Gender, Law, and Political Activism in West Africa (GLOW project)

Project Overview

From the beginning of the XX^th century, inhabitants of French and British colonies experienced a « paradoxical citizenship » (Spire 2003): although they were French or British citizens, their political and social rights were limited (Saada 2005, Saada and Noriek 2007, Urban 2017). In terms of personal status, legal pluralism was imposed with the application of customary and religious norms (Rodet 2007). This “politics of difference” (Cooper 2009) included mechanisms for excluding/integrating rights based on multiple colonial-imposed demarcation lines that vary over time and from one colonial territory to another, such as race, gender, class, religion, ethnicity or metissage (Saada 2005; Cooper 2014; André 2016). The many ways in which colonial governments tinkered with these different categories produced a diversity of legal, political and social statuses for people living under colonial domination.  From the beginning of the XXth century, social mobilisations emerged to reform colonial laws. Women played an important role in these mobilisations, making law a central issue in nationalist or women’s movements (Scully 2000, Adeboye 2009, Panata 2016, Rillon 2022). Despite their involvement in the fights for independence, women were largely excluded from post-colonial governments and played little or no part in the drafting of national legislation (Tripp et alii 2009). Therefore, in the post-colonial period, women’s activists mobilized again to address legal inequalities. They often focused on family laws, where inequalities were most striking (Bernard and N’Diaye 2021, N’Diaye 2021). Their demands then extended to equal rights in the public sphere (elected office, political participation, professional equality) (Iweriebor 1988, Tripp 2016) and in the private sphere (sexual and reproductive rights, dress codes) (Bleek 1994, Kaler 2003).

Research on the role of African women in nation-building processes during the 20^th and 21^st centuries has developed over the last forty years. Many studies have focused on women’s movements and mobilizations. The literature analysing the interactions between gender and law in Africa has gradually developed into a dynamic, multidisciplinary field of research (Ndengue 2016, Idriss 2019, Panata 2020, Barthélémy 2022). However, this literature has developed in unequal ways across the continent (Coquery-Vidrovitch 2007). For decades, women have been mobilizing for legal recognition of gender equality, yet the intersection between women’s mobilizations and the law remains largely unexplored. This research programme aims to bridge this gap by conducting studies that explore the intersection of gender, activism, and law in West Africa from the 20th to the 21st century. By examining the history of women’s mobilisations for legal rights, the project seeks to provide a fresh perspective on the political and social history of the region during both the colonial and post-colonial periods. It aims to offer new insights into the legal construction of political and social inequalities over time.

This project adopts a multidisciplinary approach, that aims to bring together researchers from a variety of fields, including historians, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and legal experts. By doing so, this program aims to overcome disciplinary and methodological barriers that hinder the historical analysis of the relationship between law and mobilization, as well as the origins of certain legislative debates that have been ongoing for decades. GLOW also promotes multiscalar approaches, analysing both local mobilisations and the impact of international standards on mobilisations and legislations. In addition, the collaboration between anglophone and francophone researchers is central to the project, as it highlights the differences and similarities in legal heritage and moves beyond linguistic and imperial boundaries. Finally, GLOW encourages associate researchers to adopt a variety of methods, using a diverse range of sources such as legal texts, case law, parliamentary debates, reports from international conferences, activists’ writings and documents, visual documents, interviews, and observations to propose both “top-down” and “bottom-up” analyses.

Organising Team

– Olufunke Adeboye (University of Lagos) – PI : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

– Barbara Morovich (IFRA Nigeria) – Co-PI : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

– Marième N’Diaye (CNRS-Les Afriques dans le Monde) – Co-PI : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

– Sara Panata (CNRS-Les Afriques dans le Monde) – Co-PI: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Genre, Droit et Mobilisations en Afrique de l’Ouest (Projet GLOW)

GLOW est un projet scientifique entre l’Université de Lagos et le laboratoire Les Afriques dans le Monde (Bordeaux), en partenariat avec l’IFRA Nigeria.

En 2024, il a reçu un financement de l’Institut des Sciences Humaines et Sociales du CNRS en tant qu’International Emerging Action (IEA).

