Online Research Seminar - Negotiating Nuclear Narratives in Late Colonial Nigeria - Tue 16th Aug.- 3pm (WAT, Lagos)

IFRA-Nigeria organizes  a talk with Chloë Mayoux, PhD Canditate from the Department of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science, on the theme: “Negotiating Nuclear Narratives in Late Colonial Nigeria”. The event took place on Tuesday 16th August at 3pm (WAT, Lagos) on Zoom.

Her paper was discussed by Leye Komolafe, PhD Candidate from the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan.

In this paper Chloë Mayoux will address how Nuclear Narratives were negotiated in Nigeria in Late Colonial time. The late 1950s were a time of heightened debate around the safety of nuclear testing. On the eve of independence, Nigeria engaged in this global debate by opposing French plans to test nuclear weapons in the Algerian Sahara. Informed by the experiences of Western militarism, colonialism and disease – but basing themselves also on knowledge about radioactive risk – Nigerians resisted the European narrative according to which French nuclear tests would be safe. Britain’s failure to acknowledge the legitimacy of Nigerian concerns jeopardised their post-colonial plans for Nigeria.