Human Development in a Digitised Era: A Book of Readings in Honour of Professor Donald Abidemi ODELEYE (Volume 3)

Every book is a conversation across time, and the one you now hold is a conversation spanning disciplines, generations, and worldviews, anchored in Africa yet speaking to a planet in flux. The chapters assembled here, authored by scholars, practitioners, and thinkers from across Nigeria and beyond, did not emerge in a vacuum; they were born in classrooms where AI now sits beside chalkboards, in counselling rooms where anxiety meets digital platforms, in communities where Yorùbá proverbs are being digitized, and in policy spaces where Big Data collides with human dignity. This volume asks one central question in hundreds of voices: What does it mean to be human, to teach, to heal, and to build in a digitized Africa? Three currents run through these pages. 1.       The Renaissance of the African Mind: From “Social work and the African Renaissance” to “Communal Perspective of African Holism in Technological Era”, several contributors return us to first principles; they remind us that Africa’s future cannot be imported; it must be remembered, reimagined, and rebuilt. Technology is not the destination but human flourishing is. The call here, therefore, is to humanise innovation, to ensure that algorithms do not erase ancestry, and that progress does not proceed without purpose.  2.      The Digital Frontier in Education and Mental Health: A second current is unmistakably contemporary: AI literacy in early childhood education, virtual counselling platforms, digital linguistic inequality, and the socio-emotional development of gifted learners in accelerated spaces. Chapters like “Laying the Digital Foundation: Integrating AI Literacy for Equitable Early Childhood Education” and “Digital Counselling Platforms, Legal Standards of Care, and the Management of Premarital Anxiety” show scholars wrestling honestly with both the promise and peril of our tools. The consensus is clear: we must not be digitized; we must digitize with discernment.  3.      Culture, Language, and Sustainable Development: The third current grounds us. “Cultural Creativity and Social Studies Education in Nigeria”, “Bridging Digital Linguistic Inequality through Strengthening Indigenous Language Capacities”, and “Yorùbá Language and Digital Communication: A Critical Review” insist that development divorced from culture is displacement. If African languages cannot thrive online, if our pedagogies cannot carry our stories, then “sustainable development” is only a slogan. These chapters argue for a future where Oyin Adéjọbí’s Aare Olowo can be streamed without losing its soul.  Why This Book Matters Now  The year 2026 finds Africa at a crossroads. Demographically young, technologically ambitious, yet structurally strained. The contributors to this B.O.R. volume refuse easy binaries — neither techno-utopian nor anti-modern. Instead, they model what Prof. D.A. Odeleye’s vision for this series has always been: rigorous scholarship that serves; that asks not only “Can we?” but “Should we?” and “For whom?” To the student, this book is a map of the debates that will shape your profession.  To the policymaker, it is evidence that Africa is not waiting to be “developed”, it is theorizing, testing, and building.  To the elder, it is proof that the communal wisdom of holism still has a place in the age of code.  A Final Reflection  Editing and curating over 300 submissions is, in itself, an act of faith; faith that knowledge is communal, that peer review is still sacred, and that the future is worth writing for. I commend every author whose name appears in this volume for submitting not just papers, but propositions for a more thoughtful, equitable, and human-centered Africa.  May the reader approach these chapters not as conclusions, but as invitations. Read critically. Cite generously. Argue respectfully. And above all, build wisely.  The renaissance will not be automated, it will be authored by us, together.    Prof. Samuel E. Oladipo Vice Chancellor, Tai Solarin Federal University of Education