Hollis R. Lynch photographs

1945-2000s

Hollis Ralph Lynch is a Tobagonian scholar of African history. Born on April 21, 1935 in John Dial, Tobago, Lynch attended Hope EC School and Bishop's High School on the island before studying history at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He went on to receive his PhD in history from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London in 1964. Lynch wrote his thesis about Edward Wilmot Blyden, the West Indian-born Liberian diplomat who is considered the father of Pan-Africanism. Lynch would continue to focus his scholarship on Pan-Africanism throughout his career.

Following a two-year stint as a lecturer at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, Lynch moved to the United States in 1966. He enjoyed associate professorships at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois from 1966 to 1968, and the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1968 to 1969, where he developed one of the nation's first Black studies programs. Lynch was subsequently hired as a professor of Black and Pan African studies at Columbia University, where he served as director of the Institute for African Studies from 1971 to 1974, and again from 1986 through the 1990s. In 1981, Lynch became Columbia's first faculty-in-residence at Wallach Hall. In 2005, he became professor emeritus at Columbia.

Along with his professorship at Columbia, Lynch has been a visiting professor to Harvard University, Vassar College, and Emory University. He has lectured at dozens of institutions on topics related to Pan-Africanism, African Americans, the Caribbean, and African nationalism.

Lynch is the author or co-author of several books, including Edward Wilmot Blyden: Pan-Negro Patriot, 1832-1912 (1967), The Black Urban Condition: A Documentary History, 1866-1971 (1973), and Black American Radicals and the Liberation of Africa: The Council on African Affairs, 1937-1955 (1978). Additionally, Lynch has edited the published papers of Edward Wilmot Blyden, as well as a series of biographies of notable Black figures for Oxford University Press. He has written articles for journals such as The Journal of African History, New African, and Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria; and contributed entries to Collier's Encyclopedia and Encyclopedia of World Biography.

Lynch spent decades researching the life and career of Kingsley Ozumba (K.O.) Mbadiwe, the 20th century Nigerian diplomat and nationalist who co-founded the African Academy of Arts of Research. Lynch wrote the first major biography of Mbadiwe, K.O. Mbadiwe: A Nigerian Political Biography, 1915-1990, published in 2012.

Over the course of his career, Lynch has held memberships in professional organizations such as the American Historical Association, African Studies Association, Organization of American Historians, and Caribbean Studies Association. He has also received honors for his scholarship and writing. As an undergraduate at the University of British Columbia, Lynch was awarded the Annie Southcott Memorial Prize for best honors essay in history. For the 1973-1974 academic season, he was a Hoover Institution National Fellow. In 2012, Lynch was inducted into the Tobago Literary Hall of Fame.

In 1973, Lynch purchased Richmond Great House, an 18th century plantation home in Tobago that serves as a tourist attraction and residence for guests. Lynch became the first Black owner of the home in its 200-year history, and he filled the interior with African artifacts and furniture.

Lynch was previously married to Sharon Fisher Lynch. He has four children: Shola, Nnenna, Ashale, and Oklemeno. As of 2025, Lynch lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.