for Adult Basic Education, University of South Africa. She came to South Africa as part of a DFID arranged review of our literacy program and we benefited immensely from her insights and her stories. Lalage exuded such positive energy. She was unstoppable, jumping on and off planes as she visited communities and classes in deep rural areas. 

She has indeed left an enduring legacy.

I have to mention that, although in private Lalage lived up to her (Greek) name of wise "Twitterer", in public she kept strictly to the time allotted to her.  She gave a 20 minute (to the dot) talk to the UN Association in Douglas (IoM) on women's education.  One UNA member appeared unable to distinguish between girls and women.  Lalage put her right in her firmest manner by saying that education for girls had for a large part, though by no means completely, been taken care of worldwide, but women's education had not had nearly as much attention. Another UNA member was a member of the Manx parliament and the next day, inspired by Lalage, presented a strong argument in favour of paying much greater attention to the education of women in all aspects in the Isle of Man - the first part of the UK to have universal (secondary) education in the 1600's.

I am also embedding a few remarks by friends that were gathered for Lalage's 85th Birthday (and my 65th birthday) celebrations in 2012.

Some stories about Lalage from friends on her 85th birthday, 2012

 

For someone who doesn’t actually drive she is a great navigator.

Except once the mountains changed sides and country roads tend to get narrower... narrower... and even narrower since she remembers going that way on a bicycle or a horse.

Ignore all closed gates, cattle grids and signs saying “Private no entry”.

Val Watson, cousin and ‘chauffeur’, Shrewsbury

 

It was great to hear that there is, at last, going to be a celebration of Lalage's 85th birthday.

Reflecting on the massive impact Lalage made as Director of Department of Adult and Continuing Education in Glasgow, Frank Pignatelli, then Director of Education at Strathclyde Region (the biggest education authority in Europe) once told me that so committed and effective was Lalage in pursuing the cause of wider access to adult education, that lunch with Lalage never cost him less than £10,000!

Joyce Connon, formerly Scottish Secretary of Workers’ Educational Association, Scotland

 

After graduation, Lalage’s graduates from the Department of Adult and Continuing Education took her out to dinner.

As soon as their mums, dads and friends realised who their dinner guest was, they treated Lalage like a rock star.  They clapped and cheered when she arrived, telling her how truly wonderful she was, and how her teaching had been transforming.

I've kept her speech and, every so often, read it to remind myself why we do what we do.

Jean Barr, formerly of DACE (Department of Adult and Continuing Education), University of Glasgow

 

I have lots of cheerful memories of times with Lalage in Nigeria.  I remember very clearly one conference dinner in Ibadan, I think, it was in.

In a room with gold and purple chairs and generally lavish display of opulence, Lalage as the conference speaker discussed the links between adult education and democracy.  Her way was, as always, respectful and diplomatic but forceful and courageous, and I wondered to myself how the authorities responded to her brand of commitment.

I tip my hat to her.

Tom Schuller, formerly of Birkbeck College, University of London, and OECD, Paris

 

Lalage herself tells a great story of how terrible a driver she was — to the extent that she eventually gave up completely.

Apparently when she was somewhere in Africa she set off by car for dinner at a friend's house some way out of town.  In true Wind in the Willows Mr Toad style she hurtled down the road as she approached the house.  On arrival at the gate she careered full tilt into a concrete block structure which stood at the entrance.  The block obediently split perfectly in the middle.

All this was observed in great astonishment by her hosts from the balcony of the house.

I think they managed to forgive her!

Robert Hamilton, Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Glasgow

 

Lalage once took a taxi home to her flat in Partick from her department in Oakfield Avenue, about a ten minute journey.

On the way she got chatting with the taxi driver.  As a result he signed up for a one year Access Course, completed a degree in Hispanic Studies and wound up living in Brazil married to a Brazilian.

Ten life-changing minutes with Lalage.

Alec MacKinnon, Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Glasgow

 

When I arrived in Glasgow in 1992, the University was awash with stories of Lalage's interventions in Senate*.  At least one of them prompted a spontaneous round of applause from the assembled professoriate when she entered the College Club for her usual post-meeting glass of whisky.

Losing patience with a lengthy, meandering debate about the trivial trials associated with some aspect of university life, Lalage popped up to describe, in graphic detail, the challenge she faced when she tried to deliver an adult education lecture in Africa in a building surrounded by a dangerous bunch of armed men.

No better woman to put notions of 'university hardship' in true perspective!

Maria Slowey, Dublin City University, and formerly of Department of Adult and Continuing Education, University of Glasgow

* Senate has overall responsibility for academic matters in a university.

 

Shortly after her arrival at the University of Zambia, Lalage took over the African Studies tutorial group I was in, and soon she gave us a question in Economic Development.  I had just returned from studying economics in, then, Czechoslovakia where I grew fascinated by how economics as a subject was structured as a specialization right from the onset.  I used my Czechoslovakian experience to tackle my new professor’s question.

