My husband Peter Morton-Williams, who has died aged 95, was a former pro-vice chancellor of Ulster University and an eminent anthropologist. He worked for many years in Nigeria and Ghana, where he researched and lectured on west African social anthropology and became a leading authority on the history and culture of the Yoruba people of Nigeria.

He also wrote many academic papers and some books about aspects of West African society, including An Outline of the Cosmology and Cult Organization of the Oyo Yoruba (1964). Long into his retirement he was frequently consulted by students, academics and others, including museums and a number of auction houses who sought his advice on west African artefacts.

Peter was born in Sandbach, Cheshire, the son of a clergyman, the Rev David Morton-Williams, and Kate (nee Turner), a teacher. He attended St Edmund’s school, Canterbury, then graduated in anthropology from London University in 1949, and was awarded a PhD by Selwyn College, Cambridge.

He lectured at London University before moving to Africa in the 1950s. His posts there included teaching at the University of Ghana, where he was also a research fellow in the university’s Institute of African Studies. Peter and I met in Ghana and married in 1963.

We left Ghana in 1977 and Peter took up a post as head of sociology and social anthropology at Ulster University, Coleraine, where he later became pro-vice chancellor. He spent a happy decade there until retiring to Barnet, Hertfordshire, in 1987.

His great pleasures in retirement were meeting friends at his local pub for conversation and pitting his wits against the Guardian’s cryptic crossword puzzle; he twice won Guardian crossword prizes.

He is survived by me; his two sisters, Roma and Jean, predeceased him.