Présentation du projet

A partir du début du XX^e siècle, les populations sous domination coloniale vivent une « citoyenneté paradoxale » (Spire 2003) : tout en étant des nationaux des empires, Africaines et Africains font l’objet d’un traitement différencié de la part de l’administration coloniale et ne bénéficient pas des droits politiques et sociaux dont jouissent les citoyen.ne.s de la métropole (Saada 2005, Saada et Noriek 2007, Urban 2017). En matière de statut personnel, le pluralisme juridique s’impose avec l’application des normes coutumières et religieuses (Rodet 2007). Cette « politique de la différence »(Cooper 2009) comporte des mécanismes d’exclusion/intégration des droits basés sur des catégories multiples qui varient au fil du temps et d’un territoire colonial à l’autre (Saada 2005 ; Cooper 2014 ; André 2016) : le genre, la race, la classe, la religion ou encore le métissage (Denzer 1975, Goerg 1997). Les nombreux bricolages opérés par les gouvernements coloniaux en fonction de ces différents critères produisent une diversité de statuts juridiques, politiques et sociaux pour les peuples sous domination coloniale. Dès le début du XX^e siècle, des mobilisations sociales émergent pour revendiquer des réformes du droit colonial. Les femmes ont joué un rôle important dans ces mobilisations et ont ainsi contribué à faire du droit positif un enjeu des luttes portées par les mouvements nationalistes ou féminins (Scully 2000, Adeboye 2009, Panata 2016, Rillon 2022). Malgré leur implication dans les combats pour l’indépendance, elles sont largement exclues des gouvernements postcoloniaux et ne participent pas (ou très peu) à l’élaboration des législations nationales (Tripp et alii 2009).  Les femmes vont donc à nouveau investir le terrain des luttes sociales pour réclamer l’abrogation des discriminations juridiques dont elles font l’objet, souvent à partir du droit de la famille, où les inégalités sont les plus marquées (Bernard et N’Diaye 2021, N’Diaye 2021). Les revendications s’étendent ensuite et touchent aussi bien à l’égalité des droits dans la sphère publique (fonctions électives, participation politique, égalité professionnelle) (Iweriebor 1988, Tripp 2016) que dans la sphère privées (droits sexuels et reproductifs, codes vestimentaires) (Bleek 1994, Kaler 2003).

Les recherches sur le rôle des femmes africaines dans les processus de construction nationale se sont développées au cours des quarante dernières années. Plusieurs études se sont concentrées sur les mouvements et les mobilisations des femmes. Cette dense littérature n’a eu de cesse de se renouveler au cours de la dernière décennie (Ndengue 2016, Idriss 2019, Panata 2020, Barthélémy 2022). La littérature qui analyse les rapports entre genre et droit en Afrique subsaharienne s’est progressivement constituée en champ de recherche dynamique et pluridisciplinaire. Néanmoins, cette littérature s’est développée de manière inégale sur le continent  (Coquery-Vidrovitch 2007). Par ailleurs, le croisement entre mobilisations féminines et droit reste encore peu exploré alors que les femmes se mobilisent depuis plusieurs décennies pour la reconnaissance juridique de l’égalité des sexes.

Ce projet de recherche collectif vise à combler ces lacunes à travers des analyses qui croisent les rapports entre genre, droit et mobilisations sur le continent africain aux XXe et XXIe siècles. Il s’agit ainsi de renouveler l’histoire politique et sociale de la région à l’époque coloniale et postcoloniale en proposant des éléments de compréhension des inégalités socio-politiques et de leurs constructions juridiques dans le temps.

Avec une approche multidisciplinaire, qui ambitionne de mettre en dialogue historien.ne.s, sociologues, anthropologues, politistes et juristes, ce programme veut dépasser un cloisonnement disciplinaire et méthodologique qui fait obstacle à un travail d’historicisation des rapports entre droit et mobilisations et à la reconstruction de la genèse de certains débats législatifs, menés pourtant depuis plusieurs décennies. Ce projet privilégie aussi des approches multiscalaires, qui analysent à la fois des mobilisations locales mais aussi l’impact des normes internationales sur les mobilisations et sur les législations. Par ailleurs, le dialogue entre Afrique anglophone et francophone est central dans le projet, à la fois pour souligner les similitudes et différences en termes d’héritages juridiques, mais aussi pour sortir des frontières impériales et linguistiques et ainsi pouvoir tracer les éventuelles continuités dans les mobilisations sociales visant à réformer le droit. Enfin, le projet mobilise des méthodes plurielles, avec le recours à une diversité de sources écrites (textes de lois, jurisprudence, débats parlementaires, rapports de conférences internationales, écrits engagés, documents militants et ego-archives), de documents visuels, d’entretiens et d’observations (pratiques sociales de mobilisations, procès, etc.) pour proposer à la fois des analyses « par le haut » et « par le bas » qui s’ouvrent sur de multiples voix et sites d’actions.

