Joop Berkhout

Joop Jozef Berkhout (31 March 1930 – 11 February 2025) was a Dutch–Nigerian book publisher who was the Okun-Borode of Ile-Ife and was also the founding managing director of Evans Brothers Limited in Nigeria, and founding executive chairman of Spectrum Books (until 2008), and Safari Books Limited, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Early life and education Berkhout was born on 31 March 1930, in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

Career As Berkhout recounted, some of his family members lived in Australia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa following the World War II. He decided to go to Africa. His journey in Africa began in Tanzania where he got trained at the Oxford University Press (OUP) and began selling books for a bookshop. He subsequently moved to work in Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, then finally to Nigeria. to become its pioneering General Manager in Nigeria, with better offers. After deciding on which company to accept its offer with his wife, they opted for Evans. They moved to Nigeria in 1966.

Until his death, Berkhout was the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Michael and Cecilia Ibru University, Agbarha, Delta State, Nigeria. Business Day said that Berkhout lived about 60 years in Nigeria until his death. His death was mourned by the Nigerian President.

Awards and honours Berkhout got an Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) award from the Nigerian government. He also got the chieftaincy title of "Okunborode of Ife" in 1992 by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade.