Invitation - Conference "Beyond the classical : unveiling the unsung"

The National Museum Onikan Lagos and IFRA-Nigeria are co-organizing the Alternative Heritages Conference "Beyond the classical: unveiling the unsung" on 2-3 June. Taking place at the National Museum, it's a follow up to the exhibition held between 5 and 16 May, which highlighted forgotten artifacts of Nigerian heritage. This Conference is not only a chance to learn more about Nigeria's heritage, but also to meet professionals and academics, specialists of the topic. In addition, the May exhibition will be back, giving you a chance to (re)visit it! This event is part of our project Nigerian Alternative Heritages, funded by the French Embassy Fund (FEF). Scroll down to register.

To define heritage is a complex task. Some obvious categorizations come to mind, but they require questioning and criticizing in order to answer two questions. How can we define heritage? And why should we? Nigeria is a country of very diverse cultures, but despite this, most of the Nigerian National Museums display similar items.  Nok, Esie and Owo terracotta, Ile-Ife and Benin bronze and the figurine of the Niger Delta for example are part of the widely displayed objects throughout the country, what we could describe as "classical heritage". They have significant historical significance and artistic merit, but their popularity obscures thousands of other very unique artifacts which have never been exhibited and remain largely out of curators' conversations. National museums' archives are full of such uncelebrated and neglected objects, most of them collected during ethnographic studies.

These objects are Nigeria's "Alternative Heritages", the unsung material culture and art. This includes, but also the cultural practice of their production, their artistic value and what they meant in the larger cultural space where they were used before ending up in museums forgotten and uncelebrated. Alternative heritages aren't just the forgotten objects but also cultural sites, shrines, archaeological potsherd pavement, carved stone and other tangible and intangible heritage that often belongs to various minority groups .

The National Museum Lagos dedicated an exhibition to these forgotten heritages between 5 and 16 May, and on 2-3 June the Alternative Heritages Conference "Beyond the classical: unveiling the unsung" aims at deepening our understanding of the topic, and pushing for more studies and discussions about the definition of heritage. The Conference will gather scholars and archival professionals for discussions on a variety of topics like : the complex relationship between heritage and power dynamics; the representation of marginalized communities; the impact of globalization on local traditions; ethical considerations in heritage presentation and tourism; the digital preservation of forgotten intangible heritage and tangible heritage and the role of heritage in reconciliation and social justice movements.

The keynote lecturers for the conference are Dr Ayo Adeduntan (Reader, Cultural and Media Studies, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan) and Dr Oluwatoyin Sogbesan (President ICOMOS Nigeria). The full program will be available soon, stay tuned on our social media.

Practical information:

Location : National Museum Odikan Lagos

Date & time : 2 June, 11am - 3 June, afternoon.

Registration : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc1_HiW_WAb08P_E4jczCYht91XWgXRZhUhJI9THHoUmqaVoQ/viewform?usp=header

Tags: heritage