Equipe organisatrice

– Olufunke Adeboye (University of Lagos) – PI : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

– Barbara Morovich (IFRA Nigeria) – Co-PI : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

– Marième N’Diaye (CNRS-Les Afriques dans le Monde) – Co-PI : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

– Sara Panata (CNRS-Les Afriques dans le Monde) – Co-PI: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Nigerian Heritage Digitisation Program

In 2022, the Embassy of France in Nigeria and IFRA-Nigeria have been awarded funding to support efforts by Nigerian researchers and professionals, from partnered institutions, to develop their ideas and projects on the conservation of Nigerian Heritage and Patrimony.

From left to right: Dr. Sa'eed Husaini, researcher at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Dr. Sola Olorunyomi, associate professor at the University of Ibadan, 

In 2022, the Embassy of France in Nigeria and IFRA-Nigeria have been awarded funding to support efforts by Nigerian researchers and professionals, from partnered institutions, to develop their ideas and projects on the conservation of Nigerian Heritage and Patrimony.

The objective of this project is to put digital technologies, as well as French and Nigerian expertise, at the service of the protection, enhancement, and dissemination of Nigerian heritage processes to different local and global communities. In practice, it is a response to the growing challenges in the world of research of Nigerian cultural and heritage studies with the objective to improve the protection, conservation, dissemination, and training about heritage and develop sustainable capacity in this area.

The Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI) is a program run by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs designed to help French institutions abroad carry out research-action activities in the country where they work, in close collaboration with local stakeholders.

In this FSPI project, IFRA-Nigeria will be working with Nigerian partners to

1) Select processes of Nigerian cultural heritage and their conservation,

2) make these heritages more accessible to a wider audience with the help of digital tools,

3) provide training opportunities for a new generations of Nigerian researchers,

with a specific focus on the gender and age of the researcher. At the beginning, the project is made up of five different component projects but with dynamic connectivity in the core objectives of the broader FSPI project.

Objectives of the FSPI project:

• Structuring Franco-Nigerian relations in the sectors of protection, promotion, and dissemination of Nigerian heritage processes.
• Building a fair partnership and collaboration models aimed at co-constructing projects and jointly mobilising French and Nigerian expertise to develop skills.
• Demonstrating the relevance of such an approach through the implementation of projects that are eventually replicable and provide deliverable added value in the medium term.

Five components of the project

1. Protecting political activists’ archives to write another history of Nigeria

• Partners: Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Abuja & Socialist Library and Archives (SOLAR), Calabar. Coordination: Dr. Sa’eed Husaini (CDD).

Objectives:

• Create an inventory and digitise pre-selected archives of professors Bene and Edwin Madunagu in Calabar as well as other activists’ archives.
• Academics and activists will be sponsored to publish research on the digitised archives (as well as the papers of professors? Ola and Kehinde Oni previously digitised by IFRA-Nigeria). Workshops will be organised to disseminate knowledge about the digitised archives.

2. Digitising and promoting the documentary collections of the National Museum of Lagos

• Partners: National Commission for Museums and Monuments (Lagos National Museum) & African Artists’ Foundation, Lagos. Coordination: Pedro Taye

Objectives:

• Digitizing and promoting the documentary collections of the National Museum of Lagos, especially the maps and papers of the Museum’s founder Kenneth Murray.
• Training of staff and other heritage specialists.
• Researchers will be hired to work on the digitised collections.
• Partnership with the African Artists’ Foundation to have artists working on and interrogating the digitised collections.
• Final exhibition and event with the artists and researchers.

3. Creating a digital archive of the intangible heritage of Benin (Nigeria)

• Partner: Institute for Benin Studies, Benin City

Objectives:

• Creating a digital archive of the intangible heritage of Benin (Nigeria)
• A group of young researchers specializing in Benin Studies will be trained in sound and video recording and the challenges of digitizing intangible heritage during a five-day masterclass at the start of the project
• Elements of Edo’s intangible heritage (songs, ceremonies, rituals) will be collected, annotated, translated, and archived on a dedicated website
• A high-level event will be organized in Benin City and broadcast online to present the digital archive

4. Promoting the religious architectural heritage of Ibadan

• Partners: Institute of African Studies & University of Ibadan & others. Coordination: Cell Generation Technology (CGT) & Dr. Cyrielle Maingraud-Martinaud (IFRA-Nigeria)

Objectives:

• Organisation of workshops on the religious architectural heritage of Ibadan
• Digitisation of selected religious buildings
• Training of Nigerian researchers in techniques for digitising religious architectural heritage
• Creation of an interactive digital map of notable places of worship in Ibadan

5. Protecting the urban archaeological heritage of Ile-Ife

• Partner: Epot Integrated Concept & Museum of Natural History, Ile Ife.

