News

From the 16th to the 20th of July 2023 the international humanities conference, partly sponsored by IFRA-Nigeria, took place at the faculty of Arts of Obafemi Awolowo University on the following theme: "new theories of Africa: diversities, divergences and dreams". The conference featured Professor Karin Barber from the university of Birmingham, Professor Carole Boyce Davies from Cornell University and Professor Tunde Bewaji from the University of West Indies.

Between the 18th of June and the 15th of July 2023, a research team led by Prof. Gérard Chouin worked on the Ife-Sunbgo Archeological Project. Besides the continuation of the usual annual archaeological excavation, two trainings took place (see below). The Ife-Sungbo team hosted the team of Her Excellency the Ambassador of France to Ife between the 3rd and 5th of July 2023. The team opened additional units of the excavation at both the Ita-Yemoo and Lujumo compound sites to study further the context of the different layers and types of pavements discovered.

Between the 10th and 13th of july, IFRA-Nigeria participated in a methodology workshop program coorganised by the department of history of the University of Ibadan and the University of Leipzig on the theme of "deepening research skills". The topics discussed were varied. Amongst others, Prof. O.C Adesina gave a class on comparative historiography, Prof. Dmitri van den Bersselaar gave a class on theory in historical research and Dr. Barbara Morovich gave a class on doing fieldwork in stigmatised contexts.

The Higher Education, Research and Innovation Department (ESRI) of the French Embassy is funding mobility grants (SSHN* grants) for researchers, doctoral students and post-doctoral students in Nigeria. The research stay must take place in a French laboratory, as part of an existing collaboration, for a period of one to three months during 2023. The stay in France must end no later than 31 December 2023 and must take place in one go.

Between the 6th and 7th of July 2023 a workshop on Sensory Ethnography was organised by Olúwatóbilóba Adéwùnmí and Salomé Isibhenmen Okoekpen (two P.h.D students and IFRA research fellows) on the 6th and 7th of July 2023 at the Institute of African Studies and IFRA. The purpose of the workshop was to introduce and discuss the significance of different senses in the production of ethnographic data, explore methodologies for sensory data collection and analysis, and examine the possibilities of disseminating research to a wider audience.

On Thursday 6th of July 2023, IFRA-Nigeria invited Prof Olutayo C. Adesina to present his current research and upcoming publication on the Ibadan School of History. He gave a lecture on the making and meaning of the Ibadan School of History since the 1950s. He described the emergence of the school, the epistemological and historiographic achievements of its proponents as well as the intellectual mode and forms of civil engagement they proposed. He also discussed the lessons to be drawn for the experience of the Ibadan School of History on researching and writing Nigerian and African history in today’s world, especially around the development of African epistemologies and transforming African universities. The recording of the event is available here.

A revised version of “AFROBEAT! FELA AND THE IMAGINED CONTINENT” by Sola Olorunyomi was published on the 22^nd of June 2023 by Africae and is freely accessible online following this link. Africae publishes academic works in the humanities and social sciences on Africa that shed light on political, economic and social dynamics in the past and in the present. Africae promotes the open access dissemination of knowledge and encourages publication in the languages of the territories concerned by the research. In this way, Africae aim to contribute to the circulation, without commercial barriers, of the products of contemporary scientific research in all regions of Africa.

The sixth issue of Sources just came out and is accessible here.

What do photographers and their pictures show about Africa? This special issue aims to analyses the social representations produced and disseminated by photographers, whether professionals or amateurs, researchers or not, African or not. The articles present numerous photographs, reflecting the longstanding nature of this practice as well as its contemporary vitality. The authors consider what is shown, what can be shown, but also the images that are not there or are no longer there. Examining the absence of images invites us to grasp the entire photographic process, from shooting to distribution. The aim is to unravel not only the photographs themselves, but also the various interactions that led to their production, reproduction or disappearance. In this way, the articles sketch out the area of the photographable in Africa.

On the 23^rd of June, Rémi Jenvrin gave a methodological Seminar at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Ibadan. Rémi Jenvrin’s work aims at shedding light on the knowledge and practices that characterise the relationship between urban societies and tree vegetation in two West African cities, Osogbo and Porto Novo. These relationships are highly diverse, ranging from affective, memorial and ritual, to tourism, recreation, aesthetics, and ornamentation, to medicine and ecology. The interrelationships between this knowledge and practice about trees and urban forests also reflect a diversity of scales and players.

IFRA-Nigeria and the Tursday Film Series teamed-up again for an event on the 22^nd to discuss the idea that, in the age of the sustainable city, urban development actors emphasise the importance of nature in cities although their perspective (subsitence, ecology and aesthetics) often overlooks or even oppose the local representations, knowledges and relationships with urban plants, trees and forests. Could the long-standing presence of urban nature in African cities be considered as a heritage that belongs to city dwellers who are concerned about preserving and transmitting it on their own and specific terms?

The 7^th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference took place between June 20 and June 24, 2023. IFRA-Nigeria is a sponsor of this important event. On the 20^th of June  Barbara Morovich, director of IFRA-Nigeria, and Cyrielle Maingraud-Martinaud, researcher and deputy Director of IFRA-Nigeria animated an event titled “Interrogating the Dynamics of Knowledge Production in North / South Research Contexts”. This event constituted an opportunity to discuss the consequences of knowledge production in transnational collaborations set-up.

On the 16^th of June 2023, Tim Livsey (Northumbria University) organised a workshop for early career researchers in partnership with IFRA-Nigeria with the support of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. The workshop took place at the Institute for African Studies of the University of Ibadan. Tim Livsey offered an introduction to the history of the ‘migrated’ colonial archives, focusing particularly on the files removed from Nigeria. Prof. Abiola Abioye, an archives studies expert at the University of Ibadan, gave a keynote address positioning the ‘migrated’ archives in relation to the history of archives in Nigeria. His talk also explored possible ways forward in dealing with ‘migrated’ archives issues.

Building from research conducted within IFRA-Nigeria elections observatory, the institute hosted a day of roundtables and a keynote lecture by Professor Eghosa Osaghae on June 14^th aimed at assessing what happened during this election cycle and what it means for the political and social dynamics of the country.

On Friday 2^nd of June 2023 at the Alliance française of Lagos, the French Embassy in Nigeria launched a cycle of 3 conferences with a conference bringing together eminent Nigerian and French experts, exchanging ideas and opinion on a crucial subject for inclusive development and taking a step towards a better understanding of the Nigerian realities.

Between the 22nd and the 27th of May 2023, a series of workshops gathered under the title “The return of things: Objects, archives and creation in time of restitution” took place in Yaoundé, Cameroun. IFRA-Nigeria, with numerous partners, participated in these events that took place in the following locations: Musée National - Goethe Institut Kamerun –CIPCA – Institut Français du Cameroun – Bandjoun Station. Follow this link for more information (French & English versions available): https://retours.hypotheses.org/