
Latunde Odeku was the first African-American neurosurgeon trained in the United States and Africa’s first neurosurgeon. Born Emmanuel Olatunde Alaba Olanrewaju Odeku on June 29, 1927, in Lagos, Nigeria, Odeku received his M.D. from the Howard University College of Medicine in 1954. The son of a Baptist deacon, Odeku obtained his preliminary education in Lagos, Nigeria, attending St. John’s School, Aroloya and later proceeded to the Methodist Boys’ High School where he took and passed the London Matriculation Examination in 1945. Odeku moved to the United States in 1947, where he would receive his undergraduate and professional medical education, graduating from Howard University with a B.S. degree in zoology in 1950.