Objectives:

• Mapping historical pavements of Ile-Ife. 
• Training in the preservation of archaeological heritage
• Raising public awareness of the protection of urban archaeological heritage 
• Creating interest through open access of the digitised heritage of Ife
• Partnership for the creation of a center of interpretation on one of the sites

Elections Observatory

IFRA-Nigeria’s Elections Observatory

IFRA-Nigeria intends to play a role in observing and analysing the social impacts of Nigerian policies, polities, and politics in a short- and long-term perspective. In this electoral setting, IFRA launched an observatory overseeing the 2023 elections in Nigeria. The aim is to produce data and analysis from various standpoints on the election process. To further this endeavour, IFRA-Nigeria sponsored and spearheaded several initiatives. A Roundtable on the 2023 Nigerian elections kickstarted this initiative on the 8^th of December 2022.

IFRA-Nigeria & IFRI partnerships

IFRA-Nigeria partnered with the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI) and commissioned a paper to Dr. Sa'eed Husaini, researcher at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) that was published in February 2023. The paper titled “Nigeria’s 2023 Election: Democratic Development and Political Fragmentation” is freely accessible following this link.

On the 16^th of March 2023, IFRA-Nigeria, and the French institute of international relations (IFRI) co-organised an online seminar on the Nigerian general elections featuring Dr. Elodie Apard, Research Officer at IRD, Dr. Benjamin Augé, Research Associate at IFRI; Dr. Sa'eed Husaini, Researcher at the Centre for Democracy and Development and Dr. Cyrielle Maingraud-Martinaud, Deputy Director of IFRA-Nigeria. The debate was moderated by Alain Antil, Director of IFRI’s Sub-Saharan Africa Centre. This event reviewed the electoral process and the results of the elections while replacing them in historical dynamics and structural challenges of the country. The recording of this event is available here.

Screenshot of the online conference co-organised by IFRA-Nigeria and IFRI on March 16^th, 2023

Ethnographic fieldwork projects

IFRA-Nigeria is funding six young Nigerian researchers to conduct fieldwork-based research upon different topics and to promote new point of views and analytical lenses to understand topical issues in social sciences. These researchers conducted ethnographic fieldwork on various aspects of the electoral events. The research was carried out in several regions and covered issues such as the involvement of women in the electoral process, the violence they suffered and their way to reorganise themselves and answer to violence; the challenges faced by the ad hoc collation agents of the Independent National Electoral Election (INEC), and the nature of elections in a local government bordering Benin.

Adedeji Adebayo (researcher) with Ms. Iyabo Ojo, Ìyál'ọ́jà (chief) of Ikere-Ekiti at her house in Ikere, February 22^nd, 2023 – credit: Adedeji Adebayo

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.

Professor Eghosa Osaghae at the institute of African studies (University of Ibadan) on June 14^th

IFRA-Nigeria staff and five of the six researchers recruited to observe and analyse the election process, June 14^th 2023. From left to right: Mr Ikefuama Okechukwu Livingstone, Mrs Elizabeth Njo Obimbua, Dr. Adedeji Adebayo, Mr Lateef Olalekan Aremu, Dr. Barbara Morovich (IFRA-Nigeria director), Dr. Olusapo Olakunle Thompson, Mr Youssef Bouri (Researcher Project manager), Dr. Cyrielle Maingraud-Martinaud (IFRA-Nigeria Deputy director and researcher),

List of researchers and provisional research titles

Dr. Adedeji Adebayo

How much does a vote cost? Politics of inducement in Ikere Local Government Area, Ekiti State, Southwestern Nigeria

Elizabeth Njo Obimbua

Electoral violence and the female gender in Lafia local government area of Nasarawa state

Ikefuama Okechukwu Livingstone

Border spaces: interrogating voting behaviour in Nigeria’s ungoverned spaces

Lateef Olalekan Aremu

Protecting the vulnerable actors: violence during electoral campaigns and participation of women in politics in Ibadan metropolis

Dr. Olusapo Olakunle Thompson

An assessment of the challenges of the independent national electoral election (inec) ad hoc collation officers in the 2023 general elections

Obafemi Seyi Peter

Countering vote-buying with voter education; a field researcher’s account of the 2023 general elections in Egbeda Iga of Oyo state.

Life After Trafficking; Transnational Perspectives

Research Project coordinated by:

- Dr. Elodie Apard, Chargée de Recherche, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Unité de Recherches Migrations et Société (URMIS)

- Dr. Precious Diagboya, Senior Research Fellow, Institut Français de Recherche du Nigéria (IFRA-Nigeria)

___________________________

Project Description

This project is a continuation of an IFRA research project on the Protection of migrants and Asylum seekers especially Children and women coming from Nigeria and victims of trafficKING (PACKING).

