Symposium : Italian Society of Applied Anthropology

Dr Sa’eed Husaini of the Centre for Democray and Development (CDD), Abuja, participated in the Symposium of the Italian Society of Applied Anthropology. The Symposium was held in Perugia in December (14th-16th) and was focused upon ‘Social Uses of Anthropology: Heritage, Health and Territories’. Dr Husaini presented the work of the Socialist Library and Archives (SOLAR) and CDD within IFRA's Heritage research program (FSPI).

On December 15, Dr Husaini delivered a presentation, co-developed with Dr Barbara Morovich of IFRA-Nigeria, on a panel entitled ‘Lingue, geografie e grammatiche della restituzione’. The presentation, titled ‘Arene patrimoniali minoritarie in Nigeria: progetti digitali e riflessività’, considered the promises and perils of digital archiving as a form of restitution. Dr Husaini’s presentation focused on the ongoing digitisation of the historic documents of Nigerian pro-democracy activists being undertaken by the CDD with the support of IFRA and the French Ministry of foreign affairs.  The presentation argued that digitisation projects, can be useful for resuscitating suppressed or minority heritages, despite the hierarchies of knowledge, resources, and power which such projects might also reinforce.