Oral history
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection
RPCV-ACC-2020-075
Jim Brown served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Nigeria from September 1962 to August 1964 as a secondary school teacher. Growing up in Chicago, he became interested in exploring the world at a young age. Brown applied to the Peace Corps during his senior year of college. His training was held at UCLA and covered a full range of topics: language, technical, culture, and health. In Nigeria, Brown was dropped at a remote secondary Catholic boys' school in the middle of the jungle where the nearest village was an hour away. The structured school day included some open time to talk about issues in the U.S. in comparison to Nigeria. Upon completing his service, Brown attended graduate school for African studies and gave lectures on his experience in Nigeria. He became a professor of African studies and also curated a museum of African art at his university. Interviewed and recorded by Randolph Adams, December 21, 2019. 2 digital audio files (web streaming files combined into 1 file).