Professor Saheed Aderinto was, until he won the Dan David Award, little recognised in Nigeria.  This is mainly because he teaches at the Florida International University in the United States.  Although only 44 years old, he has been a trailblazer in historical research as he is a Professor of History and African Diaspora.  He is not new to winning awards. He had also won the Nigerian Studies Association Book Prize for “When Sex Threatened the State”, among others.

By winning the Dan David Prize in History, he and his works have now been projected on the global stage, not mainly because of the $300,000 that accompanied the award, the highest financial reward for excellence in the historical discipline in the world, but because of the eulogy of his works by the Dan David Foundation,  the encomiums it attracted from Nigerian leaders and media interest in him. He is the first Nigerian to win the coveted award.