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The Nigerian Alternative Heritages Project is a FEF-financed initiative of IFRA-Nigeria in collaboration with the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan. The project aims to foster scientific engagement through the exchange of knowledge and insights, research co-creation, and dissemination by facilitating talks and dialogues with academics, practitioners, and the public. The partnership between these two institutions has led to more public-facing events that open up the Museum of Unity Ibadan, allowing it to engage a new audience in learning about and exploring the heritages of the Nigerian people, fostering cultural understanding, awareness, and ultimately, knowledge production. At the core of the questions that have emanated from these engagements is the theme of “(Re)imagining Heritage, (Re)using the Museum”.

This grant was incorporated into the FEF project to facilitate and support a team of researchers and artists in conducting original projects, in the form of science- and art-based pieces, such as drawings, paintings, performances, videos, and sound pieces, on topics related to heritage and museums. Proposals must consider and mobilise the collections of the  National Museum of Unity, Ibadan.

Deadline for application: 11:59 PM on December 1, 2025

Notification of successful application: 3rd week of December 2025

Project timeline: January to May 2026

Read the full call here

Our next methodological seminar will take place on 9 December 2025. It will feature Dr Moruff Mudasiru, affiliated with the Department of Archeology and Anthropology of the University of Ibadan. He will present on the topic "Ethnography of Prayer Commodification: Field Encounters, Methodological Challenges, and Theoretical Reflections from Ibadan." Drawing on his experience studying Jálàbí, the Islamic petitionary prayer, in Ibadan he will bring the audience through a fieldwork marked by trust-building, ethical dilemmas and unexpected events, and how to practice ethnography in such circumstances. His work also adopts a hermeneutic theory as the framework to interpret the symbolic and economic meanings of prayer practices. It therefore connects with the anthropology of Islam.

Practical information

Date & Time: 9 December 2025, 10am-12pm

Location: IFRA-Nigeria Resources Centre, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Register here before 05/12/2025: https://forms.gle/Xp1SSxsGhWwLo4f69

Marie Lureau, Research Project Manager at IFRA-Nigeria, will hold an exploratory panel at the Lagos Studies Association Conference 2026 focusing on 'non-religion' and 'anti-religion' on the African continent. This panel will seek to open secularism studies, largely built on the Western world, to Africa. It questions the various experiences of 'non-religion' on the continent, the forms of 'anti-religion' in activism, their intellectual roots and the best terms to define them. 

Read the full call below or download it here. 

Deadline for abstracts: 1 January 2026.

Dr Delphine Manetta, IFRA’s deputy director, will hold a panel at the Lagos Studies Association Conference 2026 focusing on the role of care in the construction of masculinities in Africa, but proposing several shifts in perspective from the literature from a perspective that emerged with Western scholars to one more centered on African perspectives. It will also discuss care as a critical tool for discussing the imaginaries surrounding masculinities in Africa and understanding experiences of masculinity in different social settings.

Deadline for abstracts: 1 January 2026

Read the full call below or download it here.

IFAS-Recherche and IFRA-Nigeria are opening a call for expressions of interest for researchers and artists for a series of workshops on "Creation as Research, Research as Creation".

These workshops aim to further reflect on the methods, possibilities, and challenges raised by the use of creative practices in academic research, and conversely, by the integration of research methodologies into creative practice. They will take place between November 2025 and May 2026.

Learn more below or download the full call here.

 Deadline: 31 October, 2025.

On 16 October, 2025, Joel Abah, doctoral candidate at the Department of Peace, Security and Humanitarian studies at the University of Ibadan, presented his work on communities in Benue displaced camps during our latest methodological seminar "Maps, Memories, and the Craft of Ethnography: Using Participatory Tools in Displacement Research in Conflict-Affected Communities".

 IFRA-Nigeria is opening its call for 2026 Research Grants!

Open to master's student, doctoral students, postdoctoral and researchers working in humanities and social sciences on a country under IFRA-Nigeria's geographical mandate (Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Gambia, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso). We accept applications in French or English.

Download the full call or read more below

You can download the templates on the application form.

Deadline for application: 30 November 2025.

On 8 October 2025, the new IFRA-Nigeria director, Dr. Pauline Guinard, and deputy-director, Dr. Delphine Manetta met with two of our Nigerian Alternative Heritages collaborators : the Cultural Centre and the National Museum of Unity, Ibadan.

IFRA-Nigeria Director, Dr. Pauline Guinard, and Research Project Manager, Marie Lureau, attended the opening night of the Afrobeat Rebellion : Fela Anikulapo Kuti exhibition. Organized by the French Embassy in Nigeria and the Kuti family, this exhibition initially presented at the Philharmonie in Paris in 2022, has been augmented for its showing in Lagos. The opening night included an interactive art piece and a concert by Seun Kuti, Fela's son, and the Ezra Collective. 