For some years now, human trafficking for sexual exploitation from Nigeria to Europe is grabbing the attention of public institutions and arousing growing media interest. This phenomenon, partly due to its “emotional power” (Jakšić 2013), also triggered abundant scientific production. But even if largely covered by scholars, NGOs and government authorities, such topic remains tricky to analyze, notably because of the potential political exploitation of social and moral issues related to sex trafficking.

The research project “Life after trafficking; transnational perspectives” has been, thus, based on critical distancing and new approaches, in order to develop original forms of data collection, through multi-situated ethnographic fieldwork.

So far, most studies on sex trafficking have adopted one-sided approaches, either from a Nigerian or a European perspective. In Nigeria, analyses often conflate sex trafficking and “irregular” migration, while in Europe, the focus has long been on the legal framework of anti-trafficking policies and the status of victims (Jakšić & Ragaru, 2021, de Montvalon, 2018). Individual trajectories and family histories have been more seldom explored[1]. In addition to family histories, the present project intends to focus on personal experiences at a micro level, but within a transnational continuum that encompasses spaces of departure, transit and arrival.

This collective and multidisciplinary research project follows the previous work on trafficking for sexual exploitation from Nigeria to Europe undertaken by IFRA-Nigeria from 2015 to 2020[2].

The two coordinators of the project are:

• Dr. Precious Diagboya, philosopher by training, has studied the epistemology of slavery before specializing in human trafficking for sexual exploitation. As a native of Edo State, she has excellent knowledge of Benin Culture and History, but also of the social landscape of the region.
• Dr. Elodie Apard, historian by training, has worked and lived in Nigeria for 9 years. She specialized in women international mobility and sex-trafficking when she was the Director of the French Research Institute in Nigeria (IFRA-Nigeria), between 2016 and 2020.

Both of them were part of these preceding research studies; they conducted extensive fieldwork, in France and in Nigeria, and developed a solid expertise in analysing the social, religious, economic and political dynamics that underlie sex-trafficking logics and practices[3].

Context of the Study

During the past decade, sex trafficking from Nigeria to Europe evolved significantly, following a series of events; the so-called “migrant crisis” in 2015-2016, closure of south European countries, externalization of borders and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-2021. As a result, the number of people affected, the routes, destinations and trafficking strategies have changed. In 2018, in Nigeria, the declaration of the Oba of Benin, that declared trafficking practices punishable by death, also had a considerable impact on the phenomenon.

Today, while the number of Nigerian women arriving in Europe through trafficking networks has decreased, new major challenges have emerged.

One of them is the integration of these women into the host societies in Western Europe. After experiencing the violence of sexual exploitation, the majority of them suffer from polytrauma. The way the receiving countries acknowledge and address their peculiar situation is crucial to the success of their social integration as well as those of their children.

Another challenge lies in the relationship these women have with their Families in Nigeria. Trafficking often stems from a collective strategy to escape poverty and is seen as a way to sustain the whole household. The nature of the family ties plays a key role in the life of trafficked women in Europe, but also in the transformation of social and family dynamics in Nigeria.

Through multi-situated fieldwork and crossed data, this research project intends to explore post-trafficking issues, both in France and in Nigeria. The idea is not to compare situations in departure and arrival countries but rather to combine different perspectives on what characterizes life after trafficking, at the different levels of the transnational continuum.

Main Goals

By gathering original and fresh first-hand data, this project aims at enhancing empirical knowledge on sex trafficking. It intends to document and analyse the transnational dynamics developing between Nigeria and Europe, among victims of trafficking who are now engaged in an insertion process and with their families.

The results of this research will translate into academic publications (articles in peer-reviewed Journals, book’s chapters) and presentations (papers presented in Conferences, public lectures or seminars).

However, production of scientific knowledge on sex trafficking from Nigeria should not remain limited to scholarly work, therefore, the results of this project will also be disseminated towards actors involved on the ground and stakeholders. Through written reports, public presentations or organising small groups discussions with concerned professionals, researchers will inform a large public on what is at stake in post-trafficking situations.

The project is an action-oriented research project implemented in partnership with MIST association[4] (Mission d’Intervention et de Sensibilisation contre la Traite), in Paris. Founded by Nigerian women victims of sex-trafficking, Mist association is specialised in protecting, sheltering and helping victims through their integration process in France. Based on peer-education, the association also organises support groups, workshops and podcast production, in which the collaboration with researchers has proved to be particularly fruitful. This project shall also be useful to the association and its members; researchers will indeed make data available to victims and will aim at developing new forms of knowledge transmission and alternative forms of writing while promoting collaborative reflection.