When marking my script, Lalage swore through her teeth; she was convinced that I had ‘lifted’ the material, searched for second opinion from a colleague who concurred.  Having decided to fail me, she felt that she had to caution me from this unbecoming practice only to find that I was no school‒leaver.

Once the mishap was cleared up, she showed genuine interested in my experiences behind the ‘iron curtain’ and I have remained her favourite student and adopted nephew ever since.

Meshack Matshazi, formerly of University of Fort Hare, Eastern Cape, South Africa

 

I first met Lalage in 1961 when she was just another name on an extra‒mural department file in Uganda.

She was revealed as a committed and determined adult educator and champion of all those without formal learning.  It was also clear that she would be hard to gainsay!

Meeting Lalage in person not only confirmed these first impressions, but has also been a long, stimulating and pleasurable experience over more than thirty years.

We continue.

Paul Fordham (now deceased), neighbour and colleague, Shrewsbury

 

Lalage visited the death bed of her dear friend, Ieuan Hughes.  Determined to make their last meeting as easy and respectful as possible, Lalage taught herself a long speech in Welsh.

She rehearsed it endlessly, putting the final polish to her recitation on the train from Glasgow.

Arriving at Ieuan’s side, she made her long speech in fluent Welsh, forgetting nothing.  Only to hear him say: “My dear, dear Lalage, I’m afraid my Swahili is a bit rusty” ...

As told by Lalage Bown to Oili Mercer, March 2012

 

We first met Lalage in the early 1980s shortly after her arrival to the Scottish Institute of Adult and Continuing Education and the Scottish Adult Literacy something or other.  Lalage just appeared, took her place in the firmament with no fuss and the character of this new bright star made itself known.

Lalage’s time in Glasgow coincided with that of the benign and creative ‘brothers’, Vernon Smith and Pablo Foster.  She too was benign, a woman of presence and substance, who beamed out reason, optimism, decency, all other qualities associated with the immediate post-war years; you sensed that you could trust and rely on her.

She embodied good development and supported it by her actions.  She supported our work in the Workers Educational Association and the Adult Learning Project, she had worked in one African country after another, she never seemed weary in well-doing.  She worked hard, she was steady, and she was still there.

Apart from once when she really let it rip (she confronted the Very Unreverend Ian Paisley at the Wigtown Book Festival), she did not seem to have a boiling point.

We remember Lalage’s first speech in Glasgow, her burning enthusiasm for African women in development, her spirited chairing of assorted committees and organising of conferences, and her leadership in producing written works.

Our dear friend and admired colleague is patient, productive (sometimes overly so making it hard for us mere mortals to keep up with), and always 100 per cent engaged on whatever is in front of her.

Lalage had and still has, she was still hard at work ten minutes ago, an irresistibly positively working-together spirit that incorporates the contributions of everybody who want to be involved.  How refreshing that was and always will be.

Although the word ‘lady’ is now avoided, we feel it appropriate for Lalage because of her lifelong consistent support for the British Commonwealth of Nations and UNESCO, which, hopefully, prefigures a World Commonwealth of Nations that will one day emerge.

Here’s to the great lady of world adult education!

Colin and Gerri Kirkwood, friends and colleagues, Glasgow

I am deeply saddened to hear this news. The sadness of the news is only mitigated by the introduction of Prof. Thaddeus Ulzen, whose father I also knew so well and respected for his work. Thank you for sharing.

Lalage was such a towering figure in the adult education movement in Africa. I remember when I went to apply for the job that she had just left at the Centre for Continuing Education, then the Institute for Adult Studies at Makerere, I was told that the job was not suitable for a woman. I looked at Bernard Oyango, the then Registrar and said "but a woman just had this job" . He replied that she was different. Having completed my doctoral research on how empowered women are described in this society, I finally understood what he meant. In this society the highest form of empowerment that describes a woman is that of a woman who is a man, Omuhasi musacha, a women who does anything a man does without thinking twice about it. She was the true embodiment of empowerment. It was an honour to have walked a little part of this journey in her shadow.  May Her Soul Rest in Eternal Peace.    

Thelma Awori

 

Lalage was one of the warmest and most generous people I have met, and possessed a formidable mind and astuteness about people which I will never forget. She always seemed lit from within to me. I met Lalage in her role as a patron of the Centenary Commission for Adult Education, for which I was a commissioner, which I know John Holford has written about. But I had the great honour in July 2019, at the end of the last face to face SCUTREA conference, of interviewing her, very informally, while she waited in my office for a taxi to take her back to the station. I have the recording and the transcript of the interview. It was a remarkable moment as, as it was so informal and off the cuff, Lalage talked about her time at Oxford and her memories of being there with Tony Benn, Shirley Williams and Margaret Thatcher, who she was quite unimpressed by. She was very funny and almost mischievous. She was also wonderful on learning to be an adult educator just after the war and the importance of the United Nations. I had the very highest regard for Lalage and, without wishing to be clichéd, she was a genuine inspiration to me and a touchstone for adult education as a pedagogy.