Remembering Simon

Simon was a colleague, a mentor, and a friend, whose indomitable spirit, sense of humor, and enduring commitment to scholarship and to the communities where he worked in Nigeria and Sierra Leone has always served as an inspiration to me, as no doubt he has for so many others in our field.Simon's research among the Igbo of Nigeria and the Limba of Sierra Leone and his publications on arts and aesthetics are important contributions to the field. His research and writings over the past thirty years on contemporary art and artists in Nigeria and Sierra Leone resulted in groundbreaking exhibitions and publications that have inspired us and moved the field of African art history forward. At his 100th-birthday celebration in Seattle in 2023 we spoke about his research in process, and he was as enthusiastic as always about these new projects.Simon was always encouraging to me as a young scholar, and his 1975 book on Afikpo masquerades helped shape my own research on youth masquerades in Mali. Over the years I reconnected with him at various conferences, the annual African Studies Association meetings, at ACASA Triennials, and frequently at theSmithsonian. His friends and colleagues in DC, his other Washington community, have had the privilege of time well spent with Simon over these many years. In 1993 Simon was a Regent's Fellow at the Smithsonian and his home was at the National Museum of African Art. During that year he carried out the research that resulted in an exhibition and book on contemporary Nsukka artists. Meeting him in the museum's Warren M. Robbins library or over lunch or dinner with his wife Carol was always a treat (Fig. 1).These past several decades Simon made an annual summer research trip to DC to work in NMAfA's library, and we all looked forward to his arrival. Simon loved spending time with his DC friends, and our shared meals were always accompanied by good stories, the occasional song, and much laughter. At a number of dinners, our conversations would turn to the Pacific, where Simon served as a sergeant (1943-1946) in the US Army during World War II. On these occasions, he would smile and get a faraway look in his eyes whenever friend and fellow anthropologist Adrienne Kaeppler (1935-2022) treated us to a rousing rendition of the Princess Pupule song, a Hawaiian classic, replete with double entendres (Fig. 2).In 2010 I had the privilege of being a guest at the annual gathering of the US Afikpo organization that took place that year in Washington, DC. At this gathering Simon was honored as Oniikara (elder), a title conferred upon him in 2008 in absentia by the Afikpo community in Nigeria (Fig. 3). During this joyous occasion, with its laudatory speeches and honorific dances, it was clear that the mutual respect between Simon and the Afikpo community in Nigeria and in its US diaspora was one that was built on a sustained commitment over many decades. In 2015 in Seattle at the annual gathering of the US Afikpo organization he was honored with this organization's highest award for his long support of the Afikpo community.While he received many well-deserved academic honors in his lifetime, I have always thought that Simon's essential humanity and his genuine and longstanding commitments to African communities on the continent and in the diaspora is his most enduring legacy as an Africanist.