Methodology

In the course of the previous research work and ethnographic fieldwork they conducted, the two coordinators of the project realized that different perceptions, depending on researchers’ point of view and positionality, co-exited and needed to be combined. Then, they decided to implement new research approaches, based on the complementarity of a multi-situated analysis.

The two coordinators are based in different countries: Dr. Elodie Apard in France and Dr. Precious Diagboya in Nigeria; but the research tasks do not correspond to this geographical division; both researchers work with former victims of trafficking in their respective countries, follow their integration process in France, engage with social workers and and meet the families in Nigeria, either separately through individual fieldwork conducted in parallel, or together during common field surveys.

The aim of undertaking fieldwork together, alternatively in France and in Nigeria, is to combine different skills (i.e. language and analytical skills) and methodologies, but also different standpoints and perspectives, on the same object, at the same time. This original method allows a broader approach and facilitates the researchers’ reflexivity efforts.

Finally, access to the field, to the victims and their families is facilitated by the researchers’ experience and also by the collaboration with MIST; while researchers take part in the association’s activities, some members of MIST participate in the research process.

Timeframe

The idea of the project started in 2020, with the involvement of the two coordinators in the activities of MIST association and theirs exchanges with members about the challenges of integration in France. The first surveys started in 2021, with a common fieldwork conducted in the Nigerian Churches of Paris Region. Researchers explored the role of the Church in the socialisation and integration processes in France, as well as their connections with trafficking practices. Since 2022, fieldwork has been conducted simultaneously in France and in Nigeria, among members of the same families, to address post-trafficking issues from different perspectives.

Supported by IFRA-Nigeria and URMIS Paris, this research project is expected to develop in the years to come by getting substantial funding and associating more researchers.

[1] Among the few scholars who did explore individual trajectories is Sine Plambech, anthropologist at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

[2] https://www.ifra-nigeria.org/ongoing-research-programs/packing

https://www.ifra-nigeria.org/former-research-programs/human-trafficking

[3] Among the outcomes of their collective work on sex trafficking, see : Apard, Élodie, Precious Diagboya, et Vanessa Simoni. "“Ashawo no Dey Kill!” The social-climbing projects of families in the context of sex trafficking (Nigeria-Europe)", Politique africaine, vol. 159, no. 3, 2020, pp. 51-82., Élodie Apard, Precious Diagboya, et. al. Religious, Social and Criminal Groups in Trafficking of Nigerian Girls and Women. [Research Report], 2019, 179 p. ⟨hal-03337293⟩, Élodie Apard, Precious Diagboya, et. al.,Temples et traite des êtres humains du Nigéria vers l'Europe. [Rapport de recherche], 2019, 77 p. ⟨hal-02124579⟩

[4] http://mist-association.org/

Knowledges and attachments to urban plants in Sub-Saharan Africa (Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal): identification and production of a heritage from below – INFRAPATRI

Funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR) from March 2021 to March 2025, the interdisciplinary project INFRAPATRI aims to study the local knowledges and forms of attachment to urban plants in four sub-Saharan African cities: Yaounde in Cameroon, Ibadan in Nigeria, Porto-Novo in Benin and Dakar in Senegal. Our reflection is based on the notion of "heritage from below", allowing us to understand the relationship of city dwellers to plants in terms of memory and conceptions of the past, rarely recognised by institutional approaches to heritage conservation. Plants in the city, which cover multiple figures and spaces, are in fact used in a variety of ways based on practical or symbolic knowledge. Together, this knowledge and uses are produced by various urban collectives based on family, ethnic identity, religion, neighbourhood, profession or political representation. We formulate the hypothesis that they are preserved and transmitted through different channels at the basis of various forms of urban identifications. The aim of the project will be to identify these forms of heritage from below emanating from plural relationships to plants, and to analyse them in the light of past and present institutional attempts to patrimonialise urban plant entities and groupings.

Ife-Sungbo Archeological project 2018-2023

The Ife-Sungbo Archaeological project gives new perspectives on the urbanization history chronology as well as the socio-political dynamics of West-African tropical forest societies. The Ife–Sungbo Archaeological Project aims to study domestic life, vernacular architecture and spatial organization in the humid forests of the Gulf of Guinea. Often forgotten in mainstream African historiography, the Guinean tropical forests witnessed the rise and decline of major demographic and civilizational centres, long before the opening of the Atlantic trade in the late 15th century CE.

The project has two main objectives:

1) The town of Ile-Ife known as the mythical center of the Yoruba civilization and a major archaeological site

2018 was the fifth season of excavation in Ile-Ife. We excavated two test pits on the site of Oduduwa College, south of the 19th c. inner enclosure that defended Ife’s inner core area. They revealed a series of domestic features that seemed promising in terms of understanding medieval architecture and spatial organization. 

