Richard Henderson is 90 years old, and he just made the journey back to Nigeria for the first time in 64 years to witness the Ofala Festival in 2026. That kind of devotion to a place and its people tells you everything you need to know about what Ofala means to those who have experienced it.
Henderson is an American anthropologist and author whose connection to Nigeria clearly ran deep enough to pull him across the Atlantic at 90. The Ofala Festival, a royal celebration rooted in Igbo tradition, has that effect on people. It is the kind of living cultural moment that stays with you for decades.
What brought him back after all this time is the question worth sitting with.
Originally published by BusinessDay.