Foremost African philosopher Professor Sophie Oluwole has died.

She was aged 83.

The news was confirmed by Dean of the Faculty of Art, University of Ibadan, Prof Muyiwa Falaiye.

According to him, she passed on at about 8pm on Sunday after a protracted illness.

Prof. Oluwole, also known as Mamalawo, was the first female doctorate degree holder in philosophy in Nigeria. She was a practitioner of Yoruba philosophy, a way of thinking which stems from the ethnic group based in Nigeria.

Oluwole was born in Igbara-oke, Ondo State, in 1936. She went to school in Ife, and was critical of the education system in the 1940s, saying a woman’s career prospects were “not your ambition: it was your parents’ ambition.