In 2019, the team returned to the same site to excavate seven units (by hand) and one trench (with the excavator) in the same location, for a total surface of about 140 sq. meters. The 2019 season enabled us to identify one type of dwelling characterized by a platform made of compacted fine clay, erected on the top of an irregular, stony surface, which corresponded to the stone line, the ubiquitous three-dimensional layer of stone that is a marker of the natural sub-soil at Ile-Ife. 

In 2020, the research could not be conducted, and were postponed to June 2021. 

In July 2022, a team of about 30 scholars, students, curators, heritage officers, technicians and logisticians,  took part in the last season of the Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project. They worked on two different sites at Ile-Ife: Ita Yemoo and Oduduwa College where they excavated various interesting materials dated the 13th and 14th centuries including potsherd and stone pavements, and in situ pots. These findings will be processed and analyzed to add to current understandings of the region’s history.

2) The early polity of Ijebu, as delimited by the monumental enclosure of Sungbo’s Eredo, a system of banks and ditches now lost under dense forest cover.

We aim to document life, death, innovations and change in these forgotten sites. In Sungbo, we seek to implement Light detection and ranging, or LiDAR technology, a measurement and mapping revolutionary tool for archaeology. Its application is used for the documentation and conservation of the world’s largest earthen enclosure, Sungbo's Eredo, a late 14th-century monumental public work (Lagos and Ogun States, south-western Nigeria).

Indeed, the feature is largely forgotten and neglected by researchers and the public alike. This despite its massive scale: the earthwork consists of a trench – 5 to 15 meters deep – and an inner bank – 2 to 5 meters high. It is the largest-known single earthen monument in the world and a powerful testimony to the political sophistication of Nigeria’s deep past and its central place in the emergent Atlantic World. Large parts of the monument are located under dense forest cover, which has reduced its visibility and impaired delineation, conservation, and heritage planning. Nonetheless, the forest cover has not provided enough protection to the monument which is under increasing pressure from urbanization, industrialization, and erosion. Indeed, large portions of Sungbo’s Eredo have already been destroyed by human action, and the monument is under considerable threat, a process that is made worse by its unusual size and location in an environment with torrential rain and associated weathering.

In this project, we propose state-of-the-art remote-sensing technology and 3-D scanning at the service of mapping, heritage conservation, and preservation. Our project aims to document the entire monument in support of the development of a comprehensive conservation strategy for an area of 1640 square kilometers, and a model project for the preservation of two 8-kilometer sections of the ditch and bank enclosure.

Look back at ... the 2022 season in Ile-Ife

The goal for the 2022 season was initially to continue previous excavations at the Oduduwa College site (expanding the excavation in the pavement area, delineating the boundaries of the habitat area, continuing the excavation of two deep trash pitss). Recent elections in Osun State disrupted this program, and the team decided to open new excavation units at the Ita Yemoo site, an archaeological reserve and federal land. In 2017, the digging of the foundations of a new building  at Ita Yemoo site had revealed the presence of a potsherd pavement and stone alignments. The construction project was interrupted at the request of the directors of the Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project and moved elsewhere. In 2022, our team opened test units at the spot of the 2017 discovery. The opening of 12 units led to the discovery of a vast pavement complex made up of potsherds and stones, sometimes with several levels, and a feature evoking a ritual space. This specific space echoes the excavations carried out by Frank Willett between 1957 and 1964 at Ita Yemoo, which archives have been rediscovered and partly published by our team in 2021.

 Pavements measurements, Ita Yemoo, Ile-Ife, July 2022, photo by Zainab Popoola, © Ife-Sungbo Archaeaological Project

Pavement and feature evoking a ritual spaceIta Yemoo, Ile-Ife July 2022, photo by Gérard Chouin © Ife-Sungbo Archaeaological Project

Meanwhile, after an 8-day delay, the team began work again at the Oduduwa College site (project started in 2018). Amanda Logan and her team successfully processed a large number of samples from two deep pits using a water-recycling flotation machine of her conception.

Prof. Gérard Chouin and Dr. Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie drawing the stratigraphic profile and taking samples from the content of the  pits H1 and H2, Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, July 2022, Photo by Léa Roth © Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project

The archaeologist team found the first in situ pots at this site and continued to interpret the spatial organization and architecture of the site.

Pots found in-situ, Unit P, Oduduwa College, Ile-Ife, July 2022, Photo by Léa Roth © Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project

In total, about thirty people participated in this 7th Ife-Sungbo campaign. 

