Ebenezer Babatunde Obadare is a Nigerian-American academic. He is the Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, D.C. Until 2021, he was a professor of Sociology at the University of Kansas, United States. Obadare is a scholar of civil society, social change, religion in politics, and international relations.
Education and Career
Obadare was born in Nigeria, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in History and International Relations from Obafemi Awolowo University.
During the military junta period (1993–1995), he worked as a staff writer for TheNEWS and TEMPO magazines. From 1995 to 2001, he taught international relations at his alma mater.
He later moved to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as a Ralf Dahrendorf Scholar and Ford Foundation International Scholar, earning a PhD in Social Policy with distinction. He jointly received the Richard Titmuss Prize for Best PhD Thesis (2004/2005 academic session).
Obadare is: - Editor of the Journal of Modern African Studies - Contributing editor of Current History - Editorial board member of several journals, including: - Journal of Civil Society - Review of African Political Economy - Africa - Peace Building Review - The Sociological Quarterly
In January 2022, he was appointed Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where he contributes expert reports for its Africa Program.
Previously, he was a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kansas, where he was also affiliated with: - Kansas African Studies Center - Center for Global and International Studies
Obadare is also: - Senior Fellow, NYU School of Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs - Fellow, University of South Africa’s Research Institute for Theology and Religion
Research and Publications
Obadare’s research focuses on: - Religion and politics - Civic engagement - Citizenship - Social change in Nigeria and Africa
Major Books
- Pastoral Power, Clerical State: Pentecostalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria (2022)
Synopsis of Pastoral Power, Clerical State
In this volume, Obadare argues that Pentecostal pastors have become dominant public figures in Nigeria, effectively rivaling or replacing traditional state institutions. He examines how their social authority is shaped by gender, class, and sexuality, and how Pentecostalism intersects with politics, policy, and popular culture.
Obadare posits that the decline of the Nigerian intelligentsia paved the way for the rise of the pastoral elite, who command both social prestige and political influence. However, he does not suggest a direct substitution of pastors for scholars, but rather the emergence of a new elite order based on spiritual and charismatic authority.
Other Monographs
- Pentecostal Republic: Religion and the Struggle for State Power in Nigeria (2018)
- Humor, Silence and Civil Society in Nigeria (2016)
- Civic Agency in Africa: Arts of Resistance in the 21st Century (2014)
- The Handbook of Civil Society in Africa (2014)
Edited Volumes (with Wale Adebanwi)
- Governance and the Crisis of Rule in Contemporary Africa: Leadership in Transformation (2016)
- Democracy and Prebendalism in Nigeria: Critical Interpretations (2013)
- Nigeria at Fifty: Narrating the Nation (2011)
- Encountering the Nigerian State (2010)