Story and images courtesy of Catherine A. Reiland
Assistant Director of the African Studies Program
Legendary UW-Madison Professor Harold Scheub turned 80-years-old on Friday, August 26, 2011.
Scheub is the Evjue-Bascom Professor of Humanities in the Department of African Languages and Literature and one of the world's leading scholars in African oral traditions and folklore.
His course, The African Storyteller, is one of the most popular on the UW-Madison campus, regularly enrolling over 500 students.
To celebrate Sceub's 80-year milestone, longtime friends and colleagues surprised him in his office on the 14th floor of Van Hise Hall with cake and birthday wishes.
Magdalena Hauner, Professor of Swahili and former L&S Associate Dean of the Arts & Humanities, decorated the hallway outside of his door the night before.
The group retired to a nearby conference room for cake and pie, where Hauner read notes from well wishers who could not make it to the early morning party, including nonagenarian Neil Skinner, emeritus professor of the Department of African Languages and Literature, and Professor Dustin Cowell, current chair of the department who was away in Indonesia.
As the eastern light brightened, the assembled group dispersed so that Scheub, renowned African storyteller, could spend the day in meetings.
In celebration of Scheub's birthday, take a look at a lecture from his course, The African Storyteller.