• Prof. Gérard Chouin (William & Mary, USA) and Prof. Adisa Ogunfolakan (Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife) coordinated the team assisted by Joseph Ayodokun, Tolulope Victor Omotoso, Emmanuel Fehintola and Oladele Durosakin.

• Professor Raphael Ajayi Alabi and Dr. Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie from the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Ibadan visited the archaeological site and took part in the 2022 season. Dr. Orijemie collected samples for a palynological study.

• Members of NCMM at Ife, Oyo, Lagos, Benin City and Jos : Sharon Nworgu (Lagos) Adesiyan Ademola (Ile-Ife), Adeniyi Kehinde (Ile-Ife), Salami Tajudeen (Ile-Ife), Samson Kas (Jos), Mercy Gold (Oyo) and Chioma Obayi (Benin City)

• An independent expert in mosaics conservation, Carole Acquaviva,  joined the team for a first 10-day reconnaissance mission in the framework of the FSPI project. The preliminary work included observations and experimentations to identify simple strategies which could be implemented  to enhance the  conservation of pavements at Ile-Ife. A second mission is scheduled in 2023 to implement a  conservation protocol, and organize a training workshop.

• Many students took part in the excavations in 2022.

They included undergraduate and graduate students from the Department of Archaeology of the University of Ibadan (Emmanuel Adeara, Stanley Osinachi Nwosu, Adegoke Niyi, Oreoluwa Sodeke, Emmanuel Olaleye, Timilehin Ayelagbe and Zainab Popoola), Master students from the University of Jos (Nalong Manguna, Great Iwundu, Suleiman Babamasi) and students from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Confort Oyinyechi and Abdulmalik Abdumalik).
A Ghanaian student trained at the University of Ghana-Legon and beginning a PhD at Northwestern University, USA (under the supervision of Amanda Logan), Emmanuel Elikplim Kuto.
A doctoral student in cotutelle at Université Paris 1 and Università degli Studi di Pavia, Léa Roth.

• Some others participants completed this team: Timothy Ayodokun, Victory Oseghale (field workers), Yao Assigbe and Rasaki Ismaila (ITB Nigeria Ltd)

Team members of Ife-Sungbo Archaeological project, Ile-Ife, July 2022 © Ife-Sungbo Archaeological Project

In 2022, as a complementary research, Cécile Chapelain de Seréville-Niel, research engineer at the CNRS and archaeo-anthropologist at the Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales (CRAHAM, UMR 6273 CNRS/UNICAEN) completed her study started in 2019 of a collection of skeletons found by Graham Connah in the early 1960s in a mass grave located in a well at Benin City. She first made a complete inventory of the collection and produced a photographic record that has since been shared. Next, she completed a new study of the anthropological characteristics of the populations represented and existing pathologies. She also took bone samples from the petrous bones for subsequent DNA analysis.

Seven students participated in this study as part of a workshop in which they received preliminary training in physical anthropology (Azeez Lawal ; Racheal Oyundoyin ; Emmanuel Idowu ; Moses Akogun ; Iyunoluwa Jesudemilade ; Ovie Agezeh and Farouk Ajibade).

Similarly, Professor Raphael Ajayi Alabi, Dr. Akanni Olusegun Opadeji and Dr. Kolawole Adekola from the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology facilitated her meeting with various local academic bodies (Prof. Bamgbose SAN, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships ; Prof. Olufunmilayo I. Fawole, director of the Office of international Programmes and Prof. Bakare A. Adekunle, Dean, Faculty of Science) in the framework of future collaborative projects between the University of Ibadan and the University of Caen.

In the coming years, the research on the Oduduwa College site will keep on. As a component of the FSPI Project Heritage Preservation, IFRA-Nigeria's team, together with the team of archaeologists, are working on an online database which will map and reference Ife's pavements. 

Academic Partners 

• William & Mary University (Virginia, USA), 
• The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) (Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria),
• The University of Ibadan (UI) (Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria),
• The Augustine University at Ilara (AUI).
• National Commission for Museum and Monuments(NCMM)
• Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)

Coordinators

Gerard Chouin, Principal Investigator, an Associate Professor in History and Director of Medieval and Renaissance studies at William and Mary, is a leading expert in pre-Atlantic and early modern Atlantic West African landscapes, earthworks and sociopolitical systems. He has extensive experience conducting archaeological research in Nigeria, as the director of the Ife- Sungbo Archaeological Project.

Adisa Ogunfolakan, The Co-Principal Investigator, a Professor and Director of the Natural History Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University of Ife, is an archaeologist of Yorubaland, and co-director of the Ife-Sungbo Archaeological project.

Publications

Ife-Sungbo Archeological. Project preliminary report on excavations at oduduwa College II Ile-Ife, Osun State, Septembre 2019.