IFRA-Nigeria's Deputy Director visit to Uppsala University

Between 19 and 27 March 2025, IFRA-Nigeria's Deputy Director Delphine Manetta, was on a mission at Uppsala University in Sweden. There she met with the anthropological department of the University and participated in two events.

20 March: Public Lecture "Elections in Africa. Lessons learned from Burkina Faso."

The example of Burkina Faso shows that elections can be a lens through which to examine national and local transformations, revealing the profoundly heteronomous nature of politics. Elections uncover the social and historical roots of a State long dominated by President Blaise Compaoré, and since 2022 by a military regime. They also reveal how changes in the organization of the Burkinabe State have led to local transformations, in burkinabe rurality.

26 March: Research Seminar " “Calling the ataya”. Work, Morality and Masculinities in Ibadan, Nigeria."

Atayas in Sabo district, in Ibadan, are innocuous places in the urban landscape. Located in the “public” or “semi-private” space, atayas bring men together, whether young or elder.  Here, they prepare and drink tea, share food, laugh, debate, chat, work, pray or remain silent while watching videos on their phones. Here also, they build relationships of solidarity, “fictive” kinship and work, as well as religious ties that enable them to acquire professional and Islamic knowledges, income, gifts and food, while some imagine, from the ataya, how to “japa”, i.e. to emigrate in Canada, U.S. or Europe. In that sense, to what extent atayas might be epicenters of mobilities, each endowed with different meanings?  If atayas might be seen by outsiders as “places of exile” turning men away from home, mosque and office, can they be experienced by their members as “destinations” in their daily mobilities and “starting points” from which money, knowledge and men get moving?