Tunde Decker

Babatunde "Tunde" Jonathan Decker is a Nigerian historian and academic specializing in African social history, particularly the history of poverty, urban development, and marginalized communities in colonial and post-colonial Nigeria. His latest book is "I Beg to Tell: Everyday Agency in Colonial Lagos, 1940-1960" released in 2025 as part of the African Humanities Series.

Academic career Decker holds a PhD in History and Strategic Studies from the University of Lagos, where he completed a doctoral dissertation entitled "A History of the Poor in Lagos 1861-1960".

Decker has held postdoctoral fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies African Humanities Program in New York, the Leventis Foundation in London, the Urban Studies Foundation in Scotland, and the Africa-Oxford Initiative in Oxford. He was a visiting scholar at the African Studies Centre, School of Area and Global Studies, University of Oxford, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Decker is a Fellow of the Ife Institute of Advanced Studies and the Lagos Studies Association; and he sits on the editorial board of several journals including the Humanus Discourse and the Journal of Culture and Ideas.

Selected publications Decker has published extensively on Nigerian history and African development. His publications include:

Decker, Tunde (2025). I Beg to Tell: Everyday Agency in Colonial Lagos, 1940-1960. Makhanda: NISC Publishers.

Decker has also published a poetry anthology entitled "Sweet Songs for the Trodden" released in 2007.

Professional experience

Before entering academia, Decker worked for a decade in media and public relations, covering Nigeria's aviation industry as a reporter and later news editor for Aviation Week and Tours magazine. As a publicist in Lagos, Decker managed public relations for major corporations including Coca-Cola Nigeria and Nigerian Bottling Company. He also served as conservation manager, media and public affairs for the Nigerian Conservation Foundation.