The book of Professor Sola Olorunyomi, Director of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibadan, Afrobeat! Fela and the imagined continent is for sale at the exhibition' shop. The book was co-published by IFRA-Nigeria and Noirledge.

The exhibition remains open and freely accessible to all at the Felabration hall, Ecobank headquarters in Lagos, until 28 December. 

Between 24 and 26 September, Pauline Guinard, IFRA-Nigeria Director, and Marie Lureau, Research Project Manager, attended the 2025 Biennial conference of the African Studies Association in Africa (ASAA). Set at the University of Cabo Verde, in Praia, this event regrouped scholars from all over the continent and beyond, for numerous panels under the theme "African Responses to Global Vulnerabilities".

Dr Guinard presented her own work on the destruction of Bar Beach and the geography of emotions, in the panel "Contesting Power: Political Agency and Resistance in Africa".

IFRA-Nigeria has also become a member of the ASAA, as we are proud to share its mission to promote and celebrate Africa’s unique contributions to the study and understanding of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the Diaspora.

On October 16, we invite you to a methodological seminar on "Maps, Memories, and the Craft of Ethnography: Using Participatory Tools in Displacement Research in Conflict-Affected Communities." Joel Abah, doctoral candidate at the Department of Peace, Security and Humanitarian studies at the University of Ibadan, and Lecturer at Prince Abubakar Audu University will reflect the methodological journey of conducting ethnographic research in displacement camps and conflict-affected communities in Benue State, Nigeria.

He will focus on participatory and relational tools, including oral interviews, oral cartography, memory mapping, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and digital documentation, to demonstrate how these methods emerged in response to challenges of insecurity, vulnerability, and relational dynamics in the field. Through autoethnographic reflection, the session will highlight moments of improvisation, setbacks, and surprises that shaped both access to participants and the iterative development of field-sensitive methods.

Participants will gain insights into how methodological decisions, positionality, and ethical considerations influence data collection and co-production of knowledge in challenging field contexts. The seminar emphasizes research as a craft, illustrating practical, relational, and experimental approaches to ethnography in situations marked by displacement, conflict, and social vulnerability.

Practical information

Date & Time : 16/10/2025, between 10am and 12pm

Venue: IFRA-Nigeria Resource Center, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan

Registration: https://forms.gle/A6AJ7bVYFZgetgcb8

Deadline for registration: 10/10/2025

IFRA-Nigeria, in collaboration with the University of Ibadan and the French Embassy in Nigeria, is opening the call for a PhD grant for a student from the University of Ibadan, as part of a project in digital humanities with a focus on heritage studies at the Lagos National Museum Archives. A co-supervision of University of Ibadan and IFRA Nigeria will be offered.

Deadline for application : 29 October 2025

Learn more below or download the full call here.

On 3 September 2025, Bérénice Busson, PhD student in geography at the Université Paris Cité (CESSMA Lab), held our first methodological seminar of the 2025-2026 academic year. She talked on "Exploring Hausa Urbanities in Lagos and Cotonou : Autoethnographic Reflections and Methodological Experiments".

First, she presented the social position of Hausa, a fluid ethnic group from the Sahelian region, specifically from north Nigeria and south Niger. In Cotonou (Benin Republic), where she began her fieldwork, they are seen as a minority on two accounts : first as a religious minority, being mostly Muslim, and second, they are perceived as strangers from an "underdeveloped" region. On the basis of this observation, she stated her two questions : Considering their different economic background and time staying in the city, how do they negotiate their position in it? How are they coping with potential discriminations or obstacles to urban resources access, being in a subaltern position?

After three years as head of IFRA-Nigeria, Professor Barbara Morovich finished her contract at the end of August 2025. She will be joining the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne in Paris in September 2025 as a Professor in the Department of Urbanism. Below is her farewell message, in both French and English. 

On 27 August, IFRA-Nigeria organised a conference at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan, to celebrate the publication of Migration and Diaspora Identity in Northern Nigeria and Ghana, 1900–1970. The book, written by Professor Rasheed Olaniyi (department of history), was published by Boydell & Brewer in association with IFRA-Nigeria. It provides a unique exploration of the complex socio-economic and political dynamics between Yoruba diaspora and their host communities.

After an introduction by Professor Barbara Morovich, IFRA-Nigeria Director, Professor Olaniyi started by explaining the intricate process of creating a book concept and carrying it all the way to publishing. Next, he detailed his original methodological approach, which included both historical and anthropological methods, and studied both archival materials and oral sources. He took a multi-site and comparative approach in order to better understand this transnational history. Finally, he briefly looked at each chapter of his book to highlight their main findings on the driving forces behind the formation of diaspora identities in Yoruba communities of north Ghana and Nigeria.

Professor Akanle (department of sociology), as discussant, responded to the presentation highlighting the innovative and comprehensive approach of Professor Olaniyi's work.

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