Báyò Akómoláfé

Báyò Akómoláfé is a poet, philosopher, and teacher deeply rooted in Yoruba traditions. His renowned expression “the times are urgent, let us slow down” synthesizes his quest for ways of responding to crises that break from colonial logics. Bayo is the Hubert Humphrey Distinguished Professor of American Studies in Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA (August 2025), a Member of the Club of Rome, an Ambassador for the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, the inaugural W.E.B. Du Bois Scholar in Residence at the Schumacher Centre for a New Economics, and the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at the Aspen Institute. He is currently writing his third book, ‘An Ocean of Milk: A Parable of Love in Three Numbers’. Báyò is the founder of The Emergence Network and curator of the “We Will Dance with Mountains” program. His work is marked by concepts and practices that emerge from indigenous cosmologies and non-Western thoughts, inspiring different ways of inhabiting the world.

Photo: Rodrigo Fonseca