Nigerian archaeologist and scholar Abidemi Babatunde Babalola and Italian-Ghanaian-American filmmaker and artist Fred Kuwornu have been named one of the 2025 recipients of the Dan David Prize, the world’s largest award for historical scholarship. They will receive $300,000 USD each in recognition of their contributions to historical research.

Abidemi Babatunde Babalola’s research has transformed global understanding of early African technological innovation. By using material science and archaeological methods, he uncovered evidence that glass production in Africa predated European colonialism and was developed independently—challenging long-standing Eurocentric narratives. His discoveries reposition West African forest communities as vital agents in the pre-15th-century trans-Saharan trade through the production and distribution of glass beads, what he calls “the glass bead roads.”

Babalola earned his PhD from Rice University in Houston, Texas, USA. He also holds MA and BA degrees from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Ibadan in Ibadan, Nigeria. He has published extensively in well-known academic journals, including the African Archaeological Review, Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Archaeological Science, International Journal of African Historical Studies; and received numerous awards, including the Shanghai Archaeology Forum Discovery Award (2019), the World Archaeology Congress (WAC) Blaze O’Connor Award (2022), and the Conservation and Heritage Site Award from the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) (2025).